They were standing on a high hill and cliff. Facing the blue sea and beautiful sky.
"How's my father?" Kazaf asked in a concern tone.
Jez sighed. "Physically is in perfect condition. But I'm not sure how his emotionally reacted on your matter. Something troubled him and made him worried."
Kazaf sighed too. He closed his eyes, looked up the sky, feeling the strong cold wind on his face.
"Prince Kazaf."
"Just call me Kazaf, please."
Jez sighed. Then, she chose to direct asking the question.
"May I know the details of your blood oath cursed mark on chest that caused by Lilith?"
"I killed Jonathan. And now, the stupid curse had been activated. That's it."
"That's it?" Jez looked unbelievable. "You should know that you can't fooling me on this. I know how worse the blood oath might costs you. Or else, Lord Asmodeus won't sending me here. And you, my prince. Even you choose to temporary stop using your power. This explained a lot itself, don't you think so?"
Kazaf mocking himself with a sadly laugh. "After I telling you the truth, then what will you do? You will directly report to my father, right?"
"Lord Asmodeus deserves to know the truth. For the sake of Morningstar… He's your father, Prince Kazaf. He cares about you more than anybody else!" Said Jez with a serious tone.
Kazaf looked into Jez's frustrated eyes. "You're still the same, Jez. After so many years… You are still giving your loyalty to my father. Thank you, and I hope that you will continue serve him as a daughter, for me. Even maybe one day I'm not around anymore."
"Prince Kazaf."
"Kazaf. Please, just call me Kazaf." Kazaf smiled. "Jez, you are like a sister to me, don't you know it? Even my father treated you as a daughter."
Jez looked down on the ground. Trying to get back to the point. "Please tell me honestly, what's exactly the condition terms of the blood oath that you made with Lilith? Jonathan already died and the curses had been activated. However, you are still alive and not died yet."
"Yet." Kazaf sighed but the soft grin on his face still there. "Just not that soon."
"We still have time, right? Let me help you, please." Jez said in pleading tone, sincerely.
Kazaf sighed again.
"…Kazaf." She calling his name this time. Soft and full of emotions.
Kazaf busted out a laugh. "I love the way how you calling my name. It will be nice if you can change your tone next time. Maybe in a more lively way, how do you say?"
"Can you please be serious a little bit?" There's a slight angriness on Jez's face.
After a short pause, Kazaf nodded and finally decided to tell the truth.
"Just keep this to yourself. Please don't tell my father, can you?"
"It's not my decision to make." Jez showed her palm to Kazaf. There's a rune mark over there, shining in red spark.
"My father's rune." Kazaf gasped softly. "Yeah, I should see this coming too. He's a control freak, doesn't it?"
"He worried about you and Magnus." Jez said.
"Well… Now I'm in hesitation…" Kazaf bit his lips and looked sad. If he said the truth now, Asmodeus will know it instantly. It's a very bad idea.
"If you are worried about that Lord Asmodeus will killing Lilith after he know all the details, then I will suggest you to accept this. As you should know, he will never forgive Lilith anymore. He will kill her, it just a time matter. Sooner or later." Said Jez.
"I know." Kazaf sighed.
"What bothered you? I never saw you like this. Not even when…Not even after 'that incident'." Jez asked in confusion.
Kazaf took a deep breath and suddenly become silent. He sat on the ground, staring the sky in a daze. Jez accompanied him quietly, for a very long while. Not sure how long the time passed, Kazaf spoke softly.
"I wish that I have someone to talk to, Jez. But I really can't." Kazaf looked vulnerable at this moment.
"If Lord Asmodeus was not spying our conversation now, then will you tell me the truth?" Jez asked.
Kazaf frowned. He was wondering why Jez asking the question like this.
"Tell me. Are you willing to tell me the truth, just me alone?" Said Jez.
Kazaf nodded quietly, firmly. Even Jez able to feel Kazaf's strong will.
Jez took a deep breath, looked very sorry at her own palm. "Well, if like that…Uh huh." Then, she showed the palm towards Kazaf, mouthed silently. "Any idea to get rid of this?"
Kazaf laughed, mouthed back at her silently. "Thought you never ask me about this." After that, Kazaf sent a glare at Jez, instructed Jez took out the dagger on her waist.
Jez looked confused but took it out anyway. It's a black shining dagger with a special rune mark. A dagger that also a present gifted by Asmodeus to Jez. A powerful dagger which can even hurting angel.
Kazaf then using the dagger to cut his own palm. Jez gasped and looked in shock. She staring nervously at Kazaf, watching that Kazaf dripping his own blood on Jez's rune mark palm. Meanwhile, the rune mark on Jez's palm losing the red shining flame and turned to dark color, like a normal tattoo which looked like on Mundane and those Nephilims. And, Kazaf's palm wound healing itself automatically.
"Done," Kazaf announced in a happy tone. "My blood only can temporarily disable the rune power. It won't last long. And, we must settle the matter before my father discovered that I used this little trick fooling him. Or else, he can still be reactivating the rune power."
"Now, tell me. What should I know about your secrets?" Jez asked eagerly.
"I will die."
"What the causes of death?"
"My father."
"What!?" Jez widened eyes looked confused.
"Lilith made a curse on me. If I'm using my power, I will become weak and probably high chance to lose control like the past. Then, all the dimensions falling apart and I will die. Good thing is many people will be died because of me, and I'm not going to die alone." Said Kazaf with a deep sigh.
"And…? What all about Lord Asmodeus? Why he may related to your death as well?" Jez asked.
"The death curse working on two way round. The earlier mentioned is the first one."
"What the second condition that will possibly causing your death?"
Kazaf replied sadly. "I cannot meet with my father anymore. If he near to me, face to face, then I will be in dead meat. Like the two straight lines, and we never be crossover again. Or else, I will die."
Jez frowned worriedly. A realization hit her painfully. "Lilith wants to revenge. She wants Asmodeus to never able to see his son again. She wants Asmodeus living in regrets if he becomes the one who murders his own son."
"No matter what, you should tell Lord Asmodeus. Luckily this time he was sending me to here. If he comes himself personally, then you will die instantly, doesn't it? Even he not realized that he is the main cause of this. It is cruel to him…" Jez clenched her fist angrily. "Lilith…"
"Please don't tell my father," Kazaf said.
"Why?" Jez looked surprised. "He has the rights to know about this. So that he can find a solution to fix this. Besides that, telling him the truth also can prevent him accidentally killing you without knowing it."
Kazaf looked up the clear sky, his tone quite calm and firm. "You also know my father, don't you? I'm afraid that he will be hiding from me forever after he knows the truth. That's not what I want, Jez. Seriously, I don't think I can be survived this time. Maybe I'm just live long enough, and not really want to continue my immortal life. I just to experience a normal peaceful life, live a life that I'm desired all the time. A simple life. Who knows? Maybe I can die in his arms, it's also a kind of blessing, doesn't it?"
"No. Lord Asmodeus never want this to happen. Please. You should never think like this, it's too negative."
"On the contrary, I'm trying to be positive a little bit. Jez, the immortal life that I owned until now, what I have seen and what I've been through… It's definitely not a life that I could remember… Not the happy one. I'm suffered enough in the past. But now, maybe it's a good thing too. I'm more focused to live a happy carefree life, I starting to cherish the time, every single moment with everyone. And now, I'm trying to focus on my own. Learning to live a life that I wanted. Do whatever I want to do. I feel so good. Never been feeling such satisfaction until now. Maybe I need to thank Lilith for this too." Kazaf smiled.
Then, Kazaf continued slowly. "I always want to live a mundane life in the human world. In the past, I'm scared to get closet to Magnus, worried that I might brought him troubles. But now, I'm even start to be selfish and just do what I wanted without thinking the consequences. Screw the balance of dimension, screw the order of the world. I'm just free to being myself, not really listen to anyone's advice."
There's long pause after that. The silence swallowed them.
"If like that, I will respect your decision. But please bear in mind, I'm not going to help you keep this secret. If Lord Asmodeus finding out the truth himself, or if he asking me for details, I will still telling him." Said Jez firmly.
"I thought you promised to keep the secret for me." Kazaf frowned.
Jez sent apologetic look at Kazaf, then she raised her palm towards Kazaf. The rune mark already back to the normal form, there's obviously some red shining magic spark on it.
"What the hell!" Kazaf cursed and gritted his teeth. "When this rune mark started to work again? Why don't you warn me?"
"I'm sorry…" Jez said sheepishly. "Well, it seems this rune is always functioning from the very beginning…"
"My blood didn't worked on it? How's that possible?" Kazaf looked unbelievable in shock.
"Actually your blood was worked perfectly. Just… Lord Asmodeus re-activate the spying rune immediately, maybe a second after you disabled it." Jez looked awkward.
"Great. Just great." Kazaf pouted and stared at Jez. "I hate you."
"Well… I will always love you and respect you, my dear prince." Jez bowed her head lower.
The surrounding was full of sacred angelic power. Luckily she also considered one of the powerful greatest demon in the Edom, or else she not really think that she can get through the protection ward. But still, surrounded by the angelic magical field, that kind of feeling really made Jez not feeling too well. She hated it as much as she wondered why Kazaf brought her here. Jez reminded herself in her heart, maybe she should take noted next time and avoid to let Kazaf lead the way.
"Prince Kazaf…Mind to tell me that where are we now?" Jez asked Kazaf with a gentle tone. She started to regret why she gave Kazaf to choose the destination when she only provided the power of teleportation.
"There's no third party here. Please, you may calling my name straightly." Said Kazaf. His fixed gazes staring at the few men those passing through the hall. There were tattoo rune mark all over the men's skin.
"They are Nephilims," Jez asked quietly. "This place is full of Nephilims. Why you bring me here? Is this one of their institutes?"
"There's something I need to confirm," Kazaf answered softly when he lowered his body and get closer to the beam ceiling. "Sorry that this might make you suffer a little bit."
Jez sighed. "Prince Kazaf…"
"Please just call my name directly." Kazaf reminded again, his shining two colors eyes gazing at Jez.
"…Kazaf." Finally, she gave in.
Kazaf smiled happily, once again he changed his sight towards the bottom ground Nephilims.
"My brother-in-law is the head of this institute," Kazaf explained in a whisper voice. "I have a strange feeling. I had a hunch that Lilith maybe will do some bad things here… It's truly weird to me, you know? Jonathan had been killed about 3 days ago, how come Lilith becomes that calm and quiet? It's definitely unusual to me."
Jez frowned. "So… What we should do now? Please don't tell me you want to stay here the whole day night for patrolling."
Kazaf gave Jez a weird look in soft grin. "Although my power is temporary out of service, but my brain is still functioning well. Please don't insult me like that."
"Well… So, what's your master plan?" Jez asked. Getting alert and keep quiet when she noticed two more Nephilim people walking by.
"I want to check on the magical ward." Kazaf creased his brows. "Magnus keep asking me the questions about how to strengthen the protection ward of this place. This gave me an idea that matches with my intuition. My sixth sense telling me that something big will be happened here soon."
"Well… But you are now under the blood oath curse, which means that using your power is totally unacceptable because it's high risk for you to lose control." Jez said.
"I know. That's why I'm not planning to use my power." Kazaf replied without a second thought.
"If like that…" Jez asked in confusion. "Then, how are you going to check the magical ward?"
Kazaf smirked evilly. "It's the reason why you are here."
"…Please tell me that you are not going to let me test the ward…" Jez looked in shock.
Kazaf shrugged. "You are always a very nice person."
"I'm a 'not that nice' demon from hell dimension, just in case you might forgot." Jez looked speechless.
"That's why you are very suitable to give it a try! Come on, this will be so much fun~" Said Kazaf in an excited tone.
"…Fine. Whatever." Jez sighed. "What do you need me to do now?"
Kazaf hummed and pointed at the transparent glass box which secured by a few of shadowhunter guards and a strong angelic rune power. Inside the box, it's a beautiful sword standing there.
"It's the soul sword." Said Kazaf.
"Raziel's sword. You expect me to take it out and play?" Jez rolling her eyes.
"No." Kazaf looked excited. "I want you to touch the magical field. If the high-rank demon like you intrude the scared place, the angel who guarded this place should be coming out by now. However, I didn't see and didn't feel any angel's presence until now. We get into here a long time already. It's truly weird."
"Oh, right." Jez starting to feel strange too. Just realized that the guardian angel of this place should welcome them once they stepped into here. However, the situation now is truly weird.
"I got asked Raziel re-assign the angel return to hereafter I banished the demons back to hell. However, I'm wondering how Jonathan gets into here after that."
"That means the angel is not around here anymore."
"Hell, yeah. But where he or she goes? That's a question for us to find out." Kazaf sighed. "Before that, we sure do another test to see whether the guardian is here or not."
"I'll go." Said Jez. Her gazes fixed on the glass box under it.
[To Be Continued]