Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 58: Same Sky Part 4
Quatre Refugee-State, Noble Realm, Clover Kingdom, Morning
"... Come on," Marx grumbled to himself as he tapped at the crystal ball showing static before him, "... it's been a whole week already. Has the Heart Kingdom have already gone FUBAR?" he remarked to himself before shaking his head, "no, if that were the case, then I would be hearing them back as they return," the secretary of the Wizard King spoke to himself as he kept vigil on the glass sphere before him, still waiting for a transmission from the group dispatched at Heart Kingdom, "and last I checked, none of the three squads are quitters, especially the Crimson-"
The static in the crystal ball than gradually begins to focus itself into a coherent image.
"... Come... Captain... speaking..." the transmission garbled out.
"SOMEONE BRING THE WIZARD KING HERE!" Marx cried out, "WE GOT A TRANSMISSION!"
Upon the request being heard, the Wizard King and the two Inquisitors hurry towards the command tent to see that the ball was now fuzzily showing Captain Yami Sukehiro surrounded in jungle-like foliage.
"This is Marx Francois!" he called back to the fuzzy transmission, whether it being static or the group sent there being in a middle of battlefield having yet to be made clear, "we received your signal, what's your status?!"
"... Well, for one, giant insects," Yami replied before he ducked under a blur followed up by a crash happening next to him, "safe to say that the entirety of the Heart Kingdom are now swarming with Demons, but if scarface is telling us anything, they've been holding off pretty well for the past few months."
A series of foreign tongued-swearing coming out of the transmission was heard followed up by the sounds of numerous threads binding something down before a conflagration of light shone next to where Yami was at.
"GAH! ANNOYING PESTS!" a growling female voice cried out as she stomped into the frame, "THEY CANNOT DIE QUICKLY ENOUGH, NO MATTER HOW MANY WE KILL AT ONCE!"
"Vice-Inquisitor?!" Dragunov pushed aside Marx as he called out towards the blond woman, "Vice-Inquisitor Mosin Ivanov, is it really you?!"
"Hm? Oh! Little Drac!" Mosin jovially greeted the eyepatched Inquisitor through the transmission, her ire prior looking as if it didn't happen, "how long has it been? You've grown a lot, haven't you?"
"Where were you for the past 5 years?!" Dragunov asked, "we didn't hear anything from you after you left on your assignment!"
Before she can answer, a loud splash was heard from behind Yami and Mosin, the group seeing the transmission spots a group of round, brown-green shelled creatures coming from behind as numerous kinds of magic thrown at them were simply bouncing off of their carapaces as they began firing jets of pressurized water from their mouths wildly, hitting the orb on the other side and rendering the transmission back to static.
"Dammit!" cursed Marx as he slammed his fists onto the desk's surface, "we lost them!"
"At least we now have a better grasp of what's going on at Heart Kingdom, even better that they're doing alright," Julius remarked, "a few months, they said, and yet the inquisitor being here for five years..."
"Out of the frying pan and into the fucking fire..." Kalashnikov remarked, "... I'm pretty sure if she were to be sent to the Heart Kingdom for pest control, we would've known."
"Why was she sent to the Heart Kingdom to begin with?" asked Julius, "from you what you infer, this threat seems new to you both."
"Spotting of a Demon, avian in appearance, and way bigger than those insects," Dragunov remarked, "we sent people to investigate after a whole year of not hearing from her, but they never returned," he explained, "not even the Order itself is fully certain of the details, only that the attacks came from above, but the skies themselves were empty of foreign presence while the ground below were completely unmarred."
"We only managed to recover one body out of thirteen we sent into the surrounding jungle," Kalashnikov remarked, "a hole was bored through the top of his head and down to his pelvis as if he was skewered vertically like a fish."
"In other words, a third party," Julius pointed out, "... I'm assuming it's safe to say that the insects and the death from above are not affiliated with each other?"
"For their sake, I pray that remains the truth," Dragunov stated as he and Kalashnikov left the tent, "... Wizard King, are your Magic Knights studying our tactics and notes well?"
"Suppress, confine, and burn the bodies afterwards," Julius replied, "but even with some people who know how to use [Mana Skin], the recoil of the [Firebolt M3] bowguns that we tried out earlier, more than half of them had both of their shoulders dislocated after shooting once," the Wizard King explained, "poor Owen and his staff had to forcibly relocate their joints by hand, and I think a few of them are starting to show signs of carpel tunnel syndrome."
"Not my problem as long as none have died, but my condolences to the afflicted regardless," Dragunov remarked as he stopped by the entrance, "just remember, do not underestimate the Demons. We only make it look efficient because my people have spent our entire lives fighting them."
"... Guess this is our turn then," the Wizard King solemnly noted.
"Before I go," the Inquisitor stated, "... you can tell the Grinberryall boy everything we told you about him," said Dragunov as he resumed walking away, "because where things are heading... my war against all evil is about to come to a bloody end."
But before Julius can stop him for clarifications, the Inquisitor already drew out his combat knife from his bootstraps as the blade's mythril tip poked into the Wizard King's skin of his throat.
"Don't, stop me," he threatened, "this is our fight, your place is to be with the people when they need you the most. I'm just an annoyance to them, I admit it," he confessed, still in his dour and curmudgeon facade, "I'm only leaving because I trust you and your people to make it though this calamity on your own."
"What do you mean?" asked Julius as Dragunov flicked the dew of blood off of his knife before sheathing it back into his boot.
"... I'm going to finish off the Prince of War at his weakest," Dragunov answered, "he's been spotted around the Grand Meridian intersecting between the four Kingdoms. My men and I are going to besiege the area," the Inquisitor explained, "your magics are useless against the Demon's poisonous [Anti-Magic], and we're the only ones who have and can use the means to stop him."
"... So this is goodbye," Julius stated, "... your thinking of dying knows that you're going to fail."
"Maybe," the Inquisitor wryly remarked, "but like I said, your people need you, and in hindsight, sending them off to die in vain is unbecoming of a man of your character."
"Fair enough," the Wizard King remarked as Dragunov headed towards where Kalashnikov and the rest of the armored Thaumaturges were marching at.
"Old man," Kalashnikov remarked, "guess this is it? Our final march towards guaranteed oblivion?"
"No one's telling you to come," Dragunov pointed out, "but given that you've stuck with me this whole time..."
"Meh, you know me," the braided Inquisitor remarked with a savage grin, "I hate living with a Demon out there alive more than dying while fighting one," she remarked, "my five years were for this moment. I'm not waiting to turn old and gray for my chance to stop a budding evil."
"Peh, I'm not that old," Dragunov remarked.
"Eh, may our lady Sephira smile," said Kalashnikov as one of her eyes stared towards Yuno peeking at them behind a building's corner.
"And the Demons have mercy," Dragunov replied as he pulled back his arrow, connecting his own and the others's mana to it, "... látom."
As soon as the arrow was released, the Inquisitors and the Thaumaturges were spirited away from the ruined capital.
"... Did they just... disappear?" Yuno gawked.
"Wherever they are, they're not here," Titania sighed out, "thank, god."
For the past week, Yuno has been walking without his crutches so that he may be able to contribute to the squad even more. After a few dozen times of tripping and falling onto his face, due to his artificial right foot not being able to feel anything, it still felt as if Yuno was walking one-legged despite standing perfectly balanced. He's still in the process of trying to adjust his brain to the contrast placed onto him, trying to use the whole "Ki" thing that Captain Yami and Jericho use to enhance their physical capabilities.
"... Walking with the help of my ears alone still feels weird," Yuno remarked to himself as he used his hearing to pick up the distinct clink of his prosthetic hitting the ground, trying to pick up anything that may be out of place in an even terrain, "still, I'm tripping less, right?"
"You know that you can ask me for help, right?" Titania pointed out.
"I know," he replied, "but like I said, I'm going to learn how to walk on my own for your sake."
"Yuno," a voice called out from behind, revealed to be Julius.
"The Wizard King?" he replied, "what are you doing here?"
The Wizard King looks around before setting up a bubble of [Time Magic] around the two of them, freezing the time outside while keeping the two of them mobile.
"... I'm here to tell you the truth about you," Julius spoke, "the Inquisitors told me everything about you."
Both Yuno and Titania were taken aback by this sudden revelation.
"... Wh-what?" Yuno stammered, "... they know who I am?"
"Worse," the Wizard King replied while shaking his head, "... you were supposed to die at their hands 15 years ago."
Ruined Agartha, Mimo Amazon, Neutral Territory, Noon
"Hey, has anyone seen Angra around?" asked Mammon, "I wanna talk to her about something."
"Leave her alone," Alister remarked, "no one likes a pain in the ass."
"By the way, how's Miss Blavatsky doing after Agartha went to complete and utter shit?" Mammon asked again.
"First was denial, then it was anger, yesterday it was bargaining bundled up with a blowjob that she offered to me," Alister answered as the two of them looked at the slumping petite woman curled up to her knees and laying on her side like a lifeless stone, "... now we're at the fourth stage, depression."
"Bury me here in these cold stone tombs of a bygone era..." Helena moaned out, "... the world now is too cruel for us fragile beings."
... God, even the kids I abused on a daily basis were made of stronger stuff than her, Morris commented, they at least had enough dignity left to beg for their lives rather than simply waiting to die.
My god, you're one, twisted son of a bitch, Mammon remarked.
Coming from a Demon, I'd take it as a compliment, replied the amoral scientist.
The Demon and the scientist host then turned back to the leader of the Illuminati, the two present now being met with the revived Nikolas Tesla, the boy's host body now sporting a cleaner look, with his wild hair now being slicked back and tied back up in a ponytail. His clothes were still the same, albeit, only due to there being no other source of clothing available nearby.
He did however, ditch the tacky black robe that was around his shoulders. Even burned it just yesterday for good measure.
"Salutations, esteemed gentlemen!" greeted Nikolas as he dispelled the electric doves flocking around him, "just what are on your minds that caused you unlikely pair to be engaged in such engrossing subject of discussion?"
"Looking for the girl that joined us after you and Orme," Alister remarked as the reanimated mage sat down on the ledge next to him, "she's been acting extra-introverted after Mammon came."
"Meh, give her time," Nikolas remarked, "compared to the rest of us, she's seems the least likely to join us willingly."
"Oh?" Mammon exclaimed, "what are your guesses of such notion applying to her?"
"... Just asking, which one us had a life that can be described as 'normal'?" asked Nikolas, "as in, 'a life with an organized schedule with nothing significant happening, with nothing spectacular going on and living by everyone else's preceded standards of being born, working, getting married, starting a family, and slowly aging to death'?"
"... Uh, dude," Alister remarked, "my own family disowned me after I got my grimoire," the Unfortunate pointed out his one-paged four-leafed grimoire baring his [Fate Magic], "even my grimoire ain't normal."
"And I am a Demon whose from Hell inhabiting a body of a blind scientist with an insatiable ego," Mammon answered, "are you saying that a girl with a Demon in her eye is the most normal out of all of us?"
"She does show signs of being relatively normal compared to us," Nikolas pointed out, "and in all honesty, do you expect a mere peasant to get his or her hands on a method of summon a Demon at her will, let alone, survive the process?" he explained, "... granted, like all things, nothing is impossible, but given if she had a choice, I suspect that she would've avoided it in the first place."
"So rather than 'normal', we can simply describe her as 'used to be normal'," Alister remarked as he put himself into a state of deep contemplation, "... seems legit. I mean, weirder things have happened."
"Like my work and sole purpose of my life being destroyed around me?" Helene mumbled out, still lying on her side all curled up like a dead snail, "and the world being cruel enough to have not killed me in that same night so I may be forced to witness such atrocity?"
"I'd suggest killing yourself," Mammon remarked, "but given that you're too depressed to do anything right now, I think I'll leave that suggestion be."
"Dude, not cool," Alister pointed out.
"I'm a Demon, deal with it," Mammon remarked, "and it's like none of us were born saints to begin with, otherwise, we wouldn't have a reason to be here and go on with our lives as 'normal' people."
All three of them let out a depressed and exhausted sigh.
"... Hey," asked Nikolas, "just thinking, if the whole world didn't have magic and people lived their lives without it, you think we would've ended up as 'normal'?"
"Honestly," Alister remarked while smacking his lips, "I really don't know," he answered bluntly, "in this world, magic is everything, so even thinking of the possibility without it is just... unfathomable."
"It would a lot less extravagant of a world to live in, that's for sure," Mammon commented, "the mere thought of being surrounded in a valley of junk that even I don't want for myself, miles and miles of nothing but trash that has no value in stealing and claiming for myself..." the Demon rambled as he and Morris logically began visualizing a world completely devoid of mana, picturing only an empty and a dead domain where all life simply died out by the overwhelming force of entropy sweeping away everything as if all of mankind's creations and history were but mere specks of dusts compared to the , "... a world where desire itself has died out completely? I cannot comprehend a worse kind of Hell."
As the three engaged in their earthshattering discussion of their epiphanies that they've unknowingly sparked between each other, Angra and Mainyu themselves were listening in from afar.
"It's not safe here anymore," Angra remarked to her contracted Demon, "we need to find somewhere to hide, and fast."
"One problem," Mainyu retorted, "there ain't a single corner left on this continent that is considered safe after giant swords rained down from the skies a few weeks back!" the Demon pointed out, "damn rascal's got the two of us by our balls! It ain't gonna just let us leave now that it got its chops drooling over us!"
Angra then gulps as she then steeled her resolve.
"... Then don't him take us alive," she growled, "take our chances outside, as long we deny his wants."
"... Okay," Mainyu replied after a pause, "when?"
Magia Academia, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Afternoon
"... Ugh, class in the afternoon?" Fana grumbled to herself as she walked along the swarming halls of her new place of tuition, a castle-sized academy called Magia Academia, "I had to come here twice because I thought that I had classes in the morning like everyone else..."
Your fault for not being able to tell time by numbers, Elf!Fana deadpanned, ... granted neither do I, but you're the one who messed up first.
"Oh laugh it up, you friggin' bitch," Fana sighed out as she entered into a massive lecture hall, an open-air auditorium with transparent barriers stretched across each row of desks that climbed up in differing levels like a stack of stairs, and before the half-circle of desks was a massive blackboard the size of an entire block of road found in any village, and chalks the size of whole logs placed before the blackboard's rack. The biggest oddity however, was the mere fact that the whole class took place right besides a whole coastline, the waves crashing against the marble structure that made up this temple-like lecture hall, the salty scent of brine wafting through the air, being a combination of calming, yet suffocatingly overwhelming.
"Just who is teaching this class?!" exclaimed Fana as her legs tried not to give away, only for her bones to turn into jelly, but rather than hitting the ground, she herself was stopped by a woman with bright blue hair that cascaded down her spandex-covered back like a waterfall.
"First day?" the blue-haired woman asked, to which Fana nodded. "No worries," she reassured the pink-haired girl, "the water's only freezing the first time you plunge in!"
"Are you... the professor of this class?" asked Fana, only to receive a light laughter from the woman.
"No silly!" the blue-haired woman giggled, "I'm the assistant professor! My name is Sirona!" she greeted the girl, "welcome to your first day of class! It's a pleasure to have fresh new minds here!"
"... Yeah..." Fana unenthusiastically grumbled out, her heart beating at an increasing rate from the pressure mounting against her, "... nice to meet you too..." she mumbled out as her trembling hand shook Sirona's own, which was smooth as silk. "... Can you help me find my seat?" the girl asked, "I need to settle down before my heart explodes..."
"Just sit anywhere!" Sirona replied, "the only thing we care around Magia Academia is that you have the freedom to learn!"
Fana then stumbles her way towards the front desk row, the waves brushing up against the erected barrier before her that slicked down into sea foam.
"... Oh my god," Fana heaved out as her chest felt like was stuffed with raw gravel, "... will it kill anyone around here to stop being so... so..." she continued heaving out as her fingers fell lame, dropping her bookbags and supplies down next to her seat, the other, younger students picking her dropped stuff up and placing it back before her, "... I, I cannot describe this place in mere words. It's too much."
"Alright everyone!" Sirora's voice spoke out through the speakers placed around the auditorium, with her speaking through a microphone connecting the speakers with her mana, "the professor's coming in, so please give your utmost attention!"
As the whole audience of students settled down, Fana took in the calm that settled around her.
"... Okay," she sighed out in relief, "now I can take a moment to breathe-"
Whatever sense of calm or security that Fana had set up for herself has been thrown out of the window as soon as a man in buff walked into the auditorium.
"WAIT!" Fana cried out as she pointed at the naked man standing before the giant billboard, "YOU'RE THE PERVERT THAT I RAN INTO LAST WEEK!"
"Oh, you already met?" Sirona remarked, not perturbed by the so-called professor's nudity.
"I SAW HIS JUNK!" Fana pointed out.
"Nothing wrong with that," Sirora replied, to which the majority of the class nods in agreement, "and besides, our professor isn't exactly a human."
"... What?" Fana gawked out as the nude man dove into the water.
Suddenly, a surge of mana began bubbling up from the seawater's surface, building up like a geyser that is about to erupt any second into a torrent of pure power.
"First three rows, be advised," Sirona announced, "you are currently in the splash zone."
"Wait, what-"
Fana's remark was then cut off by a tsunami splashing against the barrier before her, the runoff seawater trickling down behind her as both her and her elven counterpart felt a titanic presence before them as the deluge behind them slowly began freezing solid.
"Finally!" a booming voice remarked behind the curtain of water erected between them and the giant blackboard, "I no longer sweltering in the sun's heat!"
As soon as the wave receded back into the ocean, a massive shadow eclipsed over her.
Standing before her was humanoid reptilian creature with orca-like features. Its physique was similar to that of the nude man that jumped into the water; well-chiseled pecs and abs defined in its blue-violet body with glowing sky-blue lines that ran across between its bodily creases of his muscles, and its lower torso being covered in jagged scales of dark violet-blue with turquoise-colored crystals that were found on its knees and feet. It's semi-serpentine head was a two-tone shades of cool white and blue-violet, contrasted by its pair of glowing light-topaz eyes above its fanged maw derivative of its orca-esque features, a pair of fins running down the back of its head, and a pair of wings that were made of ice flapped from its hips, causing the massive creature to go airborne before landing onto the stage before the blackboard with a quaking thud.
... Wha... wha... wha... Elf!Fana stammered as she and her human half felt the giant creature's overwhelming mana that felt like an encroaching glacier that was crushing everything before its path, themselves mere ants underneath the heel of a steel boot, ... WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THIS CREATURE?!
"THAT IS OUR PROFESSOR?!" Fana cried out, her heartbeats now spiking in speed, "JUST WHAT KIND OF A PERSON IS HE?!"
"Allow me to explain, little one!" the giant creature's voice boomed out as it grabbed a log-sized stick of chalk and began writing on it, "as you already know, the Spade Kingdom is a home to a particular brand of creatures called Wilderbeasts. Basically, animals that have become attuned to the natural mana of this world, with some being capable of using magic like sapient beings," the creature explained as it drew a web of vague animal-like shapes, the description reminding both Fanas of the Lindwyrms and Wyverns that they've run into a month prior, "however, if a Wilderbeast lives past 100 years, it'll evolve into a greater stage of being, now capable of speech and cross-species mating," said the titan, the last description grossing out Elf!Fana at the thought of copulating with another being that is not of her race, "that my lass, is the Elderbeast, and standing atop of the apex of evolution lies us," the creature answered as it pointed to itself, "Dragons. And yours truly is the Ice Dragon, Bufu."
... An honest-to-God Dragon, Elf!Fana shuddered as she now knew what she was up against, ... I'm going to hurl.
Is that bad? Human!Fana asked followed up by a fearful gulp, ... other than the fact its sheer size of its body and mana alone being more than enough to obliterate us?
... They literally invented the concept of spells that every magic-user takes for granted, explained Elf!Fana as she tried to hold onto whatever scraps of sanity that was left in her, in other words, Dragons were the first spellcasters of this world. Hell, even Sephira, our patron figure of worship, learned how to use magic from them! she continued explaining as her remaining sanity continued to whittle away, but seeing one?! Impossible! They were lost to time! I didn't think that they were real, let alone, still alive!
Upon the horrible revelation that stood before them, both Fanas' minds simultaneously shut down.
"... Um, Professor Bufu?" Sirona pointed out as she heard a thud coming from the first row, spotting Fana collapsed onto the marble floor, "... I think she fainted."
"Take her to the infirmary," replied the Ice Dragon, "tell them we got another one."
On the first day of her class, Fana has fainted upon seeing a living, breathing Dragon as her professor.
The worst part being, she had a faceful of his junk before school even started for her.
The Grand Meridian, Neutral Territory, Evening
"Come on," Gluck grumbled to himself as both Liebe and Lucifer were following from behind, "I swear, the snare I set up yesterday was perfect," the raven-haired boy remarked as he trashed through the bushes, "at least a boar should've been trapped here."
"It's getting late, Gluck," Liebe pointed out, "we should probably go home. Mom's gonna worry herself sick."
Lucifer lets out a sigh before kneeling down towards Gluck's level.
"Tell me where the snare is," the Fallen Angel asked, "that way, I don't have to hear you bitch and moan about it later."
"Should be by the tree with the large enough hole bored on it," the boy remarked, "I even carved an 'x' mark below said hold."
"Be back in a minute," Lucifer remarked he then ran through the forest in blinding speeds, the past two weeks providing him and the Prince enough ample time to recover their [Anti-Magic] back to its normal state.
Granted, he's still down one wing, but still, compared to a human, he was still leagues ahead in terms of physical aptitude.
Tree with an "x" etched below its hole... thought the Fallen Angel as he continued running through the groves before his nose picked up a scent of an animal coming closer towards him, a scent of slight cellular decay akin to a meat that's been left out in the open. The boy's snare is up close.
Lucifer then finds the tree where the boar has been hung from its neck by a rope rigged around a tree's branch. And like the boy stated, there was an "x" etched right below the hole of the tree trunk.
"Complaint addressed," he remarked as he picked up the dead boar and ran back towards where the two were. But as soon as he arrived, he saw that they weren't there, and seeing a trail of footprints leading back towards the cottage where the kids and others were at, "... of course, the Stygian's words hold more weight to the child than mine."
He then lets out a sigh before dashing across the trail of footprints laid before him, the cottage getting closer and closer towards him as he ran right through the door, bursting it through with the kill secured in his hand.
"OMIGOD!" exclaimed Licita as she saw her doors be reduced to splinters upon the Fallen Angel's blistering entry, scaring her and the other children present, "WHAT THE HELL?! HAVEN'T YOU HEARD OF KNOCKING?!"
"I dunno, have you?" deadpanned Lucifer, to which Licita lets out a growl of disapproval as the Fallen Angel held up Gluck's kill, "so, where do I put this?"
"Out the back, drain the blood," Liebe remarked as he handed Lucifer a knife, "by the way, you owe us a new door."
As soon as the Fallen Angel of [Pride] hung the boar by its ankles after slitting its throat to let out all of the blood, he then goes back into the woods and later comes back with an uprooted tree carried over his shoulder.
"Huh, guess you've been more cooperative lately," Liebe pointed out.
"It's the same case as with the boy's request," Lucifer retorted as he formed a shadowy blade with his [Anti-Magic] from his hand, "I'm only doing this only because I don't have to hear about it later."
"No one's forcing you to do this," Gluck pointed out, "I mean, judging you, I honestly can't tell if you're being smart or just being stupid."
"Be honest," Lucifer asked as his blade arm began cutting through the fallen tree's trunk, "do I look like the kind of being that would kill someone for the hell of it?"
"Honestly, yes," Liebe replied bluntly, "I'm just more concerned about why you're holding back. It's like if you're trying to please someone with that kind of attitude."
"Is it that so-called Prince?" Gluck pointed out, "I mean, considering his mannerisms that I observed from him, you and him are polar opposites, and not the good kind," the raven-haired boy explained his observations, "feels like one of you is dragging along the other, but I honestly can't tell who's who."
"We're both using each other for our own ends," answered Lucifer as he chopped the tree in half through its twain, "I want my old position as the Supreme Archangel back, and Prince Astaroth wishes to create a world where magic no longer exists," the Fallen Angel stated as he carved the chopped trunks into planks, "our goals coincide with each other, that's all-"
"You're lying," Gluck retorted, "the latter goal sounds too inconsistent with the former argument," the raven-haired boy pointed out, "answer me, just where do the two goals coincide with each other?"
"With magic gone, people will become easier to micromanage," Lucifer explained, "I can go back to curbing the population down to an acceptable size through methods of plague and pestilence-"
"Does that 'population' count as your so-called 'Prince' as well?" pointed out Gluck, "what's in it for him? Are you that prideful that you never considered his goals may have growing beyond just ushering in a world without magic?"
"... What does a child like you know?" Lucifer rebuked as he began clean-shaving the planks with his hand-blade.
"I used to have magic," Gluck answered, putting the Fallen Angel in a pause, "even still, I was some orphan brat who never knew love until I met mom," he explained, "even before and after I had my mana stripped away from be by some fat man with a monocle, my life before I met mom was utter garbage. But then again, so was everyone else's," the raven-haired boy pointed out, "the common folk and me were barely getting by, and the rich and powerful only looked happy just to cover up their inner emptiness. With or without magic, people are still people. We cannot stand each other, but we can't live without each other as well," he pointed out, "... your kind of world where everything with a pulse is treated the same sounds like a field of grain, only growing to be cut down, and even then, you're not even using us. In fact, what were you using the people under your control for anyway?"
"How was I supposed to know?" the Fallen Angel of [Pride] replied as he began measuring the planks in comparison with the busted-down door, "I just followed by purpose of keeping watch over the populace and ensure no one goes extinct. I never questioned my place, and neither should anyone else. It's less complicated that way, and the less complex things are, the smoother things run its course."
Both Gluck and Liebe let out a deep sigh of disappointment of hearing Lucifer's answer.
"... My god, you're a fucking buzzkill," Liebe pointed out, "no wonder why they threw you out of Heaven and straight to Hell; you're a shitty boss for not listening to the people below you, only to those above you just to force the former to listen to you in some sort of feedback loop."
"Suddenly, I have a clearer picture of you now," Gluck stated, "... you literally demand subservience not only to everyone beneath you, but also to yourself to a greater degree," the raven-haired boy pointed out, "you're a textbook definition of a kiss-ass, pure and simple. You don't see people as individuals, but rather as pieces of a greater whole that needs to be put back together."
"It's more efficient and practical that way," retorted the Fallen Angel as he began putting the new door together, "under one order, the chances of survival of a species increase dramatically," he explained his viewpoint, "isn't a living being's priority its the prolonging of its own existence?"
"'Dying really slowly together' doesn't count as 'surviving', dumbass," Gluck pointed out as both he and Liebe went back into the cottage for the night.
... Peh, what does he know about my role? Lucifer thought, what does he know about being put in charge of volatile beings that refuse to behave for a few seconds? The weight of the world's lives being placed onto your back ever since the time memorial? What does a mere mortal know about his own place in the greater scheme of the Origin?
"Gah, my head is flooded with distractions!" the Fallen Angel growled out as he looked down at his incomplete door, "WOMAN! WHERE ARE THE GODDAMN NAILS?!"
The Fallen Angel, as much as tried to deny the boy's notions, the mere thought never left him.
And for the whole week, for the first time in his creation, Lucifer began questioning his own existence and purpose.
... Who am I? What am I here for and why am I thinking like this?
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Short cooldown chapter before things heat up again for the plot, and Lucifer getting another massive ego-check.
My third year starts this month, so I'm in a bit of a timetable to finish this multi-parter before school starts again, and after my week-long break prior, I'm a bit more behind then I initially thought, but I have to make it work.
Parts 1-3 are the warmup acts, and from here on, expects things to go downhill, or at least that's what I have in mind.
References:
- Dragunov's and Kalashnikov's final exchanging lines before they leave the capital are from Killer 7's opening cutscene.
- Fana's classroom arrangement is loosely based off a marine life park like Seaworld, with some elements of the typical depiction of Greco-Atlantis-marble before it was sunk.
- Sirona is named after the Gaulish Goddess of Healing Springs, and her appearance is loosely based off Juvia Lockser from Fairy Tail.
- Bufu the Ice Dragon is a threefold reference; his human form is based off of Gray Fullbuster from Fairy Tail (I'm a shameless Gray X Juvia shipper; bite me); his Dragon form is based off of Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom from Cardfight! Vanguard; and his name is based off the ice-elemental skill branch from the Shin Megami Tensei franchise.
Hypothetical Voices (for funsies):
Sirona: Sayuri Yahagi (JPN), Juliet Simmons (ENG)
Bufu, the Ice Dragon: Yūichi Nakamura (JPN), Newton Pittman (ENG)
So, what do you guys think of this Saga?
Please leave a comment or a review, for I'd like to know what my audience are thinking!