I wanted to post it earlier, but I got a fever that hindered my plans. But it came out so I'll say I managed somehow. Very sorry for the delay.
Chapter 8
"The Band"
Lucifugus keeps writing and writing, scrambling off Pen's head a little more and more. At least recently he made sure that his damage would be taken care of in some capacity by finding a Healing Devil. It took some talking with Creep, but he managed to find one somehow. And of course he made sure to not forget to sometimes switch pens every now and then. Between writing more and more paragraphs, more laws concerning middle class and their taxes he felt more and more ill and the reason was very clear.
"(This silence will be the end of me. I can only hear myself scribing, by Lucifero's unfinished bottles I'm going insane.)" He was on the verge of screaming out (SPEAK PEN DAMN YOU! This scribing is ringing in my head so ba-)
"ZzzzZZzz" But his Pen was soundly asleep
"(Is he... oh for all the...)" That was it for him
And so he squished him slightly. Just enough for him to wake up.
"AAH AAAAHH MY LORD I SWEAR I DIDN'T EAT... Oh." Pen quickly calmed down after his outburst once he looked at his Lord "Hey, good morning my... is there are morning here my lord?"
"How can you sleep with me writing with your head?" He had no time for stupid questions (then again, he wasn't sure himself of the answer)
"You did that so much at this point I don't feel pain anymore." Pen said as he stabbed himself with one of his fingers in the face "Happened a few days ago actually."
"Oh I see." That was weird revelation "Well don't do that."
"I can't. With no pain I quickly fall asleep. It's so quiet here." Pen said and stayed quiet for a while. He was right. There was little to no noise outside of some rumbling from Pen box and sound of flickering candles
"I know..." Lucifugus admitted "If only there was something we could... wait a minute..."
Lucifugus then remembered. As the memories started flooding in he quickly put the pen down and went under his desk looking for something throwing out some papers, box with pens, a poster of Lilith and some other female devils (damn he was lonely here)...
"AHA! Found it." Lucifugus rejoiced
And quickly got up from under there with weird circular thing in his hand. It had strange silvery shine to it, reflecting the light of the candles
"What is it my Lord?" Pen doesn't remember ever seeing a thing like this. Then again. Maybe he did, he just forgot.
"A disk. I have a device here that can play it and make music appear." Lucifugus said as he spin the disk on his finger
"We have things like that?" Good question. Do we?
"...Actually I don't know..." Realization hit him "I know I have it, but... did we start manufacturing them and devices that play them? At this point I wonder if this isn't just a random piece of material that wont do anything, but I will just will it to... You know what, I don't care. I'll play it anyway!"
"But... what's on it my Lord? I only heard about music... I think I know what it means, but... who..?" Pen wanted to know as much as he could. It was exciting for him.
"Yeah, there was a certain band on higher levels." Lucifugus started telling his tale as he stopped spinning the disk "They were interesting bunch. You see I was going through one of the levels with the Creep when..."
Back in the past
"For fuck sake, at this point I would rather steal entire stock of Evil Liquor from Lucifero." He was not amused "Not like he would drink even half of it in next 10.000 years. What do you say?"
Lucifugus asked Creep walking behind him. The only answer was his blank stare
"Yeah, I'll get you some of-"
That's when they heard it. Music. Strange series of random sounds that are meant to sound pleasant. Interested both of them approached the source of it and saw a giant rock, surrounded by lights and smoke and there were MANY Devils around it. Strangely enough they saw all kinds of them, middle, low, high. All of them around this one huge rock where 4 middle Devils were standing on with weird things in their hands. The most intriguing one had to be the Dog looking one, he had a very happy smile on his face and was smashing on skulls of dead Low Devils, Lucifugus remembered something similar, he recalls they were called "drums", the huge Donkey looking one was playing on some weird stick with what looked like Devil intestines on them. He was pretty slow and that sound made Lucifugus think about something that most likely doesn't exist yet. Bass. Another one, cat looking one seemed to play on certain bones of Devils, placed on strange table (made Lucifugus think of this Devil having a dress too for some reason), he seemed to have tons of fun. The last one was a Turkey looking one. He was playing on a similar stick like Donkey one, but had much more energy and was doing something more. Singing. His voice was quite a thing to behold, it made even him stand still for a moment. But it quickly wore off. It was nice, but for now they had much more important things to do.
"Ok. Let's go." Lucifugus said to his Space Comrade
Creep didn't move an inch though
"..? Hello? I said we go." Lucifugus repeated. Clearly annoyed
"..."
Creep just stared at this rock with a blank expression. Lucifugus couldn't tell what he was thinking about. As always.
"Can you even hear me?" Lucifugus asked him as he got closer to him and spoke to his ear. No reaction
He just kept standing there.
"...(Strange.. Is this how he likes things? Hmm. May as well try to enjoy it as well)" Lucifugus saw no other option (okay he did, but this one allowed him to have a break)
And listened he did.
"And when you scream the world is darker..." His voice was quite deep, but it also carried great rythm to it "I take your hand and like Lucifero I feel... this malice to me is worth a fortune... this malice to me is everything... I guess I always knew the reason why.. you hate me as you do... That's the horror... The horror of yours...Play Slotos"
And the singing stopped for a while and was replaced with this weird (possibly copyrighty) melody, sometimes broken by the Turkey Devils voice. Then Creep started moving forward, towards the stage. Many Devils immediately moved away from their Lord.
"Wait what are you...?"
And then for some reason bunch of rocks, wood and even some smaller Devils started launching themselves at him, but it wasn't like they had a choice. It was like they were crashing into him somehow, as if something was throwing them at him, but he kept moving even though somehow they were clearly damaging him (I still don't know what in the fuck that was) until he finally reached the rock and stood before it. He was all bruised and bloody, but he didn't seem to care. (It's a reference alright)
"What is even going on here?!" Lucifugus was confused evermore
The Devils looked very shocked to see him, but they kept playing and the Turkey started singing again.
"I guess I always knew the reason why... you hate me as you do... That's the horror... The horror of yooooooooooooouuuurs... woo" And so he finished his song. Quite a finale.
Then everyone started clapping, Creep especially hard and loud. Then he did something Lucifugus definitely didn't saw coming. He tore off part of the rock they were standing on and showed it to them...
"Uhhh, My Lord? Why.. are you..?" The singing Turkey seemed very scared
Creep only pointed at the rock. Then he smashed one of his fingers and black blood dripped out of it and made some shapes on the rock...
"Oooohh... oh..." Turkey seemed to get it "If you insist my Lord"
Then he got ready to bite his finger, but Creep grabbed his hand and shook his head. And made him grab his finger. He wanted them to sign this rock with his blood. Quite extreme way of doing things.
"Oh... okay." And the singer still seemed very afraid, but he signed it
And so they all did. Walgner, Plumede, Slotos and Gimodelo. At that point Bitter Luci got to the stage.
"OH MY LORD, LORD LUCIFUGUS AND uuuuh... SPACE LORD ARE OUR FANS!" The dog looking one, Gimodelo seemed overjoyed
"Excuse me wha..."
Gimodelo quickly duplicated himself and hugged all of them there. It definitely made Lucifugus uncomfortable
"WE ARE SO HAPPY!" That Lucifugus could see and feel
Then Plumede also went into a hug, he seemed to greatly enjoy it as well. Slotos just stood there and Walgner seemed a bit nervous. Creep returned the hug as well while Lucifugus was also very confused about this situation.
Present time
"That was quite sweet" Pen was smiling, this story seemed to be quite good for his mood
"I guess it was, but then the pain started." Lucifugus grabbed himself by his larger horns, clearly the memories were painfully annoying. You have no idea. "Once we got to know them I HAD TO go to the concerts they had, Creep wouldn't let me do my job half the time because of them."
"Oh... also why did they made that band?" Pen was interested more and more
"They said they were bored, they tried to find some purpose. Something that is better than death..." Lucifugus said as he looked down upon his book
Something better than this
"Hmm.. what happened with them? I didn't see you go to their concerts with Space Lord..." Pen now was concerned
"Yeah, about that... they started to... disappear at some point one by one... It was... strange..." Lucifugus clearly had little idea. He had little idea about anything really
"Did they stopped playing?"
"Oh nononono. They didn't... Strangely enough they didn't stop. Even when only one remained." Lucifugus pulled out 4 fingers as he was speaking and put down each one as he continued
"How did that happened?"
"I feel like they were being summoned somehow. First the drummer who I feel like was their leader, Gimodelo was gone. It was a rather huge blow, their band lost some of their steam once he was gone. But they kept going." Lucifugus almost seemed like he was complimenting them
"I suspect they changed." Good guess from Pen
"Yes they did. They definitely lost a lot of fans. But some still persisted with them, especially Creep. He still went to them and stood before their rock. Always ready to have something they could write their names on... and then another one disappeared... I believe Slotos was the one. It was much lesser hit to them, but a hit nonetheless. At that point they started to lose hope, their purpose was slowly fading, the fire was slowly dying down, only few fans remained, Creep still among them...' For a minute he stopped, like he had a realization in this very moment "And me strangely... I still listened and at that time their song "Catch the World Door" stuck out to me, felt like embodiment of their fleeting hope that still tried to linger among them. I was confused... I didn't know why they kept going... there was no purpose to it... or so I thought. Then Plumede was gone as well. Only leaving Walgner. At that point everyone moved on... everyone seemingly forgot... aside from him... and me."
Back in the past
Walgner was sitting under the rock. Still singing, still lingering... What was the point? Lucifugus couldn't know as he approached him with the Creep. As they came closer they could hear the song.
"Bloody rain... bloody rain..." Walgner was sitting under a rock wall, still singing towards the sky where the Doors were tightly shut, as if he wanted to summon his lost comrades through them "I only want to see you... only want to see you again... in this bloody rain..."
As he stopped and looked up he saw both Lords above him. At that point he didn't know why he kept going, so empty... so... numb... Why were they even here? To ridicule him? To kill him? He didn't care. Not like he has anything left to lose. Without them...
Then Creep pulled out a drawing, drawing he made of their Band, rather crude one with a heart being around Walgner looking figure, he knew that thanks to the beak and wings. He couldn't tell what he was thinking of it, everything about Space Lords obsession was a mystery for him.
"..." And so he gave no answer
Then Creep after a minute of silence hurts his finger again and points it at Walgner. And Walgner grabs it and writes his name on the drawing, a small message and the title of their most popular song. After that they have to leave. Creep doesn't want to at first, but eventually has to give in and go with Lucifugus. But before that Lucifugus grabs a disk he got from the Creep on some holiday they had or something. He gives it to Walgner and bites on his own finger and so he also writes on it.
"Thank you"
Walgner couldn't tell if Lord Lucifugus was sincere in that moment. Then again. Neither did Lucifugus himself.
Back to the present
"My Lord never said what that song's name was?" One mystery left
"Ah yes... it was their most popular song... the song Devils sang when he disappeared as well." Lucifugus said as he looked at the disk in his hand, almost as if through it he could see that day.
In the past
Lucifugus looked with confusion at how many of them came. The rock where they previously stood on. All of them stood there, singing that song, the fans, from all classes of Underworld. And then after a while they started to leave, the longest to stay there were the fans that remained with them when they started to fall apart. Until only Creep and him remained. Creep just got closer to the rock. Looking at it. He was standing there for a while. Lucifugus didn't know what he thought about it. Maybe Creep in his head was humming this song too and imagined them being on the stage again. Then Lucifugus noticed all the drawings placed at the top of the rock, they almost covered it entirely. All of them from a different fan. Then the Creep finally found the empty spot where he placed his drawing that was signed by Walgner among them. One among many, seemingly insignificant piece of paper among many others. Although Lucifugus wasn't as much of a fan as Creep was he still felt... empty. It felt as if something important was lost now. Something that cannot be replaced. Yet another shadow fell upon this world. Once again this world grew ever darker. He couldn't believe it was possible anymore.
In the present
"It's sad..." Pen couldn't hold his sincerity "I'm sad..."
"Don't be. It's something you had no involvement in, there is no need for pity." Lucifugus then also remembered that he never took Pen on those concerts... he didn't know how to feel about this.
"What happened to Space Lord after that though?"
"I don't know. The last time I saw him was a year after that when..."
Back in the past
"Soooo... They started to fall apart, one could say that with every missing one they changed into something different right?" Lucifugus asked Creep, still sitting on the ground
"... :(" He was clearly depressed and only nodded his head
"So in that case, what was your favorite and least favorite era of theirs?" Lucifugus tried to do small talk
"... :(" And Creep didn't appreciate it
And then a portal opened right before Lucifugus's face and then a fist of Creep landed straight on his face.
Present
"That was uncalled for my Lord with all due respect." Pen was very honest right there
What do you know?
"I know... I just wanted to cheer him up or something... Then he opened a portal right in front of my face and punched me so hard it knocked me out for a few days and launched me into a portal to this level... After that I didn't see him again... And now I'm stuck here." Lucifugus spread his arms for a moment to get his point across "What's worse is that I feel like I destroyed something in that moment. Something that I didn't know I had..."
Something you never had
"If it cheers you up my Lord I'll always be here..." Pen said with a smile
"..." All the while Lucifugus had no answer and just looked at him
"..." Another deafening silence "My Lord still didn't say what that song was called."
"... Right..." He snapped out of it
"..." But he still didn't answer and just looked at the disk "Lord Luci-"
"It's name is "We struggle". As you can tell it's about struggling, struggling in this world that we live in, that we so desperately try to get away from... the world where it is meaningless to have any hope... and yet we struggle to grasp at least small shred of it." Lucifugus said as he showed Pen the disk's side with Walgner's name a line under it "It was their most popular song because it resonated with all of them, High, Middle and Low Devils, embodied their struggle and despair in this world and in a way... showed that there is still hope somewhere deep inside us, that keeps us struggling, but... I don't know if they made it for them... every time I hear it I wonder if they wrote it because of their own struggle, because they wanted to reassure themselves if anything they did had any meaning or purpose..."
"Did... did it resonate with you... my Lord?" Another piece of the puzzle
Lucifugus looked at Pen... and then looked at the disk still in his hand... "We struggle" and a sign under it from Walgner "Keep struggling"
"In a way. One particular line stuck out to me." Lucifugus said as he prepared himself to say those lyrics "We struggle because because that's what keeps us sane... We struggle because that's what makes us go beyond the pain... We struggle because what else can you do in a world where you can only die in vain."
Lucifugus stopped and let the words fade with the echo
"...It made me think... Why do I struggle so much with this work?... Why do I put up with it?... Do I struggle to keep my sanity?...To find my purpose... or..."
Lucifugus then looked at the book he has been writing. Hundreds of years of effort and seemingly meaningless struggle, chaotic, contradicting, one would say "completely pointless"
"Or I finally found one and I struggle to make it worth something..." Lucifugus said with empty voice
"...My Lord..." Pen in that moment quickly jumped high and onto his Lord's shoulder
Lucifugus turned to Pen
"I'm here, ready to struggle with you!" Pen said with the most cheerful smile Lucifugus saw from him in a long while
"..."
Lucifugus didn't say anything... other than putting a disk inside the machine... and the song played.
"(I will keep struggling. What else can I do?)" The words in his mind were an echo though that could never go silent "Hmm, that reminds me of something."
"Yeah?" Pen was interested once again and sit on his shoulder
"One of their songs did had a strange consequence once. I believe it was something about Anti-establishment" Lucifugus clearly didn't think highly of that memory
"Oh?"
TBC in Chapter 9 "Failure of a Revolution"
Yeah. You may notice some more references in this chapter, well I just thought "Why not?" when I made some of them, except for one. You see I made this chapter originally in the week when it was revealed that Miura passed away so in a way I dedicated this chapter to him with that theme of "Struggle" and that bit with the rock and drawings is a reference to 4chan thing where each person drew their own sword and it was added onto an image. But I digress, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Fav, Follow or Review. Whatever you want. And Rest In Peace Miura. Thank you for the amazing series you created.