I made at this point almost 30 chapters about a character with literally no screentime or dialogue. I don't know how sad it is, but I know it is.

Chapter 14
"I don't hate him"

"Wait... what was Lucifero this angry about?" Lucifugus asked himself and started lightly tapping Pen's head on the desk. Lucifero was pretty damn prideful, but something must have failed really badly. More so than usual.

"Do you really care my lord?"

Healer spoke again, seems like she really couldn't tell if there was any care in Lucifugus for their King.

But that is a good question... Do you?

"Of course I do. Why do you think I wouldn't?" Lucifugus asked... her... or that other thing? He couldn't tell.

"From what Pen told me about your "endeavors" and your bitterness about this job and how you talked to him before I assumed that you completely resent our King and you couldn't care less about his well being." Healer sounded sincere

She knows nothing about you

"Hmph, goes to show how much you know me."

"Of course I don't know much. We just started talking like this." Healer made a good point

"I think I know Our Lord pretty well!" Pen said with excited tone.

"Definitely better than her, but that doesn't says much Pen." Lucifugus said as he put him down on for a moment. He knew this was going to be a long conversation

Then Healer decided to speak again.

"Sooo..." Looks like she tried to find right words "Do you hate him my Lord?"

"Hmm..." Yes... You do "I definitely hate what he did to me. Left me with this job for no reason... made my life miserable... Although, strangely, I can't tell if I really hate him."

Wrong

Lucifugus had to think about it for a moment. Healer though was pretty confused. Pen though seemed quite happy as he always is.

"Maybe you still like him My lord!" Pen jumped on his shoulder and started tapping him "Maybe good times you had with him still glow brightly in your heart."

Lucifugus just picked him up from there and put him towards his face and said.

"I wouldn't go that far Pen." You insolent Lowshit "Say anything like that again and you will need Healer's help again."

Lucifugus's grip slightly tightened. Healer seemed... worried... Her face. Something was off about it. It reminded him of someone. But he shrugged off that thought for now.

"...OKIE!"

Pen was unphased. As if he didn't understand what Lucifugus just said and tried to do. Then again maybe he really didn't. So he put him down on the table.

"Either way. I really can't tell what I think of him..." Lucifugus truly had no idea, despite what that...thing was saying "Then again, you asked why I care about his rage. The thing about Lucifero is that as much of a prideful prick he is, when he is not drunk he can keep his rage down. If something pissed him off so much then it had to be a GREAT wound on his pride. I'm curious about what it was."

"I guess you have lots of experience with it My Lord." Healer said with a strangely caring tone... It made Lucifugus sick a little

"Tons." way more than that "I've suffered through enough of his outbursts to know what ticks him off and how much is needed to make him THIS angry. And I wont lie, often times I tested that myself. Knowingly and unknowingly... Makes me think of that one time I went to him to tell him about Ziggy and his Grand Escape."

Lucifugus's memories started to resurface little by little. All the different moments of Lucifero's rage. All the insults, shames and drunken outbursts. Terrible. But that one with Ziggy felt especially strange.

"You mean Zagred of Word Soul Magic? The Devil that broke the chains?" Healer seemed to know some things about him... but not nearly enough to know how silly that title sounds

"Definitely sounds too dignified for someone like him. But yes. Although I came there with something else in mind. To complain about everything as I often did. About my position, his plans... Megi..." His rage almost took over him just by thinking of that bitch "I had a few drinks and I have to say... some things I said were quite harsh. I remember saying that him being anyone's superior was a horrible joke. But now that I think about it, I can't tell if I was talking about him or... what he became."

"Oh?"

Even Pen became interested while Healer kept listening.

"Because for as much as I fucking hate what I am now and how I hate him for making me into this..." Lucifugus looked at the book of law for a moment... his bane "I feel like there is still a part of me that has last shred of respect for him."

"It must be buried really deep my Lord." Healer said with rather joking tone, but Lucifugus could hear the seriousness mixed into it

"It is, but it's there. The last remains of what I remember of real Lucifero. Someone that could command respect without saying a word and the words he spoke having capability to rally hundreds if not thousands under him. Talent beyond measure and authority beyond question. A type of king I followed and everyone else did..." Those memories... They felt nice.

Too nice... Face it already. It will not come back.

"You may not believe it, but there was a time when some Devils could challenge us, be dangerous to us. But Lucifero was always capable of bringing them down, make them bow or destroy them, at the end of the day there was nothing that could stop him. But then his pride stared growing, as the number of enemies of his became smaller, his ego expanded tenfold and once there was no one to oppose him, there was nothing stopping his pride from taking him over."

Another pause... His memory was still faulty, but he could feel every bit of frustration over what he forgot

"Maybe that's what makes me so fed up with him. I saw what he can be, I know who he can be and yet now he decides to stay like this... to be the worst version of himself. It infuriates me." It was stinging terribly

"You care about him My Lord. That's very sweet!"

Pen spoke up, still as joyful as ever

"But I have to guess that there is more to it."

Healer guessed. And guessed correctly.

"Yes... what truly infuriates me is that I'm better than him."

Yes

"What?"

Both Pen and Healer were unable to process what he just said

"I saw him at his best... and now I see him at his absolute worst... It infuriates me because my best doesn't come close to what he can be. And my worst... it can go way beyond what he is right now (That low I don't think can be reached by anyone)." His thoughts started resurfacing... some of his own terrible shames

Forget them!

"I think about those words I said... For someone like you to call himself ANYONE'S superior. Maybe... I directed it at myself. For me to BE his superior. Someone like him... It's pathetic." Lucifugus felt worse with every minute now

"My Lord that is NOT true! You are the best Devil I know! You yourself did so much for this world!" Pen said joyfully as he sit on Lucifugus's hand that was now resting on his desk

"Eh... As weird as it sounds I have to in some capacity agree with Pen. You may not be good at your job, but you still try to bring something into this world. Something better than unrelenting Chaos that engulfed us before My Lord. And in some capacity you succeeded." Healer's sincerity felt off to Lucifugus.

"... Maybe so... But the reason why I even put up with this job may be due to respect I did have for Lucifero..." Really now? "(It definitely WAS the reason... but now... I have no idea...)"

"Ooh, OOH. My lord! My tell us one of the stories about Lucifero! STORY TIME!"

Pen was jumping with excitement. So much so that Healer had to come down and hold him down just so he doesn't fall down from the table.

"...Maybe I could. Yeah. One story." Another set of memories started to resurface "And I think I have a good one."

The last one

"About the last enemy of his and definitely the most fearsome. While his name is lost to time I still remember the title he gave himself. The lord of the Flies. He was a Devil with terrible ambition and prowess rivaling the highest of us. Many tried to stop his rise to power and every single one failed. Mostly due to his magic. You see, to him Devils were all nothing more than flies, buzzing next to his head, annoyance that he thought he could easily crush with one touch. He definitely reminds me of Lucifero of today. And he was capable of doing that with his magic, Control magic. He could control any Devil with a single touch of his hand."

He touched Pen's broken head to further showcase his point. A small tap with his finger. That's all it took back then.

"One in a lifetime gift. Truly fearsome opponent. By the time Lucifero garnered enough support to oppose him half of Underworld was already under his control, most as mindless as the lowest of low. Truly Lord of the Flies. And Lucifero only had the cowardly things around him, those that never tried to push against him and ran away, but as Lucifero said Those are not cowards, those are the ones that were smart enough to move away."

Well... at least some of them. Cowards existed... Like that one coward.

"And it was important to him because he needed the smart Devils to make his plan work. As the expansion of Lord of the Flies continued his army suddenly started to lose it's numbers. You see, there was a rumor going around that this Devil slaughtered some of his forces and made them into pair of gloves for himself. That's when big chunk of his still inteligent supporters left him"

"Why did he do such a thing!?" Healer clearly seemed horrified

"I really don't know... All I know is that he was a complete lunatic." That's the best explanation he had at the moment

"And that exposed a weakness. The big problem of those controlled Devils was their lack of intelligence, Lord of the Flies had to make his loyal supporters the leaders of their warbands, but their problem was that they were also cowards too afraid to leave him and he never had respect for their cowardly nature like Lucifero and their numbers were greatly reduced and ambushes combined with smart fighting were great at exploiting those flaws. In a handful of days Lucifero took away 60% of his army and then Lucifero challenged him to 1 on 1 fight and in his arrogance Lord of the Flies accepted this challenge, believing he would win because of hit and run tactics Lucifero employed."

Or was there something else?

"Big mistake because that is what Lucifero anticipated and prepared for. As they met in the middle of the deepest part of the world Lucifero ended him without moving a muscle, with hands behind his back. As the hand of the Fly Lord was about to touch Lucifero's forehead Lucifero himself warped space just before his hand connected and opened a second portal right next to Flies face and in that moment his magic was turned against him with... interesting results. But at the end of the day he won. Lord of the Flies was no more. He became nothing more than a fly." Lucifugus finished his little tale... More and more memories flooded his mind... some were good, but the others...

"My lord? Couldn't Space Lord do the same?" Healer asked him

"He could. But at that point he had much less experience and Flies would know what to expect if he was ever near him. And even with his quiet demeanor he was very innocent, like a child. Sometimes I wonder if he still is in the same state of mind as he was back then. Unable to see what Lucifero became and still seeing the shining beacon of the past and the great shadow Lucifero casted over us all."

A fool he is

"And no one knew about this new power of Lucifero. No one... except me. We were sparring countless times, I helped him learn this side of his magic... He trusted me enough to let me know about this plan. It was the best time of my life, when I felt like there is purpose to what I do." A good memory. One among so many terrible ones

And yet there was one part you omitted... Still forgotten... But don't worry. There is no need to dwell on it.

Then Healer understood

"And now..."

And now

"And now he left me." Lucifugus clenched his hands into fists "He abandoned me here. Left me out of the plan I could help him with. He threw me away and I don't know why... Why...?"

Lucifugus's voice was getting more and more ragged

"My lord..." Pen seemed worried and tried to touch his hand again.

"Not now Pen!" He screamed as he took his hand away and then looked at the Middle "As for you Healer. To answer your question again, yes I DO care or rather I DID care! I cared about this piece of shit, I CARED about this shithole, about future of Underworld. AND NOW I HAVE NOTHING! Nothing except for the past haunting me... except for the shadows engulfing me... except for Megi's curses... except for this work with no purpose..."

Lucifugus was getting more and more engulfed by anger, but slowly it started to die down as he felt the futility of it

"AND US!"

Pen said happily as he wrapped his hand around Healer who seemed less than enthusiastic about it.

"...And you..." Lucifugus said to them as he slowly put his hand on the desk again

"My lord... Now I understand better, but we cannot change what is in the past. We have to do the best with the times we live in right now, even if they are not what we wanted. That also goes for you." Healer tried to reach out to him

Who do you think you are Middle?

"... True..." But there is something off "But before I go back to work I have to ask. Why are you like this? I don't think I ever saw a Devil like you."

"What do you mean my Lord?" Healer seemed to be surprised by this sudden question

"Your attitude. You seem like actually decent being. You care about the fate of Devils in this world, you seem to have empathy and little to no ego." abomination "That makes me curious. Who are you?"

Lucifugus couldn't help his curiosity. This Devil made him feel strange. There was something extremely odd about this one. This strange snake like Middle. Snake like... But her upper body was rather normal looking, but something was off...

"YES! STORY TIME FROM HEALER!"

And Pen quickly sat on the ground before Healer. She was greatly confused about this situation. She looked up to Lucifugus and spoke, trying to get out of this predicament.

"My lord, this is really not an interesting story, I don't think-"

"If you wont tell us I'm going to kill you."

With those words Healer could feel the magic forming in Lucifugus's hands and felt cold chill in her body. All the while Pen had warm smile on him as he waited in anticipation. Lucifugus meant what he said... Although he would prefer to avoid this outcome. She seems interesting enough to keep for now... And he definitely wont bother looking for another healing Devil

You should kill her either way... Something is wrong with her.

"Umm... alright. But really, it's not very interesting." Healer said as she looked on the ground

"Depends on how you will tell it." Magic quickly disappeared from his hand "Make the best of the story that you have."

TBC in chapter 15.
"A Devil Healer"

Well... This one needed some fixing in terms of lore that will come later... Yeah, some stuff from this will come back later and because I didn't plan it I had to change what was here because I mixed some things up later... But I think it should be okay.