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Chapter 5 – The Way Gods Work
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After Ban got new clothes and the trio father-children (Lucifer, Iseult and Tristan) got back their Sacred Treasures (or stole one for Lucifer's case), they were about to just leave this dungeon but in the halfway, they were attacked by Golgious and Ruin. Well, most likely Ruin and Golgious tried to attack Iseult because they thought of her as the weakest. Fool men, they did the wrong turn. It only snapped Tristan and Lucifer.
With one hand wrapped itself around her waist and tightly secured his wife, Tristan's previous green eyes changed into golden as he grabbed Golgious' wrist when the fool man had tried to lay his fingers on his dearest wife "I see, you really want to die".
For Ruin, Lucifer had caught his staff when Ruin tried to hit Iseult with his staff. Lucifer broke the iron staff easily and as he lifted his head, his red eyes gleaming sinisterly as the staff shattered into pieces in his hands "you fool, do you think a mere human like you can win against us?".
Ban's eyes widened when he saw three pairs of bird-like wings came out of Iseult and Lucifer's back. Three pairs of dark feathered wings for Lucifer and three pairs of gray wings for Iseult. Iseult wrapped her arms around her husband's waist as the Baste Dungeon started shaking tremendously and crumbled due to Lucifer and Tristan's explosive magic power.
After Baste Dungeon shattered into ruins and they landed on the ground safely in between the ruins of this place, Iseult lifted her hands "father! Darling! You two overdid it again! Should you two destroy this place too in the process? Geez... what can I do with you two, such explosive temper you have?".
Leaning his back on the rock, Tristan deadpanned "Iseult, honey, can you blame us to be angry for them who trying to hurt you?".
Sitting on top of the rock and throwing the beaten black and blue Ruin to the ground, Lucifer smirked devilishly "just like he said, we have no boundaries for whoever dare to lay their fingers on our family members with intention to bring harm on us. The different is, unlike Tristan and his father, I have no mercy towards the weaklings who not know their place but dare to bring harm on my family".
Iseult facepalmed and sighed "father...".
Tristan nodded his head feverishly "no wonder mother said that you can be so hostile and you have no boundaries sometimes".
Ban whistled, he liked this man. However, their wings were what really invited his attention "say, are you two possibly... the remaining members of the Goddess Clan? I heard they have been extinct".
"Goddess Clan? heh", Lucifer scoffed "don't you dare to group me with those hypocrites. Only several of them that I acknowledge as good people, like my little sister and doctor who raised me and my little sister".
Yep, after he was claimed as 'Fallen Angel', only Elizabeth and Dr. Mercy that he still considered as his family. Even his mother casted him aside like a thrash. Bad enough he lost his wife, he'd even not able to save his niece, Meliodas and Elizabeth's child from his mother's grip.
Looking up, Lucifer narrowed his eyes as the wind blew his fringes "where are you now, Faust? Heaven or Hell? Wherever you are, I'm gonna find you so I can stay with you, even if I have to replace you or it will cost my life".
Iseult's words snapped Lucifer out of his reverie. She gently reassured "Sir Ban, I know and I believe you have so many questions to us, but I think we have to leave this place immediately and we can talk properly in another place. Don't you all agree with me?".
Lucifer, Tristan and Ban agreed with her this time. The four of them left this place immediately before the Holy Knights came here as reinforcement. Unbeknownst to them, there was a single woman cladded in black cape, carrying a coffin on her back who arrived here on the ruin of Baste Dungeon.
"death isn't what put the love into its end, Lucifer", wind blew her hood, revealing her long straight white hair that reached her hips. Her golden eyes blinked her tears away, for the grief that she couldn't help but feel, to witness such destruction that the man she loved bringing. Yearning, longing and grief mixed into ones in her heart as she remembered the happy memories of her old times when she was still a human who fell in love with him, the strongest angel from Goddess Clan, before they both fell from the Heaven to the Hell as the cost for the Sins they had "wherever are you, my beloved one, please... don't lose to your own darkness...".
"Lady Neiva, is there something wrong?", blonde-haired woman landed, her bat-like darkness wings shrinking into her back before she looking straight in understanding "it's unusual to see you crying like this, unless... you missed him, right?".
"I'm alright, Gelda", she hastily wiped her tears before she put down the coffin on her back. After she rummaged on the coffin for a while, she picked the shovel from her coffin "now, would you mind to help me? I'm gonna dig the graves and you just need to gather the casualties like always".
As her familiar ever since she broke her seal, Gelda bowed her head to the gravedigger "will do, Lady".
Not too far from the ruin of Baste Dungeon, on the campsite where they settled temporarily, Ban listened to Lucifer's story as they sat around the campfire after Iseult and Tristan (who clearly knew the story already) went to sleep, cuddling against each other within Iseult's wings that wrapped them like cocoon to keep them warm. Lucifer admitted that yes, he once was the part of Goddess Clan but then, he was claimed as the 'Fallen Angel' after he failed his mission to kill Faust.
Lucifer told the story about the metropolis Belialuin that led by the Chief of Sages "and Faust was his wife".
Ban twitched his eyebrow, thinking the man in front of him was a bastard "...excuse me, you already know that she's already taken, yet you still dared to lay your finger on her?".
Lucifer scoffed and nonchalantly shrugged "what? It was her husband's fault for not able to make her happy. She cried when she begged to me, telling me to just kill her, so her sufferings would be ended. I couldn't even lay my finger on her to bring harm on her after she told me that she felt unloved".
Ban lifted his hand, he should have known it, everyone had their own reasons, including Lucifer so he asked him to continue "sorry to interrupt, so who ordered you to kill her and why? I mean, she was just a human, right?".
"she was suspected on creating the pact with a Demon in order to achieve whatever her goals. I was one of the strongest warriors of my Clan, so yes, I was sent to confront her. When I met her, however, what I saw was not the greedy, stone-cold-hearted woman like what people said about her. She was only the lonely woman who wanted nothing but true love from a man she could love to fulfill her starving heart. She had to marry with the Chief of Sage, her cold-hearted husband, in order to bring the glory and honor for her family. She was sacrificed by her family and had to go through the marriage without love from her husband. She fulfilled her starving heart with all knowledge of the world, but she never could fulfill her thirsty, for the cure of her starving heart was only love without she knew it", Lucifer leaned his chin above his intertwined fingers "so tell me, Ban. How could I kill her?".
Ban thoughtfully asked "before I answer your question, tell me, did she really create the pact with the Demon just like she was suspected?".
Solemnly, Lucifer lowered his gaze "...she did. She created the pact with demon named Mephistopheles and she got what she wanted the most. Love from the man she desired and all knowledge of the worlds. However, we're doomed. I was claimed as the Fallen Angel and I lost her when she gave birth".
Ban trailed off "...tell me honestly, Lucifer, why should it be her? Do you truly love her, or it was only your sympathy, or empathy?".
"stupid question, Ban. Of course, I do love her. It's simple, I love her because unlike all women of my Clan who tried to get my attention just for glory, she is the first, the one and only who could see and treat me whole as myself, not only because of who or what I was. Complicated, right?", earning Ban's approval hums, Lucifer smiled lopsided before he growled "also... she is the one who opened my eyes... to see how cruel and cunning the way Gods work...".
Ban gulped "what happened to her? You said she passed away when she was...".
Lucifer sighed before explaining that Faust was tricked by Mephistopheles and her own husband.
Mephistopheles planted his seeds on her after they had created the pact. At first, Faust refused to do the consummation with him due to her loyalty to her husband and her fear of what might happen later. Mephistopheles then tricked her, disguising himself as her husband, the Chief of Sages to seduce her passionately. Faust thought she finally earned her husband's love and she accepted the offer to do the consummation. However, when both Faust and her husband found out about it, Mephistopheles ran away back to the Demon realm and Faust was left alone to earn her husband's wrath.
After her husband was doing the cruel experiment and planting his seeds through artificial insemination instead of doing sexual intercouse because he didn't want to consummate with the defiled woman who had been tainted by Demon because she was tricked and accidentally slept with demon, Faust ran away from her homeland, looking for the place to die and at this time, she met with Lucifer. The Chief of Sages had asked help to Goddess Clan and ordered his mens to find Faust, telling that she was kidnapped by Demon. However, Supreme Deity had smelled something amiss here. She asked the Demon King about this and Demon King clarified he had nothing to do with this, because Mephistopheles was on Demon Realm. Supreme Deity asked Lucifer to bring his troops and find her, to investigate in case the Lady Faust planned something with the Demon. Faust refused to go home, she told Lucifer everything before he understood the problem and kept her with him instead. They lived peacefully on the secluded place where no one knew them, pretending to be the marriage couple but sincerely live their life happily. As long as they were together, they had fallen in love.
"my sister and her lover were the ones who found us", Lucifer chuckled lightly when remembering how complicated and disastrous the mess they had "well, I just knew that man is my sister's lover that time. What I knew before, they were enemy, and then they turned into lovers".
Though their happiness wasn't last long. When they knew that Faust was pregnant, she told him to just leave her because she didn't even sure who was the father of this child, it could be from Mephistopheles, the Chief of Sages or him.
Ban felt interested "and the children?".
Lucifer rolled his eyes "even I only could say it was a miracle".
It turned out that Faust who had earned the seeds from different men (three of them), gave birth the twin sisters, three daughters. Miraculously, Faust gave birth three different kind of daughters.
First daughter was a Demon named Lilith, the fruit of seeds from Mephistopheles, she was born with a pair of horns and wings, even with Demon magic power. Lilith was taken by Mephistopheles and she ascended the throne as Queen of Succubus Clan due to Demon King's royal decree (considering her heritage as daughter of Mephistopheles, the King of Incubus).
Second daughter was human named Merlin, the fruit of seeds from Chief of Sages due to the artificial insemination, she was a prodigy child who possessed the Infinity magic power. She was taken by her father, the Chief of Sages in order to keep the peace between the Goddess Clan and the Sages. She was raised by the Chief of Sages as his successor.
The youngest daughter was a goddess named Iseult, the fruit of seeds from Lucifer. Mostly her blood was belonged to Goddess Clan compared to human, you could say she earned 75% blood of goddess and 25% blood of human. She also possessed the magic power of Goddess Clan member, so obviously she would go with Lucifer.
Ban twitched the corner of his mouth and made funny expression "and with you, she...".
Crossing his arms before his chest, Lucifer deadpanned "what? Isn't it obvious? Through the sexual intercourse based on our love with Iseult as the fruit of our love, of course".
They heard someone snorted before it turned into mirth laughter, coming from Tristan.
Iseult smacked his bicep "honey, just go to sleep".
Lucifer smirked lopsided in amusement "that's right, just go to sleep, brats. It's not good for children to still wake up late at the night".
Next second, both Iseult and Tristan grumbled "stop treating us like a child, please".
Ban laughed before he thought about it. Okay, after he was given of all these things, he didn't want to doubt about his new friend and it wasn't like he had the right to say anything about his love life but he couldn't help it "Lucifer, what if... this is just 'what if', because given what happened between you two, I think she does love you... but if she doesn't love you and only take advantage of you, you're okay with it?".
"just because I love her, it doesn't mean she has to love me back and return my love, right? As long as she can be happy, even if she doesn't belong with me, it's okay. I hope nothing but her happiness, after all. If she could be happy with taking advantage of me, so be it", Lucifer waved it off when Ban tried to apologize, thinking that he had offended him "oh, don't worry, I don't feel offended. You are not the first to tell me that she only took advantage of me or perhaps, she didn't love me, only want to use me etc. Know this, Ban. Even if she hates me and betrays me, I can't help it but love her".
Ban couldn't help but thinking, that the kind of love that Faust and Lucifer had, perhaps it was what people usually called as true love. To still accept your lover just the way they were sincerely, like the one Elaine had to him. Ban smiled and sighed, remembering Iseult's story about how they tried to find the reincarnation of her mother, the love of his father's life "I hope you can find her, then... but tell me honestly, Lucifer, why did you tell me all of this? I mean, yes, I want to know and all these things, the mess you've told me, it's too much and barely unbearable but you just told me the truth without hiding anything from me. No one ever tell you that you're... being too honest and trustworthy?".
"well, to lie, to hide something from people and being honest are indeed different things, but think about this, Ban", Lucifer scratched his cheek and hummed thoughtfully before he smirked, leaning his chin above his intertwined fingers "first off, if I didn't even try to trust you and open my heart, I didn't think you would sit in front of me just to listen to my story and try to believe me. How could I be trustworthy person if I didn't even being honest with myself and other people? Second, I think someone who offered me to help me to save my daughter when we just met even if he asked something from as rewards, is a trustworthy and interesting person that I've finally found other than the people I've met already. Third, I apologize before, but I have an ability to read people's mind and heart so yes, I know deep down in your heart, although people thought of you as a bastard, actually you're a kind person that rarely existed even on your race".
Ban gawked before he leaped to start the wrestling with Lucifer "fuck, you've got me!".
Peeking through her wings, Iseult asked "do you think they can be a good friend?".
"I think so", Tristan agreed, doing the same thing with her "it's been a while ever since we've seen your father being honest and having fun like this".
Lying on her side, Iseult cuddled against his chest "...I missed mom".
Tristan caressed her cheek, giving a light peck on her forehead "well, to be fair, I indeed missed my parents, too".
Closing her eyes, she mumbled sleepily "hopefully we could meet them soon".
Tristan hummed "hopefully".
A/N :
Okay, sorry if this is not what you expected but we will have Meliodas and Elizabeth next chapter.
Surprise, for someone who asked me before in my another story 'The White Enchantress' (sorry, I forgot who), will I show Nel Hativa a.k.a Neiva in my another story, yes, I do! We even have her with Gelda (because I want to, hahaha). Also, just so we're clear, Faust passed away when she gave birth her daughters but she was reborn as Nel Hativa a.k.a Neiva. More about them all will be explained next chapter. See you later~