Chapter 17: The Lumen Sage
The study resembled more of a religious chapel. There were rows and rows of pegs for people circling the elevated desk at the bottom of the stairs. At the center lied a small desk upon a red carpet with gold accents. The desk appeared completely normal, whereas the wall behind the desk was its own piece of art. The wall was shinning gold in between each layer of disks and on the disks were symbols of a foreign language and banners with the same symbols hanging from the disks.
The detail of the room astounded the mind of one witch and were it not for the sound of his voice, she would have remained standing at the entrance.
"What follows those living in the light is nothing but the profound, empty darkness born from the shadow that grows longer as they approach the brilliant radiance. To truly see, your eyes must be open to both light and dark. Don't you agree, my dear child?" Balder applied red lipstick to Cereza's lips.
His voice echoed throughout the room instead of directly connecting to his daughter's mind. This sermon would enlighten his confused child and bring her back to the right side.
Cerezo made his way to Balder's desk, standing opposite to Sigyn, who was holding Little Cerezo and watching the reactions of Bayonetta. Expectantly, his son motioned for his sister to join them, but she shook her head, remaining at a distance.
"Mummy's here! Mummy's here! Mummy! Cerezo wake up! Mummy's here!" Cereza wiggled excitedly in his lap.
Amazingly, her brother remained deeply asleep in his aunt's warm embrace.
"Cereza, let your brother sleep, he's had a long day." Sigyn gently shushed. She sat back down, pouting at the chastisement.
"Little one…" Bayonetta whispered to herself.
The truth of the situation left his daughter unsure of everything around her. What she once believed had been destroyed and was being filled with a new reality.
"You've arrived…my dear, sweet Cereza. Right alongside your brother, just as I'd hoped." He sighed wistfully. "My, my…why the grim face, my dear? As a child, your smile was warmer than the sun and it was never brighter than when you were with your family."
Balder was still turned away from Bayonetta, but he could see her lovely reflection from the mural on the wall. It disappointed him that she choose to remain defensive and secluded at the edge of his study. Though that was to be expected with her lack of memories.
"So you are the last of the Lumen Sages?" She spoke at last.
"I am indeed, but your brother and Sigyn shall carry on the legacy." Balder finished combing Cereza's hair back into place and turned his chair around to finally gaze upon his long-lost daughter in person. "My name is Balder. But if you so choose, you may address me as Father."
For a moment all he saw was Rosa standing before him. Just like her mother, Bayonetta stood her ground, glaring defiantly at him.
The sight pained him.
Over twenty years of raising and nurturing her and she stared at him as if he was stranger. In this situation he was a complete stranger to her. Bayonetta did not know him, did not trust him, did not care for him...
Balder glanced over at his son to see his reaction and saw the same pain he was feeling swimming in his son's eyes. The older sage leaned down kissing Cereza's head as she yawned. He ignored the pain of his child's rejection.
"There is much you have forgotten-It has been five-hundred years since we last met. If your memories were still intact, this would have been a much more emotional reconciliation."
"Yes, I wish I could have helped you remember more. Alas, memories are a tricky form of magic, tamper too much with them…and they'll shatter…at least you remember me, for the most part." Cerezo leaned on the desk, wiping his glasses off with a dejected frown.
"Little brother." Bayonetta gave him a doleful expression and turned back to face Balder. "How did you get the girl and boy?"
The earlier expression of melancholy was gone and replaced with hostility.
"Where shall I begin?" Balder ignored her tone, rising out of his chair with Cereza and paced around the study.
"We, the Lumen Sages, and your Umbra Witches, have long been the overseers of history each bearing witness with their own eye. This is how our universe's…" Balder stopped pacing to give a demonstration. Standing in front of his orrery, he let a trickle of his magic move the miniature planets that represented the Trinities. "Existence was preserved."
Balder continued the pacing.
"However, for five-hundred years, you have been exiled from the world's affairs." he stopped once more to cease the movement of the orrery. Once it stopped he faced Bayonetta again. "You are the Left Eye of the Eyes of the World."
"Could you dispense with the riddles and just tell me what these sodding Eyes actually are?!" Bayonetta was starting to get highly agitated and wouldn't stop tapping her foot.
"Sister, there is no need for you to be disrespectful to our father!" Cerezo mildly admonished his sister.
"And I don't need to hear about your daddy worship!" She retorted.
"My goodness, even in adulthood the bickering doesn't stop." Sigyn sighed, occupying Balder's previous seat. Cerezo and Bayonetta both glared at her.
Sigyn was careful not to jostle little Cerezo too much as she settled in the chair. While his son was a deep sleeper once he was abruptly awoken a sleepy tantrum was sure to follow.
Before Cerezo could reply to either woman, Balder approached his son, placing a firm hand on his shoulder to quell the petty comments swirling in his head.
"Your years of slumber have caused you to forget many things, even as we stand on the verge of the resurrection of the Creator…the resurrection of Jubileus."
Seeing that Cerezo had effectively calmed down, Balder glided over to the pink tree he kept in his office. The tree had sprouted from a seed his son had given him a long time ago. Like himself, the tree had aged over the years and finally bloomed.
Balder searched for flower branches for his children.
"There is but one way to return your epoch of forgotten memories and open your eye of the overseer. Your uncorrupted eye had to be exposed to the history it could not see." He found two branches that hadn't yet bloomed.
The branch was plucked and using magic caused it to boom. The older sage placed the branch of flowers in Cereza's hair.
His sweet daughter had fallen asleep.
"Your battles…your struggles…everything you've experienced in this town has been a stepping stone to your enlightenment. It has all been done for the Left Eye." Balder leaned down, placing the other branch in Cerezo's upper pocket.
Balder couldn't fathom why Rosa had sewn pockets on a nightgown.
"I've had enough of your philosophical pretensions. I won't ask again. Where did you get the girl and her brother?" In her anger Bayonetta pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.
Or that's what she intended, but Cerezo blocked interfered by standing below the barrel of the gun. She was shocked to suddenly see him so close.
"You're really going to point a gun at our father? Are you going to shoot him as well, or me for that matter, sister?" Cerezo coldly stared at his sister, clenching and unclenching his hands.
"Now, now. There is no need for that my dear, sweet children…your question has been answered. All this has been done to awaken the Left Eye. For that you had to see yourself once more."
"You are truly beyond salvation, Sage." Bayonetta lowered the gun from her brother's forehead.
Suddenly it felt as though a fever had overcome him. Balder could could feel that wretch creeping to the forefront of his mind and twisting his thoughts.
"Ahh…salvation. Such a curious word. I marked the path to salvation with light. However, no matter how brilliant that light grows, the darkness within the human heart grows even darker. Light, Dark, and Chaos between…three realities once split shall be brought together to create a new universe in the image of the of the old. To these ends, leading to the Festival of Resurrection five-hundred years ago, I fanned the flames of terror, spurring on the witch hunts. However, despite the people's relief in the return of Jubileus, the Creator, the Left Eye was out of reach. Since then, I have devoted myself to this town's prosperity. And now it is time for my preparations to bear fruit. Jubileus will be resurrected, we will become the Eyes of the World, and a new universe will take hold!"
"I could never call the man behind this nightmare, Father!" Bayonetta vehemently shook her head.
What he was saying was ludicrous, but Balder couldn't discern it as anything but the absolute truth with that terrible voice intermingling with his thoughts. The Creator was the answer to his problems...wasn't she?
"What do you mean…this is the dream of every being with even a tiny fragment of light in them. It has been foretold centuries ago that Jubileus would arise and bring light to this world. Sister, wouldn't it be wonderful if this whole world was like Paradiso? There would be no need for Chaos or even Inferno. Isn't it time that the scales were tipped in our favor?" Cerezo held Bayonetta's hands, fervently trying to make her see reason.
"Well, I'm not a being of light and I could never live in such a stagnant world." She slid her hands out of his.
"Yes you are. Deny it all you want, but you are just like me…a half-breed between light and darkness." Cerezo stepped down from his place, returning to Balder's side.
The sound of clapping cut through the tense atmosphere.
"Great speech, big guy. And I knew I would be seeing you again, Angel. I just didn't think it would be in this setting. Talk about irony." From a dark corner in the room emerged Luka Redgrave in all his arrogant glory.
He blew kisses to Bayonetta and Sigyn.
"Luka." Bayonetta wasn't all that surprised to see him.
Young Luka had a knack for showing up where the important events took place.
"Ugh, you're still here, boy? I had hoped that when I sealed you out, you would have left or stayed downstairs. But I should have guessed you'd keep sticking your nose in business you have no place in." Cerezo scowl tiredly at the human.
Luka in return blew another kiss to Cerezo, who scowled even more at the jokester.
"Getting a bit ahead of ourselves, aren't we Mr. Big-Shot-Ithavoll-Executive? Salvation, light…you take this entrepreneurial philosophy a bit seriously, don't ya? But its all diarrhea of the mouth, if you ask me. History is littered with famous genocidal figures just like you…or should I say infamous genocidal figures." Luka idly walked around admiring the art in the room, ignoring the high levels of danger permeating the air.
"You must be Luka, journalist extraordinaire. I must say, I'm truly impressed you've made it this far, child. Like father like son, I suppose." If Balder seemed annoyed by Luka's presence he didn't let it show on his face.
"What? How do you know about me?" Luka was petrified.
"I'm afraid that is because of me, Luka. Your father truly was quite the journalist and I often utilized his skills,but then he started investigating matters that he shouldn't have… Unfortunately for Antonio, his curiosity got the better of him..." Sigyn stroked Little Cerezo's head in order to comfort herself as she spoke to Luka. "I suppose his death is more my fault than anything. Giving a man the fruit of forbidden knowledge always has bad endings. And for that I am truly sorry about what had to be done to him."
Her own sins weighed heavily on Sigyn's heart, but soon she would be able to correct the mistakes of the past. She just needed the strength to do what was necessary.
"Luka, Luka, Luka…your father had problems with my philosophies. It's fine to investigate, but when malicious rumors start to spread, I must see to it they come to a stop. For being kind enough to ascertain that my long-lost Cereza was at the bottom of some lake, I granted him his final wish and accepted his permanent resignation." Balder provided the final answers to Luka's long sought questions.
"You bastard!" Luka shouted and ran at Balder.
He was stopped and suspended in the air by a group of Affinities. Luka struggled to free himself from the blurry enemies he could barely see. The imprisoned man began breathly deeply as a panicked expression overtook his face.
Young Luka must have been reliving the day his father was killed.
A part of Balder screeched in disgust at the scene while the vile part of him screeched in glee.
"It was these things that did it." Luka shakily whispering to himself as he looked upon the affinities.
The trauma and exposure must have been improving his mortal eyes.
"Balder! Don't do this to him…think of Cereza!" Sigyn stood from the desk, begging him for mercy.
"I think not, Sigyn. He knows far too much and is a danger to himself and us." As Balder prepared to snap his fingers, his sister reached out to stop him. Cerezo caught his aunt, forcing her to watch the older sage order the angels to kill the boy. "Luka is of no use to me; however, I am not without dignity. I will allow you to die in the same manner as your father."
Before the angels could tear Luka apart, Bayonetta shot all of them with her guns and raced forward. The journalist fell through the air and was caught midair by a force of crackling magic. As Balder swung his arm, Luka was thrown towards the window.
"Luka!" Bayonetta and Sigyn screamed.
In a vain attempt to save the journalist, his daughter jumped after him, but only managed touch Luka's fingertips as he went plummeting out the window. Bayonetta collasped onto the ground with her arm still reaching out.
She had lost someone else important because of him.
"Well, I guess my plan has gone right out the window." The terrible joke escaped before he could stop himself. Balder chuckled morosely.
The festering wretch residing inside him had truly corrupted his mind for Balder to joke about that boy's demise.
"You have terrible humor, Father." Cerezo said dryly, letting Sigyn go.
Balder rewarded his son's comment with a mindful slap to head. The hit knocked Cerezo's glasses off, but he caught them before they could hit the ground.
It frustrated Balder to no end that he couldn't differentiate his thoughts from the parasite anymore.
"Such a shame that sacrifice had to be made. But if destiny is not fulfilled soon, this tragedy will be repeated ad nauseam. Speaking of tragedy, I suppose you've met Jeanne? While she sealed you away and kept you from trouble, after falling into our hands she's been incredibly useful. Although her distinct lack of obedience required a bit of mental…reprogramming. Her tragic end led you directly to me, just as planned." Balder made his way to the top of the stairs, hovering behind his daughter. "The time for awakening the Left Eye is soon. Fear not, my dear, sweet, Cereza."
Bayonetta stood up and whipped around, shooting at him. It appeared she didn't want to hear anything else from Balder. The look in her eye was of pure hatred.
She hated him...
Balder faltered for only a moment, allowing his daughter to shoot at him.
Time stopped.
The bullets hovered inches from Balder's face. He simply grabbed them and moving faster than the eye could see, the older sage rearranged the bullets to fly off to the side of Bayonetta's head. A flick of the wrist and time was restored.
Bayonetta was too distracted by the rounds hurtling passed her head to avoid Balder seizing her around the neck.
"That's it, Cereza. Do not fear your fate. Stand tall, my child. Realize your true potential!" The older sage tossed his daughter.
She could hate him all she wanted as long as she realized her destiny. He could no longer hold off the wretched parasite anymore.
Cerezo and Sigyn were prevented from helping Bayonetta due to the light and dark magic sizzling around her. Balder had forced open the dormant magic he'd passed on to her.
"Cereza, we are one, my child." Balder held Cereza high in his arms as if he were baptizing her.
The overwhelming magic coming from the two distorted everything in the study.
"What is going on?! This isn't like Balder's magic at all!" Sigyn was forced to hold onto both Cerezos to prevent them from being blown away from the force of magic exerting throughout the room.
Cereza was absorbed into Balder's body, magnifying his power. The overload of power covered everything in a bright blue explosion of light.
The Lumen Sage: Father Balder
Dance with your Father
"Ah!" Bayonetta landed on a falling ramp.
As for Cerezo, he was flying with his own wings and using a barrier to protect his younger self. Sigyn was floating using the peacock feathers in her hair as makeshift wings. Those two would stay out of the fight and witness a grand new beginning.
The amount of power he was feeling was incredible. No amount of training on his part could ever amount to this.
His dear, sweet, Cereza had so much potential. Even at this age her magic exceeded the levels of most the sages he knew. Imagine if he had his son too, Balder would be unstoppable.
"Now it is time! Awaken the Eyes!"
The madness of the voice in his head was ringing louder than ever before. It too knew that the culmination of their plans was reaching its zenith.
Balder spread the peacock wings attached to his back and soared down after Bayonetta. In the dark of the night he appeared as a luminous, golden angel and felt the eyes of all the angels in Paradiso on him. The older sage could hear them as well. They were all singing a beautiful song in reverence to him.
As Balder reached Bayonetta, he knocked her to the ground. She sprung back up and repeatedly swung a sword at him. The swings were countered his own blade made of heat. This continued with the two of them matching the other's strike and leaving small gashes on the other.
Gliding past one of her attacks, Balder snapped his fingers and summoned a column of fire beneath his daughter's feet. She managed to dodge at the last second and knock him back with a kick to his stomach. As he was reeling from her kick, she summoned one of her vile demons.
A dragon's head descended on the older sage and swallowed him into its black mouth. Inside, Balder formed a barrier that bounced from the creature's attempts to consume him. He slipped out of the barrier and savagely broke the creature's jaw. The head lobbed off to the side and faded back to Inferno.
It was going to take more than a simple demon summoning to defeat him.
Balder summoned a rain of flaming meteorites to keep Bayonetta occupied. Switching from her sword to a pair of claws, she slashed the meteorites right back to their point of origin. The few that made it towards Balder, he batted out the way like flies.
It seemed the tactic was just a distraction for her to get a good slash in. Blood seeped out the wound.
Balder smirked and snapped his fingers again. From below a skyscraper hurtled towards them and hit the ramp they were standing on. The older sage floated above, making no move to dodge the panther version of his daughter. Another snap and the satellite orbiting above fired scorching lasers at Bayonetta.
She managed to dodge them all and summoned another demon. This time it was a long winding insect.
How Balder hated insects.
He summoned another larger barrier. However, this time the demon managed to break the barrier. The older sage sent a blasting wave of fire along the insect's body, effectively killing it and returning it to Inferno.
Taking a moment for himself, Balder took one of his feathers and brushing misplaced hair back into place.
That filthy thing almost touched him.
Finished with grooming the older sage blew on the feather, scattering it into tiny pieces. Balder then engaged Bayonetta in another series of sword strikes. She was starting to rapidly slow down. Avoiding a kick to the head, Balder snapped again and watched as the satellite plunged down onto his daughter.
Bayonetta collapsed and plummeted to the ground.
She couldn't be done. Was this the limit of her power?
Before he could think anymore Balder felt burning bands of fire wrap around his body. The bands held him in place, searing through his clothing. This wasn't dark magic, this was light.
It couldn't be.
She wouldn't betray him.
"Now, Cereza! Fire while you have a chance." Sigyn could't believe she was doing this.
All her life she loved her brother unconditionally because he was the only family she had left in the world. He raised her, he taught her everything she knew, he loved her as his younger sister. And yet, she betrayed him.
When Bayonetta fell from the impact, Sigyn hoped that she would get back up and continue the fight. The female sage didn't want to fight her brother.
That was naive of her.
Balder alone was powerful, but combined with Cereza's latent magic there was no way Bayonetta was going to win on her own.
Sigyn decided to take fate into her own hands. She pushed her magic to form a barrier around Cerezo and dived after Bayonetta.
She couldn't hold two powerful sages for long.
"Don't fuck with a witch!" Bayonetta yelled, preparing to fire at Balder as she pulled out a tub of lipstick from her chest and loaded it into the gun.
Sigyn saw the bullet head towards her brother in slow motion. Her tears, however were rapidly falling.
"May Jubileus, the Creator, grace you!" Balder's final words rang painfully in her ears.
"Father, Father, Father!" Cerezo screamed with all the capacity his lungs could handle as he ferociously pounded on the walls of the barrier Sigyn had trapped him in.
How could she do this?!
She was his aunt! She was Father's sister!
One final punch shattered the barrier and the sage wasted no time. He dived after his father in a shower of broken, gold, glass.
"Daddy, Daddy!" Cerezo managed to catch his father before he hit the ground. Together they both floated gently to the ground.
Father wouldn't move no matter how many times he called out to him. the man was even paler than before and Cerezo couldn't feel any magic from him.
"Dad! Daddy, no! You can't die, you're all I have of my family. Please don't leave me."
His glasses fogged up and he couldn't see anything. Cerezo yanked them off without a care, craddling his father's lifeless body. His cries and wails were pathetic, but he couldn't bring himself to care. All he could register was the splitting feeling of what was left of his heart being ripped out and shattered.
Hadn't he already lost enough over these years?!
Losing his father was pushing him over edge. cerezo had never even considered the possibility of the man dying, of him not being around.
"Wake up, Father! There's still so many things we have to do! Wake up…I still need you to help me with Freya…I need you to be there for her birth." His wails were becoming softer and his voice was breaking. He held on tighter, willing the man to wake.
"Cerezo…he's gone. There's nothing you can do." A hand squeezed his shoulder.
"DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME! YOU'RE THE REASON HE'S DEAD!" The sage violently slapped her hand off. Pulses of electricity crackled off him.
Sigyn was pushed back by the volatile magic and landed on the ground.
"Cerezo…I'm your Aunt." She had the gall to cry.
Neither of them would be feeling this broken if she hadn't betrayed them.
"You're no Aunt of mine, you're dead to me!"
She still tried to approach him. He summoned a rain of arrows and fired them at her feet without remorse.
"You truly do hate me now, don't you, Cerezo? You've never raised a hand to me before." She looked as broken as he felt, but he didn't care.
He'll never forgive her for this.
Bayonetta landed next to them with both their younger selves in her arms. A missile flew over them as well with Luka attached and he dropped down to join the circle.
What a fucking great reunion for them.
"I've got to give you credit, Bayonetta. You never cease to impress." Luka the little devil had managed to survive.
"You haven't seen the half of it." The witch tried to be her old cocky self, but it just didn't seem right anymore.
She killed her father.
From this moment on Bayonetta would never be same.
"Oh, I've seen enough…well that about wraps it up, huh?" Luka asked.
"Not yet."
The witch walked towards the portal that had fallen from the battle. It was time to return their younger selves to their rightful times.
Bayonetta would deal with her brother when she returned.
Her watch reacted to the portal and took the group back to her old room. The room she had spent so much time in as Cereza.
"Mummy…Daddy…" Cereza moaned in her sleep as Bayonetta placed her down next to Cerezo.
"No need to be afraid, little one. The nightmare is over. Everything was just a dream. You're a strong little girl. There is nothing you cannot overcome." She stroked Cereza's head, lulling her back to sleep.
"Mummy…did you find it? What you were looking for?"
"Yes, I found it. So don't you worry anymore. You just keep your treasure safe too."
Cereza started to fall back asleep. Bayonetta glanced to side and saw Cerezo staring at her.
"Mummy, will you give this back to Uncle? I have my own Mr. Rabbit and I don't want Uncle to be sad or lonely." He handed Bayonetta the rabbit her brother loaned to his younger self.
"Yes, I'll be sure to give it to him." She gingerly took the toy from him.
"Don't worry Mummy, whenever I feel sad or upset I just play with Mr. Rabbit and I feel all better."
"Is that so? Well, it's time for you to go back to sleep. And remember, always look out for your sister because she looks up to you."
"I will, Mummy. Could you sing for us, it helps Reza sleep?" He was already dosing off but the witch relented and sang for the two of them.
"Sleep well, little ones." Bayonetta took a deep breath and began singing the lullaby she held dear. "Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars. In other words, hold my hand. In other words, darling…"
As she finished the song the witch felt herself being transported back to her time.
The return was filled with an enormous pain in her chest. Bayonetta could feel her memories being rewritten.
"I'm not afraid anymore, Mummy. No matter what…there's nothing I cannot do." She muttered in a daze.
What had she done?
The memory of Jeanne stabbing her and the sealing fizzled into nothing. Instead, her friend never sealed her away. Bayonetta fought alongside Jeanne and the clan on that fateful day the angels attacked.
The pain was getting worse.
The Eye had awakened.
"Bayonetta! what's happening to you?" Luka tried to help her, but he was burned by the dark magic swirling around the witch.
"And now, it is done. The Right Eye oversees the light, the Left Eye oversees the darkness. Two Eyes to oversee the world." Balder appeared.
Wasn't he dead?!
The pain became too much and Bayonetta began to black out.
She couldn't feel or see anything, but she could hear her father's voice.
"It was never the woman known as Bayonetta that I set my sights upon. It was you as a child, Cereza, that I sought. For she was the one who saw the world through innocent eyes and she was the one who could give rise to a new history. It was her energy that could awaken the Left Eye. This has all worked out splendidly. Let us begin, Cereza. The time is at hand. Now the resurrection of Jubileus shall be completed. We are the Eyes, overseeing the world. We are the Eyes, overseeing a new era..a new reality…to which we will devote ourselves eternally. May Jubileus, the Creator, grace all of its creations!"
Elsewhere, the Bayonetta and Cerezo toys were taken away and the board vanished.