Author's note: I do not own anything from Bayonetta.

Chapter 8: The Lumen Sage (Part 2)

Noatun was definitely a place Luka could see himself going on holiday to. The city, despite being on the precipice of dusk and losing enough visibility for him to not be able to appreciate it all, was still beautiful. Clear skies and golden buildings made from limestone complimented the deep blue water that he could see off in the distance. The small glimpse of the beachside showed him white sand that definitely looked soft to the touch. Above them, leading from a tower in the distance, stood a broken bridge that presumably led up to the middle of the mountain. Shadows and light danced upon the stone and left trails of ancient wonder, similar to the Umbran Ruins on the outskirts of Vigrid.

Despite leaving Paradiso, it now felt he had actually stepped into paradise.

Hope muttered something unintelligible and Damien nodded. "I agree; it's very pretty. But we have to find Bayonetta and Jeanne. We can gawk at the city later, together."

"Yeah." Luka absently nodded. They were in a plaza that was surrounded by fountains and buildings. The man turned around to see a completely destroyed church behind the portal they had walked out from and chuckled. "Yep, she's definitely been here."

Another string of unknown dialect erupted from Hope and he turned to Damien with a hopeless expression. The Angel quickly recast their translation spell after a nudge from his friend and they apologetically grinned at him. "Our apologies. We did not realise the spell had worn off so quickly."

"Why does that have a time limit?" Damien asked.

"Why do you inherently know Enochian?" Luka fired back. The winged man opened his mouth, shut it and shook his head.

"Well, I don't know. I just do."

"What we were saying is that we expect this behaviour from the Arch Eve." Hope continued on, ignoring the two men. "All she leaves is a path of destruction. Although to be granted, most of the time it is not her fault."

They pointed at the walls of the church. "See that? Those were made by a sword. We believe that she fought an Angel in that church."

"Well, we guessed that much. Neither her or myself are exactly subtle when it comes to leaving clues behind for others to follow." Damien shrugged at the sight and walked towards another building on the opposite side. "At least it means we are on the right track."

There was little ambience in the twilight air, leaving the entire town in almost complete silence. It reminded him of the moments before Jeanne had attacked both himself and Bayonetta; tension was building, and Luka was not sure when it was going to break. A quick glance to his right told him the same story; Damien's fingers were clenched and ready to grab anything at a moment's notice.

Hope had not noticed, or had chosen to try and break the tension, and asked naively: "Was it ever resolved about who your family was?"

"No," Damien replied curtly. "And I don't really want to discuss theories and all that, so can we please drop it?"

Luka remembered spending hours upon hours of sleepless nights to try and match a 'Damien Luegray' to any known database; to both his horror and surprise, absolutely nothing had shown up. No one had known why. Jeanne proposed that Balder had swept his tracks clean behind him, but Luka argued back that an entire bloodline just doesn't disappear without something being left to find. They had found something relating to a Luegray family being annihilated, but none of the members had children that would fit Damien's age bracket.

If only they had known his age. Damien looked like a twenty-year old, acted like an eighteen and could've been anywhere in the age bracket of hundreds of years. Jeanne had confided that she remembered how her possessed-self had kidnapped the man, but not when. Her memories from that period were… unreliable at best.

Khepri and Rodin had not been helpful. Hell, they had been completely silent when questioned about his heritage. Luka was tempted to call it suspicious behaviour, but it wasn't necessarily different to anything else they had done previously in regards to literally anything else.

"We are sorry to hear that. We thought that since you now have a name, your identity could be found." Hope bowed their head apologetically.

The winged man sighed and shook his. "There's not much we can do when my family and myself were scrubbed from the history books."

And that's if they even existed.

The unspoken comment echoed clearly through his mind and Luka turned away. A theory he did have was that Damien was simply created, as opposed to constructed. His evidence was the Homunculi creations of Sigurd, but to all reports and anecdotes he had heard the 'Blood Moon' project had started after 'Eclipse' had been put on hold temporarily with Damien's success. So what if Sigurd had simply built, from the ground up, Balder a Child of light and dark instead of converting a mortal into one?

A piercing shriek filled the air, followed by a chorus of roars, and all irrelevant thoughts left his mind instantly. The trio turned and looked up to see three gigantic serpentine Angels hurtling through the air, swiping wildly at a tiny dot against the night's sky. A fourth creature, this one identifiable as a four-winged Demon, grappled at the one on the right, swinging it out of alignment with its brethren.

"Bayonetta!?" Luka barely registered the scream before a blur bolted past him, pushing Hope and himself aside. Damien sprinted and stopped at the entrance to the plaza, looking up with a staff and his katana in hand. "That's her!"

"Who else could it be!?" He called out after him, gesturing to Hope to catch up. They nodded and sprinted after their companion. Stopping beside him, Luka's eyes strained against the darkness to try and make out the Umbra Witch. "Can you see her?"

"Not really, but it's her. There's no one else like her; her presence is unmistakable." Damien's eyes were glowing a brilliant gold, illuminating the immediate area around his face. He let go of the katana and it disappeared in a flash of red fire. "I have to help her!"

"How!? If you haven't noticed, she's up there and you are down here!"

"Can you fly?" Hope asked, summoning their weapon and transforming it into a long gun. "We are not sure of the range of this and we do not possess the power of flight."

"I can't fly." Luka began to open his mouth to object and he was quick to remain silent from the glare Damien sent his way. It quickly softened and the winged man held up his staff. "But I think I have a better idea. You all might want to step back."

He shared a worried glance with Hope, who returned it with a shrug. "If he says he has a plan, then we should be inclined to let him try it."

Well, what did they really have to lose? Damien had pulled off some impressive feats with magic before; dealing with two Angels was a little easier than destroying almost the entire flight of Paradiso in one meteor. Luka nodded in agreement and slowly began to back away. The Joy joined him and folded their arms, waiting patiently for the proverbial fireworks to start.

Damien started by pulling the staff close to his chest, then thrust it into the air. The crystal at the tip glowed a calming blue and a sigil formed beneath him, resembling a stylised version of the Umbran symbol. Seemingly satisfied, the man turned his attention to the group and took aim. Drawing the staff back, he paused for a hesitant second, re-aimed and thrust it forward with a grunt of exertion.

A brilliant blue beam burst from the tip of the staff, hurtling forward like the tributaries of the Death Star from Star Wars. It crackled with potential, hummed with raw power and Luka knew instantly that almost nothing he had ever seen compared to this. The closest comparison was the aforementioned meteor that Damien had also cast.

"My word…" Hope whispered.

The beam continued in its trajectory, unimpeded by any building or obstacle that lay in its way. They both watched with trepidation as it approached the Angels, both holding their breath and hoping it would be as effective as it looked.

It blasted straight through the closest Angel, ripping through its chest and everything else. A roar of pain and surprise echoed through the air, dwindling down when the Angel faltered and fell from the sky. The beam continued to melt apart the falling body, only stopping when Damien collapsed and halted his spell. Hope disappeared in a flash and reappeared under his shoulder, preventing the man from harming himself with his own momentum.

"What the hell was that!?" Luka ran forward and knelt beside him once the glowing sigil had faded. "You can do that!?"

"That… That was Comet Azur. The strongest of the primeval sorceries. Only three people have been able to successfully cast this spell more than once," Damien spluttered, gulping in huge mouthfuls of air between sentences. "Myself, another student and the Full-Moon Queen are the only ones."

"That's a spell only three people know!?" he exclaimed, giving the man a look over. "What other unique tricks do you have?"

"Besides that one? Only the ones you've seen me use." The man coughed and wiped away a small trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. "They didn't want to teach me too many tricks. But, I knew it would reach and work as intended."

"What happened to the others who could not?" Hope asked.

"They became giant rocks."

Luka blinked, but a roar interrupted him before he could question that.

"DESTROY HIM!"

The words rattled through his skull painfully and he gripped his head tightly in an effort to subside it. The ringing stopped after an agonizing five seconds and he opened his eyes to see one of the serpentine Angels breaking away and heading directly for them.

"Uhh… There's no chance you have another one of those in you?" Luka stared with dread.

"We can fight too, you know!" Hope indignantly called out, placing a hand upon their chest. "We do not need to rely on the Ascendant One for everything."

The Joy stood up and the gun transformed into a scythe. They twirled it around in their hands and pointed it at the approaching Laguna. "A blow against the forces of the Prophet is always a blow worth taking!"

"Here you are. Wilful traitor to the glory of Paradiso and the Prophet." It let loose an animalistic snarl, opening its massive mouth to hiss each word with undisguised hate. "We will take great pleasure in destroying-"

Its attention then swapped to both himself and the recovering man next to him. "You!? You are supposed to be-"

"Yes, I'm supposed to be dead, yada yada." Damien rolled his eyes and managed to drag himself to a standing position. Luka rose with him, ready to catch him if he decided to fall. "I'm not and I don't plan on dying anytime soon."

"We will fix this error with haste." Energy began to draw into its mouth, forming a blue and white fog. "We, Glamor, will fix everything to the Prophet's designs!"

Hope leaped up and spun their scythe over their head like a buzzsaw. Glamor fired off several chunks of sharpened icicles, but each was batted away with a smooth slice of the weapon. The Joy warped onto the hood of the Angel and struck down with the point of scythe. To both his and their own surprise, it bounced off with an audible 'clink!'

"We were designed to be better than you. Have you forgotten your worth in a battle with us?" It laughed, twisting its body and throwing Hope off. Damien yelled out something and teleported, reappearing with the Angel in his arms. He awkwardly dropped them down and his katana snapped into existence.

"Well, are you designed to deal with me?" the winged man growled, pointing his weapon at it.

"You are weak. Whatever you did to our siblings will be aven-"

The strangest object Luka had ever seen collided with the head of the Glamor like a bullet. It began kicking at the eyes; each one found its mark and drew pained grunts from the Angel.

And what was fighting the Glamor? A pair of legs.

"What the fuck?" Damien voiced what he was thinking and Luka could not agree more with his choice of words.

Hope did not voice any surprise, and instead teleported back to the Angel. The scythe transformed into a gigantic hammer and they swung it down at the armoured skull. It struck true and caved the golden armour in.

Glamor shrieked in pain and tried to shake both off with a desperate twirl. The legs just jumped and flapped their wings to stay afloat, whereas Hope teleported about thirty feet above the Angel and fell down back with another slam right back onto the head.

Damien twirled the staff in his left hand and thrust it forward. A blue projectile fired from the crystal and impacted into the open mouth. It staggered the Angel backwards, opening the mouth further. The legs took advantage of this opening and thrust forward with a wicked stomp flying into the jaw. It snapped off and a guttural sound of primal agony exploded from its mouth.

Slowly, but surely, the Angel began to fall. Hope raised the hammer up once more and slammed a final time down. The golden armour shattered and Luka could see it protruding out of the bottom of its throat. A clunking sound thunked through the air, and then the head fell from off with the sounds of metal tearing echoing everywhere.

Damien lowered his arm, the weapons in them disappearing when the Angel's corpse impacted on the water beneath. Hope reappeared next to him and tossed her weapon away in a flash of light. Luka quickly walked up until he was beside the pair, and they all looked with confusion and amazement at the newcomer.

The legs comically expanded and rushed down Damien. They collided and their momentum rolled them both back into a bundle of limbs and leg. They ended with the legs straddling the winged man with a tight, vice-like grip.

"Woah!" Luka exclaimed, running over to the pair? One and a half? "Who or what-"

The legs jumped from Damien and latched onto him with an excited buzz. He stumbled and collapsed with a surprised yelp, but unlike his friend Luka managed to keep his tumble to just him falling flat on his backside.

"Hey! Get off!" He tried to push the legs from him, but they somehow held on tighter. Luka's hands raised hesitantly, as he was completely unsure of where to put them without touching something inappropriate. Damien had no qualms, grabbing the legs by the waist and dragging them off.

"Alright, what the fuck are you?" He held them up and gave them a flat look. "I've never seen someone split their legs from their body, or just exist as a pair of legs. Are you an Angel or Demon?"

The legs somehow managed to mimic shaking their head and Luka sat up with narrowed eyes. The legs had used wicked weaves, which was something only…

Wait.

"Bayonetta?" He tentatively asked and the legs 'nodded' as best as they could. Damien dropped them and they landed in a slight crouch. The legs walked over to him and pointed with a knee, nodding again. They turned to Hope and bowed slightly, then back to Damien and jumped with excitement. The winged man frowned slightly, then his eyes widened with recognition.

"How are you just a pair of legs!?"

The legs shrugged, then turned back to the main battle that was raging above them. Except now it was on top of a dilapidated and broken bridge that spanned from the city up and into the mountain; a Glamor crashed onto a section nearby. The legs jumped into the air and flew towards it.

"That's where she is! We gotta help her!" Damien yelled out, sprinting after them. Hope shrugged, then joined him without any hesitation. Luka rolled his eyes and climbed back to his feet.

Of course they would just run off and leave him behind. But then again, what did he expect? All he was good for was running around like an idiot and getting in everyone's way.

"SUNDENNA!"

Luka returned his attention to the prone Angel and watched as what looked like a Demon Unicorn appeared from a red portal from Inferno. It whinnied and roared into the sky with a red blade in place of a horn. The sight did fill him with terror, but at the same time it was a huge relief.

Throwing his wrist out, Luka aimed his zipwire for a higher vantage point and flew through the air after it.

Bayonetta was here and she was excited to see him. Albeit as a pair of legs (and that was something he wanted to talk to her and learn; it was a very neat trick) and probably not at her full mental capabilities, but she was excited.

Damien didn't doubt that, but he was waiting for that excitement to fade and the realisation to set in. There was no way she knew of what happened to him in Red Grave, but he had been missing for too long. Did she blame him? Most likely.

'Oh, stop it.'

"Do you have a plan to help her?" Hope questioned once they caught up to him, dragging him out of his mind. "It looks like she has everything well under control."

"I have to try. At least it looks like I'm not fucking around and doing nothing while she does all the work!" Damien answered, turning past a corner and finding some satisfaction from not catching his wing on anything. "

"We do not believe she will think like that. You provided a distraction to help with that Angel and were incapacitated for the rest of the time." The Angel implored with a gesture. "And she also would recognise you were not present to be able to act."

"She doesn't know that."

"Her legs were very excited to see you."

Damien halted next to a sweet shop and shook his head. "That was just a first impression sort of thing. If she actually thought about it, she would be annoyed at the minimum."

Hope slowed down and folded their arms. Their mouth curved downwards with disappointment and they shook their head. "Why are you so negative about her reaction to you?"

"Because my sister's patience can only stretch so far. I've been missing for a month-" Something or someone flickered at the edge of his senses. His words died out as he tried to concentrate on whatever it was.

Just like Cereza was half a year previously, it was so tantalizingly and frustratingly familiar. He knew this person and yet he could not place who it was. For some strange reason it reminded him of Bayonetta, but her presence shined brilliantly and was the beacon he was running towards. The second was a scant scent that slipped through his fingers like sand.

"Hope?" He threw the question out and the Angel nodded.

"We can sense it too." The Joy's eyeless gaze met his own and he could sense the concern in it. "This is not a good sign."

"What do you think? Or rather, what are you sensing?"

"A Lumen Sage."

Damien felt his body go cold in a split second. His first thoughts rushed to that Balder had survived and was now coming back to attain his revenge. No one knew with absolute certainty that the Sage had actually died from falling from the heavens.

If the Sage could survive that-

"But we believe it is not Balder." Hope continued, their words a little faster than before in an obvious attempt to calm him down. "We do believe that he is here to avenge his fallen brother."

Khepri!?

'This should be fine.' Khepri appeared in his mind's eye, a finger tapping on her chin and her brow slightly creased. 'From what I've seen, this specific scenario is good.'

A Sage hunting us is a good thing!?

'…' Khepri then unexpectedly shrugged. 'Maybe?'

Unbelievable.

"So what has Cerezita got herself into now?"

Luka peered over the rooftops to a peculiar sight; Bayonetta was walking and talking to a small boy in an orange and yellow outfit. And it wasn't like the few moments with Cereza where she despised the girl.

She was laughing and poking fun at them, as if they were an old friend. A small spike of jealousy passed through him, but he quickly dismissed it. He didn't know what had happened between them and for all he actually knew, they could have been.

Following them along atop the buildings, he crawled and kept his posture down. Luka figured that there wasn't much point in revealing himself now. If anything, he wanted to ease her into the idea that he was around; as far as she knew, he was still safe and sound back home.

Luka could already hear her scolding and chuckled to himself.

"What do you mean!? Do I have to mother you constantly even though there is no fucking reason for you to be here!? Can you recall what I said to you when we met? Curiosity killed the cat. Can you guess what I'm going to say, Cheshire? I don't want you to fucking die! So stay put!"

He did agree with the mental Bayonetta; there was no real reason for him to be here. Hell, the only reason he was here was because Damien was a moron and didn't know when to stop. Speaking of stopping, Bayonetta and her new friend had halted completely and she was now scanning the rooftops.

Shit.

Luka practically dove to get behind a chimney and prayed to whatever deity was listening that she did not see him.

'Luka?'

He barely caught his yell of surprise and managed to keep it at a yelp. For fucks sake stop doing that! Give me some warning next time.

Damien did not react as he normally would. His tone was grim and the words lacked any form of humour. 'You know it doesn't work like that. We also have a problem.'

A problem? In what way was there a problem that was putting him on edge, of all people? Luka knew Damien wasn't arrogant, per se, but the man had a lot of confidence that was reinforced by his abilities and powers.

'Both Hope and myself have sensed a Lumen Sage.'

Oh. Shit.

Luka's eyes instantly darted towards the rooftops and surveyed them in a panic. No immediate flashes of white or gold took his attention, but that certainly did not mean that the Lumen Sage did not exist.

Where!?

'I don't know. All I can tell is that someone is here and isn't friendly.'

A thought came to him and he instantly relayed it to Damien. Is it Balder!?

The reply came without hesitation. 'Hope believes it isn't. But be careful. You are a known ally and associate of my sister, and we both believe they are hunting her.'

Damien did not need to elaborate. Luka maintained his crouch and tried to stay well out of sight.

Bayonetta was right; he should not have come.

Damien heard them before he saw anything, which he expected.

The sounds of bullets and clangs of metal on metal rang through the air, along with the tell-tale roar of Infernals and Lagunan. He recognised the Angel as Fortitudo, and that drew a frown from him.

"Shouldn't Fortitudo be on our side?" he muttered under his breath, moving to a sprint when the street opened up into a long hallway.

"Fortitudo is bound to whatever contract they formed with the Sage." Hope's translation spell had evidently worn off again, but it did not hinder their explanation. "The bond between contracted and contractee is unshakeable, between both time and space."

That he already knew. Madama Khepri had remained his patron when he travelled to other worlds, regardless of the fact she wasn't obligated to.

Why is that? he asked, curiosity getting the better of him briefly.

'Inferno and Paradiso connect everywhere,' Khepri answered. 'The other worlds either ignore them and we do the same in return, or they interpret us in a way that suits them. Do you remember the Daedra? They're somewhere here. Well, there now.'

Huh. That explained a lot.

'It's essentially the same for time displacem- I shouldn't say that.' The Madama shook her head in his mind's eye. 'I guess the cat is out of the bag now, then.'

He wasn't going to correct her, but Hope had essentially told him already. Is this the Prophet's doing?

'Presumably. It's definitely in their ability to do so.'

"ARGEDCO!"

Bayonetta's voice cried out, breaking his internal conversation and dragging him back to reality. This was different to the one she had used before, and yet again he did not recognise it.

Can you see them yet? Damien reached out to Luka, trying to use whatever he could to his advantage.

'I can.'

The words both chilled and sent a rush of excitement through him. Well?

'It's a Sage, alright. They look like what Balder did, but with less opulence.'

A warrior, then. The Umbra had roles within the clan, and it made logical sense that the Lumen followed suit. According to some texts from Antonio and Jeanne's own recollection, every member of the clan was trained for battle. Those who made it a speciality, like Bayonetta and Jeanne had in their path of learning, were a force to be reckoned with.

'But Bayonetta seems to be holding her own,' Luka continued with a chuckle. 'You can probably imagine what she is doing.'

Where is she?

'Other side of the bridge. If you find a big tower with a red roof, I'm next to that, and they're in the plaza beneath me.'

They were near one of the underpasses that lead to the other half of the city. Motioning at Hope to follow, Damien changed course and the pair crossed to the other side.

The tower with the red roof wasn't far; he could clearly see it about two streets away. He pointed at it and turned to the Angel beside him. "There!"

"What's so special about the tower?" They tilted their head, but continued to follow him without too much disagreement.

"Luka's near it and so is Bayonetta. That's where we gotta go!"

Hope nodded. "What are we waiting for?"

'Damien!'

Luka watched with terror when the Lumen Sage broke through Bayonetta's guard with ease and knocked her down with one slice. From his perch, he could see the thin red trail spanning her thigh and the shocked expression on her face.

So he did the only thing he could do; he contacted Damien.

'What!?'

He got her! What do I do!?

A string of expletives and curses erupted from his friend. 'Where are you in relation to them?'

I'm above them, relatively.

'Can you distract him for about a minute?'

How the hell could he distract them for a minute? He was Luka! He wasn't a warrior, a fighter or even had a weapon that could grab the attention of the Sage.

'I'll be there as soon as I fucking can. Just be bait for as long as you can be!'

Luka swallowed and gritted his teeth. Bayonetta was counting on him to try something, and so was Damien. Jumping down to the plaza floor, he threw himself forward in a roll to arrest as much momentum as possible and looked up to see the Sage raising his twin-bladed weapon above his head. The sleeve of the Lumen drooped slightly and revealed the slightest trace of pale-white flesh.

A weakness.

"Hey! Asshole!" Thrusting his arm out, Luka released his zipwire and prayed that his aim was perfect.

It was. The barbed hook pierced straight through the wrist and the Sage grunted with pain. He turned to face him, twirling his weapon with his damaged arm and severing the wire connecting the hook to him.

Shit.

"Mortal." The Sage's voice was muffled from the mask, but it was very unsure and trepid. "Leave us. This does not concern you."

"This doesn't concern me? That's my friend you are about to kill, asshole!" Luka fired back, finding courage from the confusion and anger at the words of the Sage. Out of reflex he began to recoil the wire on his zipline, only for it to fall out instead of clicking back in. He didn't pay it any more attention than necessary and continued on: "That fucking concerns me!"

"Luka! Get out of here!" Bayonetta was staring at him with fury and her finger was pointing towards the exit of the plaza behind him. "Run before-"

"I'm not running, Bayonetta. This is our fight, not just yours." And as he said those words, he began to believe them. Yes, he might still be buying time for Damien, but Jeanne was his friend too. He gestured at himself with his thumb and then with his index finger at the Sage. "And this asshole ain't ruining anything yet!"

Her eyes met his and he tried to convey that he meant everything he said.

"I will warn you only once more," the Sage growled, drawing both of their attention back to him. "Do not make me bring harm to those I have sworn to protect-"

He would have laughed at those words, but this was a very slippery situation. The wrong action would claim his life in an instant, despite the reluctance of the enemy. "The last Sage I knew murdered millions, if not billions, of people. You aren't different, so don't claim to be."

Luka raised his fists and tried to recount how many seconds had passed. Had it been a minute? It had to have been a minute. The Sage answered by merely holding his right hand up and closing it into a fist. Fire burst around the fingers and Luka's stomach did a flip.

"Whatever lies the Witch has told you are nothing but falsehoods." He began to stalk towards him and Luka unconsciously took a step back.

"I've searched for the truth for twenty years," he fired back, his bravado fading fast. "A man who's afraid to show his face ain't going to be the one to tell me what's the truth and what's not!"

Damien!?

'I'm nearly there. Ten more seconds.'

He better be. Luka started counting down: Ten.

"Luka! Please!" Bayonetta cried out with desperation. She was pointing towards the exit again, this time emphasising it with her body. "Leave us! It's not safe!"

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

"Listen to your Witch for once, mortal. What are you planning to do if you wish to aid her?" the Sage asked, annoyance leaking into his words. "Be a pointless distraction that will not render her any assistance?"

Six.

Five.

Four.

"Well," Luka grinned and stepped backwards a little further. "It's a good thing I'm just the distraction."

Three.

Two.

One.

Damien arrived on the other exit, his staff gripped in one hand and Sharuba in the other. He saw the scene in front of him and didn't hesitate to heave the staff back and thrust it forward, a blue orb of magic flying from the end. The Sage, unfortunately, sensed it coming and acknowledge the projectile with a glance. He flipped out of the way, letting it impact on the ground with an explosion that erupted into a small cloud of blue dust.

The Sage kept his eyes on Damien and stayed in a low crouch, poised and ready to strike. "Just what… Who are you?"

His eyes were glowing brightly, and the glare that followed would have burned the Sage where he stood. "Hands off my sister."

Could Bayonetta believe what she was seeing? That her brother was standing there, looking like someone who had literally just thrown on whatever he could find, facing down the person who had temporarily bested her?

Yes. Yes, she could.

'He definitely looks out of place.' Butterfly commented. She did not care.

Damien was here. In the flesh. And there were absolutely no doubts about it.

"A brother?" The Sage slowly got back to his feet, keeping his gaze directed on him. "You are no Witch or Warlock. I repeat my earlier question; what are you?"

There were a slew of answers to that. Bayonetta was interested in his own.

"Me?" Damien tapped himself on the chest with the staff he held (just where and when did he get that?) and a blue sheen spread across his skin. "I'm the final legacy of Balder."

The Sage flinched hard, but the mask hid any reaction she could discern. His voice did not; "What could you possibly mean by that!?"

"Ask the children he tortured to death. I know you are currently out of time, Sage, but you might want to get yourself up to date." The staff disappeared and he pointed at the man with the Sharuba. "And stay away from us!"

The sound of clattering heels filled the brief silence while the Sage considered his words. Bayonetta glanced up to see Hope, of all beings, kneeling down.

"Ar- Bayonetta!" they exclaimed, their hands patting down and checking for any injuries. She managed to deflect most of their roaming limbs before they began prodding anything inappropriate.

"I'm fine!" she hissed. "How are you here?"

"Damien and Luka came to Paradiso for… We'll let them explain that, but we were requested to join them here." The Angel turned their attention to the stand-off. "It seems that the problem is worse than we initially believed."

'Paradiso must have been attacked as well,' Butterfly surmised. She had come to the same extrapolation and agreed with her patron.

The Prophet really did cover their bases, Bayonetta commented. I wonder what the situation is up there.

'No better than ours, I would say.'

"Your lies fall upon deaf ears, deceiver. If you are a sibling to the Umbra Witch then you will be clouded by her vision of the world." The Sage pointed at her with his free hand, but not his attention. "What more falsehoods could you possibly have? A Lumen Sage would dare not harm mortals, least of all children!"

"I was nothing more than a child when I was stolen. He turned me from a man into a monster," Damien's entire form flickered to show a very brief glimpse of the Demon within. "And you downplay it as a lie? I didn't even know about Bayonetta seven months ago!"

The Sage paused at that, opting to start circling instead of replying. Bayonetta took the time to take stock of the situation; Damien was circling with the Sage whilst Luka was standing off near the exit he had appeared from. Loki was nowhere to be seen, but considering she had not heard anything from the boy in recent memory she assumed that he was fine.

"Enough tripe. If you are-" the Sage glanced towards her, then back to Damien. His words died out and he slowly returned his gaze back to her, focussing on the Angel. "What in the blazes is this!?"

"Whoever you are, Sage, you must know you are allied with the wrong person." Hope stood up and a scythe formed in their hands. "We are assuming the Prophet has gotten his lies to you first."

"The Prophet told me the truth of everything that has transpired in the five hundred years I was missing, Joy." Each word was barbed with poison. "He has shown me what befell my family at the hands of the Umbra Witches; there is nothing any of you can do to tell me otherwise."

Bayonetta perked up with a frown at that statement. She didn't recall any Lumen family being torn apart by her clan, but at the same time she figured that every Lumen family was annihilated during the Clan Wars. It would be callous to dismiss the man's claim, but at the same time she had personally done nothing in the overall War itself. Both herself and Mummy were imprisoned during the events.

But at least she had the knowledge that this was a displaced Sage and not another one that survived.

"But this is not a time for debate," he pointed his twinblade at Damien. "Whatever you are, you stand in my path of revenge. Either move aside or share her fate."

'Stay with Hope.' His voice echoed in her mind for the first time in months. 'Let me deal with this.'

Bubby… She didn't really know what to say. So, she opted for the obvious. You're back.

He glanced at her with an apologetic grimace. 'I'm sorry for not being here earlier.'

Bayonetta could tell that there was more to his tale than simply being late. Damien would not simply sit by for a full week if he had known that Jeanne had died. But now was definitely not the time. You can tell me about it later. Much later.

The katana burst into flame and Damien's gaze hardened when it returned to the Sage. "Make me."

The Lumen Sage flickered forward with a dive, thrusting forward with a stiletto-esque manoeuvre. Her brother twisted his wrist and parried the strike by slamming the katana into the glaive. The Sage continued his assault by transitioning into a flurry of strikes, starting with a backswing from the unaffected half. Damien twirled back and deflected each with light swings of the katana, not letting anything touch him.

Bayonetta remembered the training sessions she had seen with Jeanne and him; despite the harshness her sister had exhibited, they were paying off tremendously.

Damien backflipped over a low swing and held his hand out. The twinblade halted and was nearly ripped from the hands of the Sage, who dismissed it with a flash of light. Fireballs formed behind the Sage and he thrust his palms out to throw them forward. There was a small flash of panic from her brother's eyes, but he managed to regain a semblance of calm and wind replaced the fire. Waving the sword above his head, a tornado formed around him and the fireballs deflected off into the buildings. One strayed too close to her, but Hope slashed through it. The Angel stood guard in front of her, weapon held at the ready for anything else that came her way.

The tornado dissipated to show Damien charging up a spell in that staff of his. He did not get a chance to cast whatever it was as the Sage darted forward and used an old-fashioned punch to the temple to knock him off-balance. A second punch toppled him further back and the twinblade reappeared for an upwards strike that dragged itself up from the floor in a vertical slice.

It was batted away with a flailing hand and Bayonetta raised an eyebrow; it seemed that he was still falling back into old habits when put under pressure.

The Sage split his twinblade in two and began to pile on this pressure with a flurry of quick blows. Damien's defence was still holding up, but she could tell it was crumbling with each passing second. All it would take is a millisecond and then her brother would be in a pickle.

Rolling herself up to her feet, Bayonetta grimaced at the throb that pulsed from the wound in her leg and focussed herself onto the Sage. Running forward and eyeing his still damaged wrist, she flipped forward and slammed both heels into it. The immediate effect was devastating; a grunt of pain erupted from the Sage and he dropped one half of his glaive. Damien noticed the opportunity and followed through with a sweep of the Sharuba, battering the man away like a cricket ball. A wicked weave followed and the Sage flew into the stone wall with a very satisfying crunch. Bayonetta quickly moved to her brother's side and held Love is Blue at the ready.

The Sage stood up slowly, his body glowing slightly green with healing magic. He splayed out a palm and the dropped half of the glaive reappeared in his grip. Both halves were affixed back to each other and the weapon was twirled back until it was at the ready. Both parties stared each other down with neither giving the other the advantage. The man made to move forward, but pulled himself back at the last possible moment. Her first reaction was to believe it was a feint, but the way the Sage's head lolled to the side made Bayonetta realise he was listening to someone else.

The Prophet, most likely.

"Hmph." The glaive disappeared and the Sage dropped his arms until they were loosely by his side. "This is not finished, not by any margin!"

Damien sensed something and leaped forward with his katana held high above him. The Sage flickered and disappeared before he could land the blow. The only sounds were the echoing metallic 'clang!' of metal against stone and the small grunts of exertion when he pulled the sword from the floor.

Quickly scanning over the rooftops around them, Bayonetta was quickly satisfied with the notion that the Sage had disappeared completely. She dropped her guns into Inferno and relaxed her posture.

It tensed again when she turned to Luka.

"What the fuck are you doing here!?"

Luka's eyes darted towards the exit of the plaza briefly, but he decided against it. Swallowing, he faced the wrath of Bayonetta with bravery. That faltered the instant he saw her expression.

"I asked you to stay behind because I wanted you to stay safe! Why are you-" Her entire body was shaking with fury. "You! Cheshire! Why!? Just why!?"

His voice was strained and fearful. "Bayonetta, I said I was going to help. I think that-"

"You think!?" Bayonetta's voice shrilled into disbelief. "Cheshire, you attacked a fucking Lumen Sage and you are so fucking lucky he didn't kill you on the spot!"

"I mean, if I'm a cat, I have nine lives…" Luk laughed nervously out of reflex. The murderous gaze of the Witch shut him up instantly. "Hey, I saved your life, right? That's gotta count for something!"

"I do not need the stress of worrying about you on top of everything else. You were safe before; why!?"

"Cereza," Damien called out. Both turned to him; one with fury, the other with relief. "I forced him to come along."

"Did Luka tell you why I wanted him to stay behind?" She asked through her teeth.

The winged man lowered his eyes, obviously unable to meet the gaze of the furious woman. "He did. I chose to ignore it."

Bayonetta whipped back to him. Her body language ran through a series of emotions and Luka wasn't sure whether or not she was going to start screaming at him again. She did. "Did you at least explain why you weren't here with me!?"

"I did! It's just that he turned up looking like a zombie and, unless I was there to make sure he didn't, he was going to kill himself to get here!" Luka gestured to the winged man. "Look-" Bayonetta's hand twisted his ear and it instantly erupted into pain. "Ow! Hey!"

She dragged him to a nearby stone bench and sat him down. Within a heartbeat, she was dragging Damien along as well and then the winged man was next to him. Finally, Hope was dragged next to him by Bayonetta pulling them along by their singular ribbon. The Witch folded her arms and let her wrathful gaze settle upon him.

"Explain. Now."

A symphony of noises erupted from the guilty trio. Judging by the flinch from Bayonetta, it was more of a blast of excuses. All three spoke over each other, trying to bargain their case.

"I was trying to make sure your brother was still alive when he reached here; if he knew where to go, he would've idiotically teleported half-way across the world!"

"The Devil May Cry crew are currently busy with a giant Demon tree, and that's where I was! I only learned of everything that happened only about a day ago!"

Hope said something completely unintelligible, but Luka assumed it was still on the same page he and Damien were.

Bayonetta held her hands out and cried out in frustration: "Alright! Quiet down!" She pointed at Damien first. "Where were you all this time?"

"Red Grave City." He answered instantly.

"Why were you there?"

"Nero lost his Devil Bringer a month- his Demon arm," Damien explained at her confused expression. "I was there and also offered to help out with getting the arm back and stopping the person who stole it from turning an entire city into a botanical garden!"

"And you did that for a month!?" Her eyebrow raised in disbelief and he instantly shook his head.

"For five seconds. The Demon subjugated all of us and turned each of us into a Demon to do his dirty work. I was a…" Damien hesitated.

"You were a?" Bayonetta prompted.

"I was a horse."

"You were a horse!?"

"I was freed literally a day ago! Then I learned that Jeanne had-" his voice became choked up, as if his throat was swelling and closing in upon itself. "That Jeanne had died and all I had done to help is sweet fuck all!"

The fury in the Witch's expression was very slowly dying down, replaced with understanding.

"I was taken back to New York by Ada and I met up with Luka not long after. We both decided to go to Paradiso for some more answers."

The understanding was lost under another cloud of fury when she turned her attention to him. "Pray tell, Cheshire, why did you think this, going to fucking Paradiso, was the best idea to keep yourself safe!?"

"We came to the conclusion that nowhere was safe. And again, Damien looked like a zombie when he arrived in my living room. I don't think you would have appreciated it if you had to go back in and rescue your brother mere minutes after rescuing your sister," Luka explained, emboldened by his friend's courage and bravado. "If I didn't stop him, he would have simply tried to teleport across entire countries to reach Noatun."

"Also, why would you leave him completely unprotected?" Damien spoke up. "If you really wanted to keep him safe, wouldn't the Gates of Hell be a much better choice?"

Bayonetta's gaze slipped from his and she lingered on a broken piece of stone. "I suppose that is logical…"

Hope then said something and her eyes snapped to theirs. "What do you mean?"

"What Hope means is that Paradiso is basically overrun. The Angels we know are very limited and everything else is his creation." Damien supplanted.

Bayonetta was silent for almost a minute. Luka assumed she was having a conversation with her own patron, but she also could be deliberating over their words herself. She might have been a fighter first and foremost, but the Witch was very intelligent and didn't act upon impulse if she could help it.

"I suppose there are much, much worse places for you to be hiding." She slowly said, turning back to him. "But you are currently in Purgatorio and that's where all the Angels are."

"Yeah- hey!" Her hand grabbed his ear once more and the pair walked through a portal back into the mortal realm. He attempted to batter her grip away, but it was tight. "That hurts!"

"Do you want to know how much your death would hurt?" Bayonetta glared at him. Her hand released him and he clutched at his ear with soothing rubs. "Extremely."

"Look, I'm sorry-" Luka's words were cut off when Bayonetta grabbed and pulled him into an embrace. He stood there, completely confused at her actions. Not knowing what else to do, he let her cling to him.

"Don't you ever scare me like that ever again." Her own were thick with emotion. It was very uncharacteristic, but Luka forced himself to remember that Bayonetta was not the woman he met half a year ago. "I don't know if I could have stopped the Sage if he wanted to kill you."

"Hey, I don't think he ever wanted to attack me." He gently began to shimmy his way out of her grip. Pushing her back as best he could, he gave her a cocky smirk. "Besides, you do know who I am?"

"An idiot."

Well, she was correct. But you had to take risks at some point, right? He didn't want to push the issue and decided to acquiesce to her. "I guess."

"Good." Bayonetta took a few steps back and looked him up and down. "I like the hat. Goes with the outfit."

"You brought me this hat." Luka frowned at her; this was extremely uncharacteristic by any of his experiences with her. Was she nervous or something?

"Oh." She shook her head and sighed. "You're not off the hook, not by a long shot, but I'm less angry at you. At some point you'll need to make it up to me."

He swallowed down a spike of fear and wondered just what she meant by that.

"We can worry about that later." Damien announced, interrupting and thankfully closing the moment, walking through a tear in reality. Hope followed him as well, recasting that translation spell. "Right now, we have to find Jeanne."

That definitely broke her out of her stupor and Bayonetta was back to normal with a flick of her hair. "Well, brother dearest, that is the goal of this expedition. In order to do that, we must find the Gates of Hell. I had a guide to show me where to go, but it seems he has disappeared."

"That's right!" Luka snapped his fingers as the memory came back to him. "Where's the other kid that was with you?"

"You know?" Bayonetta tilted her head with a sly eye. "Were you stalking me again, Cheshire?"

"Hey, he was dressed in a bright orange and yellow outfit! That's very hard to miss!"

"Who is he?" Damien asked.

"He never gave me his name when we met, but then again he doesn't remember anything about himself. According to the Sage we just ran off, his name is Loki." She explained, her hand lowering down to cast a healing spell on her thigh. "He can be pretty elusive, so I'll find him and drag him out so he can introduce himself."

"Wait, a kid with amnesia is your guide?" Luka could scarcely believe the irony of it all. Shaking his head, he glanced around the plaza and found nothing that he could recognise as the kid. "Talk about déjà vu."

"How can he be elusive?" Damien folded his arms and Luka noticed something sitting on his shoulder. "What do you mean by that?"

"There he is!" Bayonetta stepped over to her brother and a small squirrel in an orange felt cape jumped into her outstretched hand. It darted along until it stood on her shoulder and was facing the three. "Everyone, meet Loki."

"Uhh… That's a squirrel." The winged man pointed out the obvious.

"He's got a cape!" Bayonetta petted the squirrel and rubbed her face against it, much to the animal's very obvious discomfort. "Isn't he adorable?"

"That doesn't explain the kid." Luka rubbed his chin, feeling sorry for the poor thing.

"Is the child this squirrel?" Hope asked.

"Correct!" The squirrel had enough of Bayonetta's antics and slipped free from her grip. He glided to the ground and turned to her with his arms folded and one foot tapping on the ground. The Witch laughed and gestured to him. "Go on! I'm assuming you know how to change back and forth now."

It grabbed at something around its neck and twisted. The boy from earlier flashed into existence with a short, but blinding white light to herald it. "For Aesir's sake, love, I am not an animal! Stop petting me like you would a cat!"

Love?

"So this is Loki?" Damien walked over to the boy and gave him a quick look over. "You're different."

"I could say the very same thing about you, mate." The boy fired back. "What's with the wing? The ridiculous outfit? You have no style."

"I was going to ask about that." Bayonetta followed up, smirking. "Why are you dressed like that?"

"It was short notice and Nero didn't have anything better!" He defensively held his hands up. "But we are discussing you, not me!"

"Well, who are all these people?" Loki folded his arms and began tapping his foot, a complete mirror image of the squirrel mere moments before. "Friends of yours?"

"That is my brother, Damien. The Angel is Hope," the aforementioned Angel waved their hand when Bayonetta mentioned them. "And the silly man is Cheshire."

"Hey!" Luka finally found his voice and he broke himself out of the very strange reverie. "That's not my name! It's Luka! L-U-K-A! Why do you insist on something else?"

"Alright. It's nice to meet you Damien, Hope," the boy grinned evilly. "And Cheshire."

This had to be a small part of revenge from her. Swallowing down his frustration, Luka shrugged and tried to put on an indifferent front. "Well, who are you?"

"That is the deal, Cheshire; I don't know." Loki shrugged. "I just woke up here one day with the mountain telling me to go to it. And now I've got Ma'am over here-"

"What did I tell you about calling me Ma'am?" She cut in, her tone actually offended. "I'm not that old!"

"Ar- Bayonetta, you are currently six hundred and twenty-two years old." Hope naively said. A glare was sent in their direction and they frowned in response. "What?"

"That's old enough to be my…" Loki counted out on his fingers, shrugging with defeat when he ran out. "Too many times to count great grandmother. Definitely a Ma'am in my books."

Luka noticed that Damien was snickering. His eyes had lightened up considerably and he felt that no matter what Bayonetta may think about the current situation, this was worth it. A happy Damien was much better than the despondent one who fell into his living room.

He could try to hide emotions all he wanted; Luka unfortunately knew what he was looking for.

"But anyway, I'm here to guide Ma'am to the Gates. In doing so we have run into a lot of robot Angels, a man who courts strangely and my name," the boy continued, gesturing to himself with a thumb. "Loki. Nice to meetcha!"

"Enough talk about my age; where do we need to go to find the Gates of Hell?" The Witch changed the subject with a small hint of fluster.

"Are they coming too? I might need to charged extra for a troupe." The boy then chuckled at both his own joke and Bayonetta's reaction.

Damien grew a little more serious and walked forward. "I'm guessing there's more to this story than an amnesiac guide."

"There certainly is! You see, mate, I just told you the gist of it. What I need to figure out is why that damn mountain is so important to me. With any luck she'll be helping me figure out the rest of me." Loki shrugged and folded his arms. "My only real condition for being a guide is for you to somehow figure me out. If you can."

"That makes three mortals here amnesiacs." Hope rested their hands on their hips and surveyed them. "Damien was stripped of his memories clean, whereas Bayonetta only had hers suppressed. The question is, which are you?"

"I would much prefer it if my memories were salvageable." Loki's posture sagged. "But I guess I'll have no real choice in the matter…"

When Bayonetta saw him for the first time and smiled, Damien felt the exact same as he did when they reunited in the graveyard. He had enough anxiety about essentially everything that it was a huge relief when she exceeded his expectations. It wasn't enough to fully dispel them and he remained on edge whenever she looked in his direction.

The Lumen Sage was a completely different question. He had not fought Balder at any point during both the journey and his imprisonment, so he had no real reference as to how a Sage actually performed. He didn't do too badly, but at the same time it felt that he was fighting against a foe who wasn't really trying. Once his sister had gotten involved, the Sage simply left. Whether it was because the odds were firmly against him or that he got bored-

Why was a Lumen Sage even attacking her? Hope had told them that Balder would have been reviled amongst the Clan, so-

He should've slapped himself. The Sage literally had said that the Prophet had essentially ordered him to attack her. There was a lot more to unpack with everything the man had said, but he wanted to focus on the here and now.

The boy, introduced as Loki, was something completely different. Despite his small and unassuming appearance, Damien could sense immense power within him. It, just like the Sage's presence, was far too familiar for comfort.

He turned to the one person who could tell him: Do you know who the kid is?

'I… I think I do.' Khepri sounded completely unsure. 'I recognise the power, but it's completely foreign.'

Can you tell me what the power is?

'It's that of a Primordius.'

That made him double take. He had met two- now three, if he included Rodin, of the nine and the only one he wasn't completely sure of was Drakenguard's. Even when asked, the weaponsmith had confirmed that the only three in this universe were Sheba, Jubileus and now himself.

'He isn't Drakenguards. The Harbinger of Order is not that.' She motioned to the boy and gave him a knowing look. 'Perhaps we need to take a closer peek?'

Would that even work?

'The mind is an intricate puzzle. It only needs to be solved.'

"I would much prefer it if my memories were salvageable." Loki's posture sagged and Damien returned his attention to him. "But I guess I'll have no real choice in the matter…"

"I mean, I'm a telepath." He folded his arms in mock thought. "I could take a look inside."

"Would that even work?" Bayonetta echoed his earlier thoughts.

Damien smirked and repeated Khepri's words: "The mind is an intricate puzzle. It only needs to be solved."

"Khepri told you to say that." Luka piped up and he shrugged.

"Takes one to know one."

"Khepri's okay?" The Witch cried out. "Since when!?"

"We can focus on that later." Damien gestured to Loki and shook his head. "We need to get this sorted first."

Bayonetta grimaced, but didn't press the issue. "I understand trying to help the little one-"

"Hey!" Loki exclaimed, but both ignored him.

"-but won't something like this take a while? You are not exactly the most proficient of the Mind Arts and we need to reach the Gates of Hell!" She continued with a slight hint of frustration.

Khepri believes he is something akin to a Primordius. He decided to keep this under wraps and contacted his sister telepathically.

'What!?'

He excludes the same power as one. To me, that's why he feels so familiar. Bayonetta rubbed her temples and closed her eyes in pain. Damien pressed on, but made sure not to actually hurt her. If we help him, we might get a very powerful ally on our side.

'And potentially solve parts of the mystery of this place.' Her eyes opened and they met him with a nod. "Alright then, sure. As long as the little one is fine with it."

Loki ran into his field of vision, arms held up and waving frantically. "Yes, the little one is very much not fine with this! What do you even plan to do, birdman?"

"Literally just that," he explained calmly. "I want to have a look inside your mind and see if I can figure out why you have no memories."

"Are you sure you can do that, mate?"

Damien smiled to himself with a little pride. "I managed to free someone from the grips of a powerful telepath with a technique even he couldn't undo. If I find nothing, then there's nothing I can really do. But if I can do something, then I can try."

Loki considered this for a moment, then shrugged. "Aw, fuck it. What do I really have to lose? Memories I don't have? Go ahead, mate."

Placing a finger on his temple, he gently brushed against the boy's psyche and briefly hesitated at the wall that dominated and encompassed everything. Swallowing and steeling his fear, Damien pushed in.

A blinding white flash cracked back and he flinched. Blue began to cloud his vis-

" . "

"A warm welcome to you, Singularity. I wish it was under better circumstances."

" , . ? "

"Yes. It concerns our sibling, Argosax."

" ? ? "

"It does. They spoke to us not long ago about… betraying our cause and seizing power for themselves. For some asinine reason they believe only they can lead us to survival. You haven't been attending our meetings or gatherings recently, so I decided that I would like a less biased opinion."

" ? "

"As far as I know, it would. But at the same time, all they want is to make sure constant changes of our order do not occur and potentially upset the balance of reality. I'm not sure if I'm being honest with you."

" . "

"What? Argosax plans to betray our order and you call it irrelevant!?"

" . H G , . "

"I'm going to be a little honest here, Singularity; your world is a little creepy."

" . "

"It is relevant! You should know that they despise Kathreftis Sympan's very existence. Your world is exactly what they would-"

" ? "

"You don't know!? When was the last time you attended anything?"

" . . . "

"Are you aware that we have new siblings?"

" ? "

"Great. But I suppose they aren't supposed to be making their presence known…"

" . "

"Sorry, sorry. Look, just what should I do? Argosax is my direct sibling and ours too; I feel terrible for even confiding this to you."

" . . . "

"I know. It's just… they're my family. This ends either with banishment or death, and I don't want either of that. But if I don't do anything, Argosax could ruin everything that was tasked to us."

" . . ? "

"I did-"

" . ? . "

"Is there no other option? I refuse to condemn them if there is an alternative."

" ? "

"…"

"It has to be done."

" . "

"I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time-"

" . . . . . . . "

"I'll take my leave. Don't be too surprised if you are summoned to Ginnungagup in the near future."

" . "

"Yes?"

" . ; . "

The cloud faded to reveal all four humans and Angel standing there, completely confused. A quick glance at both Bayonetta and Luka gave Damien the impression that they had seen what he had too.

"What was that?" Hope whispered, breaking the silence.

"I think the better question is just who were they," Bayonetta muttered, then turned to address the small elephant in the plaza. "Little one, just who-"

"Don't call me little one!" Loki fired back, his eyes wide in fury. "I have a name and it's-"

The abrupt halting of his speech raised an eyebrow. Damien folded his arms and tilted his head slightly: "It's…?"

"It's-" He swallowed, his expression falling and curling into confusion. Then terror. Then despair.

"Aesir."

Sowing the seeds of Singularity...

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. The reunion might feel a bit weird, but this is meant to be Bayonetta reacting first and foremost to what is most important to her (a little tease of her true feelings that will get delved into a lot later. If you're waiting for the mushy Damien and Bayo angst-fest blame-game, that's going to happen very soon. The siblings have a lot to discuss and a lot of truths will be made bare.

As for dear old Dad? Let's just say confusion over what he has been told is now the least of his worries.

I guess now would be an appropriate time to semi-explain the Primordius and how I'm approaching the multiverse before it starts going well over your heads. In the multiverse, there are five seperate universes; Alphaverse, Drakenguard, Kathreftis Sympan, The Lands Between and Tamriel. Each world has an assigned creator/ruler, known as a Primordius (derived from Primordial Being). The only exception is the Alphaverse, which has three Primordius. Inferno and Paradiso spill between these universes, but localise in the Alphaverse.

The known Primordius are:

- Jubileus, Harbinger of Creation

- Sheba, Harbinger of Calamity

- Rodin, Harbinger of Chaos

- Placidusax, Harbinger of Order

- Akatosh, Harbinger of Judgement

- Philemon, Harbinger of Wisdom

- The Timekeeper, Harbinger of Time

- The Destroyer, Harbinger of Destruction

- Singularity, Harbinger of Reality

You'll notice that the Harbinger of Life isn't present. That is very much on purpose and something I'll explain much, much later when it comes to Bayonetta 3: Blood Moon. The Primordius are essentially the nine first living beings in the multiverse, and through their power was everything formed. Think of them as essentially Gods with fancy names and titles. They're going to show up in Loki's flashbacks, so I think it's prudent to get to know the cast of everyone before it all starts being meaningless words.

What are your thoughts on Singularity, by the way? I'm hopefully going to use any feedback I get here to start workshopping their character into something that actually exists come Blood Moon, so it's not some faceless entity that only managed to successfully kill Jeanne in a do-something-to-the-multiverse plot.

As always, I hope you all enjoyed this addition to Solar Flare! Please feel free to like and hit that subscribe button, as it helps the YouTube algorithm sort me to the top for more views and more content!

Or does it? I don't remember. YoungPyroDude out.