Chapter 25: Two Lucien
Nyx led him deep into the subterranean levels of the mansion, where the air grew heavy with ancient, undisturbed magic.
She stopped before a reinforced vault door etched with glowing, violet runes. Pressing her palm against the stone, the heavy door groaned open, revealing a small, dimly lit room.
At every corner you could see boxes that contained artifacts and some are kept magically glowing in the air just stationed on one spot.
Resting on a velvet-covered pedestal, was the Mirror of the Split Soul, a sleek, handheld looking glass framed in polished cosmic silver that seemed to swallow the candlelight.
"Here it is," Nyx said, stepping aside. She looked at him, her expression turning uncharacteristically serious. "But listen to me closely, Lucien. Because you still don’t have much powers, this artifact’s effect will only be temporary. It will hold the split, but you will constantly feel the strain."
Lucien stepped forward, his eyes locking onto the mirror. "Temporary is all I need for now."
She picked up the mirror and placed it firmly into his hands. "Take it. Close your eyes, focus on the two opposing forces inside your core, the Arch-Priest light and the dominion energy.
With Nyx guidance he already knew what to do, so Lucien took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
The cool metal of the mirror vibrated against his palms. He focused inward, finding the volatile violet-gold swirl of his mana.
For a second, absolute silence gripped the room. Then, a sudden, violent jolt tore through his chest.
It felt as if his soul was being cleanly sliced down the middle by a razor-thin blade of pure energy.
A blinding white light erupted from his body, enveloping him, them the single solid light started to split.
The left one smelling of ozone and holy incense, while a thick, suffocating wave of pitch-black smoke billowed from the right, heavy with the scent of sulfur and raw gravity.
The twin forces violently pushed away from each other, swirling in a miniature cosmic vortex that rattled the stone walls of the vault.
"Open your eyes," Nyx whispered through the rushing wind.
Lucien opened his eyes, and the world completely shifted. The perspective was dizzying. He was looking at his own face, but from two completely different sets of eyes at the exact same time.
"It worked!" The priest side, dressed in his pristine, unblemished priest robes, had clear, brilliantly human red and greenish-blue eyes. He was looking directly at his Dominion side.
Meanwhile, the Dominion side, wrapped in dark, heavy silks, his sclera completely pitch-black with glowing red pupils, was looking right back at his Divine self.
It was a bizarre, echoing loop of consciousness, his mind was perfectly synchronized, steering two physical bodies simultaneously, each one seeing the self that was seeing it.
"I didn’t know I was this handsome, I look like a god, my hairs are so long."
Nyx let out a low, breathless laugh, stepping back to admire the result. "Stop drooling at yourself you fool. Look behind you, it’s my father."
Both of Lucien’s bodies turned in perfect, eerie unison, their movements mirrored as they looked up at the far wall of the vault.
Hanging there was a massive, intricately carved frame containing a grand portrait of Lucifer.
The Prince of Darkness sat upon a throne of dark stars, draped in robes of absolute night.
His long, cascading white hair fell perfectly over his shoulders, framing a face of devastating, unmatched handsomeness.
But it was his eyes that caught the light, two piercing, red eyes that seemed to stare right through the souls of anyone looking at the picture.
Right next to it hung another, smaller portrait. Lucien’s two perspectives shifted to scan the family portrait.
In it stood Lucifer, looking regal and dominant. Beside him was his wife, Geraldine, her long, elegant light purple hair draped over her shoulders, her smile gentle yet powerful, the very woman the fallen angels had kidnapped.
Down below them stood a younger Nyx, her golden eyes already full of mischief, and right next to her was Nadia, Nyx’s sister.
Nadia’s striking white hair and perfect purple eyes just like her mother shone beautifully in the painted moonlight, the very girl Lucien had just added to his harem hours before in the bath.
"Well, that’s enough living in the past," Nyx said sharply, clapping her hands together to break the trance they were in.
They all filed out of the vault, the two Lucien’s walking side by side with Nyx leading the way into the main corridor.
She stopped, turning around to face them both, her golden eyes darting between the holy priest and the dark devil.
"Now that you are two, we split the duties," Nyx instructed, pointing a sharp, dark-nailed finger at the Divine clone. "You stay here, and the Divine side goes back to Sanctora."
Sanctora is the city of the priest users, where the divine academy was.
The Divine Lucien gave a calm, measured nod. "Understood. I’ll keep the Church blind."
With a soft, rushing ripple of light mana, the Divine clone dissolved into thin air, instantly teleporting back across the dimensional borders to his starting point.
Nyx turned her gaze slowly toward the remaining Dominion clone. Her lips curled into a slow, intensely seductive smirk as she stepped close enough to touch his chest. "As for you... you are stuck with me here in the mansion until the exams begin."
Lucien’s pitch-black eyes flared with a dark, confident amusement. He leaned down, his voice dropping into that low, demonic register. "And I like it."
Meanwhile, across the dimensional divide, the Divine version of Lucien materialized in the grand, white-stone corridors of the holy city, Sanctora. He adjusted the collar of his tunic, his expression returning to that of a polite, ordinary student.
He walked down the familiar road where he family resided, and stopped before a heavy oak door. He knocked.
Then the door swung open almost instantly, and standing on the other side was his stepmother. The moment her gaze landed on his face, her breath caught, and her eyes grew incredibly wide in absolute shock.
"Lucien...?" she gasped, her voice trembling as she clutched the edge of the doorframe. "I... I thought you were gone. You said you would be living with the dominion now."
Lucien didn’t answer with words. A slow, arrogant smirk spread across his handsome face. He stepped into the house, closing the door firmly behind him.
"Is that a way to greet your master, Aurora." He said, not liking how she didn’t welcome him the way he had thought she would.
She reached out, cupping the back of his neck, and pulled him into the most passionate, breathless kiss, and then he kissed her back.
His fingers dug into her ass, grabbing them viciously and dragging her closer until there was no space left. He’d missed her, missed the way her soft body yielded to him. She melted against him instantly, her hands wrapping tightly around his shoulders as the sheer intensity of his presence overwhelmed her.
When he finally pulled back just an inch, his red and greenish-blue eyes flashed with a dangerous, teasing light.
"Don’t worry," Lucien murmured against her lips, his smirk widening as he felt her heart racing. "I’ll fill you in on everything."
