Chapter 260: The Fate of the ‘Original’
"How large of a fragment of the original are you?"
"A fourth? I ’was’ a fourth, but twelve thousand years have reduced me to a state much less of that."
"A fourth? That’s more than I had expected.
You have an authority of souls.
It’s damaged but it’s still there and should be enough for you to fix your fragmented state and make yourself ’whole’. So why haven’t you done this?"
"That’s a nice idea but It’s not possible.
My core isn’t here, after all."
Diablo’s eyes widened upon hearing those words, a idea flashed through his mind as he activated his authority of space and asked.
"If I were to give you a homunculus body and your energy core that’s still with me, would that be enough to rectify your state?"
"Oh my, the boy who used to hate me so much wants to help save my ’life’.
Oh, how they grow up so fast."
"Shut up and answer the damn question."
Lucifer’s joke wasn’t taken well by Diablo whose annoyance was visibly growing by the second.
"Sheesh...can’t even take a little joke.
Oh well...your idea is nice too but it would not work
When I said core, I did not mean the core of my physical body that has long been turned to dust.
I meant the core of my soul."
The Vestige took a deep sigh before explaining.
"There’s a reason why despite the fact that he had split a fourth of his soul away, my ’original’ was completely fine and still able to use his full power.
That’s not only because the remaining three-fourths existed with him, but because the main core of ’our’ existence resided with him.
I don’t want to delve too much into the concept of souls but just know that it’s nigh impossible to rectify my situation.
Putting me in a homunculus body is only delaying the inevitable."
’There’s a reason I referred to myself as a ’Vestige’ after all...’
He thought to himself before turning to gaze at the sombre faces of all those in the room when Arthur finally voiced out a question.
"That ’core’ of your soul or whatever you called it.... what happened to it?"
"It was erased from existence."
"...!"
Although Arthur was expecting that answer, he still couldn’t help but be shocked, and his reaction was only natural.
After seeing the power that Lucifer displayed in the memory of his fight against Roseborn, Arthur couldn’t fathom just how someone that powerful could be erased from existence.
As if sensing those thoughts, Lucifer’s vestige spoke up and addressed Arthur’s internal questions.
"There were various dictums and aspectual authorities involved.
Dictums of destruction, entropy and a few others, as well as a wisp of concepts too."
"Concepts?!!"
The boy’s reaction to the word prompted all heads to turn towards him but he paid it no mind. Connecting the dots together, Arthur finally arrived at the conclusion of who was behind Lucifer’s death.
"The Eternals.... they were the ones, weren’t they?"
"Eternals?"
Cattleya frowned at the unfamiliar term, turning towards her brother and her father but they shook their heads showing they did not know exactly what Arthur was talking about.
Lucifer, however, nodded with a wry smile before snapping his fingers, causing a familiar magical video filmstrip to surround the group.
"How about I tell you a short tale, of how the man known as ’Lucifer Morningstar’ met his end."
◇ ◇ ◇
"Okay, testing, testing, 1,2."
"...what are you doing?"
The exasperated voice of a younger-looking Alexia rang out as she stared at the silver-haired man who was fiddling with a camera.
"I’m making a small recording...for my descendants."
"You plan to have kids?"
"...I have a son already, you know?"
"Oh...Diablo. The one who hates your guts."
"Guh!"
Her reply seemed to have dealt serious mental damage to the silver-haired man as he dropped to his knees while holding his chest, seemingly in pain.
"You’re a really horrible father, you know?"
She delivered another remark that dealt more mental damage, before snapping the book in her hands shut as she shrugged and continued
"Not that I’d know how a ’good’ father is supposed to be considering my situation."
The man, Devil King Lucifer, sighed in exasperation as he got to his feet while replying.
"I can’t help it, you know?
Even if I wanted to be with him as much as I can, I can’t because of certain enemies of mine who are more than ready to grasp at the weakness that is my son.
He may be talented and all, but against monsters who have lived millions of years? There’s nothing he can do till he’s at least a Sub-Cosmic Monarch."
Shrugging his shoulders, he sat back down and readjusted the camera, inadvertently giving a view of the room he was in.
It looked to be some sort of study as there was an ’L’ shaped work desk and a couple of bookshelves around him. As for Alexia, she could be seen seated on the return desk to his left.
The walls and ceiling had a familiar colour scheme that Arthur recognized, allowing him to infer that this study was somewhere within the Domain he was currently in.
"If you ever meet him again, tell him I actually care about him...or wait... Scratch that.
Don’t say anything. It’d be best if I told him about it in person."
"If he doesn’t punch your mouth first, that is."
Lucifer chuckled lightly upon hearing her reply, before fishing something out of his pocket and tossing it to the half-flugel woman.
When she caught it, she saw it was a red memory gem, one that Arthur recognized as he was currently in possession of it.
"What’s this?"
"Nothing much. Just a memory crystal with the ’Five Magic’."
"You mean THE ’Five Magic’?"
"Yep."
Lucifer replied to Alexia’s question, earning a deadpan stare from the woman. She maintained that expression as she jumped down from the table, walked up to him and rose the crystal, before swinging it down and whacking him with it.
"What-!"
**SMACK!
She whacked him one more time with the same crystal, taking a deep breath to calm herself before speaking.
"You Stupid!!"
**SMACK!
