Chapter 297: Lucifer’s Sudden Guest
Meanwhile, Cattleya, Inglis and Jaelyn had long forgotten the matter of Arthur’s crush as they had more pressing matters to deal with, namely, creating Lucifer’s Homunculus body.
Diablo had come over to assist them as he was the only one nearby who could fully control the cosmic energy in the Tier 8 Magic circles they were using without problems.
Days had passed, both in and outside the domain and they were very close to completing it.
As they were engrossed in the homunculus body creation in the lab, Lucifer’s vestige was alone in the throne room of the Domain, seated on the throne while dressed in his usual corporate-style clothing.
He just sat there with his chin propped up on his hand that lay on the throne’s armrest, seemingly staring into nothing.
Suddenly, the fabric of space in the area on his left trembled and the very essence of reality twisted and contorted.
In a few seconds, a majestic throne had materialized a metre beside Lucifer’s, its form being weaved together by the iridescent hues of cosmic energy, radiating an aura of power and authority.
Right after, a humanoid phased into existence and plopped down onto the throne, taking up a similar pose as Lucifer.
Just like Lucifer, he was dressed in corporate garb, adorning a simple black suit with a long navy-blue overcoat atop it.
He looked to be a handsome young adult, with black hair styled in a simple side-parted undercut.
His most noticeable features were his eyes; triangular-shaped pupils spinning with a regular rhythm, adorned in a mesmerising hue of reddish purple. Within them, one could see the very fabric of space shifting and swirling, as if they were cosmic gateways to infinite realms.
Despite his sudden appearance, Lucifer showed no sign of surprise, as he had long expected it to happen soon.
"They’re making a Homunculus body to put you in, huh?"
"I told them not to, given that I was going to fade away eventually. But they didn’t listen. Even going as far as to use two Primogenial cores on it."
The Devil King shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, however, he could not hide the small smile that appeared on his lips.
"But you cannot deny the fact that you’re happy about it."
"It’s the fact That Diablo is the one who’s spearheading it that makes me surprised, happy, and a bit guilty."
Lucifer gave a depreciating sigh while replying, a look of remembrance flashing across his crimson-red eyes as he continued.
"I’m not gonna deny that I was a bad father to the kid, and I would not have been surprised if he had destroyed "me". The current him is powerful enough to do that.
So, you can only imagine my surprise at the fact that despite how much of a horrible parent I was, he’s striving to keep me ’alive’ even for a little longer.
He’s too good for me."
"Too good indeed."
The suit-clad man replied with a light chuckle, turning his gaze towards the direction of the lab and peering through the space to look at the quintet who were finishing up the homunculus.
"What do you think about his kids?"
Hearing Lucifer’s question, his gaze settled on the unsuspecting Creusery before he replied.
"Half-Phoenix. With mutated flames.
If the Concept of Fire wasn’t part of the Greater Concept of Major Elements, I may have brought him out and groomed him to govern over fire.
As for the Leviathan Devil girl, if her control over time was even half as good as her power of destruction, I would have instantly granted her ’Candidacy’ and have her replace that empty seat in due time."
"Don’t put any of my grandchildren inside your silly Candidate selection."
The man only burst out laughing in response to Lucifer’s words, a breath of cosmic energy escaping his lips as he replied.
"I’d try not to, Hahaha."
"What about Arthur?"
Lucifer’s question about Arthur instantly cut his laughter short, and he took a deep breath before replying.
"Arthur, huh?
The boy is just a walking bundle of abnormalities. And him being a Primordial Progenitor Singularity is just the first part."
Silence pervaded the area after his words, with many thoughts passing through the man’s mind. He then pulled out a small ball of light with cosmic energy wrapped around it and held it over to Lucifer.
"Here."
"Hmm? What’s th-???!!!"
The vestige was initially confused but the instant he set eyes on the ball of light, his gaze widened and his jaw dropped in shock.
"This....!!!"
"Yes. A shard of "your" soul."
"How did you-?!"
Just as Lucifer was about to ask why a shard of ’his’ soul was in the hands of this man; he suddenly remembered the events of the day ’he’ died. To be precise, he remembered a particular occurrence that gave him a sense of discomfort during his final battle.
"The ’Dictum of Reality’...I thought I stopped him from activating it but the instant he began speaking, reality had already been warped."
Lucifer’s conjecture made the man, ’The One Who Governed Over Space’, reveal a light grin, confirming that the Devil King’s thoughts were indeed correct.
"You outsmarted Akasha right under his nose!"
"Bahahaha!! I sure did!"
The man replied with a laugh, tossing the soul shard over to the vestige who caught it and absorbed it without hesitation, causing his fading illusory body to gain more ’substance’.
The remaining bit of the Original Lucifer’s soul that made up his existence was augmented by this extra shard.
Once again, silence reigned over the throne room as Lucifer savoured the feeling of his soul being augmented, even noticing that a Soul Core had been implanted into the shard, effectively making his existence ’Complete’.
"I’m not gonna thank you for this."
"I don’t expect you to."
"...
Did you foresee this?"
"My powers lay with Space and Reality, not time."
Lucifer scoffed upon hearing the man’s reply.
"Yeah right. Says the guy who’s above it.
You can scroll through ’time’ like a list on a computer."
"That’s one hell of an analogy. My control of time is only so-so."
"Your ’so-so’ is better than 99% of every other time manipulators in existence."
The Devil King snorted as he took a moment to gather the ambient energy and reconstruct his body, revealing light surprise upon noticing his current power had surpassed the Primogenial realm and had entered the Phantasmal range.
At that instant, a true voice rang out across the entire domain, courtesy of Cattleya.
|GRANDPA! WE FIXED YOUR BODY! COME ENTER IT! |
"Looks like the kids are done."
"Yep. Guess it’s time I took my leave."
The Eternal replied upon noticing Cattleya approaching their location, his body beginning to phase out of existence as he spoke once more.
"Kids, huh?
Maybe I should consider leaving some descendants in this Multiverse."
Leaving behind those words, he warped away and the space beside Lucifer’s throne returned to normal, half a second before Cattleya barged into the throne room.
◇ ◇ ◇
Floating in the atmosphere of the planet, the Eternal of Space looked down, his vision panning across the entire planet and locating where our resident Progenitor was.
"I don’t think this new Progenitor is related to the ’Fourth like you suggested Akasha."
As he spoke, Arthur who was on the ground suddenly stopped moving before turning around and looking straight towards his direction.
Nevertheless, he knew Arthur could not actually see him but was only just feeling a gaze on him due to his sub-cosmic physiology’s limited cosmic awareness.
"I think he IS the ’Fourth."
Leaving behind those cryptic words, the Eternal of Space silently warped out of the Hell Universe.
