Chapter 81: The True Name of Belial.
Something sound cannot fully express. Something space fails to contain without deforming. Something the mind, no matter how hard it tries, cannot fully decipher.
That’s how a demon’s true name worked.
It wasn’t a word. It wasn’t a set of syllables that could be repeated just like that. It was something else. Something closer to a living concept, a structure that existed beyond what human senses were prepared to perceive.
The ear, limited, barely captured a fraction of it. What arrived was a sound... yes, but distorted, twisted on itself, as if each note were deliberately misplaced.
An unnatural echo. An uncomfortable and unpleasant noise, almost maddening.
When Belial finally yielded, there was no prior warning. There was no gesture, no visible preparation. It simply happened.
The name was pronounced.
And in that instant, the world reacted.
The air seemed to tense, as if something invisible had pulled it in all directions at once. The room, with its shelves, its ancient books and the table marked by time, deformed for a fraction of a second.
Not in an obvious way, not something that could be described easily, but it was there. A slight twist, a failure in the way everything should stay in its place.
Time, for its part, hesitated.
It didn’t stop completely, but didn’t flow normally either. It was as if, for a minimal instant, it had forgotten what it had to do. As if it had been suspended, trapped between advancing or staying still.
Reality itself tensed. The electromagnetic waves describing light twisted, changing for an instant the room’s coloration.
And then... everything returned to normal.
So fast that, had one not been present, no one could have assured something had happened.
But Lloyd had felt it.
A chill ran through his skin at the same moment that incomplete sound reached his ears. It wasn’t fear, absolutely not. It was something closer to an instinctive reaction, deep, as if his own body recognized that didn’t belong to the world as he understood it.
And yet...
His green eyes didn’t waver.
On the contrary.
They shone with unusual intensity, reflecting something more than simple interest. There was concentration, yes, but also a kind of fascination hard to hide. As if, instead of rejecting it, he were trying to embrace it, to understand it even by force.
It was then that it happened.
During that fleeting instant, almost imperceptible, one of his pupils changed.
Not in an exaggerated way, nor striking. It was something subtle, but real. Its shape altered slightly, adopting a different depth, as if a window had opened to something more ancient.
Lloyd had activated the [Leviathan’s Pupil].
An ability he had acquired and evolved thanks to his demonic system, which granted him advantages much more useful than one could attribute to a simple analysis ability.
And thanks to it, Lloyd managed to capture the essence of Belial’s true name. Its true nature.
The information was retained, each aspect of that phenomenon was recorded and subsequently ordered.
That mass of chaotic information was very similar to a puzzle that had to be deciphered.
But everything was ordered and fitted into his mind in an organic and functional way.
His head hurt slightly, a dull pressure that appeared and disappeared almost instantly, like the minimum price for having witnessed something that wasn’t made for him.
But he had achieved it, he had acquired Belial’s true name. The source code of his essence had been retained.
And upon doing so, Lloyd’s smile became sharp.
"Wow, well, it really is strange to say it out loud, heh," the sword commented with a somewhat exhausted tone, as if that had cost him quite a bit. "Well, I’ve said it! Now you can free me, or whatever."
The sword commented condescendingly, while its eye blinked calmly.
But, at that instant, Belial looked at Lloyd.
His eyes shone with feline intensity, watching expectantly like a predator watches its prey.
And his smile? Sharp, twisted, malicious. It wasn’t a clumsy or confused smile.
It wasn’t the expression Belial had expected.
Lloyd didn’t seem defeated, nor confused, nor disappointed. His expression was worthy of a villain, a villain who had achieved his objective.
If he had a throat, Belial would have swallowed.
Why was his expression like that?
It was impossible for a brat to understand his name right?
"H-hey, you promised you’d leave me alone when I gave you my name... right?" the sword asked with slight unease in its voice.
It no longer sounded arrogant nor with that proud indignation. Now there was doubt in its voice, even a slight hint of fear.
Instead, Lloyd seemed very amused.
Without doubt that amused him, not because he was particularly sadistic, rather because humiliating Belial like this seemed fair after what the demon did to Alice.
"Mmmm, what are you referring to?" Lloyd asked playing innocent, while tilting his head as if genuinely not understanding.
Then, his lips formed an "O" of surprise, as if he had just understood.
"Oh! I understood what you mean," Lloyd said, with a childish and innocent voice, almost mockingly toward Belial. "Well, rather I think you’re confused."
[+35 V.P]
The sword looked at Lloyd intensely. The blood vessels in its eye turned red, showing almost unreal indignation.
"Damn bastard! Are you telling me you’ve deceived me? How dare you!" the sword growled annoyed, while struggling furiously trying uselessly to free itself from its chains.
Gleipnir’s links screeched, but didn’t yield to Belial’s pathetic thrashing.
As for Lloyd, he simply watched amused at that repulsive being’s reaction.
"Oh, but I haven’t deceived you. I only told you I would stop ’torturing you’ if you told me your name, the rest you decided on your own," Lloyd commented with an innocent air. "Honestly, you’re very bad at making deals for a demon."
The boy commented calmly, while his face was illuminated by Sin and Selene’s pale and greenish light.
Hearing those words, Belial stopped struggling. Looking at Lloyd with distrust.
Though, what Lloyd said was true. In that sense Belial had been stupid, he had focused on the fact Lloyd couldn’t understand his name and had completely forgotten he should try to escape.
However, it wasn’t that problematic for him either. If he wasn’t tortured, and also couldn’t be used by Lloyd, since the moment he wielded him, Belial would control him, it could be said his situation wasn’t that bad.
After all patience was a virtue you develop quite well when you’re locked for entire eras in a prison in sword form.
"Yeah, well, whatever, I suppose I’ll take a nap until you die or something," the sword commented with indifference.
Fighting no longer made sense to him. However, Belial had time on his side.
In fact, the demon was already considering the idea of corrupting some descendant of Lloyd in the future.
He would surely be locked in a treasure room or something similar, exhibited as a luxury gadget or something like that.
Yes, surely something like that would happen... or at least that’s what Belial thought.
"Hey, wait a moment, before you go to sleep," Lloyd commented with an innocent smile.
The sword opened its eye lazily, almost contemptuously, and looked at Lloyd with absolute boredom.
"What do you want? Boring me with eternal chatter is also considered torture you know?" the sword commented with a contemptuous tone.
Now that Lloyd couldn’t hurt him or torture him, Belial could treat him with all the contempt he wanted.
Something that without doubt amused him, though apparently Lloyd cared little, whose innocent smile wasn’t altered even a millimeter.
"Oh, it’s nothing really, I just wanted to ask you a small, simple and innocent question," Lloyd commented, maintaining that childish and innocent tone, which he used in a way as mockery toward the sword.
Belial looked him up and down, trying to read his intentions. But it didn’t seem he was going to ask anything suspicious.
"Ahem, shoot, what do you want?" the sword asked with an undisguised contemptuous tone.
Lloyd kept smiling, unmoved by the sword’s contemptuous attitude.
After all, how was he going to be offended by the words of a cockroach about to die?
Lloyd slowly raised his arm, and flexed it to show the back of his hand to Belial.
"You see, I was wondering," Lloyd commented innocently, while suddenly, a golden tattoo manifested on his hand. "If you recognized this mark."
He asked, sharpening his smile and sharpening his gaze at the end of the phrase, as if that revelation were part of a Machiavellian plan.
Belial didn’t give it importance at first, but narrowed his huge eye to see the mark more closely.
No reaction.
At least at first. The moment he analyzed the mark completely, a memory came back to his mind, causing his eye to open wide with surprise and fear.
A fear that even made the sword shiver.
"Y-you... How... HOW DO YOU HAVE HIS MARK!???" Belial then howled, with a mixture of fear, confusion and resentment in his voice.
What Lloyd had shown him?
It was...
