Chapter 197

Arc 17 - Shadowy World - Part 7

On that day, Lucifer’s dimension:

Lucifer left the third dimension and ascended to his own, which exists outside the axis of all, yet within it.

In this calm and soothing dimension, Lucifer walked into his large mansion slowly.

Nazar was not someone he liked, but he was quite disappointed in his death. After all, Lucifer himself has no chance to stand against the Queen. For the survival of all, he prayed for his wellbeing.

“Hrn,” a faint unpleasant voice escaped his beautiful lips.

He could hear the voice of sadness, the songs of grief from his calm and soothing dimension, and he did not like that.

The sobbing of an angel who lost someone close was not a sight Lucifer ever thought he would see, yet here he is, witnessing the impossible.

The glory of the past is no more, huh?

Angels are an elite group of beings in this cosmos, they are the primal concepts of the Ultraverse, they are the ones that gives this meaningless light a meaning.

We have fallen so far...

Angels were the peak of the cosmos, the ultimate beings of power and glory in this endless universe.

But, in the recent years, they have all been tainted.

His sister was one of the first, a woman who fell in love with a mortal.

And now, Aarin, an angel who got too close to humans.

In the past, I would have killed her, for this is wrong.

The Ultraverse has a hierarchy - of not just power, but position - and that hierarchy is meant to be upheld at all costs. Angels are superior to demons, and it should remain as such. They should never view one another as equals. Naturally, the difference between angels and humans is even greater than that of angels and demons.

However, everything changed when Lucifer rebelled.

An angel fell in love with a human, an angel was stripped off her powers, an angel became friends with a demon, an angel had a child with a demon and another with a mortal, and more.

The hierarchy was being rewritten, and it should have scared everyone, yet… Aside from Lucifer, most did not seem to care.

Hm, I too, usurped the position from my father, so perhaps I am not that different.

Lucifer walked through the hall and found himself in what can only be considered a living room.

Anaiel noticed Lucifer from the corner of her eyes, and immediately her body tensed up slightly.

She noticed varying emotions on his face; she could see a hint of anger, a hint of relief and happiness, and more.

He walked slowly towards the weeping angel.

Anaiel instinctively moved away from Aarin, she did not want to, but her body did not listen to her mind. It did not listen to her heart.

“The Golden Angel...”

Lucifer stood behind Aarin and touched her head.

In the next instant, her wings shot out of her back, then a golden halo began to appear over her head.

“!!” Anaiel’s eyes widened. “H-how?”

Anaiel learned recently about Aarin’s transformation, and she knew she could no longer be affected by Lucifer, so how was he able to do this just now?

She should have been outside of his influence, so how can he force out her wings and halo?

“That’s… impossible.”

Lucifer paid her no heed and continued with his task at hand.

He forced the halo to spin faster and faster.

With every passing second, Lucifer’s eyes began to light up with golden energies.

“Let’s meet your master, shall we?”

And just like that, with an explosion of a bright blinding golden light, Lucifer vanished into thin air.

As Lucifer slipped out of this dimension, Aarin’s halo slowed down. Before long, her wings detached into her body, and everything returned to normal.

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“Where…?”

In the darkness that spread for an infinity, Lucifer quickly looked left and right.

He felt as if his body were moving at high speeds, but he could not see anything unusual.

Everything in his surroundings was the same.

To make matters worse, he was pushed back by an invisible force.

It was as if he was trying to swim against a tsunami.

Lucifer found himself overwhelmed by the forces of nature, forces that were far beyond his comprehension.

In my birth, what did my creator name me?

With that question, an old memory began to resurface in the back of his mind.

Rise, LUCIFER! Rise, my champion. Rise and bathe this battlefield with the blood of my enemies, my general.

…

You face the one without a name, my antithesis, my counterpart. For I create, and he destroys. So! End him now, my harbinger, end him!

Consider it done, Creator.

Good, goood! Bring me victory, my ultimate creation, my ultimate machine. You, who are the ultimate cheat code in the cosmos, shall reign supreme today and till the end of times.

The ultimate cheat code, huh? The ultimate weapon, huh?

Six wings - two white wings, two black wings, and two golden wings - shot out of his back and ripped apart the living darkness around him. He could feel his claws destroying his surroundings.

Then a halo, a mix of white, golden and black colours, began to materialise over his head.

As the halo began to spin furiously, the power he felt within him increased significantly.

The fight against the tsunami of darkness became easier.

Lucifer kicked his foot into the darkness and shot himself forward like a rocket. And the rocket of light that flew through the infinite sky with no beauty.

「Euphirium」

Through the process of Euphirium, Lucifer accessed his true powers - as the Ultraverse itself.

Even more power flowed into his body.

With every passing second, the darkness in front of him became clearer. He could see everything as if there was light.

I see it all, the inner workings of what we know as 「Megaverse」, a collection of two or more Ultraverses - two or more beings such as I… Except they are… Different?

Lucifer shook his head, throwing away his unnecessary thoughts.

Not the time. Must focus on what’s...

Suddenly, Lucifer bumped into an invisible wall.

Upon impact, he felt an intense pain in his soul, almost as if he were being ripped apart into the smallest pieces.

What?!

Lucifer coughed blood - however, there was no blood at all. He thought he did, but nothing came out.

His knees began to give out, he was about to fall, but to where? Where would he fall? The darkness was eternal, never ending.

This pain...

Lucifer gritted his teeth.

He stabbed his fingers in his body, making himself physical pain, which gave him a short window of forgetting about the pain of his soul.

And that’s all he needed.

「Crossing Void」

He accessed his true powers and multiplied them infinitely, becoming more powerful than ever before.

Everything began to shrink around him, he felt as if he was growing and growing.

The wall above me tried to destroy my core, my concept, but I refuse to let that happen.

“Lucifer chooses his own ending!”

And so, he clenched his fist.

Lucifer swung his right fist upwards, punching an invisible wall.

With the power of what felt like a million exploding Ultraverses, the wall shattered, and Lucifer jumped through it.

My size keeps growing--

“Hrk?!” the pain in his soul and core began to worsen.

With every passing moment, with every fraction of a second that passed, he felt like he will explode from the inside.

His bones were breaking, his muscles were shredding apart, and his mind was going mad.

However, he could not let that happen.

Lucifer could not die, at least not today.

He has to live.

So!

I am being destroyed on a level I cannot even comprehend.

In pain, Lucifer tightened every fibre of his physical body, stopping this alien plane from killing him.

I must keep my physical body intact; it will give me a fighting chance. I must survive, or else all will die with me.

Even in this pain, even with his soul and core being in danger, his body kept growing, and so did his power.

He did not understand what he was doing or what he should be doing, but he had to move forward no matter what.

『Lucifer, you are forbidden from ascending into a higher plane of the Omniverse.』

Null’s voice reached Lucifer’s ears, but he ignored those words.

『You have broken a primal law of the Omniverse.』

I don’t need you, Null. I do not care for your bickering. Or another God’s.

Lucifer forcefully took a step forward.

His steps were heavy, it was as if he could not support his own weight. And it felt like this plane of the omniverse could not support it either.

I must speak to him today.

He needed to see the Golden God and nothing could stop him.

Lucifer forced his large body to fly up and punched through another wall.

『Beings from lower planes of the Omniverse are forbidden from reaching the higher planes of the Aleph-∞. You are from the first and should be the last.』

There are rules in the Omniverse, rules created by entities who might not even be able to think for themselves.

But this law is absolute, the Celestials must abide by it.

『By the decree of the Omniverse, Lucifer, you are to--』

Before Null could finish speaking, Lucifer ascended to another plane.

He broke through another wall and his body began to feel pain more intense than before.

His size increased to levels beyond his comprehension, and it did not stop.

『Impressive. If it were someone other than you, they would have ceased existing long ago.』

Lucifer’s pained eyes fell upon a Golden God who was waiting to greet him.

With a face full of pain and agony, Lucifer said painfully, “D… Dragon.”

Lucifer’s muscles were tense, so tense it could explode at any moment.

His veins were popping out of his skin as sweats rained over his body.

『Oh, how hard it must have been on you, great Lucifer.』

Was it pity or concern, Lucifer could not tell?

Either way, he hated it. He couldn't accept either from this man.

『Please, let me help you.』

Lucifer denied his healing and his help.

He can never be trusted.

Perhaps the Dragon wants to help him, or perhaps he wants to implant something within Lucifer, after all, that is what he does best.

"I… ngh--" Lucifer fought against the pain in his body, soul, and concept. "There is something I must know."

『...』

The kindness from the Dragon's faceless body began to fade away as maliciousness overtook its place.

『No.』

"I am not here to know who is underneath the mask, I do not care anymore, I merely want to ask one question - one simple question; why her?"

『...』

The Dragon was taken back ever so slightly by Lucifer's words.

That question was not within his calculations, and he hated that.

Recently, nothing has been going the way he had planned, so he felt frustrated.

Although he was angry, he tried to not show it on his faceless face.

『Lucifer, what do you think about that angel, hm?』

"..." Lucifer found himself confused at the odd question of this God. "How do you mean?"

『This angel you looked down upon since the dawn of creation, this angel who was not meant to be special… is special.』

Before Lucifer could say anything, the Golden God added, 『After you, she was one of the first to free herself, broke through the shackles that held every angel under the rightful command of your God. And she did not even realise it. 』

Lucifer, of course, did not know that, but he pretended he did, "That is irrelevant. If anything, I should be happy someone helped me, made my job slightly easier."

『That is beside the point,』 the Dragon muttered. 『She made herself special by breaking apart her shackles, by defying heaven for more power, and in doing so, she became a unique existence in ranks of you and your kind. And then, she formed a unique relationship with God himself, something no other angel can or will do.』

"You forced powers onto her because of her relationship with him?!" Lucifer asked in a voice that carried a hint of anger.

『No, Lucifer, you are not understanding the simplest of facts.』 Frankly, Ikeiss started to get a bit annoyed with this angel. 『She wasn't special, she was never meant to be special, but she became special.』

Lucifer scoffed.

"I find that rather unbelievable."

『If that is your wish, then so be it. Consider it fate, then.』

"Angels exist at one point in time, only in the present. So, I find it hard to believe--"

『Oh, Lucifer, you are so naive. So childish.』

While the Dragon had no face, Lucifer could see the pity on his face as clear as the day. He could feel the Dragon was smiling a condescending smile.

『While it might be true for your small little light, it couldn't be more wrong in the eyes of the 「Ultratime」.』

"Ultratime?"

『Indeed. A concept of time which connects the omniverse together. Because without space, time is meaningless, and without time, space is meaningless. But together, their love births reality - and at the end, only reality matters.』

Lucifer had a faint understanding of this concept, but he was not sure how.

At that moment, he realized how he knew that.

“Of course.”

『Oh, Lucifer,』 the good Dragon did not try to hide the pity in his voice. 『Oh, great Lucifer, you are so, so, so, so naive.』

“...” Lucifer’s left eye twitched in anger. “What?”

『Did you really think you know all this because I, the great Dragon, implanted knowledge in your mind? Did you really believe that? Did--- Oh, no. Let me rephrase. Do you really think you know all of this because I implanted knowledge in your mind?』

“But of course,” Lucifer chuckled. “How else?”

『Ohh… Oh, poor you.』

Lucifer clicked his tongue at his pitiful words.

『You are Lucifer, an Ultraverse, you are a creature of the Void, and you… You ascended two layers into the Aleph-∞ above your own, it is-- You can do things in these cosmos no one else can, Lucifer. You are a different kind of creature.』

“Then...”

Lucifer, after so long, finally understood himself.

"Oh."

His mind went blank for a moment as realisation dawned upon him.

It all made sense now.

『You are finally awaking to the true curse of power, Lucifer, you are finally seeing it.』

Lucifer grunted, both in displeasure and pain.

The pain in his soul and core continued to rise, it was suffocating, but he fought through it.

He would not give in to this pain.

Seeing how he was in pain; the Dragon extended his right hand towards the first angel.

Lucifer, however, ignored it.

Understanding the notion of Lucifer's reaction, the Dragon retracted his arm and looked down at the Ultraverse as he changed the topic.

『How do you see yourself from here?』

Lucifer found his question useless and a waste of time, but despite his initial feelings, he glanced down and answered the Dragon in an annoyed manner, "I cannot see it; however, the previous layer seems smaller than an atom to me."

『Atom...』 Ikeiss spoke slowly as he nodded his head faintly. 『I see.』

"?"

『The difference between each layer is far too great for even a man such as you to realise. Once you reach a higher layer, the lower vanishes. Smaller than an atom is not wrong, but in reality, it's too small to be seen by anyone. You choose to see it as an atom because your mind is weak, others however, chooses to see it as a reel of a film, or a page of a book.』

The Dragon chuckled.

『I must admit, I am quite disappointed Lucifer. Very disappointed.』

What is he...

『I was hoping you will see the bigger picture, but you choose not to. You do not want to see the reality for what it is.』

“Is… that so?”

『Indeed.』 the Dragon spread his arms slightly in a condescending manner. 『In any case, my good friend, ask away your questions.』

Lucifer shrank himself down his usual form and descended back into his original layer of the omniverse.

After so long, he finally met the Dragon, he had many questions, but he decided to not ask him anything more.

The Dragon has the answer to everything, he is the only one who connected everything, yet Lucifer does not want to learn any more from him.

Bygones be bygones, Lucifer thought to himself as he materialized in his own dimension. The past is the past, something which we no longer have control over.

As soon as he materialized, he fell on his right knee. He was about to lose momentum and fall over, so he clenched his right hand and stopped himself from falling face down and kissing the floor.

The Dragon touched the lives and souls of us all when we were young, he is the mastermind behind most of our misery, there is so much I want to know… But!

Lucifer ground his teeth.

From his body, the sound of bones breaking could be heard.

A wet sound of muscles ripping apart reached his ears but he ignored it.

I am not going to give him that satisfaction, I will not! He manipulated us, hurt us, and… He did it all, all of this so we can beg him for answers and so he could laugh over us bend knees.

Lucifer finally understood why the Dragon did all of this.

It pained him, pained him more than ascending did, but this was his reality.

We are nothing but entertainment for him...

Inside the large castle, Lucifer breathed heavily.

I am willing to leave behind that terrible past, my terrible past - and build a future. A future without Gods like him-- Hrk?!

Lucifer coughed blood. His red blood streamed on this glittering clean floor.

What...

A loud groan left his beautiful lips after more blood burst out.

My ascension was quick and against the will of the cosmos, then...

His vision began to darken as he fell face down to the floor.

As his vision darkened further, he began to hear whispers, distant whispers.

Lucifer, you have committed a grave heresy.

Ascendance without the will of the cosmos is abolished, it is prohibited.

Your crimes will not be forgiven.

An anomaly.

Disgusting.

You could have destroyed the balance of the cosmos, of the Celestials.

Impossible.

The omniverse is not your playground, and you are not a child.

Why?

He should die.

Unforgivable.

Death.

Eradication.

Shall the omniverse survives the onslaught of the Queen, you will be judged.

This is my punish… me… nt...

And so, he lost his vision and his voice, falling unconscious.

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The present, Asteria:

Lucifer flew up to a place which was meant to exist beyond him - the Ultraverse - but he recently learned that it is actually part him - and so is Oblivion.

There are many aspects of him which is yet to uncover.

The new information he learned were quite daunting, but Lucifer found it hard to deal with at the moment.

Instead of facing his problems, he pushed them aside to focus on something else.

In any case, time is running out.

He flew up and up, and after what felt like an eternity, he finally reached a small dimension full of light.

Asteria - the personal plane of the Supreme One.

Lucifer created a door in this odd-shaped dimension and entered it.

As he set his foot into this dimension which lacked shape once entered, he found other people in this dimension - people who were waiting for his arrival.

Some of the most powerful entities in the Ultraverse had gathered here today.

“Greetings, Lucifer,” Aiht, the Negative God, saluted with his middle and index fingers.

“Hi,” Emily nodded at Lucifer. A faint fearful spread on his face.

“My lord,” Metatron, the human who ascended to the ranks of angels, stood up and raised a flat hand in front of his chest with the thumb facing Metatron himself. “It is an honour to meet you again.”

“Metatron?” Lucifer tilted his head to the right slightly. “What brings you here?”

“I am appointed as the protector of this Ultraverse by the Supreme One. Oblivion is perhaps the final layer of this Ultraverse, so my duty extends--”

“Mm, doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, Lord Lucifer,” Metatron bowed slightly.

Lucifer walked past him and sat down (?) as he crossed his legs.

He leaned back and let out a soft sigh.

“As it turns out...” without wasting time, he began speaking about what mattered. “We are all going to die.”

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"The sun is falling."

An entire world screamed in horror and fear as the golden beacon of light came closer to their tiny world.

These blue slime-looking-humans lived an easy and comfortable life on their tiny world. Everything was going great until a moment ago when the sun started to fall.

They ran in every direction they could, but it was useless.

Their world was small, they lacked resources of space travel, so they could not form good relations with other species who will aid them today.

In the past, they would have been happy to be left alone - after all, who likes to be disturbed?

But today, today was different. Today they wanted alien invaders and evil Gods to rise so they might be saved.

These lazy creatures did not need sustenance, so their planet was underdeveloped in every possible ways.

Sustenance and war are two of the few things in the universe which can lead to developments, and this world had no need for either, so they had nothing now. They had nothing that will help them survive.

So, the sun came down and devoured them. It ate the entire world, leaving nothing behind.

The supernova wiped away everything.

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The world died, the people died - but moments later, they found themselves in a dark plane of reality, a place devoid of time and space, reality and meaning.

『This... is new.』

A slime-looking-angel appeared and looked at these creatures.

In this kind of limbo, only one person can appear, they can never interact with another soul, yet today, this angel witnessed something new.

『Everything is changing.』

Before wasting any more time, the angel pushed all the souls together and tied them to one individual.

Their pains and sufferings were pushed into one soul.

『I will be taking you.』

While in a state of confusion and pain, the poor soul was taken away by this angel.

Whoever it was, it paid a hefty price for those who did not know.

Perhaps the souls of his race pointed fingers towards this person, or perhaps the angel was too lazy to take all souls with him.

Whatever the case, their soul and core were damaged in ways which are beyond repair now.

『Sigh, so much work...』