The temple faded from my eyes. I opened my eyes this time for real. I was sitting on my bed, the morning sun shining on my lap.

I looked at both my arms. Nothing had changed. I looked at the mirror. Now wings. Nor horns.

Wait. Wait. What was…I looked at my forehead. The mark that had flown at me from the temple…was imprinted right on my forehead.

My hand erupted into pain again.

It began to move of its own accord, until the eye and lips were facing me again.

“So…how did it feel?”

“How did what feel?”

“Being blessed and cursed by the Ancestral Devil?”

I touched the mark on my forehead.

Lucifer went on. “In the beginning, there were many worlds. They all blossomed as flowers, and budded as sprouts of trees. In another beginning, the sky gave birth to the stars, and the stars decided to give birth to plants, which in turn brought life to humans and animals. Solaria, since it was on fire, and rage, could only resort to attacking other dimensions to fuel life. It began with eating small dimensions. Little ones. Until it grew larger and larger. Large enough..to now pose a threat to the World Tree dimension.

When it attacked, it created so much carnage, that the World Tree developed two versions. The regular tree that gave life, and imparted blossoms and new trees…and the new Demon World tree. Also known as the Ancestral Devil.

The first version of the World Tree was intent on teaching the Ancients, and letting them grow powerful enough o defend against Solarians. But the Demon World tree, under the influence of the hatred of the Ancients towards Solarians, took a different approach. From its birth, it began to affect Solarian gods, creating fallen gods. Traitor after traitor. To rot it out from the inside. Neither were good enough, as the mass murder of Ancients immensely weakened its strength, and the splitting into two made its powers even more minute against the united Solaria.

That was three hundred years ago. One hundred years after the attack of Solaria, the Demon World tree made that. The purple scroll. The Divine Demon’s Seventy Two Commandments. Almost reads like a religious book, but the real purpose behind it…is to make a Demon. It was his firm belief that a hero could not save the world anymore. Rather, it could only, only ever be a Demon. Only those that had lost everything.

Only those that had been forced to fall. Only those that knew that sort of pain could possibly save the Ancients. “

I stopped picking at the mark. “Lost everything…”

“Meaning, it would go to find the ones who’d fallen on hard times. The ones who knew the power of loneliness and a strong wish for death.”

I stayed silent. Lucifer went on. “I fell…when my lover, an Ancient God was slain, right in front of my own two eyes. The Ancestral Devil came to me, and he whispered in my ear. Kill them all to avenge her!”

I felt it then. His truth. And I did. I tried at least. Before they finally sealed me away in Deseray’s egg.

Across the years, there have been many others like you. Some have never made it to the first Commandment. Others have made it to the thirtieth…but the most successful was Deseray.

Deseray was the hatchling of a concubine of the Dragon King. She was framed, and his egg was tossed out of the palace. He had grown up with nothing, loved nothing, and hated everything. But at the same time, he passed the first Commandment when I presented it to him right away. Because he refused to die. He refused to give in to anyone. He most of all…refused to obey and accept his position as a peasant tossed out of the Dragon Court.”

“What is the first Commandment?”

“The First Commandment…is that of Rebellion.

We can feel fury, we can feel anger. We can feel hatred...but all of that emotion means nothing...unless you can harness it in one action: Rebellion. And that is the most important of all. "