Satan burst into a booming laugh, a laugh that made the air vibrate, as if the heavens themselves mocked Bakuzan's pretensions.
Her voice resounded, sharp and ironic:
Satan:
"You… you are really quite funny. They say you may be the strongest of the Deviants, yet your thinking remains imprisoned by mythical naïveté. You think you can reach the Viraya on your own?
Listen to me well: an absolute detachment from identity, a tearing away of the predefines of the Madhurya… without support, that is not ascent. It is collapse.
You confuse surpassing lower states, like the first Suargaloka, with something that bears no real comparison. Here… the very nature of being tilts."
Her laughter abruptly faded. Her red eyes fixed on Bakuzan with icy gravity.
Satan (in a low, menacing voice):
"You will not evolve alone. Perhaps you will progress, yes… but not to the Viraya.
Alone, you will remain frozen in the Madhurya, trapped for eternity under the domination of the one who truly governs it… Morlük."
Bakuzan's pupils dilated, his breath caught.
A name rang through his mind, unknown and terrible, like a crack in all he thought he knew.
Bakuzan (panting):
"Morlük…? Who is Morlük?"
Satan left a silence hanging. A cold breeze swept his long white hair, writhing like a spectral aura. When she spoke again, it was with a nearly funeral solemnity.
Satan:
"Morlük is not a simple incarnation of forces. He is the Madhurya itself.
Not only his power, but his body, his mind, his laws and his roots.
He is the totality, and the forces you think you face or transcend… are included in him."
Bakuzan's breath stalled. His certainties cracked.
Bakuzan:
"What…? Then… who is Isissis 1?"
A cruel smile brushed Satan's lips.
Satan:
"Isissis 1 is nothing more than the ego of the Madhurya forces.
A detached fragment, an expression, a mask Morlük allowed to freeze into a form.
He is powerful, yes, but he is not the totality.
Just like Shylty… she is also but a shard."
Bakuzan (trembling, voice broken by the vertigo of revelations):
"Who… who is Shylty?"
Satan lowered her eyelids slightly, as if that name awakened a distant memory. Her voice grew soft, but heavy with meaning.
Satan:
"Shylty… you sometimes call the protective goddess.
If Isissis embodies the Madhurya forces in their will to dominate, Shylty is the inverse expression: the subjective, just, protective aspect that does not seek to crush but to maintain balance.
She is not weaker, simply different.
Like Isissis, she has her own autonomous avatars, which unfold through the third and fourth zones. All are behind Isissis, but their source is common."
A thick silence settled. Bakuzan, wide-eyed, struggled to breathe.
Bakuzan:
"So… if Isissis and Shylty are only egos… partial reflections…
Morlük… would be…"
Satan fixed him, a red gleam in her pupils.
Satan:
"You can view him as the true Isissis… or the true Shylty.
They are only fragments. Morlük, he is the totality, the complete essence of the Madhurya."
Bakuzan's face twisted into an unexpected smile. His clenched teeth flashed in the darkness.
Bakuzan (in a vibrant voice):
"So… if I took the essence of Isissis 1… if I made her being an expression of my own powers… that would not destroy the cosmic order.
As long as Morlük, the integral incarnation, remains untouched… I could… appropriated him."
A brow furrow disturbed Satan's cold beauty.
Satan (stunned):
"What?! What are you talking about…?"
Bakuzan clenched his fist, eyes raised to the sky, as if he already saw his plan carved in the stars.
Bakuzan:
"I've always had this plan… to beat Isissis… to bend him… and fuse his essence with mine.
To make his skills, his laws, his strength… my own weapons."
The silence was so heavy that one could swear even the stars had frozen to listen. Satan stepped back a pace, as if struck by the audacity of what she had just heard.
Satan (in a voice almost incredulous):
"You… you're thinking of becoming a fragment of Morlük?
To absorb a fragment to make it your own flesh?
Yes… the cosmic order would remain intact, since Morlük would not be reached… but you?
To confront Isissis, Bakuzan… you would not last three seconds against him!"
Bakuzan let out a long sigh, his gaze fading into the temple's moving shadows.
— Not being able to beat him, I know… he murmured. But what I want is not to defeat — it is to fuse our essences.
Satan, silent for a moment, rested two fingers on her chin, pensive. A strange gleam crossed her pupils, between irony and intuition.
— Fuse your essences… she repeated slowly. Hm. It is not impossible. There may be… a way. A method to unite you with him without your being consumed, and perhaps… with his consent.
Bakuzan let out a small nervous laugh, almost bitter.
— Tsk… you mock me? Do you want me to believe in a dream?
His gaze hardened.
— Isissis 1 is too proud to bend before anyone. He would not submit, even to a Deviant like me.
Satan nodded slowly, an ambivalent gleam in her gaze.
— You are not entirely wrong, Bakuzan. But you see, there are three options… and none of them are kind.
She raised a hand, letting a dark, almost liquid glow dance between her fingers.
— The first is to force Isissis to absorb you. I could then hack the contact process, invert the flow of essence, and force him to unite with you.
Her tone grew heavier, almost compassionate.
— But if I fail, you will be forever lost in his essence. Dissolved, absorbed. You will no longer be yourself, just… a fragment of the great Isissis, a thought among others in his inner ocean.
A heavy silence settled. Even the dragon Nihlorgue, usually stoic, felt the air thicken around them. A subtle gravity wave seemed to run along his scales.
Bakuzan clenched his fists, eyes fixed on the void.
— And the second option?
Satan wore a slight, almost sad, smile.
— It's the one that seems the simplest… but it is also the riskiest.
Nihlorgue, a cavernous voice that rattled the walls:
— More risky than the first?
— Exactly, she answered bluntly.
Her gaze darkened, her aura turning a crimson shade.
— It is the Shid'Madhurya. An ancient, forbidden ritual… lost even to most higher beings.
Bakuzan looked up at her.
— And what does it involve?
— I learned, she said, from Lucifer himself and from my ventures into the Viraya, that there once existed a ritual capable of uniting two opposing essences: the Shid'Madhurya.
She traced in the air a circle of runes that seemed to breathe.
— This rite allows an entity to bind its nature to that of its opposite — to create an absolute balance between domination and submission, destruction and creation.
Her words echoed long in the room.
— But this ritual requires three essential elements:
First, a fragment of a Deviant's blood… thus, you, Bakuzan.
Next, a scrap of the Madhurya's own Breath — the most volatile and dangerous essence of this plan.
And finally… the true Name of Isissis, spoken without error at the exact moment of resonance.
She paused, studying the Deviant's face.
— If the ritual succeeds, your essences will not destroy each other. They will harmonize… in an impossible symphony, where you become a stabilized manifestation of the Madhurya.
Her voice grew almost solemn:
— You would be elevated, Bakuzan, to the rank of a partial incarnation of Morlük.
A strange breeze swept the room, as if simply the name made reality tremble.
Then Satan resumed, in a darker tone:
— But the risk, you doubtless sense…
She looked up at the sky, as if perceiving something beyond the visible world.
— The ritual could awaken Morlük himself. And if he views your fusion as a profanation of his essence, then his gaze — or what takes its place — would fall upon you.
She closed her eyes.
— And nothing, neither you, nor I, nor even Isissis, could bear that.
Bakuzan and the Dragon of the Void exchanged a look. Their eyes widened, touched by a tremor that was nothing human. They had just grasped the magnitude of the risk spoken of.
Satan crossed her arms, the tone graver, almost prophetic.
— Morlük… has slept so long that even the oldest have forgotten his breath. But if he were to wake up to a blasphemous intrusion, it would not be a simple awakening. It would be… a cataclysm.
Her voice vibrated like a world-ending whisper.
— His awakening would cause essence collapses throughout the Second Zone: gods, demons, metaphysical structures, everything that breathes or thinks there would collapse into chaos.
The concepts themselves would cry out… for their coherence would be broken.
And Isissis — she added, fixing Bakuzan — could either disintegrate or relocate to a higher state to escape corruption.
Silence fell again, like a shroud.
Bakuzan grit his teeth.
— Then it's a no. Forget this ritual. Tell me instead about the third option.
Satan slowly nodded, then resumed in a steadier tone.
— Very well. The third is not to approach Isissis directly, but to create a resonance from its echo in the lower zones.
She made a gesture in the air, tracing an energy wave that stretched and fractured into concentric circles.
— Isissis is present in all the lower zones in various forms: Isissis 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each is an autonomous avatar, but all remain linked to the same source.
These avatars leave echoes in the lower planes — traces of their presence, vibrant reflections.
She bent slightly toward Bakuzan.
— If you manage to fuse with one of these echoes, you could imbue yourself with its attributes without facing the absolute essence of the God. It would be a way to become him… without ever touching him directly.
Nihlorgue looked slightly toward Bakuzan, its breath heavy.
Satan continued, darker:
— But know this: any interference in the echo network touches the Madhurya deep. And this could draw the attention of the true Isissis… or worse, Morlük himself.
Her eyes took on a burning red hue.
— So, Bakuzan… which path do you choose?
Bakuzan kept silent, eyes fixed on the floor.
He quickly understood that the third option was merely another form of suicide.
Anything involving Morlük… led to disaster.
He slowly raised his gaze toward Satan.
Yes, the least risky option seemed to be the first.
But could he really trust her?
A bitter smirk crossed his face.
Satan herself had already admitted stabbing several of her allies before, "for the game," she said.
Nothing guaranteed she would not let Isissis absorb him willingly — just to savor the tragedy.
Everything closed in on him.
Every choice seemed but a trap laid by a cosmic hand.
Between Isissis and Satan, between glory and annihilation… only a thin thread remained.
And that thread, he could already feel it tautening beneath his steps.