"H…how?" Ran stuttered out, staring in amazement at the sulphur-stone skeletal architecture of the city.
It was back to what it had been—exactly as it was before the Lagarakei's attack.
Even the palace, bigger than the biggest cities in Kurana, had been restored.
"Time does not flow fluidly in Naraku. One could return to a previous era like flipping back a few pages in a book to reach a previous passage," Mokoku explained, clearly enjoying his shock from how she was grinning while observing him.
He looked around the guard tower they were on. A guard tower that had been broken and barely standing—now its sulphur-stone walls shone and its pillars stood resolute and uncracked.
"So, you can restore everyone who died too?" He asked her.
She shook her head. "I could, but there's no reason to."
"They will return in their own time," Haru said before he could ask why. He looked at Ran. "Remember, the denizens of hell are immortals. They shall respawn anytime between now and a few years. Most would be back before the year's over and back to their might."
"All except my Lords of Hell," Mukoku said, frowning.
Ran gasped. "What happened to them?"
She watched him carefully, he recognized the look as when adults are considering if they should reveal something to you or not.
It seemed she finally decided that he deserved to know whatever this was about.
"Eldritch beings in Naraku are not respawned. They fade into limbo to find a soul to return in, for these souls this possession is sort of like an ascension into a greater being," Mukoku explained. "Now, when you slew the Lagarakei, its essence, when fading into limbo, caught the essences of my Lords of Hell in its grasp. They shall return, but that would be centuries in Kurana's time. But blazes willing, possibly anytime this year in Naraku. But their powers would be very much diminished when they return as the Lagarakei captured a lot of their essences."
"Blazes willing that shall be years to come," Haru said to his sister. "I don't wish for centuries to pass while I'm in Naraku."
She glared at him but later shook her head. "Then get your business with the cambion done and leave. You may have already been here too long as it is."
He shrugged. "You think I don't know that?" He pointed at Ran. "Anyway, why did you ask me to bring him to you?"
"Aside wanting to see if my loyal knave who saved my realm by helping me slay a nightmare was doing fine?" Mukoku asked in a feigned look of innocent confusion.
Haru pinched his nose and cursed under his breath, making Ran smile.
"Yes, aside that," the acolyte said, exasperated.
"Oh, I just wanted to give him this," Mukoku said, and suddenly—there was a book in her hands.
Ran stared at the book. It was white, brighter than the stars of a clear night sky. And running over the cover were hundreds of golden roots.
No—looking closer, Ran saw that they weren't roots at all.
They were runes—runes so tiny they appeared like lines, lines curved and narrow like the roots of a tree.
They seem to enhance the brightness of the book.
"Is that—" Haru gasped, eyes glued to the book just like Ran.
Mukoku nodded. "The Holy Book of Light, yes it is."
"How did you get it?" Haru asked in a whispery tone of awe.
"Aside the Feys, I'm the only one who cares for knowledge. You wouldn't believe the great tomes I've gotten from my kindreds for cheap exchanges. I possess one of the greatest libraries in Naraku," she boasted. "You could say the third greatest after those of the Feys and HIM IN CHAINS."
Ran shuddered at the reference to whatever being she sought not to speak of, and Naraku shuddered with him.
"I won this in a bet from an arch-demon who had stolen it from a rogue Fey who had before then stolen it from the Fey library," Mukoku continued then presented the book to Ran. "Here, it's for you."
"Don't touch it!" Haru screamed but Ran had already touched the book.
Mukoku let it go and they both turned to stare at the acolyte.
"Uh, should something have happened?" Ran asked and suddenly he was the one being stared at.
Mukoku was regarding him with a smile while Haru looked startled and confused.
"Could there still be some purity in you?" The boy asked.
"It's not that," Mukoku countered.
Her brother turned and frowned at her, still confused. "How then do you explain how he was able to hold the Holy Book of Light, a book that would kill anyone who's not a Fey should they lay their hands upon it?"
"How did you think I was able to hold it?" The Queen of Severance countered back.
Haru sneered at her. "Don't attempt to fool me, sister, I'm not a child. The book barely touched your hand. You were clearly using severance in a way. Either you had severed the possibility of it harming you, or you severed space around it so you could hold it without holding it. Do you expect me to believe Ran can do that?"
The ancient Queen of Severance rolled her eyes as a young mortal girl would, then waved off her brother's concerns.
"The ichor is still settling in his veins. His purity is strong enough for him to hold the book," she said, then looked at ran. "Though from now on you must find a way to handle the book without touching it or touching whatever you try to use to handle it, so no sticks or gloves."
He nodded, dumbfounded, then lowered his gaze to stare at the book which was the brightest source of light he'd encountered since stepping into Naraku.
"And why did you give me this again?" He asked.
"I never said, but if you should know—you will awaken your kin with the ichor in your veins now. It was never in our agreement that I'd empower you, the best I can do is give you that book to help you empower yourself," she said.
Haru nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder. "That's the best guide to mastering your kin, Ran."
"Unlike some people who decided to dedicate their lives to holiness," Mukoku said, sneering at her brother just as he'd done to her earlier. "When will you return to your order of chastity?"
Haru huffed. "Even when I get my business done, I'm not leaving Ran behind. Where are you in the plan to help him regain his father?"
Mukoku hardened her gaze upon her brother but Haru did not relent. He faced her unflinchingly.
She smirked, and reclined back upon her throne then favored Ran with a smile.
"Fresh souls are not my department. In fact, souls—any soul—are not under my sovereignty. That's for the Prince of Souls and I have managed to find your father within his realm. Fortunately for you, enough time hasn't passed for him to be damned, else he'd have been found in the realm of the City of Blazes. Once a soul reaches that point there's no restoration. They will burn for almost all eternity before being made into sparks in the sky."
Ran looked up and gazed at said sparks, withholding a shudder. He regained himself quickly and looked back to Mukoku. "So my father is in the City of Souls. Who is the Prince of Souls?" He asked, having trouble recalling if he'd read anything about such a figure in the book of Calidation.
Brother and sister exchanged a look.
Then they spoke as one and uttered a name that made the night weep and every nearby spark scuttle away.
The name—
"Azazel."