"I never thought you'd want anything from me?"
That was a lie. Ran knew, he'd always known, that this day would come. He had no idea what it was about him that fascinated his parents, whatever it was they knew about his future that made them want him, want to own him.
He wasn't even as powerful as Frey. Frey would have burned the world, smiling all the while, just to keep their mother happy. Yet with his death she'd proven to Ran that he was the son she chose.
Now here was Lucifer, the Lucifer— the Fallen Star —asking that he be honoured? What the hell had he ever done for him that he should be honoured as a father?
His parents disgusted him. All they wanted was to take and take and give nothing in return. All they gave was pain and misery.
"I want nothing from you. What I want is something for you," said that angelic voice that filled him with such an overwhelming peace.
"And what is that thing you want for me?" He asked.
"Normalcy."
Ran, mouth agape, raised his head to stare at the being in shock. He made sure to avoid directly looking into his eyes. He hadn't been expecting that. He'd expected some flattery like wanting greatness for him, wanting to make him the best he could possibly be. Not…this.
"Normalcy?" He questioned, not bothering to hide the doubt and confusion in his tone.
"Indeed."
"Why?"
The Fallen Star, still as frozen as a statue, somehow emoted a feeling of sadness. "I wish to give you the ability of choice. You could say that ability was what brought me where I am now. I had options, I made a choice that was best suited to my desire. It's yet to be seen if it was a good choice or a bad one, but I no longer rage in my heart at my choices being made for me, at living a scripted life, maintaining a stereotype. I made my choice, I broke the mold. I want that for you."
Ran scoffed in his heart. If he was a few years younger, more gullible, then this speech would have pierced his heart, resonated deep within him. Lucifer had nothing on a Fey when it came to deception.
But even as he was of this mind, a small part of Ran wondered if that did not actually make the Master of the Abyss's words true. There was no emotional tug, no soothing ambience, no mental influence, just dry speech.
Didn't that mean Lucifer was being honest. Regardless of how weird of a statement that was. But it could be true.
Shaking his head, Ran decided he'd not give attention to this quandary. He decided to continue with his inquiry. He'd heard the supposed 'why', now it was time for the 'how'.
"And how do you plan to provide me with that normalcy? How do you propose to save me from the Yōsei no joō?"
There was a long silence after his question. Even the dragon man ahead of him went completely still. He watched, he waited for a response.
"Tell me, since your entrance into my realm, have you felt the essence of your mother stirring deep in your soul?"
Ran sighed. How do they just keep knowing things they had no business knowing?
"Because we are like gods upon the mortal plane. Nothing is beyond us. No authority exists within my realm save mine. I proposed normalcy to you. Here is where you can have it."
Ran snorted. "Right, just under your thumb. Slowly groomed and manipulated into becoming Satan junior."
"You feel I'd ever have need of your potential?"
Ran shrugged as if to say 'you tell me?'. "I don't know, but what I do know is that you want me here for some reason. Why am I so special to you?"
For the first time, he provoked something else but stillness from the Master of the Abyss, Lucifer smiled.
"I have existed for billions of years, have had more children than there are stars, and you think you are special? Boy, I am an entity prone to responsibility. I wish to be a greater father than the great father was to me. I have always provided my children with choices as I am to you now. Think nothing more of it, lest you give in to your arrogance."
Ran shook his head. All of this was just more words of manipulation. He wanted to manipulate him, convince him in a roundabout way that there was nothing special about this.
"If you provide choices then you have a bad way of showing that," he said, then expanded upon receiving an inquiry silence. "Where are my friends?"
"Safe. The Realm of the Abyss is not a place a trio of youths should be wandering about. I have given them shelter, they are safe. You can join them, the offer is open to you too."
"I want to see them," Ran said. He wanted to know why his mental connection to Haru was not working.
He couldn't try because he couldn't feel it. He wondered if even his kin would work here. Probably just that, since he'd flown here, and none of his other core powers.
Satan's authority was indeed supreme in his realm.
"You can if-"
The words of Satan were interrupted as the tendril door was sliced open and all eyes were instantly on it.
Ran turned and gaped in shock as his friends rushed into the room, bedraggled. Erisa was even missing a hand.
He stared, unable to comprehend what could possibly have happened to them. But he knew who could possibly have been behind it.
"Ran," Haru called, gasping. "W…we need to get…out of here."
Rage coloring his features, Ran turned and fixed his father with a glare. "What did you do?" He asked, his voice so cold it sent a frigid wave around the throne room.
His question was met with a heavy silence.
"TELL ME!!" He yelled, taking the restraints off his fury.
Lucifer looked from his friends to him then rose from his throne. He was huge, easily ten feet tall and was in an armour of blinding white light, a cloak of the same constitution trailed behind him as he stepped down from the throne.
"I had to find a way to make them accept my offer of shelter. Seems like I'd have to do a repeat of that with you."
Even through his rage, Ran shivered. He was angry, so angry that he wanted to unleash the Lagarakei, if he'd even be able to do that under Satan's supreme authority.
But, looking back to his friends, he remembered his promise to his father. He might be unkillable, but they weren't. He shouldn't give in to rage, he should find a way to get them out of here instead.
What options did he have? And he needed to be smart about this as it appeared to be that Lucifer could read his intent if not his mind as he'd proven with the 'Because we are like gods' comment.
"If you are thinking of running right now, I'd remind you that there's no place to hide in hell that would keep me away from you," the first sinner said, coming to a halt just a yard away from Ran.
"So I should just surrender?" Ran asked.
Meanwhile, his thoughts were running wild. His other abilities might be suppressed here but his natural kin was not because it was as much a part of him as his life. His Fey nature was too, but it was connected to an extradimensional race—no external authority could function here, only internal.
His telekinesis of the Fey Rune was out too, so it was indeed just his kin and possibly whatever nature he'd inherited from the being before him.
Though that last one still remained unknown to him, latent.
But he was not a Fey expert. He knew no spell, charm, or great act. The flight form Erisa taught him was all that he knew.
"Even that is a choice I shall leave to you," Lucifer said in response to his question.
What else did he have, Ran thought. His Fey nature meant that he was still pure, regardless of the corruption of the cores within him. Could he use that?
That gave him an idea.
"I refuse to be your little satan."
This could work. It had to, he had the kin for it now and the purity. He'd done it before, he did as Ya.
"So, you have made your choice?"
"Yes," he said, "sorry, I am my own devil."
He saw it in his posture when Lucifer Inferred his intent, the way he froze and then started moving.
But it was too late. Ran spoke the word of destruction.
"ZENMETSU."