Fire….
Silver fire and burning smoke surrounded Noctis, he could barely maintain a shred of control against his past self through the grueling hours of torment The Speaker made him endure without rest. He realized hours ago that this was not just about surpassing himself as she had explained.
To break and mold him.
Bones throbbing, bruises deepening with each blow from Romna, blood even spred across the lush grasses of her domain— this was hell for him.
With some effort on his behalf, along with blowing his nose of blood, Noctis forced himself to stand as she stood there watching with deep calculation of his breaking point, his body screaming to collapse as he did so.
"FUCK YOU!"
He swung at his past self again and met both air and another uppercut that knocked him back to her feet whilst Romna remained unscathed with not even a scratch.
It took the energy and wind out of him just to lay there and lean his bloody face up to see glare at the dead angel.
"You are trying too hard." The Speaker fell to her knees and touched his head with featherlight gentleness. "The path you are trying to take is an impossible one when you cannot be whole without accepting yourself."
It took this entire time of putting himself through beating after beating for Noctis to understand he was not going to win fighting himself. He would not admit it though, not with the discomfort he held in his heart and kept from everyone, even from his lovers.
Though he was still ready to punish himself some more with fighting his past self, he showed a hidden guilt behind his bloodied face whilst The Speaker saw past the anger in his eyes to the the darkness of his heart.
To that seed of fear he clutched inside himself so tightly it made her know that his failure so far was made by himself.
"Perhaps it is your fear of what you could become?" She insinuated with that smile still there to beam down on him. "Perhaps your darkest guilt when you were an orphan?"
Noctis widened his eyes and looked up from the grass to the smiling angel with a new hitch in his breath while going numb to her hands caressing his cheeks.
He suddenly sat up and scooted away from The Speaker but still refused to answer that implication given to him.
The Speaker was powerful in many ways and seeing the depth of a soul was one of them. Right now she saw everything about Noctis that had him so shackled and controlled, and it hurt her own heart to watch as he got defensive.
"Shut up!" He snapped angrily.
"Why?" She asked with maintaining her motherly tone. "Is it because you are still afraid of something that is gone?"
He looked away for but a moment until her hands held his face to make him look in her eyes as she tried to be gentle with history.
"Noctis, you were only a child. There was nothing you do could do to save them and you were unaware of what you are."
Noctis knew what part of his life she was referring to and blanked with dark remembrance of his childhood in the orphanage whilst she waved her hand to stop his past self from continuing.
The raw emotions streaming his mind and body overshadowed all other doubts as he thought back unwillingly to the various cries and screams he caught to his secret he believed to be unknown by everyone.
Yet she somehow knew and still she acted so caringly by slowly approaching even when he started backing away with fear he suppressed most of his life.
"DON'T COME NEAR ME!"
"My child," she reacher for the man but stopped midway at his flinch. "Please, do not let yourself be shackled with guilt. Let yourself go."
He suddenly winced in pain of a headache and pressed a hand over his left eye that flickered from normal to serpent with an amber glow in it.
"No…..no...they were..."
"Let it happen honey." The Speaker said softly, watching his body tremble to memory.
She walked over to him slowly and fell to her knees with little space between them. Once she reached Noctis she took his hand from his eye to find it bleeding in tears and its glow burning with old emotions surfacing.
"You have righteous fury, but you carry it as guilt."
"I SAID DON'T COME NEAR ME!" He screamed with all his might and shoved the angel away with what strength he had.
The Speaker recognized this defensive response and gestured her hands up in surrender whilst Noctis stood up and limped away from her.
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED THAT DAY!"
"But I do." She said softly and stood up. "I know all creatures and their pasts, including yours in the mortal world..... with that caretaker."
Noctis' eyes glowed in recognition of that word but still he kept a string distance by backing away as she tried to reach him.
"I don't even know what happened!"
"But you do, honey." She countered in a firmer tone, hoping he would listen. "You are repressing a terrible horror and blaming yourself for what was not in your control. You must let go and forgive yourself."
Noctis didn't allow himself to shed tears before looking down to the grass and muttered incoherently with insults. He cast aside his motivation to train and drowned at that painful recall with a side of trauma nobody had ever seen before, not even his loved ones.
Now she was determined to make him break when the first response was slapping his own head as a means to stop the pain.
"Noctis, stop!" The Speaker ordered firmly but fell on deaf ears.
"I killed him...I killed him...I killed him….."
The Speaker's eyes shined with held back tears before grabbing his wrists to stop the self-infliction as he repeated those words like a mantra.
"Noctis listen to me. What happened back then was not in your control. You cannot blame yourself."
"All those kids….." he whispered blankly at the ground.
The Speaker sighed and allowed him this mental breaking for but a moment before taking drastic measures to push his boundaries. It was cruel and to her standards a very inhumane method, but it was her task given to her in secret by the heavenly father to blossom this fragile man into what he was always destined to be.
This method alone made her smile fall.
Reluctantly she looked to the Romna-piece of his soul and waved her hands with a powerful cast of illusion to it and to the meadow around them. She warped her domain to the horror of his childhood memory and cast the fake into the last person Noctis ever wanted to see again.
"Please let this work." She hoped mentally.
While Noctis broke from his drowning, the Romna-Fake reshaped into a gentle appearing man of normal stature with blood on his buttoned up shirt and bits of flesh in his beard. His eyes darkened with a hollow hunger, deep with malicious need as he gazed down at the man.
"Hey kiddo….."
Noctis recognized that gruff voice whilst The Speaker hid herself in an etheral glow and watched the interaction with guilt.
Noctis' eyes widened as he rapidly stood back up and backed away from the man, his heart throbbing in his ears.
"Daniel….."
"Nice to see you." The bloodied man grinned with bits in his teeth. "Last time I saw you I was burnt alive by you."
Noctis gushed with tears at this point before he looked around to find his fear was true with the basement of the orphanage being his residence at the moment, unaware of the illusion The Speaker put him in.
"NO!"
"Remember this place?" Daniel gestured to the various children lying lifeless and in pieces from a series of meticulous cutting. "Brings back memories."
Noctis looked around with wide eyes as he recognized all the dead children from the orphanage he lived in, their lifeless faces undeniably remembered yet still carrying the last bit of suffering that froze on their faces.
His breathing turned erratic with each orphan he shared a life with in such clear view of their last expression.
Lifeless.
"No, no, no….."
Daniel snickered at him and circled slowly. It was then The Speaker worked her powers in secret to push Noctis through the cruelest words from Daniel.
"You just couldn't be a good boy and stay upstairs while I ate. You know I always favored you, always wondered how you tasted when ripe."
"You ate them you sick fuck!"
"And they were deliciously ripe." Daniel laughed in response and circled him closer. "And all you could do was watch when little Layla was screaming and crying as I peeled her piece by piece before you burned me alive. Do you remember?"
A wave of nausea took Noctis as the screams of that little red head boomed in his mind, his eyes burning to the blood and tears pouring out as he clutched his head. This pain, this terror, it ate him away to rethink his dark past he never shared with anyone and he wanted the nightmare to end as the screams of her suffering echoed around the illusion during Daniel's torment.
"You snapped, used your powers to burn me inside and out. Police could not figure it out, but now look at you— so scared of yourself that you can't even face your past."
"Push back Noctis." The Speaker said softly in her thoughts and continued the illusion.
"Shut up!" Noctis snapped, but even his words had no edge to them as he looked around the room for a way out.
Daniel continued to circle and laugh.
"You couldn't save Layla back then and now you won't save anybody. You are going to fail because you are too scared to be what you are."
Noctis felt those words hit hard as he turned back to the illusion replaying to the exact child he remembered being eaten alive, his mind throbbing to the replay of seeing that little girl slowly lose life with each cry or scream while his adolescent self was frozen with fear on the other side of the room with a stuffed owl falling out of his hand.
He was assaulted by an intense recall of his child self entering the basement to see the bloody horror of his fellow orphans that disappeared one by one with no trace for weeks. The friends he made, gone so swiftly and ended in carnage, it shattered his mind so long ago.
He looked down to his younger self that immediately screamed before a glow escaped his young voice and light followed to the past of Daniel suddenly combusting in a golden fire.
He felt his heart throb from that blackout and watched as the flames spread from to not just Daniel but to the entire room and ignited everything it touched.
But why did Daniel not scream in the past just now?
His focus was broken from that confusion when Daniel came out of the fires a disfigured man of demonic and dark proportions, trailing quick to Noctis.
"You couldn't save anyone then. You will never save anyone now, not even those whores or that little mutt you call your son!
Noctis panicked and retreated without taking his eyes off Daniel, until he found his back pressed to the wall and became trapped around him and the burning bodies.
"I was a child!"
The Speaker was starting to dislike herself for using this to break Noctis, but she needed to push him over the edge.
She manipulated the figure more into gargling laughter as Noctis was stricken with terror.
"You are a failure as your old self and even now."
"Shut up." Noctis muttered before the disfigured Daniel grabbed him by the throat.
Noctis' next expression was one of shock and defensivness when he thrashed his feet around to tough the floor, before he started feeking Daniel tighten his grip and rob his air.
"Fight back Noctis."
He gagged and coughed for air as the grip tightened painfully.
"You are weak. You will always be weak and it's because of that you will watch everyone you love die. You can't save anyone when you can't even save yourself!"
It was in that moment something did break inside Noctis, and it manifested quickly as the fear exploded into something else.
The pain of his past.
The fear of loss.
The acceptance of himself.
Every person he loved in the hotel, Carmilla, Clara, Odette, they all came to mind with the same bloody scene around him now in his own head but showing them all dead and piled under Adam's feet.
He couldn't take it anymore and snapped.
"FUCK YOU!"
Daniel's last expression was shock before Noctis swung his foot up and connected with the groin. It made its target and he was dropped onto his feet while The Speaker was both stunned and ecstatic to see progress.
"Yes Noctis! Surpass yourself! Fight back!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Noctis screamed with a swift uppercut after regaining his balance.
The Speaker's eyes widened as she watched Noctis rapidly deliver statements with each punch he gave the disfigured man that kept stumbling back.
"I AM NOT WEAK!"
He threw another.
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE PAST OR WHAT COULD HAPPEN!"
Another blow that crunched Daniel's jaw.
"I KNOW WHO I AM AND THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS!"
He allowed himself this moment of breatg while the illusion started to warp, but Daniel in his disfigured form had remained and only chuckled at Noctis.
"Doesn't change the fact all those kids are dead."
Noctis allowed his tears to fall in remembrance of his fellow orphans and wished still there was something he could have done. He missed them terribly, but he knew in his heart they were in a better place like heaven and hoped for the best for them.
"You're right—" he raised his fist once more with cold certainty in his eyes. "But that is not my fault and I know it."
"Exactly!" The Speaker praised mentally.
The illusion melted away just like Daniel, but once again it was the same piece of his soul she had used to make Romna who now kneeled on in the grass with a cocky smile.
Strangely Noctis didn't look so surprised this.
"Well then, take what is yours if you are so certain now." Romna challenged.
The moment was so simple for Noctis. He had nothing to stop him from finally getting out of his shell and just ending this torture he had endured for hours. He raised his fist higher with shakiness at the idea of getting this faker knocked on his ass.
But he hesitated….
Unbeknownst to him, The Speaker reappeared from her etheral hiding and smiled once more behind him as the tension rose.
"Why do you hesitate, my child?"
She closed the gap between them with her hand sliding up his arm to the same fist that clenched tightly. Her touch was gentle yet guiding whilst Noctis stood frozen with the same glare for the fake on his knees.
"Do it." Romna commanded with open arms. "You are to surpass yourself so do it."
"He is right." The Speaker encouraged with hidden intention. "You just conquered the greatest terror of your life. Now you can surpass yourself."
Together they waited for the man to strike down the last piece of his soul and be done with it all. It was so easy for Noctis he could almost taste the satisfaction of being the one on top.
But he lowered his fist instead and said, "No."
That one word had the fake confused, but The Speaker beamed with pride as she watched Noctis lift his past self onto his feet with a solemn expression.
"I know who I am and who I was. Either way...… Heaven and Hell are my responsibility no matter what others call me."
Those words alone were enough for the angel and her motives, and it was enough to finally trigger what she needed him to finally find.
Acceptance.
"It's time for you to move on."
The fake smiled and nodded before bursting into a bright cluster of stars, the fragment surprising Noctis with such a response as he stood there in wonder what just happened.
Warmth….
That was the feeling that surrounded him when the cluster of this soul fragment receded to his body and gave a mild glow. He could barely feel any pain now before it dawned that his injuries were gone in an instant.
The weight of his life seemed to fall right off after the holy ropes binding his wings to his back fell right off, and they flared out with the glow that dimmed to a shimmer that gathered above his head.
"You are whole again." The Speaker sighed with contentment and watched the shimmering light morph above his head.
Noctis turned to the angel with no idea what she meant after the shimmering died down. He definitely felt lighter and more at peace as she took his hand and guided him to the pond.
"Look." She commanded softly with a gesture to his reflection, holding in her eagerness.
Noctis looked down at the pond and frowned in confusion as his reflection came into focus from the water shimmering, allowing him to see the what the angel was internally giddy for.
He widened his eyes as he realized the small lighting from before had collected above his head and materialized into a silver crown-like halo with the subtle difference of there being a single blue serpent with six wings in the center.
He took a hand and raised it up to feel the warm energy from it as The Speaker clapped her hands behind his reflection.
"A crown?"
"Yes," she chimed with contained excitement. "Your soul is whole again and you are truly reincarnated."
He frowned in confusion as The Speaker took his hands and pulled him sway from the reflection. He froze though at the the kiss pressed to his forehead as she giggled her excitement out a little.
"What was that for?"
"A blessing." She answered quietly, and then stepped back. "Now we can begin training your power, starting with tapping into The Leviathan, but first….."
"First?" Noctis questioned with a tilt of his head.
The Speaker nodded and stepped back with her frills draping out on her right arm before a gentle light flashed behind them.
"Someone who wants to meet you." She said cryptically.
Noctis remained still as The Speaker closed her arm to her side and side frills closed to show a hellhound of grey fur standing there with angelic features that brightened her form. She smiled warmly and glowed with a powerful warmth in her red eyes as she stood there looking right at him.
"Hello Noctis." She greeted in a smooth tone that clearly was motherly. "I have waited a long time to talk to you."
Before he could say anything he found himself being hugged tightly by the hellhound. What was stranger was how she smelled very similar to Max and he felt drawn by it.
The hellhound withdrew from hugging him but gave a soft lick to his cheek like Max would.
"Are you confused?" She asked teasingly while The Speaker watched in amusement.
He nodded slowly with a blank expression.
She giggled before coming clean with the confusion as to who she was.
"I am Moira. I am Typhoon's mother, or as you call him..... Max."
Meanwhile in The Goetia Palace
Nighttime….
As soon as Stolas was finished with healing Noctis and given thanks by the now sleepijg Charlie and Vaggie cuddling his form, all peace was broken apart by the emergency summons of his father and the entire goetia council that waited patiently for answers about the guests of the palace after defense were set up around the perimeter for the primordial hellhound that was sure to come.
Once he gathered himself from the sweaty struggles of internal healing and bathered properly he went first to check on the commotion in the foyer with his daughter beside him.
He never looked so hardened and calculated before in the eyes of his child, but unlike her Stolas was very clear in his mind the caliber of harboring a divine beast in his palace with a monster coming to make a kill.
"Dad slow down!" Octavia pleaded as she tried to keep up with his pace through the halls.
He maintained his walk in quick stride though, his heart and mind locked in on the situation.
"I am sorry darling but I must make haste before my summons."
Octavia looked up to her father as they entered the grand foyer, wondering and concerned about his sudden change in demeanor while the area became filled with the Hazbin gang, Lucifer, and Carmilla sorting through various weapons that she had ordered over to the palace after Blitz made a call.
In hindsight they were all still recovering from the attackcin the hospital but ready for a fight with the primordial hellhound that still had yet to appear.
Especially Carmilla when she ordered Odette and Clara to go home for the night, and was currently selecting the best weapon of her choice for the fight to come.
"Woah." Octavia breathed as she saw the Goetia Guards file in and take a weapon individually before taking up post on order by Andrealphus.
"Dad what is with all this stuff?" The young princess asked as she watched Angel Dust carry a crate inside.
His eyes narrowed on Andrealphus looking smugly back at him but answered calmly to his daughter.
"A primordial hellhound is a difficult demon to kill, Octavia. And the one I encountered happened to a mature apex."
"Is that bad?" Octavia asked worriedly while the guards filed in more and more and another family member approached them.
"Hello Vassago."
"Mierda' Stolas, tell me it isn't true what I heard." The scarlet avian said emphatically to the elder prince. "A primordial hellhound and a divine beast here in our domain."
Stolas was not one to be reluctant when it came to being correct, but this time he nodded with bitterness that had Vassago stiffen while Carmilla approached them with her weapon of choice in hand.
"I am afraid it is true. The boy upstairs is The Leviathan and the hellhound we encountered earlier is after him."
"It has to face me first." Carmilla declared coldly with emphasis of the sword in hand as she checked it with a crucial eye.
Angel Dust overheard the overlord and felt a shiver run down his spine while looking over to Carmilla to find she was not being an overlord but a royally pissed off mother that was out for blood.
And that is exactly what she wanted, blood for the chaotic danger Noctis is being put through while he is completely defenseless.
He felt it with her though, that fiery protectiveness for the man they all know and love. Even his usually dismissive heart was throbbing with concealed rage he gripped internally while glaring at her.
"You want it dead too, huh?"
"And mounted on my wall." The overlord added bedore she began to practice her footwork with the addition of said blade.
"Yeah." the spider demon breathed hatefully in thought of the monster, and pulled out a pair Tommy guns from the crate he dropped.
Quick and precise the porn demon loaded both with his extra appendages before they disappeared in his fur.
"Me too toots. I want that fucking furball turned into a rug."
Octavia in the midst of watching with her father and Vassago saw how the Hazbin gang was making preparations to fight with the Goetia household. It made no sense tocher how one creature could bring together these lesser demons that are so different from eachother.
Husk was sharpening his cards in the middle of sobering up.
Nifty was even angry and practice to stab with a kitchen knife.
Alastor with his signature grin had a foreshadowing anger from how his shadow thrashed underneath his feet as he walked around and delegated the weapons.
"They're all so angry." The goetis teen pointed out, earning a nod from her father before his hand rest on her shoulder. "I don't get it."
"It's called love, my little Starfire." Stolas answered aoftly and squeezed her shoulder. "Or for that radio demon it's a matter of respect."
They turned to Carmilla getting more intense with her practice, expressing a deep hatred underneath that flowing hair while her movements stayed graceful and precise.
"What is your relation with the boy again?" Vassago asked curiously after approaching the dangerous overlord.
"I'm his mother!" Carmilla answered with a hard tone in the midst of adjusting her deadly dancing. "Before we found out what he is, when he thought he was human, I took him in as my son!"
Vassago remained poised in watching her train and watched her.
"Ah, a mother's love this is. Quite the motivator."
Carmilla didn't speak anything else after that and resumed her practice with intense ferocity, her mind wntirely fixated on one thing that burned her every fiber of hatred toward the hellhound.
Her child was in danger.
"Hell hath no fury like a mother's love." Vassago commented after he turned his attention back to Stolas. "Paimon is waiting for us in the council room."
Stolas' shoulders sagged slightly and he walked away with his fellow prince and daughter that watched what she could from over her shoulder before rounding the corner upstairs.
"Dad, you have never acted this way before!" Octavia exclaimed, her tolerance of all the silence coming to an end whilst Blitz ran past them cackling with a new Carmine sponsored rifle he was eager to try out at his post in the palace.
Stolas knew his daughter was right and felt the adrenaline of the situation full him as he became weary of the danger coming. He was not deterred though from defending his hime or the boy still unconscious with his lovers protecting him.
He took in a solid composure as the doors opened to show his father in all his majesty standing at the center with the entire council at their seats and ready to hear what had him so edge as to prepare weaponry for what amounted to a full-scale siege.
His hopes of explaining were decreased greatly as he saw Stella was in the room as well and standing next to Paimon with the same seriousness.
"Father." He bowed to Paimon respectfully while Vassago took Octavia to her respective seat.
"Is it true?" Paimon asked his son coldly, his eyes sharp with judgment that had the prince uneasy. "You brought a divine beast into our home?"
"I did." Stolas answered truthfully to his father, ignoring the smirk of his hateful wife that was clearly waiting to see if he would be punished.
"And now a primordial hellhound is coming to take the boy?" Paimon bristled at his own question.
"Yes father."
Stolas stood up straight and faced the old goetia with an unwavering gaze, waiting for either words of disapproval or punishment for his actions. He already expected the same poorly done fatherly behavior he endured from Paimon for years, bracing in silence.
Paimon maintained his frown but softened it as he raised a hand slowly to his son.
Stella of course widened her grin in assumption of another confidence shattering slap to come for Stolas. It would do her great delight to see her unfaithful husband suffer just a little bit more in the eyes of the entire council.
But it didn't come.
Paimon touched his son on his shoulder and smiled before he gave a shocking reassurance of squeezing in approval.
"Well done." He praised.
There was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch on forever with Stolas surprised by the rarest affection of his father while Stella just gawked angrily.
He blinked repeatedly, unsure whether he had heard his father correctly or was being fooled through deception.
"You approve of my actions?" He asked nervously.
"I do." Paimon replied with a nod, his voice soft and understanding.
"But why?"
Paimon knew the reason behind Stolas' skepticism and explained thoughtfully whilst Stella went to take her seat amongst the castle.
"You have brought home a creature of powerful status and rank in both as the High Seraphim's son and in hell the consort of Princess Morningstar. Though our family is proud in its solitude we cannot turn a blind eye to such a potentially strong ally."
Stolas was feeling incredibly giddy inside as his father stepped aside and gestured to the family council.
"You have the floor, son."
Stolas shook off his confusion and took his place in the center, hoping he would have the favor of the entire family for the assistance that was needed to protect their home and the boy.
He closed his eyes and took a long breath of courage inside before they opened both sharp and strong.
"Council, we have a dangerous trouble that is coming to our doorstep to end the life of a very powerful person I had the honor of healing at the demand of the Morningstar family."
He watched as their faces widened in understanding of the importance behind Stolas' recent action, and continued to listen to his stern talking.
"The boy, his name is Noctis and it was confirmed by the king that he is the consort of his daughter and her guard. Also he is the reincarnation of the High Seraphim's son who became a divine beast long ago."
The entire council, except for Stella of course, began to murmur to one another with great interest.
"This boy is of great importance to a destiny not yet fully known, but right now an ancient monster, a Primordial Hellhound, is coming to take the boy after trying the first time by attacking the General Sin Hospital."
Suddenly Octavia stood up up in her seat after talking to Vassago and raised her hand with all eyes on her now.
"Dad, why is he unconscious right now?"
The council turned back to Stolas to see his expression soften for his owlette.
"He was stabbed by Archangel Michael. I was informed the entire story by the princess while I healed grave wounds within the boy."
The council, even Paimon, gasped at the high prince for his revealing shock of Noctis' before Stella grew curious enough to speak her mind.
"If he is the son of the very leader of heaven, then why would he be struck down by the most powerful archangel!?"
"Because war is coming!" A new voice alarmed the council.
The council in its entirely looked left to Lucifer entering through an adjacent door, marching into the center with a coldness that no one had seen in a very long time. The goetia family noticed the obviously goofy persona of their king was gone and replaced a powerful demeanor that reeked of authority and concern.
"War, your majesty?" Paimon questioned, and earned a nod from Lucifer before he spoke to everyone.
"My daughter told me everything earlier about the appointment I got for her a few days ago with heaven." He paused with a heated anger that showed in how his horns grew, making the council uneasy while a very curious Blitz was peeking inside with Moxxie.
"And what happened, my king?" Stolas politely requested before his glare reached Blitz.
Not that it matter since the imp was always nosy.
"A lot." Lucifer said calmly underneath his fury. "The truth has come out and the importance of Noctis runs deep in my beginning as king of hell."
"Of course it does." Stella scoffed quietly.
"Please explain." Vassago requested, listening with Octavia.
"Originally Noctis was called Romna, The Seraphim Lord as his mother titled him. In the beginning God introduced the idea of divine beasts to maintain a balance between the realms, while Adam proposed extermination day as a mean to keep hell in check."
An unsettling silence cast over the council as they listened to this interesting story. However, it did not go unnoticed how regretful Lucifer was at his own memories of the past.
"The Heaven council rejected Adam's isea and went with divine beasts. Noctis, or Romna back then, volunteered to be one at the cost of relinquishing his angelic grace and title for divine power. However...."
He clenched his fists at pause of his own words, making the council eager yet afraid of the truth.
Finally he spoke again.
"Adam lied to Sera, manipulated her into thinking her own son was a traitor, and had her destroy Romna."
Gasps echoed around the council whilst Blitz and Moxxie gawked behind the doors.
"She murdered her own child?" Stolas questioned with disbelief.
Sadly the king nodded and took a deep breath to finish the explanation.
"She did, and from what my daughter told me, Sera is both remorseful and trapped under Adam's control because the citizens of heaven know nothing about extermination day. The heaven council cannot intervene and right now he has Michael under angelic control, hence why Noctis was stabbed."
"Because he can stop Adam!" Octavia exclaimed and received a nod from Lucifer.
"Exactly. Noctis has the power to stop extermination day for good, so Adam controlled Michael to stab him, which is why we are here now."
"What about the primordial hellhound?" Vassago asked with a hardened glare for the king. "What about that?"
Lucifer didn't have a definitive answer for that either, but someone who stalked the room through the use of his shadow did and made a nice appearance from the nearest corner with his static crackling.
"It serves someone."
Said voice startled everyone in the room bedore his presence had a few council members glaring in disgust. His presence alone was enough to make even Paimon scowl while Lucifer simply rolled his eyes and asked.
"And what makes you say that, Radio Demon?"
"Because—" Alastor widened his grin at the king, darkening the atmosphere on the room with his power. "The hellhound confronted me months ago and said it served a master that wants Noctis dead."
Lucifer squinted his eyes at the unwelcome overlord as the council murmured about Alastor being unwanted in the room but curious about his information.
"Oh how right you are." Another voice echoed into the room and alarmed everybody for its unfamiliar tone.
Suddenly the entire room darkened as Stolas, Lucifer and Alastor sensed a malevolent presence that surrounded the entire room with a powerful darkness. The lights could not even flicker before they were consumed and replaced with sickly blue flames of screaming souls trapped in a torture unforgettable.
"That's interesting." Alastor commented with a narrowed gaze as the council gave mild panic, his suspicion growing when his own shadow quivered.
He cocked an eyebrow whilst the source of this chaos appeared before Lucifer in a cloak of the darkest sins, constructed with the anguishing faces of its victims.
Said king glared and stepped back from the mystery person while Paimon made a notion to protect his granddaughter when she was visibly terrified.
"It's been a very long time, Lucifer." The mystery person spoke in the tone of a gargling man and chuckled. "But I doubt you would remember me."
Lucifer cocked an uncaring eyebrow at the stranger but flared his wings and power in sensing the deep power radiating from them.
The stranger wore a tooth jagged smile underneath the cowl, his eyes a bright purple that gazed with such emptineness yet so full of longing.
"Do we know eachother?" Lucifer asked, making the strsnger laugh.
"I suppose it has been a very long time since my time was in the beginning." The stranger replied cryptically as Stolas kept and eye on them but blocked Blitz and Moxxie from coming in by erecting a barrier at the door.
"And who might you be?" The goetia prince asked dangerously.
He laughed in a manner both disturbing and melodic and began to speak, but directly to Lucifer.
"The Heavenly Father sure favored you after you helped cast me to hell's deepest pit. But now look at you, fallen like me and protecting a reincarnated man who you put so much faith in. You certainly had no so much faith in me.....second angel ."
At this mysterious andwer, Lucifer found himself backing away with revival of a long dead fear he once shared with all of heaven when he was one of them. His response had the entire council uneasy as the stranger waited for him to answer.
"You know me, fallen angel."
"The first flaw." Lucifer breathed, his eyes dilated to the terrir standing before him.
Said stranger cackled at that title before his cloak began to unfurl into six angelic wings of the coldest darkness. The temperature dropped slowly to freezing level that allowed everyone to see their breaths as the figure revealed to be an angel with a broken and melted halo above his head.
His body was ridden with the disgusting art of his skin wearing the faces of those he consumed, angelic, demon, even mortal from a history of suffering.
"An angel ?" Alastor tilted his head, but the uneasiness in his tone was evident when his entire body was tense with fear he never thought he would experience again.
"The first Angel." Lucifer corrected with a now darkened expression. "Lyoria."
Lyoria, the first angel of god, humbly bowed yet mocked the entire council that watched the carved faces of his victims groan and cry quietly in pain in his skin. His presence alone made the king of hell stiffen and flare his wings defensively with the surprising action of taking Stolas and Alastor behind him protectively.
"Lyoria?" Paimon questioned while the council remained seated with trepidation to Lucifer's answer.
"I banished you. How are you back?"
"Funny thing." Lyoria started to pace around the king while Blitz and Moxxie continued to watch in secrecy. "You sealed me with your angelic grace, but when you fell….."
His pause came with a sickening smile as Lucifer widened his eyes. It was blatantly obvious to him how the first angel was back, and it made his heart race.
"When I fell and lost my grace, they started breaking."
"Exactly." Lyoria said amusedly and chuckled.
Lucifer knew the dangers of this person and shook off his fear albeit with a little effort, and hardened himself mentally to step to said angel.
"What do you want with Noctis?"
Lyoria relished the fear and submission he sensed throughout the room. It tickled his emptiness and seeped into everything he was and gave him such a unique feeling of being whole.
"Just to make sure my return is full." He circled the king slowly with the same smile. "So I will be quick. Hand over Romna's reincarnation and I will not send my primordial and my slaves to end you all."
"Not happening!" Lucifer snarled instantly with his demonic features exploding. "You will not touch him!"
Defiance, such a funny part of life that made Lyoria cackle as he gave no motion of compromise to Lucifer or the council. Rather than words of debate he gave back the light of the council to on and disappeared in a mass of writhing souls that screamed with the echo of his final words.
"Then your daughter can watch as I kill her lover. You have one hour to say your goodbyes."
And with that came a terrifying fear as Lucifer's guilt and fury shimmered in unshed tears of dead memories as he found himself backed into a corner with the worst of his mistakes. It was one thing to have his oldest friend back from the dead, but now the first mistake of existence bacj from his prison and after Noctis...
He was trapped.
"My king," stolas spoke and approached cautiously with a tender hand on the fallen's shoulder. "Who exactly was that?"
"Yes indeed." Alastor joined the conversation and looked down to Lyoria stood with but scorch marks on the floor.
He leaned down to the still powered-up king, mocking him with his curiosity that darkened his expression.
"Why did he call you the second?"
It was a bitter truth Lucifer shared with no one, not even his wife that disappeared seven years ago. He snapped out of his own past and glared at the scorched floor whilst Blitz and Moxxie snuck away to warn Millie and Loona.
"Lyoria was the first angel made by god, but he was made without a soul."
A collective gasp came in response from the council, except for Alastor who loved nothing more than acquiring all the information he could use for himself.
"Is he threat?" Stolas asked.
Lucifer sighed and nodded before the tension became heavy.
"Originally he the first creation in existence and wanted to become a god, so wanting Noctis means he wants to make sure nothing can stop him, especially a divine beast.
Stolas didn't need any other answer to turn his attention to the council, his expression hard and calculating.
"I want all goetia houses to gather their forces immediately in the courtyard!"
He snapped his attention to Vassago next.
"Get my daughter to safety this instant!"
"What!?" Octavia exclaimed as Vassago responded swiftly with taking her away in a swirl of fire. "DAD, NO!"
The dynamic changed on the spot with Stolas barking order after order whilst Lucifer stood there swimming in his own thoughts. It was not just a battle to be on their way but now a war coming to the doorstep.
The council scattered out of the room to make ready for what was to come.
"And you, radio demon!"
"Yes?" Alastor turned his head to the owl, widening his smile whilst Stolas got in his vicinity.
"Inform Carmilla and the others now. And tell them to double their preparations for what is to come!"
Alastor was not the demon to be given orders, not when he served only himself. However this was not the time for argument so he gave a mock bow and disappeared in the shadows.
With the room now empty save for the owl prince and the remembering king, Stolas focused on the demon still standing there blankly with deepening wish for one thing only.
"I need you, Lilith."
"Lucifer," Stolas dropped the formality and caught his attention with it. "Tell me, what should we expect from this creature?"
There was only one word that came to mind when Lucifer craned his neck to meet Stolas' gaze.
"Death."
Meanwhile for Charlie and Vaggie, both still slept peacefully on the man they loved as a cocoon with their bodies whilst Loona was in another room and still wondering about Beezlebub and her upset behavior over the phone earlier.
The young hellhound typed text after text but failed out of fear to send a single one to the sin's actual number.
But something told her there was more to the Beezlebub than let on as a party demon that fed on the emotions of her followers, especially when it involved Noctis.
Curious as is, she peeked inside from the other room and gasped at the crown-like halo that quietly formed on Noctis' head before a calming pulse of energy radiated from him and surrounded the bed.
"What the fuck?" She asked herself before her ears perked up to the chaotic banter in the grand foyer, hearing everyone go on edge.
It was only going to get worse the closer the battle was to be made.