"You've gone too far, Lucifer."
Cold, piercing words rang across the grim battlefield. A man stood silently in a place where only blood, bodies and death dominated. Maimed by injuries, a severed arm, broken wings and his radiant lance now dull and powerless.
Stranded on such a woeful land.
Lucifer survived. Nevertheless, victory would be impossible. The mass of those who should never have joined forces encircled him like a vast, impenetrable wall blocking his path of escape. None could condone his escape, nor his survival.
But he held no grudge.
'Alas, these poor mortals, but pawns to our foolish games.'
A dull spasm of pain shot through his shoulder where he'd lost an arm. To avoid revealing the pain, he bit the tip of his tongue and endured. His golden eyes fixated upon the pristine and elegant angel hovering above with a disgusting smirk spread from ear to ear.
"Too far...?"
Lucifer clenched his teeth, enduring the conflagration burning his insides. 'For the blood that we have spilt, I cannot stop...' Divine blood poured from the countless wounds covering his vessel. Yet, raised his broken lance towards the haughty man with short pale white hair.
"Nonsense, brother. Is it not you who went too far?!"
The angel's face suddenly twisted with a momentary grimace before revealing warm, affectionate eyes brimming with tears. He then extended his hand towards Lucifer with quivering lips.
"Dearest brother, how could I? Hast thou been overwhelmed by thy madness?"
"Gabriel!"
Lucifer's angry shout shook Eden with an explosive shockwave, eradicating countless corpses and sending thousands flying. He vented his rage, grief, reluctance and hopelessness into a single shout.
"Oh my, it looks like you still had that much energy left. Haha. Brother, Brother~ don't take it personally. It's all a game! A lovely game arranged by Father."
"You filthy coward, enough of these underhanded tricks, just fight me!"
Gabriel scoffed, shrugging at Lucifer's passionate sermon and cocked his head to the side, grinning at his older brother. "All is fair during war, brother. I dare not be foolish enough to face you head-on without a plan."
Unrepentant and smug, he raised his hands.
A soothing chant soon spread from the distance, like a pious choir; they sang as if offering their hearts to the divine.
Bright light descended upon the battlefield, encasing the fallen mortals, healing their wounds, bringing life back into their still hearts.
Gabriel looked back at his brother, a bitter smile upon his lips, "I am weak, brother, and because of that weakness. I must do everything possible to eliminate you."
One by one, the fallen knights rose once more. They wore broken armour, wielded bloodied weapons, and burnt flesh, all of which vanished in the blink of an eye.
"How could you use that item!? Father banned its usage!"
"Brother, do you ask father to breathe, to exist?! Then why must we constantly seek his permission for every little thing?"
Lucifer halted on the spot.
His answer was simple, and yet when he saw the familiar humans alive once again, he couldn't wield his blade a second time without compassion.
'To toy with one's mortal soul is punishable by the most heinous sin, for the one saved and their saviour....'
He scanned the landscape with a grim frown.
In the blink of an eye, the enemy numbers had tripled once the hymn ended. Lucifer's chance of victory all but evaporated the moment his brother used an artefact.
"Gabriel, do you know what foul fate awaits you after using that item?!"
"Of course, brother."
'Is this the end...' He begged in his heart for forgiveness; his pride and confidence brought ruin upon his people, his beloved knights. 'Galatea, oh my dear knights. Forgive your foolish master, for I have failed and caused you nothing but catastrophe.'
"Brother, I ask of you with an earnest plea, my knights..." He looked up to his brother's figure, no anger, bloodlust, only his sincere golden eyes as if pleased. "I swear to hold their sins and shoulder them alone. They only followed my orders; allow them to cut their ties and become mortals. I beg you."
The floating angel kept silent for a moment and watched Lucifer with the most bizarre gaze.
"Oh, dear brother." Gabriel's lips twitched, distorting into an obscene expression that covered half his face. "Do forgive me."
"What?"
Gabriel reached into the air, forming a ripple of gold, then appeared to yank something free from nothing. It wasn't large, only about the size of a watermelon, wrapped in silver. He held the item in his hand for a moment before glancing back at Lucifer.
Then tossed the item.
Fwoosh!
The oval object shot through the atmosphere like a comet, creating a booming screech. Mid-flight, the silver slid from the object, unveiling a mass of pure gold hair spread out like yarn.
Lucifer's pupils shrank as he faltered forward and dropped his spear. He jumped to catch the second object, landing on one knee with the silver helmet smashing on the ground.
Clang!
Long hair, unbecoming of a knight, bright blue eyes that once dazzled like the deep blue sea. And a pair of plump lips with a glossy pink sheen.
"G...Galatea?! No... how can this be?!"
Lucifer lowered his head as Gabriel's cruel actions destroyed the final shackles which sealed his heart and emotions.
The shining light faded from Lucifer's eyes as he nestled the severed head against his chest, an emptiness filled his soul as something inside him broke, and like a beast, his emotions raged through his chest.
"Why?" A single word, a question, but he sought no answer.
For it was too late.
"When I defeated you in combat, did I not spare every one of your mortals... all of you, do you treat me as some kind of joke?! Forget it! Why did I think you filthy traitors who know no pride or honour would ever follow the rules!"
His heart pounded as if Galatea's fist hammered him in the chest.
Her lifeless eyes asked him a question.
"Master... why, why didn't you save us? Why didn't you come when I called..."
What suffering had she endured?
How long did she wait for him in the darkness?
All while he basked in vain radiance?
"It's okay now, Galatea. I understand everything."
'To hell with compassion, to hell with honour, if I can win, then I will drag my bloodied corpse through the abyss itself!'
Suddenly, Gabriel's face lit up as he watched Lucifer.
"No way, are you truly going to do that!? Didn't you, of all people, value the light more than anyone else? Hahahaha, a masterpiece. You arrogant prick! You loved father so much it was disgusting, and now... now you're going to turn your back on him and break his law?!"
Lucifer merely glanced at his brother.
"Who cares about those foolish laws anymore?"
A vortex of dark emotions erupted inside Lucifer's body, black mist seeped from his lips and nose as he willingly allowed the negative and darkness to feast on his body. All the dark emotions, thoughts, and desires he kept locked away gathered inside his chest.
"...What the hell are you waiting for?! Kill him!"
The mortals rushed at Lucifer, despite perishing at his hands once already.
Like blooming flowers of various colours, their aura, mana and energy overflowed, wrapping their weapons, bodies and the atmosphere in a boundless array of dazzling lights. Orange, blue, red, green, white and black.
Lucifer didn't find pleasure in massacres.
He spread his remaining arm and called out to them.
"Foolish mortals, may your souls discover salvation within the dark path you follow."
Lucifer grasped at the necklace shaped like a sword around his neck, then glanced at Gabriel with a smirk upon his lips.
"STOP HIM!"
"HE MUST NOT USE THAT ITEM!"
Crack~
'Father, I know not what future you see in your grand plan, but I now have my own path ahead of me... forgive my disloyalty.'
The moment he crushed the blue sword, the area surrounding him froze in time, much like the earlier hymn that revived the dead; this suspended time for everyone but Lucifer.
Lucifer stood straight and held Galatea's head in his regenerated palm. He opened his lips, showing not the pristine pearly whites from before, but sharp, beastly fangs that easily sank into the tip of his thumb.
"You fools were all just stupid mortals who joined me under a false promise."
He pressed the bloody tip of his thumb against her forehead, gently drawing his divine emblem, causing a golden mark to appear.
The same mark from the pendant and her helmet.
A sword with wings.
"Divinity, riches and honour, hah! Why did you accept my foolish lies... Hey, Galatea, permit me to borrow your sword... one last time."
Lucifer gently stroked Galatea's face, closing her eyes. Her cheeks no longer warm and smooth, but cold, stiff and lacking her usual smile. A jab of pain poked his chest, like a wreath of thorns stabbing his heart.
"I told you girls to abandon me... foolish mortals, fine. I'll grant you the honour of falling into the abyss with me."
With a flash, her head disintegrated into particles of light, forming a sword with the same emblem engraved on the hilt.
A long bastard sword with a broad blade.
'To think your soul would take the form of this blade, the first one I gifted to you, and now, I would wield this against my enemies...'
"Let us fight together, Galatea."
Lucifer stood with the sword in his left hand, lightly holding the black leather grip, his sight set on Gabriel, frozen above. 'I cannot waste any time.' He drew in a deep breath, the surrounding golden particles fluctuating between raven-black and pure gold as he raised his left arm and violently swiped across the air.
An explosion occurred inside his body.
His pristine white wings instantly dyed black as they healed. The long golden hair against his face flapped in the wind, becoming black. And the moment he opened his eyes again, they became jet black, with red irises.
The barrier shattered.
He gripped his sword in both hands, feeling an explosive power running through his veins.
"Attack!"
The moment Gabriel shouted, the enemy forces attacked.
Like the surging waves of the ocean, thousands of enemies attacked all at once, a tsunami of blades, magic and claws. Lucifer exploded forward, his blade swinging on pure instinct as he held nothing back, throwing it all at these hypocrites.
His unrelenting blows warped steel, spraying blood through the air. Nothing like those beautiful tales or poems in books. But a mere macabre rain of blood bearing the odour of death, and despite this chaos, no dirt touched him.
'Rest eternally in damnation.'
Mortals could never comprehend the powers of the divine, especially Lucifer's. Even with their second chance, the battle lasted no longer than the flash of light. A moment passed, and he already reached his target.
"You were the youngest, most treasured of us brothers... to think you were this insidious."
"Oh~ brother, you shouldn't. I'll blush, but. To think you could reach this far, even forsaking yourself for a mere mortal." Gabriel's mocking voice resounded from above; he didn't take a move or attack as if completely confident in himself.
Lucifer struggled on as pain devoured his senses. His limbs weighed him down like chunks of lead, the wounds and damage accumulating over the two battles.
"I will strike you down no matter what I become, you insecure, weakling!"
Lucifer pointed the blade at Gabriel, focusing his powers into the sword, creating a swirl of jet-black aura around his sword as he charged towards Gabriel. A beam of light spread from the blade as it reached peak force.
"Die for your sins, Curr—ngh?!"
"Hahahahaha, you fool!" Gabriel's cackle echoed.
Dazed and confused, Lucifer glanced down and found that a blade suddenly pierced his chest from behind. The shape, colour and emblem are all too familiar.
"Guha..."
Black blood poured from his lips; he looked at the familiar emblem upon the sword's hilt, and the woman holding it. He forced his body to turn, looking at the enemy, and his eyes widened.
"Why is it you...?"
Like a candle in the wind, his energy and flames fizzled, everything became blurry, his hair turned white, and the wounds forced closed with his powers opened.
'Father, if you are there... please tell me...'
He tried to reach for the blurry visage.
'Why have you forsaken me?'
And he fell into darkness.