Chapter 6: The broken soul
"Let’s go," she said calmly.
Raphael, pale but resolute, nodded in agreement.
*[Kindness Blessing]* Like a miniature sun, Luciel illuminated the space with a soft golden glow. This divine light penetrated the minds of her allies, purifying and revitalizing them.
"Celest, handle the troop retreat. They’re of no use here," Uriel ordered, massaging his wrist, his fatigue-marked face improving.
"Understood," Celest replied, nodding before withdrawing.
But doubt persisted in Ezekiel. He frowned, as if trying to solve a riddle.
"Uriel, you have a connection to this, but... his soul..."
"What about his soul?" Raphael asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.
The drop of black blood struck the surface of the sea with a resounding impact, like a thunderclap echoing through the heavy air. The sea, previously a deep red, began to violently vibrate. Ripples formed, widening into circles, pushing the stagnant waters in a hypnotic movement. Then, without warning, the surface of the sea tore apart, and enormous waves surged forth, striking the desolate shores with titanic force.
Earthquakes were felt throughout the lower plane, shaking the ground as if it were rebelling against a power that should not exist here. Mountains trembled, the earth cracked, and even the sky darkened further, as if a cataclysmic storm was preparing to engulf everything in its path. Giant hands, made of coagulated blood, emerged from the raging sea, grotesque and tormented. Their deformed fingers stretched desperately toward the sky, seeking to grasp anything within reach.
Luciel, in the midst of her attack, propelled herself to the side with agility, narrowly dodging the nightmarish hands surging from the sea. She slashed through the air with her sword, striking down the blood arms encircling her, each movement imbued with relentless precision. With every strike, the limbs burst into shards of blood, which almost instantly evaporated in the heavy air. Yet, it was not enough. The hands seemed infinite, constantly returning, encircling her more tightly, preventing her from counterattacking.
Before them, Linfer stood motionless. The perverse smile that usually marked his face, the one reflecting his pleasure in chaos, had vanished. He had abandoned his new appearance to resume his true form: his long black hair, with olive-green highlights, snaked around him like living serpents, slowly lengthening in the air. At times, his very silhouette blurred. Behind him, a cracked form began to take shape in the shadow of the scarlet sea. Blurry at first, it gradually sharpened: a serpentine creature emerged, a thousand heads, each bearing the Omega symbol on its forehead. This was the primal form of his soul.
"My soul won’t hold out much longer... No matter, I’ll take you all with me." He hesitated for a second, then shook his head.
"No matter!"
Linfer’s face grew paler as he raised his index finger toward them, an expression of exhaustion mixed with determination etched on his features. He knew his time was short. His body, and especially his soul, was already at its limit, but it mattered little: he intended to destroy everything before his end.
His reptilian black irises began to shift to olive green, while scales appeared around his eyes.
A sharp, unbearable pain began to emanate from his being, as if his cracked soul were tearing apart. A perverse smile spread across Linfer’s face, black blood slowly trickling from the corner of his mouth.
"Linfer..."
Hearing her voice, Linfer closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. With no other choice, Raphael had teleported Luciel here. To reason with Linfer? No, just to buy them time before the entire Upper Realm came for his head.
She advanced slowly, her bare feet barely brushing the deformed surface of the scarlet sea. Around her, the waves rose like living walls, threatening to engulf her, but she paid them no mind. Her gaze was fixed on Linfer.
"What? You’ve sheathed your sword? What are you up to?"
He stood there, his body swaying under the weight of his own power. His perverse smile had faded, replaced by infinite weariness.
"Linfer..." she whispered again.
He closed his eyes for a moment, inhaling deeply at the sound of her voice. An imperceptible shiver ran down his spine. He didn’t want to admit it, but seeing her here, before him as before, awakened something he had long tried to bury.
"You should leave, Luciel," he finally said, his voice hoarse, marked by exhaustion. "There’s nothing left to save here."
"If you truly believe that... then why are you still here?" she asked, moving closer.
Linfer opened his eyes, his reptilian gaze meeting hers. He studied her intently, perhaps seeking a trace of deceit, a reason not to listen. But Luciel was sincere.
"I loved you, Linfer," she said, her words hanging between them. "And I know that, despite everything you’ve done, a part of you loved me too."
Linfer snickered, but it was a laugh without joy.
"Love?" He shook his head. "You betrayed me."
She stopped just in front of him. She raised a trembling hand and placed it on his cheek. Linfer didn’t pull away. His entire body shivered, and his breathing quickened slightly.
"It’s not too late... We can start over."
He widened his eyes slightly, surprised by the emotion in her voice.
"Start over?" His tone was mocking. "And go where?"
"Far from here. Anywhere. You don’t need to destroy everything, Linfer." She took a deep breath. "Celest... Celest is our son."
Linfer’s childhood had been anything but easy. From a young age, he had been sold into slavery by his own mother, a betrayal that had forever marked his soul. Purchased by Emperor Vamp, he was forcibly enlisted in the imperial army, where he forged a fearsome reputation. Before he even learned to write his name, he had already killed thousands of Elysians, his hands stained with blood before he knew tenderness.
His warrior talents earned him the emperor’s attention, who eventually adopted him, making him a brother-in-arms to his daughter and a valuable tool in his conquests.
Linfer had thrown himself wholeheartedly into violence and debauchery, seeking in massacre and orgies a semblance of recognition, a feeling of being loved rather than used. But despite the honors and excesses, the void within him never filled. Until the day he met her. A woman of dazzling purity, the heiress of the enemy empire, the one who embodied everything he had destroyed. She was the antithesis of his existence, and yet, he fell under her spell.
She had promised him a future together, on the condition that the war ended. Mad with hope, Linfer believed her words, seeing in them a chance for redemption, an escape from the life of carnage he led. So, he committed the unthinkable: he ripped out the heart of Emperor Vamp himself, his own adoptive father, believing it would win him freedom and love.
But once away from the battlefields, in the deceptive tranquility of the countryside, the truth emerged. Everything had been an illusion, a trap set by the one in whom he had placed his trust. Surrounded, betrayed, he was saved at the last moment by Alderbaran, the daughter of the man whose heart he had torn out.