With the dark outer space as a background but with the beautiful view of the luminous and shimmering blue planet glowing on the front of his body, Lucifer stared for a long time at his birthplace.
Suddenly, the space behind him twisted and a presence began to materialize stronger and stronger.
Instead of turning around, Lucifer remained staring at his homeworld for several seconds before opening his mouth.
"It's strange, don't you think?"
There was no response from the newcomer, but Lucifer was by no means surprised so he continued speaking slowly.
"We lived on this planet for a long time... probably 10.000 years? Probably more. I still remember when the Soul Record first visited Earth and made our lives a living hell, even millions of years later I still remember it as if it was yesterday... It was hard but somehow we managed to survive despite the circumstances. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of things along the way."
Lucifer's emerald eyes shone softly in a way that no one had seen in a long, long time. Unfortunately or not, the newcomer was not only angry but also not in front of him to notice it.
"We didn't just lose family, friends... loved ones in general. We lost sensibility, and before we knew it we ended up leaving our humanity behind."
Lucifer paused before chuckling: "Of course, we had to survive after all... Back then there was no right or wrong, just like now. Right? Wrong? For starters, who decides what is right or wrong? Some sacrifice for others while others don't blink an eye when it comes to killing or sacrificing for their good... and all of us who have made it this far clearly belong to the second category, or am I wrong?"
He turned to look at his old friend, and not to his surprise found a beautiful face flushed with fury as she gazed at him with furrowed brows.
"Did seeing Earth again make you nostalgic?" Fire Sorrow snorted from between her teeth.
"Maybe a little." Lucifer shrugged before asking curiously, "And you?"
"You know perfectly well that Earth doesn't matter to me... All I care about is knowing that's where that person is!"
Fire Sorrow never shouted. She had good control over her emotions... or maybe it would be more correct to say that there was nothing or no one capable of altering her mood enough to make her raise her voice.
This was the first time in millions of years that Lucifer had heard her shouting, and to top it off she was shouting at him.
However, he was not surprised at all. Lucifer looked into Fire Sorrow's almost red eyes as she breathed heavily causing her generous chest hidden under her flowing robe to rise and fall vigorously.
"That human boy named Bai Zemin might not be him... Didn't you say so yourself?" He said keeping calm.
"Lucifer, are you playing with me?!" Fire Sorrow opened her eyes wide and shouted as if she was about to go crazy, "He can use Annihilation of the Falling Sky, he has Blood Manipulation and Gravity Manipulation. Not to mention he also has the Wolf Emperor's Domain that only Sirius could use!"
"... He also has skills that Sirius never possessed, including the Barbarian King's Anti-Magic Domain." Lucifer pointed out indifferently.
"... Even if he's not the same Sirius we knew, he's still related to him in some way. There's no way there could be such a coincidence in this life." Fire Sorrow muttered not knowing if she was trying to convince the man in front of her or herself.
"And you're willing to fall in love with someone who isn't exactly the person you've been waiting all these years for...despite having turned down countless stupidly strong soul evolvers?" Lucifer asked.
"Only the future will tell." Fire Sorrow said in a slightly hoarse voice. "There is no need to decide now, is there? Once he becomes a Higher Existence the time limit will no longer be a concern and we will have an eternity to observe."
Lucifer looked at his old friend in silence for a long time before sighing and slowly closing his eyes. He didn't say it out loud, but his emotional old friend made two mistakes in her sentence.
First, she would never have a choice about falling in love or not. Even soul evolvers could not control their feelings, and although it was harder for them to fall in love when it happened it was impossible to avoid it.
And secondly...
'I'm afraid we don't have as much time as you think.' Lucifer opened his eyes and looked at her silently.
Fire Sorrow gritted her teeth slightly as she watched him in silence, and after a moment asked in a serious voice, "Lucifer, why did you do that?"
"What thing?" He asked as if he didn't understand what she was talking about.
Fire Sorrow's body trembled, and she barely managed to hold back her anger as she slowly said, "Why did you reject the Soul Contract that Bai Zemin proposed? Do you really want to be his enemy? If you don't return now you'll practically be declaring war on him!"
Lucifer remained silent for a moment before asking curiously, "Are you afraid... or do you think we will lose?"
Finally unable to take any more of the anger she was suppressing in her chest, Fire Sorrow moved her right hand at lightning speed and in a flash reached Lucifer's chest.
He didn't have time to move as he definitely didn't expect this, and together with a sharp pain that made him grunt his body was pushed more than 5000 meters backwards.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
Lucifer winced as his feet dragged through the void and his wings beat fiercely behind him. He steadied himself with great difficulty, and at the same time as he looked forward and wiped away the trickle of blood running down his lips he saw Fire Sorrow lowering her hand engulfed in purple lightning.
"... You know what I always hated about you and Medes?" Fire Sorrow said with cold eyes as the purple lightning dancing on her hand and right arm illuminated her features, "You two always hide things. You act in a way that I can't understand to the point where sometimes I didn't know if I could trust you or not."
"Well," Lucifer stroked his chest and said in a voice somewhat choked with pain, "Not everyone can be as strong as the Little Wolf you know? We have to be cunning to survive, we can't just go head on and tear everything apart like he used to do."
Fire Sorrow stared at him deeply for what seemed like an eternity before nodding. Her body was once again enveloped by a beautiful purple light, and before fading away she said in a serious voice, "Lucifer Aztaroth, I hope you know what you're doing... And I hope with all my heart that you will not make me choose sides when the time is right."
Fire Sorrow's words floated into nothingness for a long time just as Lucifer's eyes remained fixed on the place where she had been before she disappeared. He could feel her aura heading back to Earth.
Lucifer looked at the small, ancient-looking and somewhat broken necklace clutched tightly in his right fist as he muttered under his breath, "... Relax, you won't have to choose."
A flash of light green light shone from Lucifer's chest, and in the next instant, a small heart-shaped stone whose energy was completely worn out stopped floating before his eyes.
It was the Firmament Fragment of the Goddess of Rebirth that he had just won from Long Tian.
He took the Firmament Fragment in his left hand, then brought the necklace he had snatched from Fire Sorrow closer without her noticing just when she attacked him and sent him flying.
"I'll give it back to you later... Hopefully you won't cut my head off." He sighed as he watched without any sort of surprise as the dried Firmament Fragment began to glow in sync with the necklace.
If anyone else saw what was happening and felt the energy inside the Firmament Fragment fill up again they would definitely get one of the biggest shocks of their life no matter how long they had lived.
The process was very slow, it was not something that could be accomplished in two or three months of time. But Lucifer was confident that he had at least that much time.
He looked back to Earth and sighed as his body melted into the darkness around him.
"I feel like I lost more energy this time than fighting that old thing from The Golden Domain. I really... need a big nap."
With this, Lucifer had ceased to be a pawn on the great chessboard.
Although he could not reach the level of importance of the King and Queen, at this moment even the Soul Record could not ignore his importance to the overall game.
Lucifer had taken advantage of the one interesting feature that chess pawns had... their ability to evolve into a more important piece depending on circumstances and moves.
He knew that what he was doing might not be the best option. However, the game had begun and Lucifer did not like to feel useless.
Especially not now that so many people were involved... and among those people were some very important to him.
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