Art Source: Pixiv
Search: Yae Miko
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Lucifer walked under the moonlight in silence as he recall his conversation with the Guuji Miko. His eyes trails back from the forest path to the Grand Narukami Shrine, where it sits right at the top of Mt. Yougou.
The mountain had been split into two from the Narukami Island all the way to the Yashiori Island. These are the remnants of the Electro Archon's destructive technique to slay the Evil God. Legend has it that the Electro Archon split the whole Inazuma with a dull blade without the need of Musou Isshin, the legendary sword made of divine. And it doesn't seem that the Raiden Shogun needs the Gnosis to do this kind of feat either. Such a terrifying and tremendous power. She deserves to be feared indeed, Lucifer thought.
He stops in his tracks and gaze unto the floating island in the sky, Celestia. His usual calm and reserved gaze now clouded by resentment and anger, his fist clenched and enveloped in dark blue and purple aura, as if he will destroy the island right then and there. But in the end he rips his gaze away from it and calms himself down.
"No. Not yet. It's still too early."
He calms his breathing first before the dark aura around his hand slowly dissipates.
"You know," Lucifer says after he is calm once more. "It's rude to follow someone without their consent." He says to the bush not far from where he stands.
Then, an arrow created by Hydro falls from the sky, which hits Lucifer right in the head. But when the mist of water slowly clears, Lucifer still stood tall and remains unharmed and even completely dry without a single speck of water.
Lucifer sighed. "I'm not in the mood for your usual game, Ajax." He says to Childe who walked out of the bush with a bow on his hand.
Childe whines like a child would. "Aw~ Come on, Lucifer! Just one spar? Just can't help it whenever I meet you." Childe begs as he clasp his hand together.
Lucifer sighed in defeat. "Fine. But you have to promise to focus on tracking The Balladeer down after this."
Childe grins happily as he prepares himself for a fun battle with Lucifer. "Alright! Let's have some fun! I never planned on defying the Tsaritsa's will in the first place anyway." He says before launching himself at Lucifer.
The fight started with Lucifer blocking Childe's hydro blades with his bare hand. Lucifer could've ended the fight right at this instant, but for Childe's sake, Lucifer is willing to make things fun for him, or at least make him think that he has a chance. After all, he did just entertain Miko just a moment ago.
To Lucifer, it's nothing different than handling a child who thinks that he had a chance of winning. Even Childe knows that Lucifer is holding back, but he doesn't care as long as he can enjoy the fight.
Even without using his power, Lucifer remained completely unharmed--albeit a bit drenched from Childe's hydro attacks. Childe didn't even manage to make him budge from where he stood, and even fails to force him to use both of his hands to fend off against his attacks.
As the fight goes on, Childe had to resort to his Foul Legacy Transformation. But alas, it still did nothing to change the tide of the battle. Childe's significant power increase is futile against Lucifer's unparalleled and overwhelming physical prowess.
Lucifer block Childe's spear with his finger, as Childe desperately tries to push Lucifer. "As expected of the hidden Harbinger, or should I say--The No. 0 Harbinger--The Devil. The only Harbinger that can topple even the throne by himself." Childe says with a tired huft. "Even after Liyue, I still can't even make you fight with both hands. Just like my master."
"Are you satisfied yet? I may have refrain myself from hurting you, but the Foul Legacy still took a huge toll on your body. Even without hurting you, it's only a matter of time before your body finally breaks apart." Lucifer reminds Childe.
Childe laughs. "Even when we're fighting, you're still worried about me." Childe says, understanding Lucifer's true meaning of his cheeky words. "But you're right. So..." Childe prepares himself for his last and most powerful attack.
"Let's see if you can handle this without moving!"
A Hydro whale--coupled with Electro flashing around it--launched itself to the sky from the ground behind Childe and falls on top of Lucifer who just stood there and took the brunt of the attack head on.
Giant waves of water flows everywhere with it being enveloped by electricity, as a result from his attack. Childe was forced to revert back to normal, panting and groaning in pain from the aftereffects of the Foul Legacy Transformation. While he is resting, he tries to spot for any signs of Lucifer, trying to see if he manage to make Lucifer move from his spot or not.
When the water clears, there he is, standing tall where he previously stood and drenched from up to bottom. Seeing Lucifer drenched makes Childe's last and most powerful attack looks like a prank to soak his teacher.
Childe laughs at the sight, which only make him hissed in pain even more. "Urgh, laughing is a bad idea." Childe says as he groans in pain even more.
"I'd like to help you get up, Ajax." Lucifer says, as he dries himself by enveloping himself with dark flames. "But you know I can't risk it." Lucifer says apologetically as he kept a considerable distance between him and Childe.
Childe chuckled and hissed in pain once more. "Nahh, it's fine. I get it. I mean you can't help it with your circumstances. Even the Tsaritsa can't even stand being in the same room with you, let alone touch you without getting hurt." Childe says as he force himself to stand up, but fails to do so. "You know what? I'm just going to rest up for a bit first. Why don't we catch up for a bit while I'm at it?" Childe says.
"First off, let's talk about your investigation with the Guuji. Do you think she have something to do with the Balladeer going rogue?" Childe asked curiously.
Lucifer took a large cigarette from his pocket and lights it up, before putting it between his lips. He took a puff from it, before blowing a strange crimson red smoke out in the air.
"I can't say for certain yet." Lucifer says as he tries to get his cigar's smoke as far away as possible from Childe. "If she's telling the truth, then we can just leave it at that. If not, then she would be one of the best liars I've ever met since I escaped from that hell."
Childe chuckles. "It's rare of you to be struggling on reading someone's behavior. Usually that's your expertise." Childe says with a grin. "Well, I guess this investigation might take a little while longer then. But the other Harbingers might get tired of waiting and attempt to interrogate her forcefully. And by that, I meant through violent method."
Lucifer nods at that as he took another smoke from his cigarette. His eyes drift off to the direction of Miko's home in silence.
Lucifer remembered it very clearly as the memory is still fresh in his mind. Miko was the only other person other than Childe, who manage to stay in the same room with him for a long period of time. It's true that Miko stays with him for her own selfish reason, but in the end what matters is that she treated him like a human being and Lucifer ended up having fun with their conversation anyway. It's more surprising how Miko could stay sane throughout the whole conversation, even to the point of in the verge of her corruption without showing any signs of it. Even the Tsaritsa herself still had trouble suppressing the resentment naturally growing against Lucifer.
And most important of all she is looking forward to their next meeting, and so is he.
Childe was the only other person that can tolerate him better than everyone else, since Lucifer and Childe's circumstances are similar and yet still very different. And mostly Childe is only interested in Lucifer's power, not as a person.
And that's why this makes Miko's tolerance all the more impressive.
Miko is a completely different case. Instead of just lashing out on him, she manage to endured it all without tainting her flawless front. And perhaps even fool him, even under the mercy of his corruption power. Such a fascinating woman. Lucifer could only wonder what else she might be hiding. Not just about Scaramouche, but about herself.
"Ajax," Lucifer calls him while Childe was enjoying the silent night. "Please tell the Tsaritsa to take my words very seriously. Command the other Harbingers to stand down and leave Guuji Yae to me. I will not hesitate to terminate anyone, even if it's The Jester himself who came here." Lucifer warns the importance of his wish to the Tsaritsa.
"Wait, you can't be serious!" Childe's eyes widens. "Lucifer, they will still try to get the Guuji with or without your warning! Doing this will only ruin your already terrible reputation even worse among the Harbingers and the whole Fatui! They will only think you've lost sight of our goal for some woman!"
Lucifer smiles. "First, I am fully aware of them potentially ignoring my warning and even defying the Tsaritsa's order. But at least this time they will think twice about coming here themselves. The worst they could do is only sending small fries to get to her. If that's the case, then she will at least be able to handle them by herself." He says his reasons.
"Second, I do not care for what the other Harbingers think of me. It's not as if they can finally learn to like me if I treated them any better. You know exactly why, don't you?"
Childe nods slowly. "Your Abyssal power, right?" He says. "It's hella strong, but for someone like you who absorbed too much of the Abyssal power, it's more of a curse than a gift. Not that I would mind one for myself." Childe says with a smirk.
Lucifer nods to that, ignoring the comment. "And third is... you are correct. I am intrigued by this woman, Guuji Yae. Just like every Harbinger have their own goals, one of mine is Guuji Yae. And the other is..." Lucifer looks at the sky and his sharp gaze lands on the floating island, Celestia.
"...erasing them from existence." Lucifer says with a low growl.
Childe's gaze follows Lucifer's. "I heard from the Tsaritsa that you alone should already be more than enough to fight them. I'm just curious why you haven't done so yet." Childe says as he finally manage to stand up once more.
Lucifer took another puff before blowing the smoke away from Childe. "If only it were that simple." Lucifer shook his head.
"I seek vengeance against them, yes. But not at the cost of this world. I wish to create a peaceful and perfect world. A world without Celestia. But power alone won't be enough to achieve that." Lucifer explains.
Childe nods silently in understanding. "But still... why would you go that far for a woman you've just met today?" He says in disbelief.
Lucifer laughs heartily. "I suppose you could say I found the person the same way you see the Traveler." He grins slyly at Childe.
A flush of red creeps onto his neck and ears. "Oh, come on! How do you even know that? I haven't even told you I had a crush on her yet!" Childe complains like a child who just got caught he had a crush on someone.
"Ajax. Twelve of your last letters to me were just you talking about her. I would have to be a complete fool to not notice." Lucifer grins.
Childe buries his face with his hands. "Was it really that obvious?" He mumbles under his breath, before sighing. "Anyway, I'll be sure to send the message to the Tsaritsa. But are you really sure that you want to do this?"
Lucifer nods. "Yes." He took another puff of his cigar, before blowing a thick cloud of red smoke. "Until the Tsaritsa asked me for an important task, I will remain here with the Guuji. If anyone so much as touch the Guuji while I'm gone, tell her that I will destroy the Fatui myself." Lucifer says calmly, but the threat is real.
"Then I'll make sure that never happens." Childe chuckles at the threat, but took Lucifer's words very seriously.
Childe is undoubtedly loyal to the Tsaritsa, but Lucifer is far from loyal. He sees her as someone who he works with, instead of working for her. He is the type of man who refuse to work under someone, but is not against working together with The Tsaritsa, since she could provide him with her resourcefulness.
Of course, this does not change the fact that Lucifer's loyalty is questionable. But it's not like the Fatui can ever hope to kill or fight off Lucifer even with all their military prowess. To the Fatui, Lucifer is a disaster created by nature and should not be awakened at all cost. The day Lucifer decides to take matters into his own hands is the day the Fatui should accept their fate.
Childe needs to make sure that the other Harbingers do not harm Yae Miko. For beware... death and destruction shall be the inevitable fate for the Fatui, if they ever incurred the wrath of The Devil.
Childe felt shivers down his spine at the thought, and decides to change the subject for now. "That reminds me..." Childe says as he eyes the cigarette on Lucifer's hand. "Isn't that cigar supposed to be a drug invented to weaken and even harm the Seven Archons? With enough dose, it should have enough power to even knock them out, and you're using it to get high?" Childe raised an eyebrow at Lucifer.
Lucifer shrugs. "It helps calm my nerves." He says, enjoying his sharp senses being dulled by the drug's effect from the cigarette, but that's not the main reason why he enjoys it.
"Still... you need to be careful of my smoke. Even for you, it's still toxic enough to easily kill you with only a small amount of dose." Lucifer warns Childe as he blows out another thick cloud of red smoke in the air away from Childe.
"Will do." Childe stretched his body, although still flinching in pain, it's enough for him to walk again. "Alright. I think I'm good now." He says as he squat down to somehow fight the pain.
"And I think I've reached my limit, if you know what I mean." Childe says, feeling the natural resentment he holds against Lucifer growing from within. "And don't worry about Scaramouche. You can keep investigating the Guuji, while I'll track him down in my own way. If not, we could always see where the path of The Traveler leads." Childe says with a smile at the thought of seeing her again.
Lucifer nodded. "Good. See you next week, Ajax. Because by then you'll recovered enough to challenge me again." He says with a knowing smirk.
Childe chuckles. "You know me well, Lucifer. See ya." Childe says before walking away. "And be sure to keep a good watch on the Guuji. Even with you guarding her, the Harbingers are still an unpredictable bunch." He says before disappearing around the corner.
"I know." Lucifer muttered under his breath, before taking another puff of his cigarette.
"Sometimes I wonder if all of these are reality." Lucifer watch the stars on the beautiful sky, but avoid looking at Celestia.
"Have I really escaped that hell?"
Flashes of countless monsters ranging from the size of a large building to as small as a hilichurls passed by in his memory. They all have one objective. To destroy and corrupt everything. And their numbers are infinite.
Lucifer's whole left shoulder burns with dark purple and blue power, eating it whole and replaced it with a monstrous and grotesque black arm with a gap of blue and purple light illuminating from the joints.
Everything spins for Lucifer. The trees, the grass, and the dark night of the sky, they are all in a place where they shouldn't be.
The air thins considerably, and Lucifer finds it too hard to breathe.
"Air! There's not enough air!"
The flashes continues. Lucifer rips through the monsters apart as he continue to fight without a single rest. They never stopped coming. When they manage to injured him, all he can do was escape to take a bit of breather and then fight once more to survive without any signs of end. But as Lucifer adapts, so as the monsters. It was a fight that grows much harder and harder as they and Lucifer grow stronger, and their endless number never showing any signs of dwindling.
Lucifer took as many puff of smoke as he could get to push back the flashes of memories in that hell. He desperately tries to calm his left arm and force it to revert back to normal, refusing to give in to the corruption.
This is the main reason why he could not live without his personally supplied cigarettes. It functions to calm him down from rampaging.
After his arm reverts back to normal along with the disappearance of the flashes of memories, Lucifer sighed in pain and relief. He could finally breathe again and his vision went back to normal.
It was unclear to him how long he was fighting in that unknown world. Years? Centuries? Millenniums? Eons? Eternities?
Once Lucifer finished his cigarette, he disintegrated it with his dark power to prevent the remains from it from hurting anyone or the wild life around here.
He can never pass through the time without a smoke in his hand, to the point he got addicted to it. It dulls his senses and his memories of that hell. It never stops them completely, but at least it's better than nothing.
"Just when will the nightmare ends?"
"Hold it right there!"
A voice stops Lucifer in his tracks. He noticed it too late that a few Treasure Hoarders have surrounded him and blocking him from any path of escaping. It must have been the effect of his cigarette dulling his senses, which resulted him to letting his guard down and failing to notice their presence.
The leader of the group, who is also the largest among them, points his blade at Lucifer. "Give us all your goods or we'll take it from you by force!" The leader threatens with a growl, trying to intimidate Lucifer.
But Lucifer easily towers over the leader of the Treasure Hoarders, making him look like a child who is whining to an adult instead of threatening.
Lucifer stare at the blade for a few seconds, before he snickers at it.
"Perhaps I really am out of that hell after all." Lucifer thought with a relieved smile.
"Huh?! What's so funny?! You're looking for a fight?!" The leader gets angry and act tough in front of Lucifer.
Lucifer ignores the leader once more, thinking of the comparison between these Treasure Hoarders and the monsters of that place. Even the single weakest monsters from that place should be enough to create a havoc in any country. And then there are these Treasure Hoarders who threatens other's life for the sake of wealth they don't deserve and aim for those who are weaker than them. They would even go as far as to take one's life for the sake of having coins in their pockets. In comparison, these Treasure Hoarders makes this world looks like a utopia compared to the hell he escaped from.
Lucifer's blue eyes watch their every move, their gestures, and even their nervous breath. Even with his senses still dulled, he can still feel them very clearly with all his senses.
"And if I refuse?" Lucifer tilts his head to the side. "Will you kill me?" Lucifer asked with a stoic face.
The leader turns at his other fellow Treasure Hoarders. They exchange glance with one another, before they all laughed together.
"Of course we will! If you don't wanna die, give us everything you have right now! And your clothes too, since they looked nice!" The leader says after he's finished with laughing.
"I see." Lucifer says, he eyes all ten of the Treasure Hoarders.
Most of them are well fed, with their blade held strong in their hand and their eyes carries the eyes of a killer. On the other hand, three of them looks like they just joined yesterday and heavily malnourished. Their eyes are still full of hesitation and they hold their blade with shaky hands. It's clear to Lucifer that these people have yet to kill anyone. They simply have different eyes compared to the well fed ones, who have the eyes of a killer.
So Lucifer decides to ask them a question. "Please answer my question very seriously, as this will decide your fate." Lucifer warns them, particularly the three heavily malnourished Treasure Hoarders. "Do any of you have a family?" Lucifer asked them.
"Huh? Wha--" The leader looks pissed at this, but Lucifer's death and cold glare silenced him immediately.
Try as the leader might, he can't even move his feet. Staring into Lucifer's eyes, the leader have realized the demise waiting for him and his fellow Treasure Hoarders. He wants to scream in terror from what he had seen behind Lucifer, but he could not. He's too terrified that his body had refused to listen to him.
Although Lucifer is in the shape of a towering man, the shadow behind him resembles that of a giant devil with a pair of horns on his head, with a strength beyond anyone's comprehension. The leader couldn't take the fear anymore as he passed out while still standing, but none of his comrades has yet to take notice of the foam coming out of his mouth as he is facing away from them.
"I'll ask again... Do any of you have a family?" Lucifer asked them once more, his voice carries an authority that no one can deny.
The malnourished vagrants looks down on their feet as their hands shakes even more. "Y-Yes. Yes, I do. I have my mother and my younger brother. H-He's still only 8 years old." One of them--and the only woman among the vagrants--answers Lucifer with a stutter.
Lucifer nods at the woman, his gaze softens at the mention of her family. "Then do you truly think this is the best path for you and your family?" He asked the woman, keeping their distance far from each other, so she can speak her mind without being influenced by Lucifer's power. "Do you truly wish to be one of these vagrants?" Lucifer asked them, taking away their will to fight.
"If you choose this path, there is no turning back anymore. It is a point of no return." Lucifer explains to them, in hopes they could understand why this is a life changing choice. "Is this truly what you wish?" Lucifer's cold blue eyes gaze deep into their soul.
The woman shakes her head as a stream of tears starts falling down from her eyes down to her cheeks. "I-I don't know! Do I even have a choice?!" She says between her sobbings. "The Treasure Hoarders stole everything from us! I didn't have any other choice but to join them! I had to! If not, my brother and my mother will starve to death!" She yells in frustration as her blade slowly lowers to the ground.
"Hey, bitch! You saying this is our fault?" One of the real Treasure Hoarder shouts in anger, giving her the death glare.
"Shut up! This IS all YOUR fault!" The woman fights back, her anger for them burns more intense than the blood lust the man is giving off.
And the other malnourished treasure hoarders starts following her lead.
"Yeah! Sh-She's right! I wouldn't be here if you didn't stole my crate!"
"And I wouldn't be here if I weren't mugged by you Treasure Hoarders!"
They throw insults at the Treasure Hoarders, until the woman speaks again. "I'm sick and tired of you having your way with me every night! I wish you can all die!" The woman raise her weapon against the Treasure Hoarders now, instead of Lucifer.
Lucifer nods as he raised his voice louder for each of them to hear. "Then let me ask you once more," Lucifer's sharp eyes watch for their expression to see if there is a hint of hesitation in their eyes. "Do you truly wish to be one of these vagrants?" Lucifer asked them, his cold blue eyes illuminate under the moonlight.
"NO! We don't want to become like them!" The woman and the other two men answers Lucifer in unison without a hint of hesitation in their eyes, or their voice, or even their body language.
"You bitches!" One of the Treasure Hoarders decides that he had enough of this and swing his sword down at the woman.
The woman shuts her eyes in fear and awaits for her fate, but the attack never came. And when she opened her eyes once more, she saw Lucifer's towering figure in front of her and blocked the sharp part of the blade with only one finger.
"Well-said." Lucifer compliments to the the three of them who just stood up to the vagrants. "You've done an admirable job of pulling yourself from the whispers of darkness. You should be more proud of yourself." Lucifer smiles to the three of them with a proud smile on his face.
Lucifer's eyes returns to the Treasure Hoarders. "You are strong, unlike these people." He says coldly to them and they fell on their knees from fear of the dark power Lucifer is exuding. "And you are strong, unlike myself." Lucifer says with deep sorrow plastered on his face.
Lucifer's body burns with dark blue and purple aura, and his beautiful cold blue eyes illuminates in the coat of darkness surrounding his body. The Treasure Hoarders are frozen in place, as they all see an absolute apex predator in front of them. In other words....
...they picked the wrong prey. Or in this case, the wrong predator.
"If one is prepared to take other's life, then one should be prepared to loose their's as well." Lucifer says as the darkness that coats his body burns more intense and darker. "So I'll ask you this question, Treasure Hoarders,"
"Are you prepared to die?"
Lucifer burns the Treasure Hoarders alive without waiting for their answer, and killing them all without even giving them a chance to scream in pain.
The dark power disappears as quick as they appeared, and their remains turns into ashes before they were carried by the wind. Lucifer walks past them without even batting an eye. To him, their deaths only worth as much as a trash that needs to be disposed of and this only made the world a cleaner and better place for him.
"You cannot create a peaceful and perfect world until you choose the path of a monster. And I am willing to be one, as long as the world can be a better place." Lucifer muttered solemnly as he walks forward with his head held high and without even so much as sparing a glance back at their remains.
From that day forward, the three heavily malnourished people have received a great and unforgettable tale to share to others. And a tale that shall give even the monsters of the Abyss a nightmare. The three would always remember the devil in the shape of a towering man who saved their lives' from their gravest mistake.
In the midst of this, Lucifer has yet to recover his senses from his cigarette, and he failed to notice a pair of a certain girl, along with a smaller floating girl witnessing his curelity from afar.
"That's terrible!" The floating girl says with a shocked gasp. "He just killed them all! Paimon have a bad feeling about that man!" The floating girl says with a frantic.
"What should we do, Lumine?! We can't let a dangerous guy like him roaming around Inazuma!" Paimon says frantically, confused of what she should do.
"His power..." Lumine, the taller girl watch him carefully. "Don't you think it's similar to that inverted statue's? And similiar to what my brother wielded?" Lumine asked to Paimon to confirm her suspicions.
"Really? Paimon thought it resembles Dain's power." Paimon shares her thoughts after witnessing it.
Lumine sees Paimon's point. "Maybe a bit of both?" Lumine muttered under her breath, until she realized something. "Could he be connected to both Dain and my brother?" She realizes, a flicker of hope shining in her eyes.
"Oh, Paimon gets it!" Paimon says with realization, but her face turns into uneasiness almost instantly. "But... can we really just ask him like that? Even though he just killed those Treasure Hoarders without even batting an eye?"
Lumine looks unsure herself. "There's no other choice. I can't stop now. I need to find him, whatever it takes." Lumine says with an unwavering determination.
Paimon nods energetically. "Then we'll do whatever it takes! Question is... how do we approach him? Should we just ask him politely first? Or should we use force right at the very start? You can't be too careful around around him, right?" Paimon mumbles under her breath.
Lumine thinks about Paimon's words for a few seconds, before coming to a decision and nods to herself.
"Alright. Let's do this!"
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Word Count: 5019
AN: Thanks for reading! If you guys enjoyed it, be sure to vote this chapter, since this will tell me if I did good on the chapter or not. If not, then comment down on which part you think have some grammar mistakes and such! Any critics that can help me grow is appreciated!