Chapter 53 [Bonus ] 14: Lord
12 years before Lucifer\'s Death, Maccleshead City Centre.
In a bustling club with blaring music so powerful, the pulse of the speakers sends vibrations through the entire room.
A handsome male with dark hair was carrying several drinks over to his friends while one of them was chatting up a beautiful woman across the room.
"Oh, it looks like he\'s fucking in! Jammie bastard." Lewis said with his slightly jealous but optimistic tone, taking his rum and coke before taking a swig, looking at Lucifer with a thankful gaze.
"Cheers, bruv, just what we needed, a fuckin\' night out without those annoying women yacking on and on about bills and children~ and the fucking Morgage."
A tall lad with a slightly bent nose was leaning over Lucifer\'s shoulder. "Oh Jimmy, got you a bitter cause you\'re fussy as fuck!" Lucifer joked with his deep baritone voice vibrating over the loud music.
"Cheer\'s brother! I\'ll get the next round."
Other than that, he was a handsome lad with brown hair and eyes, grabbing his pint of bitterness and necking half of it as he discussed zombie apocalypse tactics with Danny.
At this moment, upon seeing Brad, who was kissing the girl on the dance floor, suddenly something in Lucifer\'s mind woke up...
\'What\'s going on... Why am I back in this world... When was this memory... Brad... Didn\'t he die?\'
Suddenly the scene slowed down—his heart began to beat faster, tight pain in both his head and chest; when the memories and bloodlines fused, his sub-conscious sealed this memory and many of the most depressive ones, so Lucifer could live a free, unfettered life without being held back...
"No..." Lucifer\'s voice was quiet like a rabbit\'s whimper as he saw the hooded figure rushing towards Brad... not just one but two of them... He tried to rush towards them, but his body wouldn\'t move.
In despair, he tried to awaken his friends, but they continued talking about zombies and the hot girl from the Metrolink.
"Lewis...! Hurry, help Brad! He\'s going to be stabbed!"
"Jimmy, for fucks sake, zombies aren\'t real... you and Danny look to the dance floor; we can still save him! Please...!"
Anger... Despair... all the negative emotions in his heart began to surge through his mind and soul!
The hooded youths holding the knives lunged forward—Brad was unaware of his tongue in the girl\'s throat before he quickly pushed her away. Seeing the men with knives, Lucifer thought it was two.
Why were there now close to 20, and they all seemed different...
A voice seemed to shout... Telling him to hurry and flee was too soft, like a mosquito, as the first knife penetrated Brad\'s neck...
*Crack*
Something snapped inside him.
Unlike the past Lucifer, he now had power and instead of taking the route of the passivist...
His body suddenly began to emit a bloody glow, his eyes turning deep red, hands covered in sharp, red metallic claws and beautiful black raven wings from his back as he lunged forward.
\'I will save him...\'
\'They cannot die.\'
\'I will not let them die.\'
\'I will kill all who hurt my friends and family!\'
\'Tear them limb from limb... devour their blood, crush their organs!\'
Lucifger\'s hand grabbed one of the hooded youths, not even stopping to speak or ask why as his hand tightly clenched together, popping the youth\'s skull as blood poured from his hand as the loud crack of bones being crushed echoed.
A shrill scream sounded in his ear, yet Lucifer didn\'t stop, his fist smashing through the chest of another, somehow feeling like he was wearing some steel plate under his jacket.
Lucifer grabbed brads bleeding corpse, holding him tightly in one arm, as he massacred the group of 20 men with knives, his face, body and clothes stained red with their blood as his foot stomped down, crushing the pelvis of the last one.
Slowly, he took the knife that was lodged in Brad\'s chest, stabbing the man slowly, his wrist twisting the blade as it started to penetrate his lower abdomen, the painful scream and begging like music to his ears as he sliced the man along his entire body, letting his organs and blood spill out onto the floor.
"Brad... I did it... This time... I wasn\'t afraid..."
"Brad....?"
In his confusion, he turned around to see a heavily damaged wooden wall like those from medieval times, a broken stone tower with several people looking from the wreckage and in Lucifer\'s hand was no dagger...
But the tip of an arrow... in his arm was not Brad... His best friend from childhood, Jeff, was the first friend he made in Celestia.
"Ah..."
Jeff\'s body was cold, his face and body full of arrows, some even penetrating his eyes as if they wanted to torture him...
Anger, regret and fury built in his body... Yet.
The revenge had already been taken.
Lucifer was kneeling in a pool of flesh and guts, broken armour with the royal insignia... skulls crushed and maimed by his brutal claws and the fearful townsfolk who looked at him with both shock and awe...
However, old Bernard was still looking at him with a concerned and comforting look; none of the old men seemed to fear Lucifer\'s current form. Instead, they shouted at the others, telling them to see what those so-called "knights" had done.
Then, a soft hand was placed on his shoulder as if to tell him then no matter how much blood he poured into Jeff\'s mouth—he couldn\'t save him...
"It wasn\'t your fault Lucifer... Don\'t be so upset..." Her hands stroked his bloody cheeky, slowly trying to break him from his strange hysteria and confusion, but his eyes seemed to reject reality.
His sharp claws tried to cut his wrists repeatedly, letting the blood pool in Jeff\'s mouth, trying to close his lips so it funnelled down his throat...
Yet nothing happened, there was no magical miracle, and he suddenly became a vampire or dhampir living once again...
Just the eerie sound of fluids draining down his oesophagus while hanging limp in Lucifer\'s arms.
Gwendolyn\'s eyes filled with sorrow, as she knew that Jeff was sent by her father to protect her, yet she didn\'t understand why the royal knights would suddenly attack now.
She couldn\'t understand what had changed...
But there was one man who did, and he was currently lying on the ground with his lower body crushed and his right arm severed.
It was Mathiew...
The traitor, or rather the dog of the Queen.
Gwen stood up, walking towards the man she saw as like a little brother, helping him and taking care of him just as much as Jeff, despite her trust in Jeff being words higher.
She looked at him like dirt, seeing the royal knight symbol on his leather armour.
It was then she realised what had happened, their speak of marriage and leaving the town, maybe this man was sent years ago like Jeff but by her dear Mother...
"Because her daughter is soon to be of succession age, did she do this? Or is it because I would leave and live my life?"
*Thud!*
Her foot smashed into his abdomen of Matt, but her slight healing magic was cast, so the blow not only broke his ribs but slowly healed them, with a crooked shape making breathing harder and causing constant pain as Matt whimpered and moaned.
"Ugh....p...please... Princess....!"
*Slap**Kick*
Gwen\'s beating didn\'t end there—a constant cycle of impact and restoration with crooked and imperfect healing made him suffer even further.
"Why? Tell me the reason, and I\'ll end your suffering."
Her foot stepped on his chest, the sharp tip of her steel boots poking the soft flesh of his throat as her wings fluttered angrily, creating brutal gusts of wind that tore apart the royal knight corpses into tiny bits as her fists clenched.
"Ha.....ha....." The audacity of Matt to try to laugh despite the current situation meant he was too far gone, irredeemable.
"I see that dumb fucker is dead... As if the Queen didn\'t know the king\'s pawn... ha...ha...Princess..."
"It\'s all your fault... Why did you try to have a nice life, to leave your prison?" The gleaming eyes of Matt were filled with determination, disgust and mockery as they shone with a dark glint, blood filling the whites of his eyes.
"Hahaha... a monster with a disgusting face.... dares to find love.... fine marriage? Don\'t dream, you fucking bitch...! The Queen will kill you and your filthy monster of a-"
*Crack*
Gwen\'s foot kicked Matt\'s jaw with a powerful sweeping kick, snapping the bones and tearing the flesh as it was flung into the distance, his body now writhing in pain as blood poured from his lower mouth where his jaw used to be...
Now a dirty tongue flopping against his neck, as his eyes were no longer filled with determination but terror and fear...
"You can say anything, anything you like about me... But my beloved? That perfect man, who loves me no matter what form I take, what trouble I bring him... Ahhh... I want you all to suffer to awaken the pain in his heart... The pain I worked so hard to bury...."
"Forgive me, Lucifer..." As tears streamed down her cheek, she no longer cared about her Mother, father or the kingdom, even this traitor... Her heart was crushed for her beloved, now forced to relive both memories simultaneously...
She looked at the suffering Mattiew, a slight smirk on her face as she dispelled her Valkyrie form before turning away, choosing to let him suffer, to be eaten by birds or wolves from the forest and walked to her beloved.
"Lucifer? What are you doing?" Calling out with a concerned voice, she noticed that he was no longer in his crazed state, now in his ruined tunic and pants damaged by the knight\'s swords, spears and the few maces that hit his body.
"Ah, Gwen? I thought they might be cold on the ground... So I am just using this flame to keep them warm."
"Who are they, darling?" She asked, as she noticed Jeff\'s body was inside a small pit and was suddenly set on fire by a fireball that dropped from Lucifer\'s hand.
Lucifer turned back, looking at Gwen with a slightly glum face and a bitter smile as his eyes were dull and lacked the usual vibrate he had. "I\'m saying goodbye to Jeff and Brad... It\'s about time I let Brad rest; it\'s been 13 years now..."
Gwen\'s mouth dropped as she felt a strange sense of confusion; despite remembering that night, his right hand still held the dagger that Bernard had made for him...
She wondered if he was over that night or maybe he just accepted it.
But the moment she stepped forward, a dark and slightly distorted voice came from his lips, like when he used that crimson lord form and spoke... like the man she fought.
"Gwendolyn... Forgive me, but I will destroy this kingdom after all..." He heads, looking back at her with a broken smile as his thumb rubbed the dagger\'s tip.
As if he had given up or accepted his face, he smiled at her before penetrating his chest where the dagger killed Brad, and the arrow pierced Jeff first... blood oozed from Lucifer\'s body as Gwen\'s eyes widened.
"Jeff, Brad, this is the most I can do to atone for my mistakes and inability to save you both..." He spoke with the normal gentle voice of Lucifer, his blood dropping onto the body of Jeff and a small flower, likely the replacement for Brad, as they completely burned into ashes thanks to his blood accelerating the fire.
"Why?" Gwen asked—her eyes watched the beautiful sight of her beloved and the crimson flames burning beside him, causing a dark illumination and shadow on his perfect face.
"I am the 72nd Lord, after all..." Suddenly he shook his head, "No, that\'s just an excuse... Let me be honest with you at least...." Looking at Gwen, his smile faded, and even the hint of the happy Lucifer she knew was gone.
"I just want to kill everyone involved in this event and anyone that supports them. That\'s all."