Chapter 240 The Darkness Swallows
Lucifer stared at that dark being with his infinite void eyes blankly for several seconds. Lyrian's shadow didn't hesitate to do the same.
To anyone or anything else, staring into the eyes of Lucifer Morningstar alone would have been enough for mental and physical destruction from the inside out.
That was the sheer amount of spiritual aura that Lucifer exuded from simply existing. However, for Lyrian's shadow, which could feel no spiritual pressure, it was like looking into the eyes of an average man.
A hint of intrigue showed on the powerful being's face as he slowly lifted his head away from the palm of his hand.
The sides of his lips curled down as he said, "Hmm," slightly impressed by what he was seeing. "A shadow... one that cannot feel my aura." Lucifer turned his head toward Cerberus, who stood behind the Shadow.
"Why did you bring it here? What was the purpose? It is not a soul worthy of punishment," Lucifer spoke in a deep voice that resonated through the walls.
Cerberus didn't reply, so Lucifer turned his head back toward the unknowing shadow and smirked lightly. "Shadow... you aren't a soul, but you are an intruder. For this, you may deserve punishment..." Lucifer slowly said, a grin still persisting on his face.
In thousands of years, this was the only somewhat interesting thing that had happened for the Sovereign.
Hearing Lucifer's words, the shadow's eye holes widened slightly in surprise. He didn't know what punishment Lucifer was talking about would or could consist of, but he knew that punishments altogether weren't great.
"But as I said, you may deserve it. You have a chance to redeem yourself." He looked at Cerberus once again. "Defeat that dog, and you will gain your freedom," Lucifer said. Both he and Cerberus knew it was nothing more than an attempt to entertain himself.
The shadow slowly turned and faced Cerberus. Its face didn't show a hint of fear, even while facing such a disastrous creature head to head.
It didn't know it, but within the creature threat levels that Lyrian had learned of in Nria's class, Cerberus would have easily topped the highest threat level; CATASTROPHE.
In fact, to even begin to grade a creature as powerful as Cerberus, the Warden of Purgatory, those creature threat levels would need to form not just one, or two, but 10 more threat levels above CATASTROPHE at its current rate of strength increase between levels...
With this being said, the unknowing shadow still faced Cerberus with a determined gaze. As it did, Cerberus also decided to take this small quarrel seriously.
Cerberus knew that the shadow could not feel spiritual pressure, since, at the end of the day, it was only made of the absence of light. Or in other words, it was nothing... However, there was one thing that could defeat even nothing, and that thing was simple; something.
In the instance of the shadow, the thing that could defeat it was... light.
Lucifer smirked at Cerberus' thoughts, able to read them flawlessly. Cerberus prepared its first show of power, before even beginning to attack. Its entire body suddenly caught on fire, a deep purple flame that was almost blinding to gaze at.
Currently, it was far enough away from the shadow that it didn't erase the shadow. However, all it had to do if it wanted to get rid of the shadow was to simply take a few steps forward.
On top of igniting its body in the fire of Purgatory, it infused that fire with its spiritual energy. This allowed the fire to burn even brighter, fueled by the beast's soul.
Finally, Cerberus took one step forward, beginning to erase the shadow from existence. Then, it took another.
Now, Lyrian's shadow had completely disappeared. There was a short moment of silence before something unexpected began to occur where Lyrian's shadow previously was.
A large grin appeared on Lucifer's face as he realized what was happening.
The light which the dog exuded... was being channeled into one specific place and sucked in, as if there was a black hole there. The movement of light traveling towards this area began to grow more and more rapid, as Cerberus found himself getting pulled in by it as well!
For a split second, a feeling that the creature hadn't felt in hundreds of thousands of years suddenly showed up in its mind: Fear. It was random, but enough to make it jerk up and jump away.
However... it was too late for that. Since Cerberus had infused the fire with his soul, his body, which--in Purgatory--was forever in soul form, was pulled forcefully into Lyrian's shadow at a rate that it couldn't outspeed.
"Hahaha! How magnificent! Even I would have never expected such an outcome." Lucifer suddenly burst out into a peal of laughter. "The absence of light was so infinite that it caused all light to be sucked in!" In the next moment, the ginormous body of Cerberus in its entirety was funneled into Lyrian's shadow. Afterward, it quickly turned and stared at Lucifer, who stared back at it with a grin on his face.
This exchange of gazes lasted for a few moments before the shadow found itself free from the chain that was once held by Cerberus and began to fly out of the structure at extreme speeds.
Lucifer gazed at the dark, curious being as it began to make its way out of his palace. "Not just any shadow is capable of that," Lucifer muttered, in slight awe. "The being in which that soul belongs to... his bloodline..." That was all that he said out loud before suddenly snapping his fingers.
As soon as the loud snapping noise began to echo through the entire realm, Lyrian's shadow disappeared from Purgatory.
***
At that moment, Lyrian suddenly felt a jolt of pain travel through his entire body. It started from his head and quickly darted down all the way to his feet before suddenly escaping his body.
He quickly looked down in slight shock, as his confused expression suddenly turned into a delightfully amused one.
"You're back..."
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