The roar of the fire swallowed the young man’s scream, and Saer’s stomach plummeted.Ruki.
I hope I’m as old as Gaugii when I die.Or maybe even older.I want to see everything before my spirit joins the ancestors.
A tightness choked Saer’s throat, a cavern opening in his chest.
Hollers ricocheted through his skull, thunder shook the earth, freezing rain stabbed against his flesh, and yet everything around him suspended in a moment of peaceful stasis as he saw…
As he felt…
As he wasdrawn…
The world resumed its pandemonium while Saer stepped to the hut and lifted one of the heavier beams in his bare hands, corded forearms flexing.The fire absorbed into his skin as though it thirsted for the blaze.The burning piece of lumber fell behind him as he entered what remained of the immolated structure.
Embers flew.
Smoke suffocated.
Amidst all of it, the fine, white effervescence he’d sought since setting foot back on the surface floated.
This time, the spirit—Ruki’s spirit—did not dissipate.
It came to him, bringing a confusing cacophony of emotions.Relief, emptiness, satisfaction, and sickness.Ruki was dead, but his spirit was…
Mine.
Saer clutched the energy to himself, the contact immediate and solid.
What Lucifer needed.It must be.A gift from Ruki.
His givenDaemoenicform erupted from his human guise, fueled by the energy of the flames that bathed him.Wings stretching, Saer shut his eyes and let his inner Hellsfire consume him.
He left behind nothing but ash, blood, and despair.
In the depths of Lucifer’s throne room, Ruki’s soul materialized as a thin and glowing vapor, a reflection of the boy and the body it inhabited on the surface.
The likeness was stunning.
Not more than a handful of strides away, Lucifer bent over Its latest creation.The feathered wings hung limp and dull, Its motions tremulous.
Saer knelt in his usual, submissive posture, one clawed hand turned up, the other arm curled around Ruki’s essence.He lowered his gaze as he knew Lucifer preferred.“Master—”
“Silence.”The command sliced through the chambers, echoing off Hell’s stony walls.“Be still.”
His heart rate spiked to the orders, but he held his tongue and dared to spare glances about the throne room, seeking Neyu.
An expansive and oversized dais had been finished in his absence, large enough for allDaemoenicato kneel alongside Lucifer, if so commanded.
The dais boasted dozens of steps.At its apex, Lucifer’s elegant and expansive throne carried savage opulence.The stone had been flooded with Hellsfire until it glimmered, ebony reflecting the fiery ribbons of Hell.On either side—the legs, along the arms, and crawling up the mammoth back of the seat—replicated pairs of horns decorated various regions.Midway up the leg of the throne, he recognized Runeak’s forward-facing horns, their tips honed to sharp points.Further up, two pairs of ram’s horns adorned the armrests.Up and up, each of theDaemoenicarepresented, until the likeness of Saer’s horns sat at the very top, thick and curving down, then out.
The throne his maker had commanded Neyu to construct was nearly completed, and she must have gone to fetch more materials.
If he could catch just a glimpse...
But the onlyDaemoenicin the chamber was Lucifer’s latest creation.Shouldn’t there be more beyond Neyu, the Twins, and Runeak?He’d been gone foryears.Saer’s gaze glided once more to Lucifer, then veered to where the original line of dormantDaemoenicforms had perched in wait.
When he and Neyu were brought to life, five forms remained.
After the Twins, there were three.
