But ask yourself, can you honestly say the same for the son you cast out, and the very one that now seeks revenge against us all?”
“And you believe yourself powerful enough to stop him?” This was Lucifer’s reply, and one aimed at me.
“That is an answer you will only receive once I meet this asshole on the battlefield, but I think you know me well enough to agree that I am no coward and have never walked away from a fight. For as long as I still have breath in my body and life in my veins, I will stop at nothing before this fucker is dead by my hands!” I told him with a vicious growl, for I could feel my demon speaking on my behalf.
“Spoken like a true Son of the Devil,” Lucifer said with a wink and a grin, that made me again want to roll my eyes at his egotistical need to claim my words as being one of his own making.
“Besides, as you have heard by now, I am sure, he has much to live for,” Dariush said with his own grin, and one I wanted to punch off his face as I didn’t relish the thought of my girl being brought into this.
“Ah yes, finally being granted a fated Chosen One certainly does change things,” Lucifer agreed smirking.
“That it does,” I gritted out, making him boom with laughter before I snapped,
“Now tell me of the bastard I wanted to kill as Judas, and the one I now…”
“…Vow to kill as Lucius.”
13
Blood Map
Lucifer led us from the gallery and into a room that acted as a private office, despite its ominous décor. Another cavernous room carved from the mountain itself, and one that became a contrast of the elements. With its smooth walls, that were white and stark compared to its harsh rocky floor filled with stalagmites. The only way to navigate through the jagged space was via the carved flat pathways that led to different areas.
I briefly looked up, seeing what I expected to find, which was a ceiling full of deadly looking stalactites, that matched those below. As for the furniture in the room, it used the clusters of stalagmites that grew from the ground, with armchairs and small tables that were cut and carved straight from them. But these mounds of mineral deposits that grew from water dripping onto the floor were different shades of red or black. This was thanks to the Hellish minerals that seeped from the rock. Obsidian was the main one, that seemed to liquify in the heat of the mountain and then re-form in these large glass-like shards.
A large collection of these made-up Lucifer’s desk, where a smooth black countertop of glass was laid on top of the spikes, with some piercing through the surface. These corner spikes also served a purpose, for they were used as a way to anchor large maps in place for viewing. One of which was currently laid out with jagged shards torn through the paper, preventing it from curling back in on itself.
One glance at it, even from a distance, told me all I needed to know…
Lucifer was preparing for war.
In Tartarus.
Or should I say, in what remained of Tartarus, for it had been all but obliterated after the Blood Wars. But it was at least clear that Lucifer knew more than he was letting on, and that map laid out on his unconventional desk was proof of that.
I shook all the new questions from the forefront of my mind and filed them away for later. No, that conversation would come after I had discovered all I could about my enemy, one unknown from my past. So, I tore my gaze away from the desk and its over the top throne that sat behind it, one made from where the black stalagmites and stalactites had joined to form pillars.
Lucifer led us to the seating area that was as far from comfortable looking as you could get. Pyrope, the blood red mineral, ran like veins in the obsidian, giving the large armchair sized seats the appearance of a black heart pierced by nature’s swords. A right angle had been cut out of the thickest part of the cluster for you to sit in, with the arms and back framed with a collection of black and red veined spikes, all reaching different heights. There were nine in total, and all carved in a circle, with Lucifer naturally taking the biggest chair at the