When he heard the noise, Lucifer turned to glance at Juin and saw his vessel lying down on the ground while panting heavily. Juin"s back was completely wet, and there were two huge stains at his armpits. Even his limbs were still s.h.i.+vering, most likely from the side effect of experiencing Lucifer"s intense aura earlier. "Aren"t you a little too weak?!" Lucifer snapped, feeling embarra.s.sed by his vessel"s behavior. "Has our training be for nothing!"
"I"m… still human!" Juin groaned as he slowly climbed back onto his chair. "In the future… Please remember that…" he mumbled while panting quickly. The last time Lucifer used his aura to pressure someone, he had only used a small percentage of his strength, so it did not affect Juin much. But this one was too strong!
Lucifer sighed and facepalmed. He then glanced at Warlock warily. "You…" he wanted to say something, but he was interrupted by Warlock"s next words.
"You"re disappearing…" Warlock remarked as he tilted his head. "You should have known your limits."
Lucifer glanced down at his body, which was mostly translucent by now. "I…" Lucifer gulped. He had forgotten about the side effects of using his power directly.
"You are just a soul now. You might be an all-powerful demon king in Alercane, but you need to remember that you are on Earth now…" Warlock lectured him. "Thank G.o.d you stopped in time. Do I need to remind you what would happen if you expended your power completely?"
"I"ll cease to exist…" Lucifer said gloomily as he clenched his fists tightly. Unfortunately, even with all his powers, he could not fight against the limitation of his soul. There was a complicated expression on his face, as if he was thinking hard about something.
Not interested in dealing with Lucifer, Warlock let the demon king deal with his thoughts alone and turned to Juin instead. "You might be his vessel now, but you are the true owner of that human body. You need to learn how to control him, or you will be dead one day without even knowing it."
"Control him?" Juin wanted to laugh upon hearing Warlock"s words. "He"s a demon king, and I"m-"
"Different," Warlock said with a stern expression. "I"m sure by now, you know that there"s something extremely different about you and that you are stronger than you think you are. Lucifer is strong, but without a physical body, you will eventually be stronger than him. That"s the extent of your power..."
Juin glanced at Lucifer, who was so transparent that he could read the t.i.tles of the books on the bookcase behind him. At that time, he thought about Warlock"s words carefully, "Can I really be more powerful than Lucifer? But he"s a demon king…"
Snap!
Juin looked at Warlock when he heard the snap.
"You went to Bayfront Coast. What have you found out?" the man asked as he looked at Juin intently. He knew that Juin went over last weekend, but he did not follow him, for he wanted Juin to learn about everything himself.
Other than for the purpose of keeping him alive, he would not interfere in Juin"s life. To change his destiny, he had to make the decision for every step himself.
"I…" Juin frowned as he scratched the back of his head. He glanced at Lucifer for a second before telling Warlock about seeing the monster at Jim Mack"s house. He did not mention anything about seeing the memories of the monster or the things that David told him.
"Is that all?" Warlock asked in a questioning tone. "You are hiding things from me."
Warlock was only testing Juin. He did not really know if Juin was actually hiding something from him.
"Just tell him," Lucifer said with a nonchalant wave of his hand. He was feeling a little tired now, which was weird for him since he had not felt this way ever since he came over to this world… not to mention that he was only a soul.
It was because of this that he knew then how dangerous of a situation he was in earlier… If he did not stop when he did, there might be a chance of him completely disappearing from this world, or another. One"s physical body could be replaced, but one"s soul was unique; once it was gone, it would be gone forever.
With a sigh, Lucifer thought to himself annoyingly, "I"m really just a little baby, Izzy…"
But he soon put back his normal kingly expression as he raised his head high. As a king, even if he made a mistake, he must never show it to others. He just had to pretend that it was an intended action.
"But…" Juin was unsure whether he could completely trust Warlock yet. Sure, there was no indication so far that he wanted to hurt him, and Warlock even gave him a beautiful and possibly powerful dagger, but that did not mean that it was safe to trust him.
"I know what you"re thinking about… But if he is who I think he is, he won"t hurt you…" Lucifer said as he looked at Warlock. There weren"t that many people who could claim to defeat his father, and of the few, Lucifer could only think of one person who fitted Warlock"s profile.
"Thadeus Luminos… That"s your real name, right?" Lucifer asked as he looked at Warlock. He had heard of this name from his father once. A powerful warlock… and his mother"s best friend… who led an army of magical creatures to attack Alercane on the day his twin brother was sacrificed. Looking at Juin, Lucifer wondered if his twin was really sacrificed that day. Ever since he saw the memory of the monster/Jim Mack and heard the story from David, he had a feeling that the soul residing inside Juin was his brother.
But it did not make sense.
160 years ago, Hades II, son of Daemon King Ralmaroz and Daemon Queen Cahryss and twin brother of Lucifer VI, was born with one of the rarest innate powers—the ability to absorb soul. However, on the day that they were born, there was a prophecy that started to spread around the country.
[Twin suns rose under the darkest night,
Both granted with immeasurable powers,
One is destined to lead Alercane to glory,
While the other will lead Alercane to destruction.]
It was ignored by his parents at first because they felt that it was something spread by their enemies to hurt them and their powerful newborn twins. However, it was getting harder to ignore, especially when known mages around the country started to see the images of Alercane burning up in flames with dark spirits roaming around the sky.
In the end, Daemon King Ralmaroz called upon the Imperial Mage to take a look at the babies. And because of his soul-related ability, which was already manifested then, the Imperial Mage chose Hades II as the one destined to destroy Alercane.