The Demon King's Cowardly Vessel

With a complicated expression, Warlock eventually said with a sigh, "Yes…"

At the moment he heard Warlock"s answer, Juin"s expression turned for the worse. His eyes widened, and he stopped breathing for a few seconds, and the color basically disappeared from his face. 

Seeing that, Warlock immediately added, "But there"s a possibility that you won"t be swallowed by it." 

"H-how…" 

"Get stronger. Train the conscious part of your soul until you could slowly take over the main part. The shackles on the soul within you won"t break apart all at once. It needs a catalyst to break…"

"But it will break…"

Warlock nodded. "It"s only a matter of time…" 

He could keep the soul dormant for thousands of years, but Cahryss did not want him to do that. She wanted Hades to be able to live a normal life, or as normal as possible. That was why her order to Warlock was to let Hades, or in this case, Juin, choose the path he wanted, just like the other kids. 

It wasn"t her wish to keep him shackled for eternity, whether physically or mentally… or that would defeat the purpose of trying to save him in the first place. After all, both Cahryss and Warlock hoped that by living far away from Alercane, Hades would be able to change his destiny in a way or another. 

"And if Juin is able to take over the soul completely, with his current nature, it is possible for him to actually change the destiny…" Warlock thought as he looked at the solemn teenage boy in front of him.

In his mind, he recalled the images that he saw when he touched Hades" body for the first time. The destruction that he saw was horrible… and death was in every image. 

Glancing at Lucifer, who had been unnaturally quiet the whole time, Warlock thought about what he saw when he touched Lucifer"s body for the first time. A king, one that would unite everyone and lead Alercane to a great life. 

His gaze was one that was filled with sorrow and sadness as he saw Cahryss in Lucifer. Of the pair of twins, Lucifer was the one who was more like the woman Warlock loved… both in terms of temperament and looks. Lucifer was also the constant reminder that Warlock would never be able to see Cahryss in this life anymore. 

Downing his gla.s.s of gin and tonic, Warlock thought as he shook his head slowly, "There was supposed to be only one baby… An unprecedented king of greatness… How did everything go wrong? Why must they be twins…"

All three of them were silent by the thoughts that were whirling in their minds; Lucifer, by the new knowledge of his mother and brother; Warlock, by his past; and Juin, of his future. 

After a long moment of silence, Juin suddenly said with a cold voice, "I need time to digest all this…"

Warlock blinked, and after a while, he nodded. "Of course…" 

He did not expect that to be Juin"s response after a long thought. He had expected something more… cowardly, like how to escape from the seemingly-doomed future. Therefore, he was slightly taken aback by this mature response from him… as well as Juin"s tone, which sent a slight s.h.i.+ver down his back. 

Juin then looked at the dagger on the table and said, "Tell me more about this…" 

This caught Lucifer"s attention, as he had been wondering about the dagger as well. It looked like something that he had seen from one of his father"s portraits before. 

Warlock glanced at him briefly before accepting the change of topic. "This is Nightfall… It belonged to an old… dear friend."

As he said the words "dear friend", he glanced at Lucifer, who caught it. Warlock would have used words such as "pompous brat" or "idiotic king", but given the circ.u.mstances, and taking into account Lucifer"s young age coupled with his unstable temperament, Warlock decided to be more civil. 

No matter what, Ralmaroz and him were indeed friends… Well, frenemies. 

"What can it do?" Juin asked as he picked up the dagger. 

"Other than hurting a soul, it can help you control your soul power and direct it out at a specific target without you. Until you reach a specific level, every time you try to use your soul power, you would need great concentration. Using weapons would help reduce the stress on your mind…" 

Warlock looked at the dagger and said, "Try activating it…" 

Juin nodded and picked up the dagger. Grabbing the dragon handle, he thought for a second before asking, "How to activate it?" 

"You"ve been activating those talismans around like it"s nothing… Do the same with this…"

Blus.h.i.+ng slightly, Juin looked at the dagger and focused his soul power onto it. His eyes widened when he saw the rubies on the dagger glowed slightly, and in the time of a few seconds, a reddish-black aura seemed to be emanated from the largest ruby, which was in the dragon"s mouth, slowly moving up from the handle until it covered the entire dagger, giving one a somewhat ominous feeling. 

Once the dagger was covered by the reddish-black aura, a swirling black and red gas-like image appeared within the ruby in the dragon"s mouth. 

"What"s this…" Warlock"s eyes widened slightly as he looked at the aura that Juin was emanating and placing into Nightfall. He could feel an extremely strong aura coming from the dagger, one that he did not expect Juin to have with his somewhat "broken" soul. 

Meanwhile, Lucifer was staring at the aura with a different piece of thought. When he activated weapons, he had the same colored physical aura -- black and red. "Well, of course this would happen… since he"s my twin…" he thought as he looked at Juin, who was staring at the dagger in disbelief. 

"Juin…"

Juin looked up at Warlock. "Did I do something wrong?" 

Warlock made a hand seal, upon which a light, almost transparent bluish energy burst out, pa.s.sing through Juin and Lucifer and covering the entire room. He then pointed at the dartboard that was on the wall opposite his table and made a "come here" signal with his finger. 

The dartboard dislodged itself from its position and flew to the center of the room. 

"Juin, go and slash the dartboard." 

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