Chapter 527: Better to die together... Lucifer.
The sky of the mental domain had darkened, saturated by the presence of Shaytan, the Princess of Sloth. The battle had been of unheard-of violence. I saw them on a plain of broken mirrors. Kaiser was at the end of his strength, his aura wavering, his body lacerated by the shadow thorns of the demonic princess.
He had interposed himself between Sierra and a mortal blow, blood flowing over his hands while he murmured words of encouragement to the terrified elf. He had nearly died there, in that psychic void, consumed by the demonic essence to save a woman he was only supposed to manipulate. Sierra had clutched him against her, weeping tears of pure mana, and it was this emotional union, this couple’s bond forged in agony, that had finally banished Shaytan.
I saw Klein there, or rather Kaiser under that exorcist identity, living a domestic existence with Sierra. They walked hand in hand in gardens, sharing frugal meals and glances charged with a complicity that centuries could not have erased. Kaiser, that manipulator with a heart of ice, acted there like a devoted husband, protecting this "Sleeping Beauty" from her own demons.
I made a new gesture, and the flames rose higher, taking on a golden and solemn tint, almost divine. The last silhouette began to form, more imposing, radiating an aura of primordial power.
"Or finally, your love as Alexander Sulyvhan: Amaera, or should I say... Loriel?"
The face of the academy’s vice-director, Amaera Castillon, appeared in the blaze, but her features seemed to superimpose those of a woman from ancient times. In that instant, I felt the tension change. It was no longer only Kaiser who stood before me. The essence of Sulyvhan, the first warrior, had fused so completely with his soul that their consciousnesses were now one.
"You are no longer only Lucifer, that I have well understood..." I resumed, taking a step toward him. "You are also the one who was betrayed by the woman he loved most in the world. And yet... despite that betrayal which lasted a millennium, that pure and devastating feeling of Sulyvhan for Loriel now flows in your veins."
*Through the eyes of my spies in Tenebris, I had seen scenes that put me in a rage. Kaiser, inhabited by the soul of Sulyvhan, looked at Amaera with an intensity that did not belong to him. It was an archaic love, devoid of the Predator’s usual cunning. I remember one evening, in the hanging gardens, where he had crossed her path. Kaiser’s face had softened, his ordinarily mocking features fading before an infinite sadness and a burning adoration.*
*"Since when are you so weak before the demon, Sulyvhan?" she had thrown at him with that contempt she wore like armor.*
*But Kaiser had approached, ignoring the insult. He had placed a hand on the stone wall, blocking her passage. Sulyvhan, through him, did not see the cold vice-director, but the Loriel who had lit his path before delivering him to the chains.
The confusion in Amaera’s eyes was total: she felt that familiar presence, that man she thought she had erased from history, but he wore the face of that insolent young student, that Lucifer in the making.*
*This fusion drove me mad. Seeing Lucifer, the Antichrist I had to watch, and Sulyvhan, the fallen hero, become no more than a single person capable of loving this woman with such purity, it was an anomaly in my calculations. Every stolen kiss in the shadow of the corridors, every embrace where Kaiser lost his identity to become Loriel’s lover, then I could only kidnap this new bitch next to Kaiser.
I stopped a few centimeters from Kaiser, short of breath.
"So, Kai? Or should I call you Sulyvhan?" I said, my iridescent gaze plunging into his. "Will you choose the imperial princess? The savage warrior who lives for your gaze? The elf who shared 10 years of yours? Or the traitress that your soul refuses to stop loving?"
I pointed to the four silhouettes that still floated in the laboratory, each representing a fragment of his fragmented life.
They were all in danger, kidnapped in an unknown place. Lucifer was no doubt wondering why I was taking so much trouble to ruin his life.
Klein clenched his jaws so tightly that he feared breaking them. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the cold of the room. "What do you want exactly?" he asked in a hoarse voice.
’What is it that I want? I want you to remember... That all my sacrifices have not been in vain...’
"I hope that you will choose me..." I murmured, a tender tone slipping into her words.
Klein was destabilized by this change of tone. "What?"
"Save me... Your first love... Like in the old days."
"Stop..." Klein began, but I interrupted him.
I brought my hands to my hood and removed it. A cascade of flaming chestnut hair with orange reflections spread over my shoulders, framing a face of supernatural perfection.
Her skin, of an alabaster pallor, seemed to radiate under the effect of the iridescent flame. But it was her eyes that petrified Klein: nacreous orbs, iridescent like liquid pearls, that stared at him with a devouring intensity.
"Do you not recognize your first love? Lucifer?"
Klein’s breath was cut short.
"That face... those unique eyes..."
"Ariana!?" he exclaimed, confusion and horror mingling in his voice.
I smiled, but it was a smile imbued with sadness.
In my heart I hoped he would say Aeshma. But it seemed that Konstantine had not preserved his memories...
"It seems that, despite all my efforts, you do not remember... You, the mortal who opened the doors of the Abyss..."
I took one more step toward him, my scent of jasmine and withered flowers enveloping him like a shroud. In her nacreous eyes, Klein thought he briefly glimpsed the seal of the Eclipse, that blood moon obscuring the sun, the symbol of those banished from paradise and hated by hell.
"I hope that you will remember everything."
Klein tried to dodge, but I appeared suddenly before him and plunged her flaming hand into his chest.
"If I cannot have you for myself alone... Better to die together... Lucifer."