Cytus (1)

- Lucifer -

"Did you picture what I told you?" Lucifer said, holding back anger.

"No, I pictured a cannon firing. I didn't mean to it was just the first image that came to mind." Elijah's hand had been severely burned by the electricity. The bone on the under part of his fingers was exposed.

Lucifer just closed his eyes and yelled in his mind. He had so many different ways he wanted to berate Elijah.

'I can't believe the sheer ignorance of people sometimes. Next time I teach someone magic I need to remember this moment and use it as an example of why they should listen.'

Lucifer had plenty of experience in the past dealing with reborn who injured themselves while recklessly practicing magic. This case was different though. The output was stronger than it should have been. Humans don't start with a lot of mana initially, so even when their magic does backlash it only causes minor injuries. Normally someone has to train before they can hurt themselves as badly as Elijah did.

Lao was examining Elijah's hand. "It's damage isn't too difficult to heal, but I suggest we use medicine. Otherwise I might kill him through pain."

Elijah's hand was in complete agony. He could barely hear Lao, and was just hoping that they could fix it.

Lao walked to one of the crates and dug through until he pulled out a dark brown bottle with a green striped white cap.

"Didn't think I would need to use this so soon." Lao took off the cap and handed the bottle to Elijah telling him to "Sit down and drink."

Elijah didn't know what this bottle could possibly help, but if it fixed his hand he wasn't going to complain. As he took a large sip he noted how awful it tasted, before passing out.

"Start fixing his hand. I'm going to call Death." Lucifer walked to the opposite corner of the stone campsite and pulled out his echo. He called Death and proceeded to wait for an answer. It took a few minutes before Death picked up.

"Hey Lucifer, is everything alright?"

Lucifer looked over at the two healers restoring Elijah's burnt hand and answered "Yes, things are going as expected." Lucifer noticed Elijah's body twitching as Yvere restored his hand slowly.

'He should be happy that he doesn't have to be awake for that.'

Another voice could be heard through Death's side. It was one that Lucifer recognized.

"Why is Mira in Purgatory?" Lucifer asked, curious about what had happened since he left.

"About that. Turns out I'll be joining this investigation. I 'Zach' got a bad feeling and wanted to make sure things weren't worse than they seem."

"Okay-" Lucifer was pinching the temple of his nose. "-why does Mira need to help you with that?"

'I'm guessing michael found out about the angels getting killed and probably threw a tantrum until Death agreed to this.'

"Well you're brother informed me that the angels being killed has riled up Heaven. He doesn't trust me 'or you' to handle this properly, so I decided to make him a deal."

"I appreciate your knowledge of how to handle my brother, and hope that babysitting Mira doesn't lead to more angels dying." Lucifer chuckled.

"What did he just say?" Mira asked in the background.

"Nothing, just a joke about a reaper back in Purgatory." Death answered, while moving out of earshot.

"Anyways. Do you want to meet up? I'm only a couple hours away from" He sighed, "New Death city." Death didn't like the fact that the city had been named after him.

"No, we're already five hours out from the city and we'll be moving soon. I appreciate the help though." Lucifer was thinking about the situation. He didn't think they needed Death's help, but he wouldn't outright refuse it.

"I won't be far behind." Death ended the call.

Lucifer put his orb back into his pocket, and walked over to Elijah. "How's he doing?"

Lao answered as Yvere went to the crate to grab something.

"He's good, but we shouldn't wake him for a couple of hours. His body seems to be nearing stage one depletion. It would be good to let him sleep."

"That's fine." Lucifer said looking annoyed.

'Did an attack strong enough to drain your mana and hurt yourself with it so now the healing magic has drained you even further, great.'

Two hours passed and Elijah woke up. "What happened?" Elijah felt groggy from the sleep, and wasn't fully lucid yet.

"You nearly blew off your hand, drank medicine Lao gave you, passed out, got your hand fixed, and then woke up." Lucifer listed quickly.

Elijah scrambled to look at his hand. He couldn't believe it was fixed, until the pain started back up. It was clear that whatever Lao gave him was still numbing his body a little.

"Can you grip your hand." Asked Lao.

Elijah nodded his head, gripping the hand slowly.

"The rain's letting up so we should get moving." Lucifer said. He extended his hand to Elijah to help him up. Elijah wobbled at first, but was able to stand on his own.

Heinrich returned the stone back into the ground. Lao and Yvere got back on the uništi as Peter helped Elijah into the cart.

"Ya feel strong enough to keep your grip on the ride?" Peter asked.

Elijah clenched his gloved hand to see if there was enough feeling.

"I'll be fine. If anything this numbness should make the ride more bearable."

Lucifer strapped down the last box and hopped into the cart.

"Let's go."

The group arrived in Hydern village. Lucifer got off his cart first and pulled out his echo.

'We're going to have to stay here for the night. We won't make it to the border before dark.'

It took a few minutes before Death responded to the call. "Hello. We're about two hours from Seraph forest."

"I'm guessing you rode through the town. It usually takes longer to get from gate to gate. Lucifer walked to the other cart and checked on Elijah.

'I guess the medicine is finally wearing off.'

"Some of the citizens thought it was a special event. It's been a long time since I've rode through the city. I made sure the grim moved everyone off the roads. I didn't ride full speed, but I still wanted to be careful."

"I'm sure the citizens appreciated your appearance nonetheless."

"The ones who don't fear me did."

"An uništi isn't a great option if you're trying to keep people from fearing you."

Death chuckled. "I know, but they're far too useful for travel."

Lucifer always enjoyed talking with Death. It helped ease his mind that someone as powerful as him was a tolerable existence.

"So we had a small setback. We'll be making camp in Hydern for the night."

"Sorry to hear that. Sounds like we'll be able to group up after all."

Lucifer started wondering if he could meetup with Death and make it back in a reasonable amount of time.

'It's been so long since I've had a good fight, and I can probably make it back in a reasonable amount of time.' Lucifer had already made up his mind.

"I'll meet with you in Seraph forest. I can get there and back long before sunrise."

"Are you okay leaving the group with Peter?"

"Hydern is still within your territory, and Peter is more than capable of handling whatever small threats might come along."

"Alright. I'm sure Mira will be happy to see you" Death said before ending the call.

'Almost forgot about her. I need to tell Peter before I go.' Lucifer walked around the village looking for Peter.

Hydern was a collection of small stone buildings that were blocky in design. The doors were mostly old wood and only a handful of the structures had windows. Most of the shops had their names carved into the stone. There was a handful of lamp poles throughout with most of them being by the shops. Lucifer went into the building with the word "Inn" carved at the top.

Inside Peter was negotiating with the innkeeper.

"Two gold pieces is as high as I'm going. That's more than fourteen times what ya would normally be gettin' for seven people."

"Fine. Just make sure you don't leave your death horses where people can see them."The innkeeper grunted.

Peter handed them the two gold coins and noticed Lucifer in the doorway.

"You're quite the negotiator. Only got to fourteen times more instead of twenty." Lucifer grinned.

"Not my fault. The uništi tend to drive up the prices. I wish this place didn't forbid non-residents from buildin'." Peter walked out of the inn with Lucifer.

"I'm planning on meeting with Death in Seraph forest. I won't be long. Do you think you'll be okay for the night?"

Peter was a little surprised by the news.

"Yeah I'm sure we'll be fine. I'll skip the trainin' for tonight, might just focus on the importance of safety when usin' destructive magic."

Lucifer thanked Peter before flying off.

Watching from a distance Cytus noticed Lucifer flying away from the village.

'Guess I'll have to fight your servants instead.'

Cytus smiled and started heading to where he saw Lucifer fly off from.

After thirty minutes the sun finally set and Cytus made his move. He put his hand towards the air and fired a powerful bolt of lightning into the sky.

Peter and the rest of the group heard the attack and knew it couldn't be good. Peter, Elijah, and Sabu were sharing a room, while next door was Lao and Yvere. Heinrich was looking after the uništi at the back of the inn.

"Stay here. The rest of us are goin' to see what that was." Peter's tone was serious. He gave Elijah his orb, filled it with energy and told him to inform Lucifer.

Elijah wasn't sure what was going on, but could tell by Peter's tone and face that this was serious.

'What do I do if they lose?' Elijah thought, but dismissed it. He knew he shouldn't play worst-case scenarios in his head.

"Let's go." Peter motioned to Sabu who nodded and quickly began moving out of the room.

Yvere and Lao were following close behind.

"Definitely lightning magic, it sounded powerful." Lao said checking the corners of the inn.

"They alerted us to their presence instead of ambushing us. They must be strong." Sabu added.

"Whatever this is we're doin' a two-two-one. Lao behind me, Yvere behind Sabu. Heinrich will be in the back." Peter quickly shifted his mind to images of what he could be facing.

As the group walked out of the inn and saw Cytus Peter's eyes widened and he started to shake a little. The group circled Cytus until their backs weren't to the inn. Heinrich saw them and the formation and quickly got far behind the four.

"Oh not bringing the new one. Here I thought you loved sacrificing them." Ctyus's words sounded like two voices speaking at once.

Peter didn't respond to the provocation. He created an orange orb in his hand.

"No other enemies from what I can see." Sabu whispered to Peter. Peter lightly nodded, and poured more energy into the orb, making it glow brighter.

The roads of Hydern were barely lit. There was a few lamp poles throughout that created a small illumination of Ctyus's and the group's figure.

The light that shown on half of Cytus's face revealed thick black lines leading from his bright yellow-green eyes. Cytus stood six feet tall with an almost emaciated figure. His brown cloak was tattered and the part of his brown hair that could be seen was wild and uneven. His hand pulsed with electricity as he watched Peter.

Peter launched the orb at Cytus and began moving towards him. Cytus shot the attack with lightning, causing it to explode.