The First Night (2)

- Lucifer -

Ten minutes had passed since Lucifer's instructions to Elijah. Lucifer was making sure to correct hand placements, while also giving advice on how to reduce the backlash from the magic.

"Picture your hands as though they're covered in thin gloves made of energy. The body tends to create a natural shielding when you're doing basic things with magic, but as the action gets more complicated you have to manually control the protection. This will reduce the shock you receive considerably, and will also be useful for dealing with other's magic in the future."

'He's not giving up, that's good, but beginners tend to snap after so many failed attempts.'

Elijah was furious, but not at his inability to get the training right.

'It's just a little shock, stop flinching. You're a grown-ass man, get your shit together and stop flinching.' As Elijah yelled at himself mentally he shocked his hands again, only managing to get his hands at the eight and four positions.

"Fuck!" Elijah yelled, shaking his now slightly smoking hands.

Elijah's hands felt like he had stuck them in a wasp's nest. He took a breath.

'Focus on your breathing, not the pain. Focus on the image in your mind, not the pain.'

Elijah pictured a glass sphere with electricity flowing through it, and that he was moving his hands along it, parallel with each other. He closed his eyes and kept the image in his mind.

'It's not about doing it quickly, it's about doing it right.' His hands made it to the eleven and five positions before he zapped himself.

"Dam-I mean shit. That was close."

Lucifer was impressed by his progress.

'It would normally take a few days before someone could even get to seven-three, but he's already progressed past that. He must have a good mental image to go off of.'

"You can move your hands closer or farther, depending on how you feel you're doing. Sometimes it can help to maintain the stream longer before you move your hands.

Elijah placed his hands twelve inches apart and slowly separated them more and more until there were about twenty-four inches between them. He slowly moved his hands back towards and away from each other. He was trying to get a feel for keeping the stream up while moving his hands, but without the added difficulty of shifting directions.

Lucifer was surprised at the ingenuity.

'Well, there goes my next tip.'

Elijah canceled the flow once his hands were back to their original positions. He took a deep breath and pictured the glass sphere again. He created the electricity between his palms and started slowly moving them into parallel positions. He managed to get his hands to twelve and six, and in his excitement lost focus and shocked himself again.

"Yes! Finally got it." Elijah was excited at his progress.

Lucifer smiled.

"Careful. There's still a lot to teach, and losing focus in your later training like that could lead to far worse injuries." His words were cold.

Lucifer was proud of the quick progression but upset that Elijah lost focus.

"Your next step is doing the same motion, but reversing your hands back to the starting position and then starting over. It's called "ticks" in this world and as you progress you'll be expected to do more and more."

Elijah was embarrassed by his outburst. The success had made him feel young again. Even the younger body he has still didn't change how he felt mentally. For a moment it was like he was a kid again, learning how to ride a bike.

"Right, sorry. I didn't mean to act up like that. If this were training back in my past life I would have had something thrown at me and I'd be getting screamed at."

Elijah placed his hands apart. His palms were twitching and before he could start Lucifer stopped him.

"Hold on, I'm going to get Lao. I was going to have him join later because usually, people go slowly with this training." He said looking at the many scorch marks on Elijah's palms.

Lao walked in and asked, "What's the damage look like?"

Elijah showed his palms to Lao who seemed unaffected by the clearly burnt skin.

"Simple enough-" Lao said. "You might want to bite down on something. Restoring burned skin can be extremely painful, even with healing magic."

Elijah shook his head.

"I'll be fine. I've had plenty of painful fixes before."

Elijah thought about the time his shoulder was relocated.

'Let's see what "extremely painful" means in this world.'

"Alright," Lao said placing his hands on top of Elijah's. "You might feel some phantom pain after. It's a common occurrence with healing magic. Don't train until the feeling goes away."

A white light glowed as Lao restored the burnt skin. Elijah grunted and did everything he could to not scream. His mind filled with expletives. The process only lasted a few seconds but it felt far longer.

Elijah, now rapidly shaking his hands as though he was trying to shake water off of them, felt like all the pain he had been trying to block out was now at the forefront of his mind. He tried to picture everything, anything, that would help him ignore it.

"Feels like I tried slapping a flaming cactus."

Lucifer chuckled. "Thanks, Lao."

"For what it's worth, most scream the first time they experience that," Lao said. As he went to walk out Lucifer stopped him.

"We're about to start training ticks. It would be best if you stayed." Lucifer said glancing over at Elijah who was now testing whether or not he could grip with his hands.

"Ticks, really? Is he going to be okay for the rest of the training?" Lao asked.

Elijah looked at them, curious what other training there was going to be. The pain had finally stopped in his hands long enough for him to back to questioning things.

"What other training?" He asked while rubbing his hands.

Lucifer looked at him with a smile. "After this, we're going to test your hand-to-hand with Lao, and then your weapon capabilities with Peter."

"Am I going to have time to sleep tonight?" Elijah asked, wondering what the weapon training would entail.

"If you feel tired you can," Lucifer said, dropping his smile.

Elijah was surprised by the callus response but then thought about something he hadn't realized.

'Come to think of it, I haven't felt physically tired at all. Mentally worn out, sure. Not only that, I haven't felt hungry either.' Elijah wondered about the missing feelings, suddenly concerned his new, younger body might have a secret.

- Death -

(Before Lucifer and the team had left Hell)

Zach was getting yelled at by a woman in a sports top, and tight black workout pants.

"Why the fuck would you use offensive magic indoors?! We literally built an outside arena for that kind of thing. Not to mention your blast of wind almost hit Marcus on the other side of the wall!"

The woman yelling was Jasmine. A 5'7" dark-tan Indian woman with thick black hair tied into a ponytail, brown eyes, and an almost bulky muscular build. Jasmine was a Grim, same as Zach, and was often annoyed by her fellow Grim destroying the inside training area.

Death was putting his robe back on as Zach was getting yelled at. He walked up to the two.

"I approved it, Jasmine, sorry. Heat of the moment, won't happen again."

Jasmine wanted to yell at Death, but the building was, for all intents and purposes, his. It existed long before either she or Zach started working for him.

"Please be more careful, and don't indulge assholes. Or if you do, do it outside-" She turned to Zach. "and you and I should have a proper match in the arena next time. No offensive magic!" She yelled before walking off.

"Sorry about that." Death said scratching the back of his head.

"It's fine. Now I have an excuse to fight her again." Zach said with a smile.

'There's that habit of his.' Death thought.

"I need to make the call to Lucifer. Go talk with Eric about replacing the mats." Death said before walking off.

'I wonder if Lucifer has left already? I can catch up to him easily, but I'd prefer not having to rush the uništi.' Death walked down the long spiral stairs to the fifth floor. As he opened his door he noticed Mary was waiting for him.

"Is everything alright?"

Now that Death was fully standing, the height difference made Mary's anxiety with speaking to him worse.

"I-I have an, an, um, urgent message from Heaven, s-sir."

Death noticing the anxiousness quickly went to his desk to sit down.

'She's so good at handling herself with everything else except when it comes to me.' Death thought, tapping his fingers on the desk.

"What's the message?"

Mary, now taking a breath before speaking, relayed the message.

" "Michael needs to speak to Death. I can't disclose the information to anyone but him. Make sure he gets the message." That was all they said. It sounded like they were angry when they called." Mary always gave Death a heads up if the person he was about to meet or talk to was in a bad mood.

"Thank you. You can leave." As Mary was walking out Death pressed his fist into his cheek.

'What could possibly be so important that you send an urgent call? Probably another attack on angels in the other territories.'

Death wasn't fond of Michael. The archangel was always acting superior. When he was that way with the reapers it was bothersome, but when he acted that way with Death it led to some loud arguments.

"Just call and get this over with." Death said grabbing the echo and its holder out from his desk.

He placed his hand on the orb and said 'Michael' in his head. The orb filled with black energy and a voice could be heard on the other side.

"Hello, Reaper," Michael answered.

'Off to a great start. Maybe I should oblige the little angel and have a proper fight with him. No cure for arrogance like a broken nose.'

"Hello, Michael. Please explain to me what is so important that you sent an urgent message. You understand those are reserved for potential wars and slaughter, right?"

A loud "tch" could be heard from the other end of the call.

"Oh, I'm well aware. As I'm sure you know there's a human resistance building in the northern territories. That resistance has killed several angels in the last few days. Now, I know you love humans, but even you can understand how such an act would be interpreted?"

'Fuck me, he's not seriously suggesting declaring war on a resistance group? The angels probably deserved it.'

"I think you forget that not all angels are as well behaved as the ones in Heaven.

'Not that those angels are particularly fun to be around either.'

Michael didn't say anything for about a minute.

'I hope he isn't frothing at the mouth at me insinuating some angels are less than great.'

"I need to speak with you in person. I'll fly over, stay there." Michael said before ending the call.

"That's not good. Why does everything seem to happen at the same time?" Death asked, before standing up again with a groan.