Chapter 298: I Just Need One Messenger
He turned to Elio, one boot grinding feathers into blood-soaked marble, the dagger still firm beneath the angel's chin.
His voice was calm. Too calm.
"So. Who sent you?"
Elio just glared.
Silent.
Kaelin, bruised and bloodied, coughed nearby but said nothing.
Vahl's lip curled, but not a word passed it.
Lux's smile vanished.
"Tch." He stepped back. "So we're doing this the hard way."
He held out his hand.
Infernal glyphs spiraled around his fingers, sharp and geometric—twisting into a cube, then a cube within a cube, and then a coffin-shaped prism lined in golden-red scripture.
[Barrier – Coffin Cage Variant: Activated.]
Not a shield.
Not a wall.
A prison.
It didn't protect them.
It sealed them.
The angels tried to move—tried to spread wings, summon grace, twitch fingers.
Nothing.
The dark coffin-bubble shimmered, humming low like it was alive. Razor-thin bars of energy crossed their limbs, fixed to their spines like bone restraints.
Vahl struggled. Screamed.
Kaelin's nails clawed the marble.
Elio grit his teeth and spat out, "You'll pay for this, demon."
Lux just crouched in front of them, unfazed. His red eyes bored into theirs.
"Speak," he said.
Silence.
No one moved.
He sighed through his nose. "Alright. Plan B."
He snapped his fingers.
"Corvus."
[Summon: Corvus.]
A ripple of black wind surged overhead. A hiss of laughter. Feathers.
A shadow streaked down from the smoky clouds.
And landed on Lux's shoulder with a lazy flutter.
A massive black raven with eyes glowing molten red and sigils tracing his wings like tattoos of debt and damnation.
"HELL!" the raven squawked. "Why are you calling me in the middle of a fight again, boss?"
Lux tilted his head toward the trapped angels.
"I want names," he said simply. "They're not that strong. They were either a distraction or they were used to measure me. Not a hit squad. Too… clean."
Corvus preened one wing. "Mm. Make sense. Divine scouts dressed up like bounty hunters."
He launched from Lux's shoulder and perched directly on Kaelin's back, right between her shredded wings.
The moment he landed, his feathers glowed with a pulse of infernal sigils. Runes of compulsion, memory unlocking, and soul surfacing.
Kaelin gasped as if an electric wire had been stabbed into her spine. She arched. Screamed.
Corvus dug his claws in. "Hush. I'm working."
Light bled from her mouth.
The sigils spread.
And then—Corvus cocked his head.
"… Faction Seven. Secret Faction," he croaked. "Internal Celestial Inquiry."
Lux's eyes narrowed.
"System?"
[Data Obscured. Celestial Nexus Override in place.]
[Partial Match: Radical reformation unit. Covert surveillance. Angelic rogue operations.]
He clicked his tongue. "Ah. Heaven's secret HR department."
He turned back toward Kaelin, blood staining her lips, wings trembling in pain.
"Why?" he asked.
She spat again. Still proud. Still burning.
"Because you've crossed too many lines."
Corvus chimed in, feathers fluffing. "You're shifting the balance. They're afraid."
Lux paused.
Then—
He laughed.
Loud. Sharp. Cruel. Unapologetic.
"Good."
He straightened slowly, one foot grinding down on broken divine chainmail, a hint of old angelic sigil cracking beneath his heel.
"If they're afraid, they should stop bugging me," he said coolly. "I'm on vacation, remember?"
He gestured around the carnage. "This is how I rest. This? Is leisure time."
He stepped closer, crouched next to Elio, eyes glowing with contempt. "You said I'm violating the clause? That clause? You mean the old outdated trash written by a dead celestial king?"
His smirk sharpened.
"I helped rewrite the damn thing."
Elio's lip curled. "That new clause doesn't apply to us. We never accepted it."
Lux blinked. Then leaned in with a chuckle like it was the funniest thing he'd heard all week.
"Oh? You think acceptance changes reality? You think law cares if you 'agree'? You think I built all this"—he gestured to the scorched battlefield, the dead lions, the smoking orbs still crackling above—"based on consensus?"
He leaned in closer, voice dropping to silk-laced venom. "No. Greed doesn't wait for permission. Greed just wins."
The angels stayed silent now.
Burned.
Broken.
Bound.
Lux stood again, wiping divine blood off his dagger.
"Corvus. Can you get me more?"
The raven hopped once, then shook his head. "Nope. I can't go deeper without burning my brain out. Names, locations… blocked. Someone very high wants this secret."
Lux's jaw tightened. Not in frustration. In calculation.
High up. High enough that even Corvus' infernal probes hit firewall. And in Heaven? That meant someone with power, politics, and probably a stick wedged so far up their holy backside it counted as a second halo.
He exhaled slowly through his nose, letting the tension bleed into something more dangerous. Cold amusement.
Then he smiled.
Slow. Wicked.
"Alright," Lux said, his voice velvet and lethal. "Guess I've milked them dry enough."
Corvus blinked. "Wait… you're letting them go?"
Lux nodded, stretching his hand lazily toward the angels still twitching inside the glowing coffin-cage.
"Yeah. Only one of them."
His grin widened—sharp, feral. "I just need one messenger, right?"
Kaelin's bloodied face paled even further. Vahl flinched. Elio groaned, barely conscious.
Corvus shifted uneasily. "Ah… hell. I know that look."
Lux raised his hand higher.
"And since I'm a fair demon…" he said, voice full of twisted sweetness, "let's make it like a lottery."
The air dropped five degrees.
"Abyssal Grasp."
The ground beneath the angels cracked again—groaning like it knew what was coming.
Tendrils.
Dozens. Maybe hundreds this time.
Jet black. Laced with molten veins. Fanged tips. Barbed edges. And all of them hungry.
They shot from the broken marble like serpents launched from hell's mouth.
Straight toward the trapped trio.
Lux didn't even flinch.
He stood still, watching them with a tilted head and that goddamn smile—the kind that made even demons shift in their seats.
Corvus perched lazily on his shoulder and cawed. "Cruel like always, boss."
"Don't flatter me," Lux replied, red eyes glowing. "This is just… data collection."
Inside the cage, chaos.
Elio screamed and rolled, barely avoiding the first tendril that snapped inches from his throat.
Kaelin summoned her last bit of grace to dodge upward—only to get caught mid-wing by a spiraling vine that grazed her side and sent her crashing again.
Vahl roared and tried to stab one—his broken spear barely deflecting a strike before another wrapped around his ankle and dragged him back down.