NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1525: Revelations (1)
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There was only light, white light, everywhere I could see.
I wasn't awake, probably in a strange dream.
I've been having these more lately.
Not related to Belphegor's powers at all, my own dreams.
And right now, in this incredibly bright space, I walked through a road built out of stars.
My body didn't seem to be there entirely, I was ethereal, only a faint silhouette made of starlight.
As I walked, suddenly, I felt the presence of something small approaching.
"Pyuuu! Pigyooohh!"
It was the Stardust Child; the Cosmic Beast I had tamed.
Which helped me more than I imagined against Lucifer.
Although he didn't fight him in person, as the Stardust Child is too small and frail, his Cosmic Power fueled and strengthened most of my abilities.
Without it, I would've run out of energy much faster, and I might have lost.
This creature was definitely not what I had imagined, but it was more than useful enough to earn its own place in my heart as my precious family.
"Hello, child, you know what this is? A dream?"
"Piiipiii!"
The little sphere floated around me, and then it flew away into somewhere else, a faraway, spiraling galaxy of bright and colorful stars.
As I walked through this, I felt like I skipped through many steps, ultimately reaching this spiraling galaxy.
And found someone else there.
A faint figure, barely humanoid, with long blonde hair and glowing blue eyes.
He had wings, feathered wings, which were broken down, cracking and falling apart.
"...You."
He looked back at me with surprise, smiling lightly.
"Hello, Asmodeus."
"Lucifer?!"
I had just killed him! Why is he here?! What's going on?
"Are you surprised? Scared that I am here?"
"Why are you here?"
"It's simple, really..."
Lucifer grabbed the starlight with his hands, as it fell into stardust, and looked at me, while petting the Stardust Child with his ethereal hand.
"When you killed me, you destroyed my soul and my very origin, and through the same power you devoured the Archdemons, you devoured every fragment. You're now much stronger than you think."
"..."
"But don't worry... I cannot stay here for much longer... I could, but I don't want to... I'm going."
"Where to? What are you planning?"
"Nothing..."
Lucifer sighed, sitting on the floor and looking at the cosmos beyond.
He was no longer mad, nor hateful.
And he seemed to be speaking coherently.
"Are you not mad? What's going on? Can't you explain to me?"
"I am no longer mad, indeed. When you killed me, I finally regained my lucidity, I felt... like I once felt long ago. You freed me, and for that, I will be eternally grateful to you, Asmodeus... or rather, Blake."
"Don't think this will ever redeem you, I will never forget everything you've done."
"I know... and that's fine by me. I'm happy you feel that way, if anything, I'll always live on, a piece of me will always be within you..."
"Hmph..."
I didn't like the way he spoke, it made me feel disgusted.
But there was nothing I could do.
I couldn't reject that power either.
I needed it, for whatever else could happen in the future.
"The war is now over, and your precious world is freed, aren't you happy?"
"I am... but there's many things I wonder, many things left with no answers..."
"Like?"
"What's the "truth" you talked about, Lucifer?"
"Oh..."
Lucifer smiled lightly, patting the Stardust Child until the Cosmic Beast fell asleep over his legs, and he hugged it with his arms.
He smiled gently, there was no longer madness in his eyes, just calmness...
"The truth that made me mad, that made me go against the "Heavenly Father", yes..." Lucifer nodded. "Are you prepared to hear it, Blake?"
"...Just tell me," I said.
"Very well..." Lucifer nodded, smiling lightly.
Lucifer stood up, walking around the stars, and looking into the white sky.
"My father... was never my father..."
"...?"
I felt confused, what did he mean by this?
The Heavenly Father, God, was not his father?
"What?"
"I and the other Archangels that accompanied me... Lilith, Satan, Beelzebub, and the rest, when they were known with other names, learned the truth."
"The truth?"
"We were nothing but experiments, we were nothing but discarded creations by something lese... And whom we perceived to be our Father, was nothing but..."
"...?"
"A machine."
RUMBLE!
The dream trembled, as the skies opened, revealing something that shook me to my core.
A gigantic mechanical eye glaring down at me.
A machine?!
Wait...
"He's here, he knows I'm telling you the truth, but he can't stop me anymore, I'm dead."
"What?"
"He was the one that fought back against the demons the most, the System? His creation, a derivative of his own powers."
"..."
"The little machines you control? Part of his body."
"...?!"
"And the summons you have? Something he created as well..."
"Your God was a Machine, and he's... he's the actual creator of the System?! You mean...! But I thought the Angels wanted Spiritias?"
"They do, they still do, but they have recognized the Ancient Survivors, and have let them live in this new world... But they still don't want anybody to have it."
"So that's why they helped us all so much! I understand... it makes sense..."
"Hahah, indeed! It does, right?! But you... you've freed yourself from the System, and so have your friends! You're free to change the future, and fate! Right, father?"
"..."
The mechanical eye glanced down.
"I once desired to retrieve the missing piece of the world my maker gave to me... however, I have changed my mind."
"You're...?!"
I couldn't believe it, but God was talking to me.
A figure of hypothetical existence, a being that I didn't even know if it really existed somewhere.
It was now speaking to me.
I prepared myself for battle, unleashing my cosmic aura, as I felt the soul of Gluttony and Avarice manifested on my two hands.
"I don't desire to battle. I am not someone that will fight you either... I am well aware that your power now surpasses even mine, son of the stars."
"I am stronger than you?"
"Vastly... you've not realized it yet, just how you have already ascended into something beyond Gods... But it does not matter right now. You promised me, and my Administrators, that one day you would help us."
"I... I did but... can't you tell me why you're a machine? Is the entire thing about being the creator of the universe false as well?"
"Partially..." Lucifer laughed. "But yeah, he's a damn fake! And we are fake too... all of us, the Archangels, we are only pieces of his own essence. But not really made out of flesh and blood... God is a machine, made by someone else, that doesn't even live in our universe anymore."
"..."
"I have sought to obtain Spiritias again for a long time, but now, I simply will concede this victory to you, Blake. Now that even Hell has merged with your world, it has become a truly unique world... which has even taken the interest of my creator."
"...Your creator?"
"Hah! Was pleasing your maker the only thing you ever cared about, father?" Lucifer scoffed.
"I was built to please him and obey him; I was made to do as he said. I was given a simple task, to take care of this Universe and its life, and so I have done so... waiting for him..."
God glanced at the stars, his mechanical eyes... somewhat filled with loneliness.
"Awaiting my creator, Oblivion."
"There it is again... that damned Title... our true Creator, Blake. A bastard that abandoned our universe, and perhaps many others... My father turned me into what I was and imprisoned me by his commands. Another of his experiments as well."
"And he doesn't regret it?"
"I only follow orders... or I did, until he abandoned me for eons... now, I have begun to think about myself, and yet, I do not regret anything I ever did."
"Hah... Hahahah..."
Lucifer laughed.
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