GASP!!!!
The memories hit him first.
Memories of him in a different time, of him stepping forward and being stabbed to death!
[Corruption detected in Host.]
Lucifer was about to take a step forward but was now frozen in place because of the fear of the premonition in place.
’WHAT WAS THAT!!!???’
A sharp pain suddenly gripped Lucifer causing him to take a step backwards.
He then ’remembered’ Jack was rushing to attack him from behind and turned around despite the pain. Only-
’Oh! Now he chooses to save me!’
Lucifer commented snidely as Enrique intercepted Jack and pinned him to the floor!
"Are you alright Lucy!?" Anna rushed to Lucifer’s side and seeing him drenched in sweat she worriedly placed her hand on his shoulders and looked up at him with a mellow expression.
"LET ME GO YOU NYECHISTYY SUPPORTER!!!" Jack shouted while eating the dirt off the cavern floor.
Lucifer felt himself being pushed back by his mother as she tried to drag him away from Jack who was still writhing on the ground and screaming causing Lucifer to become shocked!!
’Why is she trying to push me back too!?’
’Is she a part of this?’
’But why would she want to kill me too!?’
’No... she just doesn’t know what’s going on right?’
’She has to be innocent in all this.’
A wry nearly tearful expression came up on Lucifer’s face as he matched his mother’s gaze, but his footing held firm, not moving an inch from where he was standing.
’Didn’t that sword just go through me?’ Lucifer asked himself looking at Jack’s sword that was resting at his feet. He kicked it away and it was flung away as if it were completely normal this time.
’Is what I remember all real?’
’No, being stabbed twice and then dying before resurrecting with all those memories is enough to understand what’s going on...’
’I travelled back in time.’
’I regressed.’
’Now I just need to figure out how I came back and what’s this pain that I have in my body...’
’Is travelling back in time an ability of the light property?’
Suddenly new notifications showed up on Lucifer’s Video Game Developer System.
[Corruption is infecting System Capabilities.]
[System Glitched!]
[Adjusted System Functions to match current mode.]
[System wishes host removes corruption as soon as possible.]
"Answer me Lucifer... are you alright? Please, I’m getting worried." Anna said nearly with tears in her eyes.
Lucifer looked her in the eyes and with a great deal of pain in his heart opened his mouth and spoke as gently as possible, doing what he did best, lying, "I’m fine Ma... I just think I need a few days to myself after that..."
"Is that so..." Anna looked at Lucifer before looking at Enrique who was pinning Jack on the floor.
Enrique nodded softly and Anna smiled, "Alright! We can wait a few days for you to recover from this."
"Thanks Ma... I knew I could count on you!"
"Of course you could! I’m your Ma after all!"
Lucifer smiled but the smile was bitter sweet as if he was in a lot of pain but was choosing to smile anyway.
He already had a gut feeling about what was going on, but he chose not to believe it.
Enrique knocked out Jack and right in front of Lucifer, conjured a bunch of shiny ropes to tie him up and then carried him on his broad shoulders before speaking to everyone present.
"Alright people! You heard the lady! We’re going to give this a few more days before we come back here! Let’s return!"
Everyone sighed, some in relief and some in exhaustion for having gotten worked up. It all looked incredibly realistic. Yet Lucifer now looked at it all with a hint of caution.
As they walked back towards the village, Lucifer maintained a distance from everyone but his mother who clung to his side like a baby koala.
Once time passed everyone went back into their homes as did Lucifer along with Enrique and Annabeth.
As soon as they entered the house, Lucifer spoke very politely, "I’m feeling a little tired... I’ll take a short rest for now."
"That’s alright." Anna and Enrique nodded.
Lucifer then slowly lay down in his cot face first into the pillow and closed his eyes. And as soon as he did, he took a deep breath and let out a whimper that was muffled by his pillow.
Soaking the pillow with his tears for a while Lucifer finally calmed down a little as he thought of all the things that had happened.
’First things first... let’s pull up all the latest messages of the System.’
There were six of them that corresponded with his newly awakened ability.
[Warning : Irreversible Threat to Host’s Life Detected!]
[Forcibly Activating Demonic Bloodline Ability For Saving Host!]
[Activated Ability : Checkpoint!]
[Price: Corruption]
[Saving Checkpoint!]
[Corruption detected in Host.]
And reading them at once gave Lucifer a clear picture of what had just happened, or at least of what he assumed had been happening all along ever since he’d fallen into this dungeon.
’I got the first few messages when I dropped my weapon and picked up the weapon that Enrique had conjured, Jack also attacked at the same time.’
’Then I got the next message and felt a sharp pain in my body... so that must be the price... corruption... for forcibly activating my demonic bloodline... didn’t know I had that... but alright...’
’That was when I got the checkpoint messages and received my memories... and in my memories there’s the extra system message.’
[Activating Ability : Checkpoint.]
’It was right before I died to that ’thing’ that stabbed me.’
’So I have a time travel ability... sort of like a checkpoint system in a video game... I can set down a checkpoint and then wish to travel back to the checkpoint at any time in the future.’
’Is this my demonic bloodline property?’
’Something to do with Video Games?’
’No... that’s not the most important thing right now... the most important thing is figuring out the nature of the monster that killed me...’
’Clearly it created an illusion around itself... of the mana crystal of the dungeon... of the dungeon core... to pretend like it was the dungeon core to draw people to itself... and then kill them.’
’It cannot move... otherwise it would’ve killed me on its own beforehand without all the circus to draw me towards it.’
’The question is if it can only create that one illusion... or if everything else is also an illusion too.’
But that wasn’t really a question... was it?
Lucifer already knew the answer to the question when Enrique didn’t react in the last timeloop to Jack attacking him, and only reacted when Lucifer stepped back away from the range of the creature whose illusion all this was.
Plus when he thought of his mother trying to push him backwards into the range of the monster...
’They’re all an illusion... aren’t they...’
’It’s all a fucking lie...’
’It was all a lie...’
’A fucking lie...’
’I killed Ma...’
’I killed Ma...’
’I fucking killed Ma...’
’I killed Ma when I took that key from the Warden and got caught with it...’
’She didn’t have a life afterwards... she didn’t fall in love... and she didn’t get married to Enrique...’
’It’s all a fucking lie...’
Lucifer sniffled softly before crying and wetting his pillow as he finally fully calmed down with his emotions becoming cold.
’There’s no fooling the Warden with a grand illusion to gather an army is there?!’
’This is his sick game!’
’This is the way he torments people and watches them break down by falling into his trap before finally killing them!’