Lucifer’s breathing turned heavy as a thought creeped up inside his currently mostly empty mind.
’Can...’
’Can Ma... still be saved?’
’Can I take her back to freedom with myself?’
Lucifer’s eyes scanned through the entire tree of souls, searching for any identifying characteristics of the souls to figure out if he could steal his mom’s soul from here.
Unfortunately for Lucifer his mood plummeted when he found no identifying characteristics.
His heart began to beat faster and his body turned cold with fear.
’Am I going to lose her again?’
Eventually the burger’s effect faded away.
’About ten minutes for one bite.’
Lucifer thought of eating more of the burger to continue looking for the soul of his mother, however...
’It’s probably a waste of time and resources...’
’I can just harvest them when the tree dies... right?’
[Player played game, emotional value generated +1.]
Being knocked out of his thoughts by the emotional value notification that he’d probably gotten from Jack playing Lucifer simply clenched his fist over his chest for a while and walked back ’home’.
On his way home however, Lucifer paused since he felt like someone was following him.
’Who...’ Lucifer ate another bite of the burger in his hand before storing it back into the system inventory.
His brain sped up and the world around him slowed down to a crawl.
Lucifer quickly turned around and spotted the little critter that had been following him while hiding behind buildings like a little monster!
’Isn’t she the same little girl that I scared when I first came into the village?’ Lucifer recognised.
Seeing Lucifer suddenly turn around so fast, the little girl froze mid stride and fell forwards.
Luckily, Lucifer was close enough that he grabbed her arm and let her remain standing.
"What are you doing?" Lucifer asked the little girl softly, for he found her actions very intriguing.
The girl looked at Lucifer and fidgeted with her fingers a little before looking around and whispering as if she was telling Lucifer a secret.
"I...pspspspspspspsps."
"What?" Lucifer asked again, this time kneeling down to reach her level to hear her better.
"I... heard the adults say that you ate up my friends..."
"They did?"
"Yes..."
"And you’re here for...?"
"....to beat your tummy so that you spit out my friends..."
Lucifer cracked a smile but quickly bit his finger to calm himself down before clearing his throat and speaking to the little girl once again.
"And why haven’t you beaten my tummy yet, are you scared I’ll eat you too?"
The girl looked Lucifer up and down, shook her head, fidgeted with her fingers once again before speaking in an even softer tone.
"I don’t think you ate up my friends..."
"Oh? How do you know that?"
"Because... your tummy isn’t big enough to hold all my friends..."
Lucifer had to bite his finger once again to keep from bursting into a wide smile. Instead he softly raised his hand and tried to pat the girl’s head, only seeing her flinch, he paused.
Then he stopped himself from patting her and instead removed the chocolate that was inside his inventory that his mother had given him.
"You want this?"
The girl’s eyes widened and she quickly nodded.
"Then you have to tell me something truthfully."
"Okay..." the girl said, she was still a little scared but still more open and shy because of the chocolate now.
"Did you like the game you played in the evening?"
"Yes!" The girl jumped up as she said that, her eyes glowed as she smiled and spoke at length.
"Lena loved beating the stupid looking demon!! I loved it when it spat out candy!!! Do you also spit out candy if people beat you!?"
"No, no, no! I don’t spit out candy if you beat me up. You can just ask me for candy and I’ll give it to you."
"Really?"
"Yes... here’s yours." Lucifer said softly while handing the little girl her candy for the answer she’d given.
The girl quickly grabbed it and immediately ran away but not before she shouted, "See you around kind demon!!"
Lucifer smiled but the smile vanished after a while.
’Can I save her?’
’No... the more important question is... do I have the ability to save her?’
After a while, Lucifer got up, dusted the pants he was wearing and quietly walked home.
"Where were you!?" Annabeth asked Lucifer with worry. "I thought, Jack did something to you! He’s missing from under the tree where everyone was playing the game too!"
"Ha... don’t worry mom, even if he’d have done something I’d have escaped and found Enrique."
"I know... but just don’t vanish like that again..."
"Yeah Ma, I promise I won’t..." Lucifer said kindly while giving his mother a warm hug.
"Oh? You’re hugging me back!? In front of Enrique?! That’s new! My baby now understands how great my huggies are, hehe!"
Sigh...
"Did you love the game I made for everyone?"
"Yep!! Anything my baby makes is the best!!!" Annabeth instantly replied. "I’m your number one fan!"
Lucifer slowly separated from his mother and looked at Enrique. The man seemed to be conflicted about something and it showed clearly.
"I’m not stopping my game plan dad... I want everyone to see the end! Won’t it be interesting for everyone to finally be on the same page once the game ends?!"
Of course this wasn’t the reason Lucifer had in mind, his reasoning was simple, the more the illusion monster played the game, the more emotional value he got, while simultaneously the illusion monster got weaker.
It was a win-win, even if only one side was winning twice.
"I see... I understand Lucifer... I just hope the people outside the dungeon... the ones who are fighting a war for us don’t discriminate against us when we go back."
"Well... we can all just make up a story about fighting off a dragon while we’re inside the dungeon!"
"After all there had to have been some monsters you fought before when you were tossed into this dungeon right?"
"Let’s pretend that those monsters still exist and you were all hiding from a great dragon and were able to defeat it only when I came around."