Chapter 3:
Lucifer, the Fallen Angel
-1-
A SINGLE DEMON flew through the skies of Locklore, twenty feet tall with gray skin and huge wings sprouting from his back.
“Don’t wanna work for those jackasses, but…I haven’t been on Locklore for ten thousand years. Let’s tear it up!”
The demon looked down at the ground and smiled evilly.
Lucifer, just like Reniement, was one of the Eternal Convicts—criminals of the worst kind who had been sealed away in another dimension.
He was created at the birth of Locklore as a manager, making him one of the most ancient demons. But the higher beings had a problem with his selfish and cruel management, and they sealed him away from the world, claiming Locklore would be destroyed if they left things as they were.
Lucifer’s destination was obvious the moment he returned.
“Yep, gotta head there. Hope you don’t regret this, Naiarotop. You said I could do whatever I wanted, yeah? There’s no way you’re thinking I’m gonna play nice and listen to orders, not now. I gotta go check on how my dimwit replacement’s doing.”
Lucifer flew higher and looked into the distance.
Deep in a vast forest was the ruins of a crumbling, old temple. Lucifer grinned when he saw it, his fangs peeking out.
“There we are, there it is! That magic…no doubt, that’s Cocytus. This’s the only way to smash up the world! I’ll release the monsters of the abyss, and they’ll take care of the rest!”
Lucifer was headed toward Cocytus. Monsters of extremely high level were sealed deep below ground, never to be let out.
If the seal on this dungeon was broken, the entirety of Locklore would be flooded with high-level monsters. No one would be able to survive above ground unless they were level 1,000 or higher. Everywhere would become monster territory.
“Hm…?”
Lucifer looked down at the entrance to Cocytus from high in the sky to see black, shiny golems appear from the shadows of the ruins. The golems had oval masks covering their faces, and there wasn’t just one or two of them. They were scattered all throughout the ruins. The golems turned their faces up toward Lucifer, apparently noticing him.
“Cocytus…is guarded by golems? They’re lookin’ at me. A-are…they really challenging me?”
This squad of black golems had been placed by Veranta. He suspected the higher beings might try to mess with Cocytus, so he used his gift skill Omnipotent Alchemy to prepare an army of guard golems.
The ground bulged up in several places around the ruins, and large spider-shaped golems burst out. There were quite a lot of those as well. All of them wore the same oval masks and had large magic crystals embedded in them below their chins.
One of the crystals below a spider golem’s chin glowed and launched a mass of magic energy skyward. Lucifer batted it aside with his hand, but the other spider golems lobbed light at him as well. He flew higher to avoid the golems’ attacks.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance and raised an arm. “Tsk… Each one of them’s gotta be like level 1,000. How annoying…”
A black flame appeared above his hand, then grew and grew, as if it would never stop. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a sphere of black flame over three hundred feet across.
“Eat this! Fire Magic Level 25: Stellar Bazooka!”
Lucifer flung his arm down, and the massive black flame hurdled toward the earth. The moment it touched the ruins at the entrance of Cocytus, it erupted into a colossal explosion. It swept away the surface for nearly a thousand feet around it, blasting trees clear so there wasn’t a trace of them left.
The ruins on the surface of Cocytus were utterly demolished as well, a huge crater in their place with just a deep hole in the center. None of Veranta’s golems remained.
“Ah ha ha ha ha! They seriously thought they could stop me with that?! Idiots!” Lucifer howled in laughter, then folded his wings and dove straight down into the huge hole. Once inside Cocytus, he spread his wings and flew low but fast, moving toward the deepest part of the dungeon.
All types of Cocytus monsters stood in his way, but none of them could stand against him. He didn’t even stop for the monsters he encountered, instead just flinging them away with his wings or killing them with his claws as he passed.
“Was this place always this big? Was thinking of using this trip as a way to get back into the swing of things, but this is a serious pain in the ass.” A magic circle appeared around Lucifer. “Space-time Magic Level 20: Gate of the Abyss.”
Lucifer’s body turned into a black shadow, and he plummeted downward. As a shadow, he passed straight through the floor of Cocytus, allowing him to drop down, down, down….
After not even half an hour passed, he was in the deepest part of the dungeon: floor one hundred.
One hundred floors belowground, there was an endless abyss and a crystal walkway heading straight across it. Lucifer landed on that crystal path, still a black shadow from his space-time spell.
That crystalized path extended toward a throne. There sat Satan, the large demon and ruler of Cocytus.
Satan saw the large shadow descend in front of him. He narrowed his four big eyes and stood from the throne.
“Who goes there? The higher beings have placed a special barrier on Cocytus. None other than the one who reigns over this domain may use teleportation or permeation…”
“Hey, hey, now…you forget me or something? Sounds like you’re talkin’ down to me. I mean, this place was my domain originally. You got pretty full of yourself, eh, Satan?”
The shadow turned back into Lucifer.
Satan’s eyes opened wide when he saw who it was. “L-Lucifer?! Impossible, the higher beings would never free you!”
“Naiarotop-chan’s pretty fed up. He said I could have my fun with Locklore, however I like.”
“Absurd… That would mean the higher beings have abandoned Locklore! That can’t be possible!”
“Hey now, it should’ve been obvious the second I got here. It’s not like I’d turn against our grand lords, the higher beings. Anyway, that means you’re done being in charge of Cocytus.” Lucifer gave a joking shrug. “You were like a busy little bee listening to what those higher beings told you to do, so they’ll probably give you a job in another world once I grind this one into the dust. Demons with some brains are always in demand. Okay, give me control of Cocytus already. You know what I want.”
“…” Satan remained silent, his eyes cast down to the void below.
He was also aware that Lucifer was sealed away in another dimension after abusing his authority and ravaging Locklore. The only way Lucifer could come back from that other dimension was if the higher beings wanted him here. If the higher beings sent Lucifer back to Locklore, that meant they had abandoned the world. A world abandoned by the higher beings could only be destroyed.
“What’s going on? Hurry up. Don’t piss me off…I can just kill you and take it myself,” said Lucifer, glaring at Satan.
Satan waved his arms, still without saying anything, a staff decorated with skulls in his hands. That was the Black Staff of the Apocalypse, the symbol of the ruler of Cocytus. It had the power to make minute adjustments to the barrier the higher beings put in place to control the dungeon.
Someone who had the Black Staff of the Apocalypse could easily release the monsters of Cocytus out into the world. And if that happened, everywhere in the world would be turned into a literal hell.
“Huh…you’re still a dumbass I guess, just like ten thousand years ago. You saying you’re fine with me killing you and taking it? Stop acting all high and mighty and hand it—”
Satan pointed the Black Staff of the Apocalypse toward Lucifer. “My duty…is to command Cocytus and protect the land of Locklore!”
A large magic circle appeared, and a huge flaming dragon emerged from it. The crimson dragon rushed straight toward Lucifer.
“Idiot. The higher beings that gave you that duty,” said Lucifer in exasperation. He jumped and spread his wings, easily evading the red dragon Satan sent after him. He then flew past Satan to stand behind him.
Three of Satan’s six arms were spread in the air, and Lucifer lopped them off with a claw attack as he slipped by. He had already gotten the Black Staff of the Apocalypse.
“Gah… Aaaaaaaaagh!” Satan screamed, pressed his remaining arms over his wounds, and crouched to the ground.
“Someone like you’s not ever gonna be able to stand against me, yeah? You underestimated me,” said Lucifer as he pointed the Black Staff at Satan’s head.
“K-kill me, then!”
“Hmm… Well, you basically killed yourself when you attacked me. It’s boring to kill someone who’s already about to die.” Lucifer formed a magic circle. “I’ll make you a little froggie instead. Death Magic Level 10: Ranacurse.”
“What?! Ah, agh!”
A mysterious purple light enveloped Satan. He was originally over thirty feet tall, but you could see him shrinking until he turned into a black, squishy, four-eyed lump of flesh. Its stumpy arms and legs battered about like it was frightened.
“Eah! Eaaah!” It opened its mouth wide and let out a dumb croak, somewhere between a scream and a sob.
Lucifer tapped the ground with the butt of the staff. “Ha ha ha ha ha! You’re just as ugly even as a toad! I’m not gonna let anyone who stands against me get out with an easy death! If you really love Locklore that much, then you can have a box seat as I turn it into hell!”
Lucifer howled with laughter and sat majestically on the throne.
“I’m seriously looking forward to seeing what those weaklings on the surface’ll do when the monsters of Cocytus flood out! Bet you are too, Satan, am I right?”