Chapter 352: What is it you desire?

Why was he still conscious?

Who was he talking to?

These questions troubled Neroth. All this while, he believed he had fooled Lucian, only to learn that he had stepped into it willingly. As reckless as it was, one thing could not be ignored.

Lucian was not like Varek.

Varek did not surprise Neroth with his choices, Lucian did.

That alone was more than enough for one to realise that Lucian wasn’t a fool, if he took a gamble, as reckless as that gamble might look, there had to be something, anything he was relying on.

A card he hadn’t revealed till now.

And the fact that he was still conscious only made these doubts stronger. There was something Lucian was hiding, something that gave him the confidence to do what he just did and Neroth—

He wanted to know.

He was getting desperate to know.

So he did what he thought was the wisest course of action, he peeked deep into Lucian’s consciousness, wanting to search through his memories to know what he had been hiding and assess the threat.

Or at least...

That was the plan.

But the moment he peeked into Lucian’s consciousness—

It happened.

Something inside Lucian’s consciousness changed and the moment Lucian felt it—

"Finally."

He grinned.

"W-What...?"

Neroth blinked in surprise when he noticed he was pushed out of Lucian’s consciousness.

"What happened...?"

He asked as he glanced at Lucian.

Lucian just kept smiling without answering.

Mostly because there was no answer.

As mentioned before, Lucian didn’t actually know if his gamble was going to work. His body accepted Demonic Blood before, it could do it again, or maybe Neroth really would consume him, maybe this was where Lucian Cross would disappear.

He didn’t know.

But—

There was something Neroth didn’t know either and that made Lucian’s smile even wider.

"What are you planning?"

Neroth asked as he stared at Lucian’s smile, something about it bothered the Archdemon.

Lucian let out a long breath, then—

"Let’s see."

He grinned again.

"See what?"

Neroth frowned.

Lucian looked up at the mighty, towering Archdemon and—

"Which one of us eats the other."

Neroth remained silent, unable to believe the absurdity of the statement, but before he could laugh at it—

"Would you devour me? Or..."

Lucian spoke again.

"Would that being inside me devour you?"

He issued the challenge.

Neroth frowned.

A being inside him...?

...what?

A spirit, perhaps?

But Neroth didn’t sense anything, he didn’t sense anyone inside Lucian’s consciousness.

Was the being he was talking about not inside his consciousness? How was that even possible...? Where was he then...?

The Archdemon racked his mind, trying to find answers to all these questions, then, his eyes fell on Lucian, who kept smiling at him, and his mouth twitched.

This bastard...

He was lying to him.

There was no being inside him!

"You insolent little—"

And just as he was about to curse and attempt to devour Lucian again, Neroth stopped when he felt something vanish.

It wasn’t Lucian.

It was... him.

A tiny piece of his presence just disappeared out of nowhere.

’...what?’

Neroth blinked in utter disbelief. For a moment, he couldn’t even react, but then—

Another piece disappeared.

The Archdemon looked down and noticed two of his fingers were no longer there.

They were gone.

There was no explosion, no resistance, no attack that he could sense, the fingers just... ceased to exist.

"What..."

Neroth couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Just then—

Another finger vanished.

Then another.

Then another.

Neroth’s face changed completely. Lucian noticed it as well. He also noticed something else, the darkness under them moved.

No, not moved, that wasn’t right.

This place was always dark, a dark empty internal world, sea of consciousness, mind realm, mind palace, spirit realm, inner world, or whatever those cultivation novels called it. Lucian didn’t know, what he did know was that the darkness he was seeing right now and the darkness he was seeing before were... different.

And it wasn’t just him, Neroth noticed it as well.

When the Archdemon looked beneath Lucian’s feet, he saw that different darkness.

Or more accurately, he saw... absence.

The space beneath Lucian had no depth.

It had no bottom, no shape, no end, it wasn’t black because light couldn’t reach it. There was simply nothing there for the light to even reach.

A void.

A void far, far darker than anything in existence because in that void, the very concept of light didn’t even exist.

And Neroth...

He could feel something within that void looking right at him.

The Archdemon froze.

For the first time since Lucian met him, he felt it.

Fear.

An engulfing, paralysing fear.

"What..."

His voice became quieter.

"...is that?"

Lucian looked down at the ’different’ darkness and he—

"No idea."

He raised both his hands sideways and shrugged.

He wasn’t even lying, he genuinely had no idea.

He just knew one thing, he had felt it before, or more accurately, he had felt him before.

What is it you desire?

He remembered the voice that came from inside him whenever he activated his True Form. He had no idea what that voice was or who it belonged to.

Heck, it could all be an illusion for all he knew but...

It didn’t feel like an illusion.

The power in that voice did not feel like an illusion.

It felt like something with... endless strength.

Strength that not only he, but even the likes of Aurelia or Vivienne couldn’t comprehend.

And as Lucian thought of it all, he shrugged again.

"I have no idea who the gentleman is."

He chuckled and before Neroth could react to him, the pull began.

His enormous body shifted towards the darkness. The Archdemon resisted immediately, his vile, dark energy erupted around him as the entire space shook.

"Stop!"

The Archdemon screamed angrily.

A voice that would have intimidated billions of beings but right now...

The same voice didn’t even get a response.

Or in a certain twisted sense, it did get a response.

The pull strengthened and this time—

Instead of another finger—

His entire arm was gone.