Chapter 66

"Yaaay…" a lukewarm welcome came from Lucifer. He really enjoyed the freedom he had… at least he used to have

"Hmm… Luci?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are there freaking dwarfs breaking stone everywhere? Make them leave! I don't like them!" Of course, that would be the first thing Stone would do; complain…

"What are you talking about? There are no dwarfs! Except… Oh! There are no dwarfs! It's a hallucination!" Lucifer realized that thanks to his insane… Path… his spells carried a trace of darkness that made people hallucinate. Every spell!

"Hallucination? What is it? And also, I feel weird. I think… bloated?" Stone asked question after question.

"Come back, silence!" Lucifer inwardly facepalmed, but still answered, "A hallucination is something only you can see, while others cannot! They are not real! Just hold on…"

For Dafur, Lucifer was just sitting there with a fired up deep-blue [Mana Missile] hovering around him.

Not for long as new words appeared before him, "now, put the crystals on those two and connect Stone to it!"

Dafur understood what Lucifer wanted to do. Maybe… Maybe he did not fail after all! Maybe he would be able to save the siblings!

He divided the crystals into two stacks and piled them on the siblings barely rising chests. He focused on the crystals and Stone.

A golden string emerged from his chest-crystals and arched towards the targets.

The moment they touch and envelop Stone, he feels immense pressure in his head. Panic, disgust and rage filled his mind. Dafur was hardly able to suppress it.

"Stop it! Luci! Stop them!" Stone commanded his partner.

"Dafur! Merge those crystals into their bodies!"

Lucifer was compelled by the [Subordinate] talent as the Stone's command took effect. He had to fight with every single scrap of will he could muster against it. However… It was possible!

"Calm down, Stone!", "Don't shoot, Stone!" and "Please, don't kill Dafur, Stone!" rolled out of Lucifer's nonexistent mouth in a fruitless attempt to pacify the increasingly angered pebble.

Lucifer was… exasperated. He had created backup plans for backup plans, analysed guard rotation, waited for the opportune moments, not to say anything about the long-term plans!… but forgot to account for Stone!

The [Mana Missile] flew around, missing Dafur's head by a hair and hitting the imaginary targets.

Meanwhile, Dafur picked up the prepared razor-sharp dagger and cut open the siblings' chests. They weakly hissed in pain but were too weak to even lift a limb, much less to defend themselves.

Dafur closed his eyes and slowly merged with the mana crystals.

The siblings' eyes shot open—their sclerae flashed dangerously to a fiery-purple for Dori and scarlet for Eriv.

The mana crystal pulsated, sending weak waves of mana as they slowly merged with the tissue.

"I am done! Hurry! I can't hold it!" Dafur tiredly exclaimed, his face as pale as the Prime god of Death himself.

Stone brought his assault upon the non-existent dwarves to a halt, seeing as his attacks caused no damage nor pain to the 'stone-breakers' and even reluctantly agreed to Lucifer's plan. Though, the main argument that persuaded him was; "Stone, you will have more minions!"

"Do it Now! The id…" Lucifer scratched it out of the ground, "Stone agreed!"

Dafur let the pressure overpower him. He connected to Stone through the talent [Crystallizer]. It was bizarre. Stone's mind… It almost overwhelmed the dwarf and only thanks to his training as an apprentice runemaster he retained his sanity.

"Let me go, Stone!"

"But…"

"Otherwise, we will explode! Both of us!"

"What?!"

"Hehe… Let me go or we will die! Hurry!"

Lucifer grinned. It worked! His soul was freed from Stone's matrix! Of course, with his approval… Fortunately, the moron was not that hard to persuade! Even though he was telling the truth…

Lucifer then pushed his soul, crawling his way through Dafur's golden strings. The dwarf's own mana pushed against him, but his [Flux] easily dissolved any kind of resistance.

He passed through the focusing dwarf, directly to the bodies of the two siblings and seared their minds into oblivion.

Dafur was finished, his body drained of [Mana] and [Stamina]. He slumped down, utterly exhausted and drained of water. He was so parched that he shakily picked up the closest canteen, not checking the content. A mistake he would never do again.

The disgusting grog filled his throat and he coughed as his eyes bulged. A small tear of blood emerged from the corner of his eye.

Then he gagged, his stomach revolting against him. His eyes rolled back and he slumped down. Yep, a mistake.

"Luci?" Stone asked in his emptied mind. Nobody answered.

He felt so… Good. It was as if someone lifted a mountain from him. He never realized that Lucifer was oppressing his mind so much.

The stone-breaking dwarfs disappeared and he heard the messages from the Universum.

(A/N: Lucifer's journal messages end here!)

[Your mind is cleansed]

[You are no longer possessed]

[Intelligence is raised by 50 as the suppression of your mind vanishes]

[The intelligence is above the limit]

[You cannot raise intelligence by learning!]

[You are leaking 50 mana per second when mana is full]

[Changes in Lucifer {wielder} talent]

"Luci!" Stone yelled in his high-pitched voice over the tent as his mind cleared. He had thought of an idea to create a proper mouth. Now, that he was smarter. By a lot.

"Sto… cough… Stone?" Dafur woke up from the grog-induced coma quickly. It was only a mouthful.

"Dafur! Hi. How are you? Did you see Lucifer? What does it mean?" A barrage of questions landed on Dafur.

He attempted to answer, but before the first syllable could escape his lips, he bent forward and released the grog back to the world. There was no need to remind that it smelled and had the same taste as before the ingestion; "Bleeeeeergh!"

"Anyone here? I mean, anyone who is able to answer!" Stone inquired patiently.

The three beaten-up goblins entered the tent.

"Boss! Success!" Moron The Leader, now towering half-a-head above others, exclaimed with happiness in the voice.

Stone registered that there are several goblins around. He liked when the experience bags walked into his vicinity by itself.

"Stop." "Stone!" Two voices said one after another, one of male and one of female. "What the!" The male dwarf exclaimed. Then the female moved the right hand before her face. "Oh." "For." "Fucks." "Sake…"

"Luci?" Stone asked. He was not confused, not even curious. He was just happy his friend was not sleeping again.

"Yeah." "I am." "Here," Lucifer answered in the brusque male and female voices.

"Where are you?" Stone asks, confused.

"From." "What." "I understand." "I'm." "In." "Both." "Of them."

Lucifer checked his status and journal and sighed. The mana crystals were still connected through a mana string. Permanently, according to his status screen.

That dwarf's talent… He could do a lot with this.

"Maaaassstteeeeeer?"

"You are that purple fire elemental, right?"

"Yyyyeeeeesssss, maaaassssteeeer," he elemental replied, not caring about the change of his master. He was bound to the body, not a soul. Whoever controls the body controls him. Actually, he got a better source of food now. All elementals loved flux, especially [Flux] as tasty as this one; "Maaastteeer, yyyyooouuurr fluuuuuxxx taaaasstyyyy"

"What? You pesky shite! Keep away from my Flux!"

"Fffiiiiinnnneeee, maaaassstteeeerr…"

"Now… Let's try to move."

Lucifer's fast ability to adapt proved itself; after a few minutes of attempts, he could move to a certain extent. His movements were zombie-like. Still, he was happy to move on his own.