Bayfront Coast (6)

Mr. Smithson pulled out another piece of photo, which showed the Sigil of Lucifer written in blood. As he pushed the photo toward Juin, he added with a rather dark expression, "The cops said that Jim Mack was a former member of a group of Satanists. Apparently, around 15 or 16 years ago, all the high-ranking members of this Satanist group was massacred, and up until now, no one managed to find a clue of who or what did it."

Mr. Smithson watched Juin's expression carefully as he continued, "And when they saw all the photos of you, as well as that shrine, in that room, they figured that the nutjob might be trying to use you as a sacrifice."

The moment Juin saw the photo of the sigil, his heart started to throb. Placing a hand on the back of his head, he groaned as long-forgotten memories flashed past his head.

In the flashes, he was looking at himself from a higher place… like he was floating. No, he was looking at the younger version of himself. The young Juin was standing in the middle of a dark room, seemingly in a trance, as the sound of a chant reverberated in his mind. And a huge Sigil of Lucifer was drawn on the floor and around him.

Juin saw a bleeding knife wound on the chest of young Juin in his vision, where he used to have a "birthmark", but as if the young Juin did not feel anything, he merely stood in the middle of the room, in the middle of the sigil, with a blank expression.

As if he felt a knife wound on his chest, Juin clutched his chest tightly, covering the wound on young Juin.

Memories that he suppressed slowly resurfaced. The lyrics of a foreign song kept repeating itself in his mind.

"No," Juin thought as he tried to fight the memories, "that's not a song…"

It was some sort of a chant. He remembered something now. That night, he heard a weird chant in the middle of the night, which woke him up from his slumber. And a part of him felt that the chant was very familiar. Before he knew it, he was already up from his bed.

As if he was under some sort of spell, the young Juin slowly walked and stood by the window in his and Ashton's room for a long time. His eyes were focused on a blurry figure standing near the trees.

"Argh!!!" Juin groaned as he grabbed the sides of his head painfully. He kept his head down and glanced at his shoes as he tried to will the pain away. "L-Lucifer…" he called out loud. "It hurts…"

Without anyone seeing it, his black pupils turned red for a split second, and a strong aura emanated from his body. The place where his "birthmark" was supposed to be emanated a soft golden glow with vein-like red patters in them.

"F*ck!" Lucifer felt that Juin was losing control of his body at the moment, and he immediately snapped, "Juin, merge!"

There was no time to wait for Juin to fall unconscious and for Lucifer to take over his body without him knowing anything about it. For some reason, Lucifer had a feeling that if he did not do anything now, it would be too late for him to do anything later.

Still holding the sides of his head with a pained expression, Juin glanced at Lucifer. "Merge!"

When they finally merged, Lucifer took control of Juin's body and forced Juin's consciousness back into Juin's Soul Dimension. It wasn't easy, as Juin had nearly lost control of his own soul, but under Lucifer's order, Juin still obeyed in the end.

Once Lucifer stabilized Juin's body, he stood up abruptly. Grabbing the photos in front of him, he quickly picked two of them out before stuffing them back in the file.

"I have to leave now," Lucifer said to Mr. Smithson. In his hand, he was holding the photo of the baby as well as the one with the Sigil of Lucifer. "I'm going to take these two photos."

Mr. Smithson was taken aback by the sudden change in "Juin's" tone, but he still nodded after a few seconds. "You can take them…"

Lucifer nodded, and he was about to turn and walk away when he recalled something. He then quickly said, "I might be back again shortly."

Without waiting for a response, he walked to the door, turned the knob, and left the study room. When Mr. Om, who was pacing around in the living room, heard footsteps approaching, he walked to the entrance of the living room and saw "Juin" walking down in a hurry.

He wanted to say something, but "Juin" just walked past him, leaving him unable to say anything as "Juin" walked to the front door and left the house.

…

Lucifer was deep in thoughts. When he merged with Juin, he saw what Juin saw for a split second, especially the wound on his chest.

And the Sigil of Lucifer…

As he walked toward Jim Mack's abandoned house, Lucifer glanced at the photo of the sigil, which he was holding. He had seen that sigil before…

"Sigil of Lucifer?" he scoffed as he thought about those stupid humans who actually believed that they could summon him. This wasn't his sigil, but rather, the mark of the Lucifer before him. To be precise, that was the mark of Lucifer III, who was an ancestor of Lucifer. "He's been dead for so long, but the humans here still remember him? These outdated buffoons..."

Those people were trying to summon Lucifer, but how could they summon a dead demon? Especially one who had been dead for so many years.

"Although…" Lucifer muttered with a slight frown on his face. "They must have summoned something else."

Placing a hand on his chest, he then pulled Juin's shirt outward slightly and looked down at the place where Juin in the flashback was cut open, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw the "birthmark" that wasn't there previously.

From what Mrs. Martin told him previously when he took over Juin's body, the "birthmark" disappeared after Warlock did something to Juin to get rid of the ghosts that were bothering him.

Recalling the strong aura that he felt earlier, he realized that by remembering his suppressed memories, Juin must have broken some sort of concealment spell that Warlock placed on him.

"What have they been summoning?" "Juin" mumbled as he slowly walked toward Jim Mack's house. "That woman said that Warlock had cut off the link… Could it be…"

He frowned and cracked his knuckles. He could not for the life of him figure out what the "link" that Warlock mentioned was. As he neared Jim Mack's house, he wondered if he would be able to find out what the link was by the time Juin remembered all his memories.

Lucifer peered into Juin's Soul Dimension and saw that Juin was now in a stabilized state. He was pacing around in his Soul Dimension, just waiting for Lucifer to give him the nod. Seeing that, Lucifer decided to unmerge with him before Juin lost his strength completely.