Chapter 9.1. Powerless (1)

  The room fell into silence.

  They began walking toward the door, their conversation slowly picking up again. Kane reached the door and placed his hands on the handles.

  Then a voice echoed from behind him.

  “Arggg… what’s with all the noise?”

  The sound froze everyone in place.

  Kane, the Elders, and The Seven Sins stopped mid-step. Slowly, they turned around. Their eyes widened in disbelief.

  Lucifer was sitting up.

  For a moment, no one moved. No one breathed.

  Kane rushed toward him and immediately dropped to one knee. One by one, The Seven Sins followed. Then the Elders, and finally Demon Lords Mephistopheles and Apollyn.

  Only Ammit and Astarte did not move. Exhausted from grief, they had fallen asleep beside Lucifer’s bed, unaware of what had just happened.

  The Demon King had awakened.

  Kane was the first to speak, welcoming Lucifer back to the land of the living.

  Lucifer responded with a low groan. He lifted a hand to his head, his expression irritated. After sleeping for so long, his body felt heavy—like the aftermath of a brutal hangover.

  He glanced to his side and immediately froze.

  Astarte and Ammit were asleep beside him.

  That surprised him. He reached out and nudged them awake.

  The moment their eyes opened, they realized what they were seeing. Their faces lit up with shock and relief. For a brief second, their expressions were almost… cute. Enough to make even the Demon King stare in silence.

  Then they pounced.

  Like starving predators, they leapt onto Lucifer and wrapped their arms around him, hugging him tightly.

  Lucifer stiffened in shock, caught completely off guard. Still, he didn’t push them away.

  A heartbeat later, reality caught up with them.

  Astarte and Ammit froze. Their eyes widened as they realized what they had just done. They immediately scrambled off Lucifer and off the bed, kneeling beside him with their heads lowered.

  They apologized profusely.

  Mephistopheles, Apollyn, and the Elders were not particularly surprised by the outburst. Kane and The Seven Sins, on the other hand, remained completely indifferent.

  Astarte and Ammit braced themselves, expecting scolding… or worse.

  Instead, Lucifer merely cleared his throat.

  Silence followed.

  Then he spoke, telling everyone present—except Kane—to leave.

  The Elders and The Seven Sins were the first to go. Mephistopheles and Apollyn followed shortly after.

  Before leaving, Astarte and Ammit exchanged a glance.

  Then, without warning, they jumped onto Lucifer once more, wrapping him in another tight hug before quickly retreating from the room.

  This time, their impact sent Lucifer falling backward onto the bed, with both Astarte and Ammit clinging to him.

  Realizing what they had done yet again, the two immediately scrambled up and rushed out of the room without daring to look back.

  Lucifer exhaled slowly and sat back up.

  He glanced at Kane and gestured for him to rise. Kane had been kneeling for far too long.

  Kane stood and hesitated for a moment before speaking. He asked Lucifer whether he planned to do anything about Demon Lords Astarte and Ammit.

  Lucifer waved it off. There was no need to address it.

  He then told Kane to fill him in on everything that had happened in Hell while he had been asleep.

  The briefing didn’t take long. Very little had changed during Lucifer’s absence.

  Out of everything Kane mentioned, only one detail truly caught Lucifer’s attention—he had been unconscious for an entire year.

  In the human world, that amounted to little more than a single day.

  The revelation about Astarte and Ammit’s feelings toward him was mildly surprising, but not troubling. He had no issue with it.

  Lucifer shifted the topic.

  He congratulated Kane on surviving the transformation.

  Kane thanked him, then asked what his new powers actually were.

  Lucifer explained calmly. Kane now possessed dominion over the dead—true necromancy. But that was only the beginning. He could wield all forms of magic, not just death-aligned spells.

  And because he had become undead, his body could now contain vast reserves of magical energy—far more than he ever could before.

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  Lucifer paused briefly.

  That rule applied to him as well.

  For now

  Lucifer instructed Kane to bring him large amounts of paper, ink, and a quill.

  Kane did so without question.

  Once everything was delivered, Lucifer dismissed him and told him to return in a few hours.

  As Kane left the room, Lucifer immediately began writing.

  The scratching of the quill echoed softly as page after page was filled.

  Hours passed.

  A knock sounded at the door.

  Lucifer granted permission, and Kane stepped inside.

  Without a word, Lucifer handed him the stack of papers.

  The moment Kane took them, something changed.

  The letters on the pages began to glow.

  One by one, the symbols lifted themselves off the paper, peeling away as if they were alive.

  They drifted toward Kane.

  Each letter imprinted itself onto his skeletal body, engraving itself into his very bones.

  When the final symbol embedded itself, Kane’s entire body erupted with blinding light.

  The glow was so intense that even Lucifer was forced to shield his eyes.

  After several moments, the light began to fade.

  Kane regained control of his body and staggered slightly, trying to steady himself.

  He turned to ask Lucifer what had just happened—

  And froze.

  Lucifer was staring at him with clear surprise on his face.

  Kane frowned.

  He demanded to know why Lucifer looked like that.

  Lucifer hesitated, then answered honestly.

  He was surprised that it worked.

  That answer instantly irritated Kane.

  Those words meant there had been a chance—however small—that the process could have failed.

  If he hadn’t already been undead…

  He might have died right there

  Lucifer finally explained what he had given him.

  It was an incomplete grimoire called The Necronomicon.

  The reason it was incomplete was simple.

  To begin with, the grimoire only possessed three pages.

  More importantly, it could only be used by a lich.

  Overlord did not exist as a physical book.

  It merged directly with the lich’s body.

  From that moment on, it would grow alongside its bearer.

  The stronger the lich became, the more pages the grimoire would gain.

  However, no two liches experienced the same growth.

  Each Overlord evolved uniquely, shaped by its wielder.

  Kane’s case was abnormal.

  Because Lucifer himself had turned Kane into a lich, Kane possessed an enormous reserve of power from the very beginning.

  As a result, Overlord had already developed far more pages than an average lich’s grimoire ever would at that stage.

  Each page of Overlord contained spells broken down piece by piece.

  Not just their execution, but why they worked.

  Their strengths were laid bare.

  Their weaknesses were clearly defined.

  The explanations adapted themselves to the intelligence of the wielder.

  And Kane was already highly intelligent.

  So much so that even Lucifer could not imagine how complex or refined the grimoire’s internal structure had become within him.

  The reason Lucifer knew of Overlord at all was because he had once read about it.

  Long ago.

  While roaming the deepest and most forbidden sections of Heaven’s library.

  Places even most angels feared to enter.

  A place no angel was ever permitted to enter.

  Of course, Lucifer did anyway.

  Curiosity had always been his greatest flaw—and his greatest strength.

  Before the guards discovered him, he managed to pass through countless books.

  Forbidden texts.

  Sealed tomes.

  Knowledge that defied reason itself.

  Yet most of them were useless.

  They held no real power—only theories, blasphemies, and empty concepts.

  Worthless.

  There was only one book that truly caught his attention.

  The Necronomicon.

  It was the only tome surrounded by a dark aura.

  Not chaotic.

  Not corrupted.

  Simply… evil.

  More so than good.

  When Lucifer opened it, he found only three pages filled with writing.

  The rest were completely blank.

  And yet, those three pages were enough.

  He memorized every symbol.

  Every principle.

  Every instruction etched into them.

  Perfectly.

  Before he could go any further, the guards found him.

  He was dragged out and sentenced to house arrest for nearly three years.

  An eternity, by Heaven’s standards—

  where time flowed painfully slow.

  Still, Kane did not need to know any of that.

  Especially not the part about Lucifer once being half-angel.

  After hearing the explanation, Kane finally understood what he was feeling.

  The enormous power inside him wasn’t chaotic.

  It was structured.

  Alive.

  Spells were forming within him on their own.

  Not just their effects—but their functions.

  Their foundations.

  Even the methods needed to strengthen them further.

  Knowledge flowed directly into his mind.

  Naturally.

  Effortlessly.

  As if it had always been there,

  waiting for him to awaken.

  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a spell capable of healing Lucifer’s injuries.

  Kane acknowledged that fact—then pushed it aside the moment he saw Lucifer attempting to stand.

  He moved instantly to support him.

  A full year without walking had taken its toll.

  Lucifer’s legs trembled, his balance unstable, and Kane offered his shoulder without hesitation.

  “Where do you wish to go, my Lord?” Kane asked.

  “The throne room,” Lucifer replied calmly.

  That was where Kane guided him.

  Step by step.

  Slowly.

  Once there, Lucifer lowered himself onto his throne and assumed his usual posture.

  For a moment, he said nothing.

  Then he closed his eyes.

  “Kane… I’ve lost my power.”

  The words hit harder than any spell.

  Kane froze.

  “My Lord… what do you mean you’ve lost your power?” he asked, genuinely shaken.

  “I mean exactly that,” Lucifer replied.

  “I can’t use my magic at all.”

  His voice remained steady.

  “My power is still inside me, but I can’t direct it outward. It doesn’t even circulate anymore.”

  He paused.

  “Since my heart was pierced… it stopped moving altogether.”

  Kane clenched his fists.

  “My Lord, isn’t there a way to repair your heart?”

  Lucifer shook his head slowly.

  “No healing magic is strong enough to mend this wound,” he said.

  “You must have tried.”

  Kane said nothing.

  “And I’m certain the Overlord grimoire hasn’t revealed a spell capable of healing me either.”

  Silence filled the throne room.

  Finally, Lucifer spoke again.

  “That’s fine. You may leave me for now.”

  Kane hesitated—but obeyed.

  As he turned to go, Lucifer’s voice echoed once more.

  “Lokie.”

  The throne responded.

  Dark mechanisms stirred, and Lucifer was pulled inward as the throne sealed around him.

  When Lucifer opened his eyes, he was standing alone in a pitch-black space.

  There was no floor.

  No sky.

  No direction.

  Then—

  another Lucifer appeared in front of him.

  “Well,” Lucifer said calmly, “I see that even in my current state, you still choose to copy my appearance, Lokie.”

  The second Lucifer grinned.

  “Hah. Of course,” Lokie replied.

  “It is my specialty, after all.”

  His eyes scanned Lucifer slowly.

  “I see that creature did quite a number on you,” Lokie continued.

  “Your magic circuits are a complete mess.”

  He tilted his head, intrigued.

  “Surprisingly, you aren’t suffering from all that magic power running wild inside your body.”

  Lucifer exhaled softly.

  “Yeah. It’s a miracle I can’t even begin to explain,” he said.

  “But that’s not important.”

  He looked straight at Lokie.

  “You know all the rooms in this castle, right?”

  Lokie nodded.

  “Of course. Each floor has ten rooms.”

  Lucifer’s eyes narrowed slightly.

  “Yeah, I noticed that pattern,” he said.

  “Is there a room where time flows differently?”

  Lokie’s smile widened.

  “There is,” he replied.

  “Sixth floor. Sixth door on your left.”

  He added casually,

  “The number used to open it is six.”

  Then he shrugged.

  “Just so you know, I don’t actually understand how time flows differently in there.”

  “That’s fine,” Lucifer said immediately.

  “All I need is for time to flow differently.”

  Lokie raised an eyebrow.

  “And what exactly do you need it for?”

  Lucifer’s gaze hardened.

  “I’m going to reclaim the power I once had,” he said.

  A brief pause.

  “And since my heart can’t be repaired yet…”

  His lips curled into a faint smile.

  “I’ll be using a different method.”

  “Well, whatever,” Lokie said with a shrug.

  “Do what you need to do to get out of this pathetic state you’re in.”

  Lucifer chuckled.