"You are not Lucifer," Auryon retorts instantly. "If nothing else he's better-looking than you by a long shot."
"He's, uh, a different Lucifer," Kratzer explains hurriedly. "Still...working out the details on that."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Lucifer pretended he hadn't heard the woman's comment, instead focusing on what Kratzer said. "I, uh, might have an explanation for that," he quietly said, readjusting the pencil that was beginning to slide out from behind his ear. "Your Lucifer might be the one that the myth-er, religion, is based on. I'm the Lucifer that was created because of the myths."
Unfortunately for Reyes, Kendrik had heard. "Yeah," said Kendrik, stomping on Reyes's foot. "Very funny."
Jaron, pulling his hands out of his ears, peered down at the base of the pole. He wondered what it was attached to. After a few seconds of brushing aside the dust, the fox spotted a couple of worn wires running off in one direction. His gaze traveled that direction until it arrived at an intact building against a cave wall, the front entrance a thick metal door. "You guys?" he whispered, tapping on Kendrik's foot. "Maybe that place is important or something."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Auryon blinked. "Alright, you lost me already, back up, demon-man," she says, leaning against Kratzer as she speaks.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Seeing that she was being so stubborn about not letting him see the injury, Kartiel decided to not press the matter. Instead, he returned to looking for something that could help Adeline.
xXx
Reyes winced at the pain, but didn't give Kendrik the satisfaction of hearing him cry out. He instead hobbled over to Jaron, giving Kendrik the briefest of dirty looks before turning his attention to where Jaron was looking.
"Whoa," he said.
xXx
"I don't usually have to explain this..." Lucifer slowly said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "But when humans really believe in something - like a lot of them - they end up accidentally creating it? And even though Satanism took awhile before it really became a thing, I was created because a lot of people believed in the Devil. Monotheism's kind of weird like that."
She shakes her head. "Weird. Hear that, Apo? Your double probably died along with Egypt." It's unclear who she's talking to but Krtazer seems unperturbed.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Adeline stuck her head into the tunnel she had found earlier, feeling around in the dark space. She had a strong feeling that she would find something useful here, if only she could see. "Do you have a light?" She called over her shoulder to Kartiel.
He didn't understand how she could be talking directly to a god, but Lucifer was also used to different standards when it came to magic. But what he did understand was who she was probably talking to - combine the origin and the nickname, one that God had used in the past - so he went off of that.
"Actually, gods continue living after their main religions die out," Lucifer helpfully corrects. "I think it's because there's still people who believe in them, just in the form of myths? I'm not really sure..." He gave a small smile. "But Apophis is definitely around. We hang out sometimes, since we're not really that well liked..."
xXx
He shook. "I don't. I'm sorry-Wait, I do!" He pulled out his phone from his pocket, clicked on the flashlight app and handed it over to her.
"D***, I was hoping there was as only one serpentine b**** to deal with," she sighs. "Ah, well, can't always have what we want, can we?"
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Thanks." She took the thin rectangular box from him, not taking the time to figure out what it was, and pointed its beam of light down the tunnel. She was rewarded with several glitters a few feet down. Using the light to point her way, she squeezed herself into the tight opening. Her skin screeched in response as it scrapped the jagged rocks. I'll fix it soon. she thought off-handedly, enraptured by the goal in sight.
James nodded. Though he didn't think his mental picture did Maahes's description any justice, he could understand it enough.
"So... what I'm seeing now. You and your body. That's not the real you? Or uh, that's not... the true you? Because you're forced to take a form similar to our own in our world?"
"I'm not sure about your Apophis, but mine is actually really nice," Lucifer hurriedly said, not wanting the reputation of his friend to be tarnished. "He's always inviting me to movies, even when I have school..."
He looked a little sheepish at the comment; it seemed suspiciously like he had skipped school once or twice to go see said movies.
"But even though people don't tend to like him that much, he's a really cool person. He keeps a ton of snakes for pets, too, and he's trained some of the more dangerous ones so they don't hurt people-" His face turned red, and he stared down at the ground. "I'm, um, sorry for rambling."
xXx
Kartiel tried his best to ignore the noise coming from the small area Adeline was currently attempting to fit into, a feat that was becoming increasingly more difficult as the noise continued. He sat down and failed to tune out the noise.
He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah. The man you're looking at right now is just what I want you to see. My essence naturally takes on a form when I'm here, but I can almost create illusions, if that makes any sense?" He fell silent for a moment, trying to think of the best way to explain it. It wasn't exactly an easy concept, even for him. "All your senses will tell you that the man you're looking at right now is what I really am like, but, if you're like me, you can look past that and see the truth about someone. That's how I know that I'm looking at another spirit. Not that I've, uh, actually met another one before..."
James nodded, looking over at Maahes with almost a wistful gaze. Though he knew he would never be like Maahes, and possibly never fully understand what Maahes's life experience was like through his eyes, a part of him did want to understand what that was like. To be a spirit. To not be human.
But he also knew that so much of Maahes's life was filled with pain and conflict because of what he was as a spirit, and that, he had no control over.
"Ah. Well I... I hope that someday. You're able to find somebody like yourself. If you have as many years ahead of you as you have behind, I really hope you do. Because even though you're... you're certainly not alone in this world, by any literal means. I can't imagine how it must be to have never met someone else who can understand you in a way no one else can, because you're cut from the same cloth."
He ducked his head down. "Yeah...I mean, I know that they're out there. I can feel them when I'm home, but I just have never met them out here. I know that...I know that other realities exist. Maybe there's some out there where there's more spirits than I could ever imagine, just going about their daily lives like any normal person would."
