Far away from the battle going on in the back, Licorice brought Lucifer to a faraway place in the same space, from where they couldn’t even see the others.
A beautiful mansion stood before them, made from the white marble. The door of the mansion opened on its own as Licorice stepped closer.
Lucifer stepped inside the mansion with Licorice. From the outside, the mansion looked so big that Lucifer had expected there to be hundreds of rooms inside; however, it was different.
From the inside, it was even bigger, but it didn’t have hundreds of rooms like he had imagined. Instead, on the inside, there wasn’t even a single room. It was just a massive hall only.
In the middle of the massive hall, a massive crystal was floating, which was similar to the size of Lucifer. The beautiful red crystal was shining so brightly that it was bathing the entire hall with a reddish hue.
At another end of the hall, two men were lying on the ground. Their hands and legs were tied to the wall through an unbreakable chain.
The two men noticed Lucifer. Their hopeless eyes regained some of their shine. “Lucifer?”
They believed Lucifer was here to save them.
Unfortunately, Lucifer gazed at them like he was looking at strangers, which stunned them.
“Do I know them?” he asked Licorice.
“I guess you can say that,” Licorice smiled. “They worked for you. Or should I say that they worked for your other self? The self that you know nothing about.”
“They came here to take something and attacked us. Unfortunately, they didn’t know what they were dealing with. Still, instead of killing them, we just kept them hostage. You see? We really aren’t the bad people here,” he further added.
No matter how much Lucifer tried, he couldn’t remember Salazar and Yaliza. “You want me to free them? As a gesture of friendship, I can do that?”
Lucifer didn’t know them, but he still nodded his head. Who was he to say no if someone was getting free, especially someone who supposedly worked for him.
He nodded his head.
Licorice smirked. To win the confidence of Lucifer, he was willing to even do that. In any case, these two weren’t even a threat to him. They were insignificant.
He snapped his fingers, shattering the chains that were tying and sucking the energy from them.
Being free, the two men stood up and walked to Lucifer.
“I’m sorry we failed you. And thank you for coming here to save us,” Yaliza let out, sighing.
“It looks like you’ve made friends with them, though. So not bad.” Salazar commented. He hadn’t even faced Licorice, but still, he knew how strong this guy was, based on how others acted before him.
It wasn’t good that they were friends now. That solved the bigger problem without having to fight.
Lucifer simply nodded.
“Even though I’ve freed them, they also can’t leave this Dungeon. We are all sealed here, so if you help us open the entrance, everyone might get out,” Licorice reminded Lucifer. “Convinced yet?”
“If not, there’s one more thing I can show you that might make up your mind. Come.” He calmly walked towards the massive crystal in the center of the hall.
Lucifer followed behind him. Both of them reached the Crystal in the center.
“This can’t be….?” Lucifer exclaimed, stunned. Inside the crystal, he could see two people. The two people were none other than his father and his mother. It was as if they were frozen inside the crystal.
“What is the meaning of this?” he yelled, glaring at Licorice. “You kept them hostage?”
Clenching his fist, he punched the crystal to save his parents. Unfortunately, the crystal was just unshakable. It didn’t even develop a crack even in the face of the strong attack of Lucifer.
“You can’t break it. You aren’t strong enough. Also, Hostage? That would be an overstatement,” Licorice smiled in response. “It would be better to say that we saved them.”
“What you see inside the crystal are the frozen bodies of your parents. They are dead, yet they aren’t dead at the same time,” he further explained.
“What do you mean?” Lucifer asked, frowning.
“Do you know what happens when a person dies inside a Dungeon?” Licorice asked.
Lucifer shook his head. He hadn’t studied or experienced Dungeons before this. He only knew people died.
“After a person dies, their bodies and their souls are absorbed by the Dungeons that are used as a power source. That’s why the Dungeon defense gets stronger as more beasts are killed inside. That’s why the humans send people inside the Dungeons to kill innocent beasts,” Licorice explained.
“However, that absorption doesn’t just happen with the beast. It happens with every life form that dies inside, including the humans. That’s what’s happened with your parents as well,” Licorice explained.
“After they were poisoned by their own friends along with the entire crew, they died. Everyone was absorbed by the Dungeon, except these two,” he continued.
“Their souls were absorbed by the Dungeon, but we managed to protect their bodies. At that time, we didn’t know they were related to you. We just noticed that as soon as their souls were absorbed, the defense of the Dungeons got a massive boost which was comparable to what happens when one of us dies. So your parents were really strong.”
“We didn’t want the Dungeon to get even stronger by absorbing their bodies, so we did what we could. We stole the bodies before they could be absorbed and froze them in this crystal so the Dungeon can’t absorb them.”
“If you take them out of the crystal, their bodies would be vulnerable again, and they’ll be absorbed entirely. So don’t try breaking it, not that you can.”
“So they really are dead?” Lucifer muttered blankly, placing his hand on the crystal. Seeing them here, he thought they were alive. Unfortunately, it seemed he was too optimistic.
He wasn’t alone in this optimism though. The other Lucifer also thought the same that they were frozen here, alive. That’s why he thought he could save them.
“That’s right, but it’s not impossible to save them, you know?” Licorice suggested, smiling.
“How?” Lucifer asked.
” The soul of your parents was absorbed by the dungeon. However, fortunately, we managed to stop the process before their body could be absorbed. That’s why the process is still incomplete. Because the body’s weren’t absorbed, the souls couldn’t be refined either. So if I’m not wrong, their souls are still trapped in the dungeon.”
