"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
― Plato
“Hmmmm?” Giant glanced into the darkness of the ocean and picked a fragment of shell from his teeth. The massive beasts had been all bark and paid the price. They joined their territories, down in his gullet.
A new challenger approached from the depths, distant but filled with a hum of power. A disgruntled king, in search of its missing subjects. Giant grinned and began a steady swim, down and toward the aggrieved call. His next meal was eager to find its place, buried beside the rest of this ocean’s inhabitants.
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“Can you see beyond the gate?” Rafe squinted through the unholy light as Lucifer walked through the energy of the abyssal core. The Devil took an absent minded path, almost lost to the rush of power as he approached the unusual doorway. “Hey… are you still with us, Lucifer?”
“Quiet, impudent Halfling…” the Devil shook his head and returned his focus to the task at hand. “The unholy force here is so dense, even I must tread carefully!”
Tainted light dragged over the fallen angel’s skin, unassuming as the rays of the moon. Only his natural immunity to the energy let him enter this space at all, and the closer he got to the solitary gate, the more intense the power became. It shook at the bonds between his cells, desperate to seep inwards and join the unholy power that lived within him.
The ‘door’ ahead barely qualified, more of a frame than anything else. A translucent white veil hung in place of any barrier, shifted on invisible winds. As Lucifer drew closer, a static hum tickled at the base of his skull. An indistinct figure stood beyond the curtain, just out of the Devil’s sight.
“Come closer… little mouse…”
Lucifer froze as the voice crept up his spin and filled his head with cotton. Never, in his countless millennia, had he been tempted to such a degree. He forced his muscles to lock in place, frozen against the impulse in his heart. It took everything, all the ancient knowledge and resentment in his core, to resist the impulse to charge toward the veil.
“Lucifer?” Rafe’s words came from a great distance, a remnant of an echo that lost most of its meaning before it reached the Devil’s ears. “What’s wrong?”
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“Fetch Brull…” Lucifer whispered, too quiet for the Halfling, but enough for Hive to catch. “Do not let anyone else enter the light…”
Among his companions, both Brull and Lyra would be able to brave the unholy forces that surrounded this door, but the cat-kin’s sword gave him an edge. Whatever stood beyond the veil, it was an unholy force beyond even Lucifer’s understanding. Excalibur’s energy was a bane to such creatures, and for once he was grateful for its existence.
“Who are you?” Lucifer directed his words to the shadow beyond the gate, willpower focused to keep his feet in place. “How long have you been trapped in there?”
“Trapped?” The voice curled deeper into the Devil’s mind, hooked fingers and padded feet. Mockery and hunger with a sharp edge of desperation. “I’m not trapped… come closer and see for yourself…”
“You come closer…” Lucifer snorted. The persuasive power of this being was astonishing, powerful enough that he even considered obedience, for a moment. “Or can’t you stick your nose beyond the veil?”
“Can… cannot… who can tell the difference?” The intrusive voice gained a hint of madness, aggrieved discomfort that chiselled into Lucifer’s mind with every word. “Here… there… you or me… it’s all the same in the end…”
“Sure,” Lucifer gathered his will and took a small step back, towards the shade of the Hive’s tunnel. “If it’s all the same, then I’ll stay here and you can stay ‘not trapped’ just where you are.”
“Coward… liar… dog of a trivial god…” The figure’s rants chased Lucifer until he stepped free of the light, less coherent the further he got from the veiled doorway. “I’ll eat the marrow of your bones… you are nothing but the reflection of a greater shadow!”
“And yet I’m the one who can walk free,” Lucifer shook his head. A weaker willed being would be easily suppressed by this dishonest voice. “You just sit quietly and reflect, you’ll win more with honey than with vinegar you know!”
“Who are you talking to?” Hive shaped an avatar from the mechanical walls, head tilted in concern. “Rafe is on his way back… you have been within the light’s effect for over twenty hours.”
“Almost a day…” Lucifer sent a glance at the unholy glow at his back. It had only been minutes from his perspective. “Maybe he doesn’t need honey after all…”
“Who?” Hive leaned closer and scanned the Devil’s body for injuries. “You saw someone beyond the gateway?”
“Or some THING, anyways…” Lucifer retreated from the light behind them, headed toward the surface. “You should mark this place as restricted, no one weaker than us should step into this tunnel, let alone into that unholy chamber.”
“Very well…” Hive glanced at the light, before it followed the Devil up the tunnel and away from the luminous glow. “Though your trip has benefited you greatly… I am detecting more than double the energy from within you after such a short time in the light of the core!”
“Whatever lives on the other side of that veil has been bathing in that glow for a lot longer than that,” Lucifer tightened his hands into fists and measured his own boosted strength. “I’ve never encountered something that could almost charm me into obedience… not since my ‘Father’ hammered me into creation.”
“Indeed…” Hive frowned as they neared the surface. “I’ll place a barrier around the chamber, just to be certain.”
Lucifer nodded. Even if he trusted himself to return with Brull and his terrible sword beside him, it would be best to surround the core and its gate with a seal. The voice had fallen silent but the devil’s skin crawled, watched by eyes in the dark.