Chapter 353: Quiet Between

Rhazor stood in broken basalt and cooling blood of the primary caldera; molten gold eyes sweeping from where Selene had fallen to the hybrid who had taken her, the surviving dragonkin keeping some distance as they tend to those wounded and drag dead in any semblance of ordered rows. Heat curled from Rhazor’s scaled shoulders as he finally took his place closer to Lucifer.

"You didn’t have to come," Rhazor said, the words rough from the fight. "This was our territorie and our fight once she set foot in it. My people and I would have bled until one side broke. You stepping in changed the equation before we lost all who still mattered to the seat. For that, you have my thanks. The Dragon Realm does not forget who stand with it when the stone is already cracked."

Lucifer surveyed the ruined platform with the bodies and those who had fought standing because their progenitor had not told them otherwise. The weight of this kill rested cleanly on his shoulders, with no prideful edge and no apologize, before he met Rhazor’s eyes and gave a small nod.

"It was never all yours fight," Lucifer replied. "She made it all quite clear she meant to cut through the new seats until someone stopped her. Had I kept to behind my seals and let you lay the final claim, all she was accumulating would simply move onto the next realm, and the next after that. Ending it here was the cleanest out of the options I had. You and your people held just long enough for it to be an option. That is enough."

Rhazor studied him for a moment more before exhaling a slow breath of hot air. "Go do what you need to hybrid. We will rebuild whatever can be."

Lucifer gave one last glance at the caldera before turning his attention inward. Space folded itself around him without preamble. The heat, the blood and the broken mountain vanished.

He emerged in the open void between realms, where there is no ground and no sky only the distance and the slow drifting of residual energies in the corners. For the first time in along while he simply stood there and took a deep breath. The void held no air in the traditional sense, but his True Divine foundation handled the variance comfortably without the need to adjust. The silence pushed in from all sides, solid and clean against the noise of the caldera he had just left.

Nyx stepped out of a fold of living darkness a few paces from him, black eyes watching him idly. Her words carried easily over the distance of the void.

"You are enjoying this more than most would," she said. "It is an rarity to find beings that can stand in raw void and breath as if it is open sky. Most choke on what is not there. You look as if you have been waiting on this very calm."

Lucifer made no attempt to deny it. He kept his eyes on the stretch of nothingness and another breath passed him before he gave any response. "The starfire realm was controlled. Every drill, pressure and recovery window was managed. Even the last foundation jump was done in designed walls to contain the damage. Here, there is nothing dictating to me how I must exist. It feels honest."

Nyx drifted closer, curling darkness loose at her shoulder. "Honesty comes at a price. You killed a core bearing Reaver in the open and let the board feel all of the spike personally. Whatever has been watching the edges of this universe it will feel to either receive an invitation or a challenge. You understand that yes?"

"I understand it," Lucifer said his tone even and without heat. "I also understand that to keep sealed while those with my connections continued to be hunted was no longer a price I was willing to pay. If ending Selene marks a brighter cross on me then the mark was well overdue. At least this way the new seats have one less active hunter coming to kill them off while they are still figuring out how stand."

Nyx regarded him for a moment in silence. She finally gave a small nod, almost approving. "Practical. A little late in the day, but practical. Aeloria will still call it reckless until she finishes counting the residual trails. I will call it inevitable. We can argue about the phrasing later."

Lucifer finally turned from the empty stretch of void and met her black eyes. "I am going back to the Vampire Realm. I need to see it with my senses rather than hearing second hand. Are you going to follow, or go to Aeloria first?"

"I will follow when it suits me," Nyx replied. "Go look at your city. Just remember that the calm you are feeling now won’t last long."

Lucifer gave a short nod and folded space again.

He emerged high above the capital of the Vampire Realm. Twi crimson moons watching over their usual places. The black cities and floating districts stretching out below him in shadowy layers looked solid at a glance, and with his True Divine senses open he found the reality underneath. Reinforced patrol routes in place, higher concentration of Origin Clan signatures with better alerts moving, the lingering of tension in various places where earlier reports of Selene’s attacks had run into. The realm was intact and it was braced for further issues.

Lucifer remained in the air for a while simply observing. The city has survived without him. It also had to prepare itself for threats that should have been well beyond their reach. The balance between those two facts sat like lead in his chest as he finally began his descent toward the palace district to see the current state of things with his own eyes.

A/N

Thanks for reading this far, it has been a joy ride for them, I will try my best to make it worthwhile.