[Solo] Breaking dawn

[Lucifer]

The morning mist was thick and the sky was lit with the dawn of a new day. Lucifer now walked the Earth. There was a strange feeling, being in a physical body. It was as if he had been shackled in chains and thrown into a cage. Walking was a chore and looking through human eyes was like staring through a translucent lense. *

He touched his chest, the mark of the Ar’Tuel burnt into the mortal flesh, this new body was great and in its prime. His soul would make sure it stayed that way. Yes, that so very valuable soul which pathetic creatures of all kinds sought to take for themselves. The lives of his brothers and sisters would fill their coffers, all because the light they held could be used for material goods like expendable batteries.

He was sick of it, it disgusted him. If there was one thing he despised more than mortals, it was mortals who's greed surpassed their intelligence.

Lucifer had little actual knowledge of where he was or what to do. However, he had been observing humans for years, and he understood their mannerisms quite well. If he were to come across company, he was positive he'd be able to talk his way through it. If not, he'd be able to finally test this new power of his.

Lucifer rubbed his neck and tilted it to the side, feeling the tendons stretching. He reached down to his arm and pinched himself, wincing reactively without thinking "So this is physical pain?" He thought to himself.

He began to slowly walk, not sure where to, but he was headed somewhere, one simple rigid step at a time. He closed his eyes, feeling the mana within the area, there seemed to be large concentrations of it, most likely indicating large beasts or trees. In any case he'd be sure to stay away from danger for now, this body was too precious to lose.

[Lucifer]

Lucifer was under the shade of a tree as a winged demon flew above, blacking out the sky for a moment. He instinctually ducked without thinking, a sense of fear washing over him that he didn't understand. There were too many things, that he did not understand about this body, but he'd learn. "Could this be fear?" He mumbled under his breath "How interesting... that an emotion can paralyse a person"

With the dragon finally gone Lucifer was able to continue his trek until he stumbled across a cave. Just a regular cave and nothing more, he thought.

Lucifer entered, shadows engulfing his form as he stepped into the darkness. There was a faint smell of rotting corpses and the ground beneath him felt wet, as if it had been raining overnight inside the cave. "Who's there!" Shouted an old croaky voice from the depths of the cave.

Lucifer kept dead still, slightly tilting his head as to get a better read as to where the sound was coming from. "Don't come any closer!" The voice continued. Lucifer smiled, generally when someone said don't come any closer, the correct course of action was to in fact step in closer. And that is what he did.

*drip* *splash*

"I'm warning you!" The voice shouted. Lucifer stopped. "Who are you!" Lucifer sighed, and the voice gasped.

"It's always the same questions" Lucifer paused. "Who are you? Why are you doing this? What do you want?" He smirked, rather eager to find out how this voice would respond.

"I'm not afraid of you! Answer my question!" The voice pleaded "Why lie? It is foolish to fear what we have yet to see and know. However, you claim not to be afraid, yet here you are, shaken" Lucifer could feel the mans fear, yes, he was close. There was a long pause between the two before Lucifer made another step.

"Wait!" The voice said again. "You're not a dragon worshiper are you?" Lucifer grinned "No, though those humans are at least not pathetic enough as to think their lives are in any way superior to that of greater beings, or that their lives are worth enough to warrant self gratification as opposed to worshiping such beings"

The man lit a flame revealing the form of the cave. "Then we're in agreement" The visibly male figure said. "Oh? How interesting" Lucifer was perplexed, and intrigued.

[Lucifer]

The man looked as though he was in his seventies, he had a white scraggly beard, a balding head, and wrinkled leathery skin. There was a crazed look in his eye, as if he'd made it out of hell and lived to tell the tale. "For too long have these dragon worshipers exploited the magnificence of these beasts, claiming to be their servants while using their power for themselves."

Lucifer chuckled "Oh is that what this is about" He had no interest in the babbling of an old fool, but perhaps he could get something out of it. "What are you going to do about it? Kill them?" He scoffed.

The old man grinned "Yes well that is a very appeasing idea young man, but I had something different in mind." The old man scrambled about looking for something at his desk before pulling up an old scroll "This here, is my plan." Lucifer examined the page closely before his eyes widened. The old man was planning to use Ar'Tuel energy as an offering to the dragons, causing them to turn on their human followers.

Lucifers eyes twitched "Ar'Tuel energy?" His eye focusing on the crazed old fool. He cackled "Yes! They're a passive ethereal race. Their bodies are pure energy! The best part is that they don't fight back and practically give themselves up! With their energy, the dragons will reign supreme over these lands once again, bringing death and laying waste to everyone"

Lucifers aura was slipping, the gravel beneath his feet degrading to powder. Lucifer turned away from the man and closed his eyes to focus himself and calm down. The old man looked puzzled at the boy "Something wrong lad" Lucifer grinned and opened his arms "That plan is perfect! We'll finally end this rotten world and let the dragons take their rightful place!" The old mans face lit up "Yes! Yes! So you do understand! Hahaha!" The man was ecstatic.

Lucifer stop grinning, his face dead cold with seriousness. The old man also stopped once he saw the look on his face. "So how do you plan on obtain this Ar'Tuel energy?" The man slyly grinned. "Well I have quite a bit already. Three large containers hidden in this cave to be exact, that should be more than enough to power the great fire drake Ozan who lays dormant to this day. Some say he's as large as a mountain, but no one's ever actually seen him. No one alive today that is."

Lucifer had just stumbled across great information, he wasn't sure whether or not Ozan was still around, but that's not what concerned him. What concerned him was the specific whereabouts of the three souls. Lucifer considered his options for a moment. He could kill the old man now and look for them, get his trust to find them and then kill him, or just let him go ahead with his plan and kill everyone. "Decisions, decisions."

[Lucifer]

Lucifer decided that he should probably focus on finding the Ar'Tuel first before killing anyone, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let a giant ass dragon lay waste to everything, then he'd really have nothing left. "Ok I hear you old man, what's your name?" The old man grinned manically as he extended his hand out toward Lucifer "The names Hizen, It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Lucifer shook his hand before wiping the old geezers hand grime off on his shirt. "Lucifer.. Likewise..." Lucifer grumbled. He probably wasn't going to enjoy killing this old fool.

Lucifer placed a hand on his shoulder as he looked over to see what other crazy things he had laying around on his desk. "Hmm what's that?" The old man grinned "Oh it's just a trade deal I made. One dragon egg for one Ar'Tuel soul. He should be arriving sometime today. It'd be good to have a fresh on to appease Ozan." Lucifers eyes widened. Not only did he have no respect for an ancient race of beings such as himself, he also had little respect for his own proclaimed deities. Selling off a dragon egg to this guy should be like selling off a god. The old man took notice of the look on Lucifers face "Oh you must be wondering why I'm trading off a dragon egg. That's because I'm not. It's actually a wyvern, the dragons inferior cousin, but they don't know the difference do they?" He chuckled. "I see.."

Well he may have been a bit quick to judge on that one but the fact remained he planed to lay waste to the earth and he wasn't about to let that happen. Lucifer pressed his finger to his chin as if divining something great "Hmm, the added Ar'Tuel soul in addition to the other two may prove effective in your plan. However there are a lot of people out there who possess great strength. Do you think Ozan is really that powerful?" The old geezer laughed and laughed. "Boy! Ozan is invincible and immortal. One day he'll wake up on his own and destroy the Earth, I'm just speeding up the process here lad before anyone tries something fishy." Lucifer nodded "Agreed, where do you keep the souls per chance?" Lucifer slid in as if deeply engrossed into the mans image.

The old man stopped laughing and leant in close to Lucifer. "Oh boy... I'm not about to reveal that information just yet. You're going to have to earn my trust first." Lucifers eye brows raised, he did not expect that at all. "How do you suppose I do that? I mean I guess helping you with your goal Is one way, allow me." Lucifer added without a shred of hesitation. The man nodded "You'll have your chance, boy."

[Lucifer]

"So where to first?" An eager Lucifer asked. The old man rubbed his chin with a grin before smirking and wrapping an arm around his neck. "Well young boy, I was thinking a little huntin was in order. We're going to need a little more information about uhm... a device you see." Lucifer raised an eyebrow, rather curious. "A device you say? What kind of device?" The man looked down and shrugged his shoulders as if to blow off the importance of the item, but Lucifer knew that it was definitely important, or else he wouldn't be using Lucifer to go get it. Lucifer also wasn't as naive as to think that the man didn't know his true form. This could be a trap.

"Well, you see this device will help me to aid in lord Ozan's destructive reasoning. Not so much as to control him, just to stop him from killing me, you see." Lucifer smiled coyly. "Oh course, that would be a problem wouldn't it?" Lucifer had every reason to just kill this man right now, but curiosity was a witch. "So I'll ask again, where to?" The man grunted. "I see you're keen to prove yourself. Well its a bit of a journey you see..." Lucifer rolled his eyes. "I'm tired of this. Just get to the point." "What?! I am, my memory is just a little foggy is all." Lucifer grew tired of this, the old man wanted to lead him away from the souls, and Lucifer wasn't going to abandon them while they were so close. He'd go looking for them himself.

"I don't know why you're stalling, but I'm done waiting." The man grinned. "You're a sharp one, but it's too late for you!" A sharp snap of twigs was heard as two hounds came charging from behind, Lucifer turned to face them and growled as he protruded his aura from his body causing the hounds to hesitate for a moment. Lucifer capitalised on their hesitation and rushed at the two hounds as their jumped, reaching for both of their necks. He didn't need much strength to lift the two mutts and slammed them onto their backs and seared their necks to a crisp. Lucifer turned briskly to face the old man, but he was gone, retreated to the depths of his dark cave. "Oh, so we're doing this now are we? Hide and go seek as the kids call it. I'm it." Lucifer grinned, he didn't mind a bit of fun. It was time to hunt, kill or be killed.

[Lucifer]

Lucifer straightened his posture and cracked his fingers out, this bastard was asking for it. Lucifer grabbed a convenient torch and lit it with his own touch, a small flame roared to life and lit the dark passages that laid ahead. The old mans laugh echoed to him as if taunting Lucifer to follow. Follow he did. "This way I suppose then. I'm coming for you old man. I'm going to kill you, and I'm going to make you tell me where the souls are. And then I'm going to skin you, and hang your remnants along these walls." A grin escaped him as the mans hallow laugh continued in response. "You're not going to kill me young fool, you're trapped in here for good."

Lucifer laughed as he continued to trail down the corridor, "OH yeah? We'll see. As you could probably tell from what I did to those mutts, I'm not regular Ar'Tuel. The old man went silent for a moment before continuing from a completely different location, completely confusing Lucifer's sense of direction. "That is true indeed, you are different. Your soul would be much more powerful too I assume. Once I have you gone, I'll be unstoppable." Lucifer's hunting thrill quickly turned to annoyance, he needed the man to keep talking, but he had a feeling he was just being led on. Which meant, he'd just have to go the opposite way to the mans voice. He made a right turn and carefully trotted down some steps. The old man shot out, much fainter this time and sounding like a sincere question "You're awfully quiet, don't tell me you got lost did you?"

Lucifer grinned, much better. It was dark and dusty where he reached the bottom of the steps, but the torch revealed an interesting sight indeed. Eggs everywhere. He wasn't sure what eggs they were, but they were big and gross looking. He wondered if he should torch the room or leave it left alone and decided that he wouldn't exactly want to accidentally hatch one of them. On the walls there was a shelf stacked with books about ancient alchemy and the process of creating chimeras through high energy input and cross breeding. This old man wasn't looking to awaken a dragon. This man wasn't a dragon cultist at all. He was some sort of weird scientist, humans never ceased to amaze him. "There's no way I can allow this to happen to my brothers and sisters, they're not about to be monster food.. mark my words old man.."

[Lucifer]

The voice responded, a lot closer this time which almost startled Lucifer. "They already are. You're doomed in here. Give up." Lucifer continued into the next room which was a lot more spacious. "Why should I? As far as I'm concerned you're nothing but talk. All you're doing is waiting until I walk into a trapped room. You're not man enough to face me In here, let alone outside. That's why you needed to stall to get those dogs on me. You have no power on your own, only nonsense esoteric garbage that serves no real purpose. What do you hope to achieve with these things? What is the point of it all? Do you even know that yourself you crazy old bag?"

Lucifer gritted his teeth and looked around, he didn't have a clue where he was going, but as long as he kept moving he'd get somewhere. "Well truth be told, It's all in the name of science! Research boy! And you are the test subject. This is a maze, and you are my labrat. Now lets see if you can make it through to the cheese before you get gobbled up. Choose your path wisely." Lucifer closed his eyes for a moment to begin meditating on an answer. There were three paths to choose from, and only one of them really made sense choosing as both of the other options had been where the old man was trying to lure him into before. But perhaps this was done on purpose to trick him, who actually knew what that crazy geezers plan actually was. All that mattered was that he had the souls, and he was going to get them back.

Lucifer proceeded to the exit that hadn't been suggested towards him before by the mans voice locations. "Wait, why aren't you following my voice! Don't you want to tear me limb from limb?!" Lucifer smirked. "Well why would I do that? You'd just lead me into traps and away from my goals, yes? Yes. So I'll be going this way." Lucifer chuckled and walked off into the corridors. "You.. can't be serious... FINE! You leave me no choice!"