Songs of Cicadas rolled into my mind as I slowly roused from my dormancy.

"Why hello, my dear. So good of you to finally wake up." his sarcastic smile was easily decipherable by his tone, even in my more than confused state of mind. Groaning, I pulled myself upward with bleary eyes to see Lucifer crouched beside me.

"Lucifer? What happened?" I asked, my vision clearing just enough to search my surroundings, not surprised to find myself lying in the courtyard of Arce Elymas Magus.

"Dang, I hate waking up in here with no idea what happened... This is starting to happen much too much." I growled, slowly recalling with worry the illuminated white blood cracking through my flesh what felt like just moments ago.

"Astute as always..." He replied, standing up and beckoning me to do the same.

"Is my body gonna be okay?" I inquired, remaining seated on the soft grass beneath me, the smell of fresh dewey grass comforting me.

"Yes, yes yes. While worse for ware, your body is healing. My now dormant divine energy is seeing to that, albeit slowly." He waved off the question as if it was of no concern. "We can forget that for the moment though, we have more pressing matters to discuss." he added, turning to lead me back into the castle with callous indifference.

"What do you mean? How long have I been out for?" I questioned, hoping he was not about to inform me that we had not been in time to save Theseus. Much to my surprise as I jumped up, my feet held my weight without issue. A deep fatigue still held fast from within, but moving about seemed not to exacerbate the issue.

"No, not long. Only ten minutes has passed out there, so I expect the rescue operation to save the warrior is well under way." He pushed open the wooden doors, and his foot steps echoed within. I followed close behind, eager to hear what he had to say.

Taking a quick left he entered a room that I had not previously seen before, which struck me as odd considering we had made a point of exploring this castle in its entirety more than once.

Lucifer took a seat in a nicely furnished armchair, beckoning me to sit next to him in a rather overly decedent loveseat. The room smelled of flowers, rather than the dank musk that permeated most of the castle. The small room could only have been ten feet by ten feet at most, boasting a single dark wooden half bookcase which sat idly next to Lucifer. Bare walls surrounded us on all sides, yet our seats were positioned toward the far wall as if for viewing.

"Before I continue, I suppose you will want to see how things are progressing out in the 'real' world. Hopefully my briefly showing you this will allow you to focus more intently on our conversation." He offered with feigned graciousness. "By now, I assume you must have at some point been curious how I am able to perceive so much of your surroundings from within you."

"I had never really given it much thought, to be honest. But you do bring up a good point..." I replied as my interest grew.

With a grand flourish of his hand, Lucifer revealed what appeared to be screens on each of the three walls around us, each showing a different perspective like a disembodied camera that was tethered to a specified third person viewpoint.

"If I focus, I am able to see with my minds eye anywhere I like, but I have grown accustomed to viewing the more critical aspects of our exchanges from here - and in this format- such as our resent encounters with Agreus and Apollo." Lucifer added as I rose to my feet to inspect the videos flowing in from the displays.

"Woah, so its almost like watching a TV." I exclaimed as I watched Asterion racing up a dirt pathway outside of town. His hair was ragged and littered with pine needles, dried dirt caked around his hooves. My body fit as comfortably as could be expected over his broad shoulder. He had been in such a rush to save me... I needed to make sure he understood how grateful I was.

"Wait..." My face contorted into confusion. "But I thought time moved slower in my soul? If we are at one third speed here, then how are we watching them in full speed there? Is there a delay or something?" I remarked with curiosity, searching the video feed for any indication of delay.

"No, nothing so simple as that." Lucifer mused lightly with a chuckle. "A soul exists beyond time. While we are experiencing time differently than Asterion, we can view him in real time because we are not currently bound to his time stream. I am no expert though, so it is merely conjecture at this moment.. Perhaps it is worth further research..." His own expression tempered with thoughtful interest.

Shaking his head quickly, he emptied his mind of those useless thoughts. Returning his gaze back to me.

"Let us focus, Young Desmond." Lucifer announced, taking the moving picture show down so I could return my attention back to him. "As I said earlier, you and I have much to discuss. There will be plenty of time for watching later."

I nodded in agreement, while I still had many questions on the mechanism of this new skill Lucifer had shown me, he obviously had something important to discuss that took precedence. I knew that I had much to answer for, and now that the manifestation had worn off, a lot of thoughts and emotions were beginning to bubble under the surface.

"Let us start with the spell. Vacuus, I believe you had called it." Lucifer's fingers were pressed tightly against each other as his eyes surveyed my every movement. I kept my mind open to his probing, I had no reason to lie and nothing to hide in this regard. Relaxing into the soft loveseat, I let the fabric tickle at my hands as I caressed its arms for comfort.

"When I was stabbed by Agreus, I found myself in a void for what felt like an eternity. I'll assume you dont want all the details, so I'll give you the short version." He gave me a half nod that seemed to suggest he would want more of the explicit details later, but that for now a summarization would suffice.

"After awhile, I found myself in front of the door to the Wizard tower inside my soul: Arce Elymas Magus." I began my explanations thoughtfully, being sure to hit on the key points without boring him with too many details.

"While at first I didn't know it was the door to the Wizard tower, I thought it was just an exit from wherever I was, to wherever I needed to go. It wouldn't budge though, no matter what I did." Frustration leaked into my voice as I recalled the memories of that time. Lucifer simply listened seemingly disinterested, and glaringly focused at the same time.

"With nothing else to do, I lost myself in thought until a voice called out to me, reminding me of everything that'd happened, and just like that Arce Elymas solidified around me and the door. That's when I realized it was the door to the Wizard tower."

"But Since the door still wouldn't open, I considered what you and the Moirai had said. This led me to the conclusion that in order to enter the door, I needed to be a Wizard." Shifting awkwardly in the soft loveseat under Lucifer's raised scrutiny, I continued.

"Yes, You've told me time and time again that just by this place existing, that I'm a Wizard. But I don't think it had ever really sunk in, or maybe I hadn't fully accepted it yet. I don't know. But I decided that I needed to prove to the door, the tower and myself, that I could do magic before it would let me in..."

"Preposterous... But do please continue." Lucifer chuckled lightly, his stiff posture finally relaxing into my recollection. Letting out a deep breath I continued, feeling more at ease with his change of intensity.

"Using the Moirai's words as a basis, 'a power that only stars know', I created the spell. The incantation is 'Vacuus' but it can be anything, or nothing, once I learn mastery over the spell that is. I don't know how I know that, But when I first did the spell all this knowledge streamed right into my brain... I've only used Vacuus a handful of times, but I think I'd rather call it something like 'void orb' or-"

"Okay, yes... Names are all well and good, but back onto the topic at hand, Desmond. What is the spell?" Lucifer interjected, his curiosity peaked.

"Well, its founded on the basis of gravity and density. I'm not a scientist, but most people my age have at least some amount of understanding of the idea. By increasing the density of a single point of space, it creates a tear in the fabric, a black hole if you will; One that I can control with my energy, or mana I guess you might call it." I explained as best that I could. Since completing the spell I had a somewhat rudimentary understanding of the basics of it, but the knowledge had flooded into my mind as a single information dump and I still needed to digest it all.

"Very interesting. Does this spell have limitations? What exactly can it do?" Lucifer mused curiously as he leaned in with reinvigorated interest.

"Well, yes and no. I suppose that it's largest limitation would be me and how much I can feed it and manipulate it." I answered hesitantly. "As far as what it can do..." I shrugged, unable to find the words to properly describe it.

"Luckily we will have plenty of time to devote to studying its applications and limitations. Do continue, what did you find within the tower?" Lucifer urged, his expression was placid but I felt a growing hunger within his eyes.

"I'm not sure what all of it was. Only that learning Latin is probably going to be needed. Nothing is in English..." I continued, putting aside any uneasiness before it grew. I could address it later when I had time to think in solitude.

"Well, perhaps now is a good time to go and find out. Together we can uncover the mysteries of your abilities." Lucifer's tone was growing more eager now, and I knew why. Power. It was like a pack of wolves surrounding a wounded prey. Perhaps addressing my concerns would not be best left for later...

However, before I could offer another word in edgewise, he rose motioning for me to follow. Reluctantly I did so. We marched quietly down the various hallways until we approached the resolute door that stood before the tower.

Gripping the handle Lucifer pushed, expecting it to open with ease this time. With a startled grunt his face smacked square into the door as it stood closed and unyielding. Confused, Lucifer took a step back and pulled, but to no avail.

Several moments passed in confusion until Lucifer looked back at me impatiently and motioned to open the door. His frustration growing with each passing moment.

"Oh. Yeah, it probably only opens for me." I muttered meekly as I stepped forward and gripped the handle. I knew in that moment it would not budge. Something about the cold metal handle sent a shiver of ineptitude into my mind. Despite my earlier trespass, I was not yet worthy.

However, much to my surprise it clicked opened with reluctant ease, the hinges squealing angrily as it swung open unhurriedly. Revealing an empty room that smelled of age and neglect. The familiar black metal circular staircase stood quietly in the middle. Bare bookcases and plain desks lined the room as if openly mocking us. All the items I had seen before were gone. No carpets or furnishings, no papers or books. I wondered if it could possibly be the same room...

"What the?" I started, but Lucifer barged into the room, pushing me aside.

"What is the meaning of this?!" His voice bled into a demonic reverberation. The oil lamps hanging about the room seemingly growing dimmer while his blond hair decayed into blackness. His aura darkening into barely contained rage.

"I-I don't know!" I stammered, equally confused. I had been sure the door would not open when I touched it, yet to my amazement, it had.... Lucifer's feet stomped about the creaking floorboards with abject dissatisfaction before finally coming to a halt in front of a single bookcase at the other end of the stairs.

Removing the singular book on its otherwise empty shelf, he inspected it closely on all sides before letting out an exhaustive sigh. "Look here... Vacuus." He said brusquely before tossing it my way. I caught it, confused as to why it was here when none of the other books were. Opening the pages I found only more Latin.

"Well, at least some things don't change..." I snickered, trying to lighten the mood. Yet with each page turned I felt a pang in the back of my mind with the influx of knowledge on the spell.

"No... This is not funny Desmond, You said this room was filled with books! With spells that we might use to fell our enemies! To force even the 'all mighty Heaven' to kneel before us; To destroy all who stand in my way, leaving all to cower before me with fear!" With each word his voice grew darker, his eyes shining deep red and his skin brackish and charcoal black. Passionate rage and indignation swelling within him as he rose a fist, clenching it in the air as if to crush the entire earth within it.

"Your way? Cower before you?" I asked with a raised brow, seeing him once again for what he was. The Devil. Lucifer Morningstar, the archangel of pride who fell from grace. How Foolish had I been.

Lucifer froze, his intentions made clear for both of us to plainly see. I sucked the dank air of the tower in through my nose, preparing myself for what had to follow.

"You know what. I think you were right before, Lucifer. We do have a lot to discuss." I stood straight, holding the spell tome firmly in my hands, confident and unafraid of the proverbial god before me for the first time since I had set him free of that cage. "A lot to discuss about 'our' partnership here."