Chapter 36: TWO DEVILS
"How does maxing the orgasm of a rebated sex beast help me to unlock... unlock..." Dax began, confusion knitting his brow.
"The me in you," Lucivar completed smoothly, his voice gliding through the air like black silk.
Dax’s head tilted slightly. "Yeah, exactly," he answered, both curious and suspicious, his tone laced with the ache of unanswered wonder.
Lucivar’s crimson eyes flickered with amusement. He stepped back, turning toward an antique table carved from obsidian oak, its legs coiled like sleeping serpents.
Upon it rested a vessel of pure silver, one of those ancient decanters once used in royal feasts to pour wine into golden chalices. Its surface shimmered faintly in the torchlight, reflecting shades of scarlet and violet.
Lucivar grasped it with elegant ease, pouring its glimmering content into a goblet that looked older than sin itself.
"Ahh," he breathed, inhaling deeply. "The Falernian Ambrosia, vintage of emperors. Good for the body after a long, ruinous day."
He paused, letting the wine’s aroma tease his senses. The air filled with a heady fragrance, old grapes soaked in the memory of forgotten wars.
"I remember," he murmured, eyes half-lidded, "my father never played with this one."
Lifting the goblet, he pressed it to his lips and took a slow sip. The movement was unhurried, his throat working with an elegance that almost mocked life itself. The devil savored it, each note, each burn, as though drinking memories rather than wine.
"Want some?" he asked lazily, his tone drenched in mock courtesy.
Dax, now visibly annoyed, waved him off. "I’m good," he said, struggling to keep his patience from snapping.
Lucivar hummed in amusement, that low, knowing sound that slithered between words. Carrying his goblet with serpentlike grace, he moved toward the couch beside the bed and reclined upon it, one leg crossing the other with aristocratic ease.
Dax’s gaze followed him like a predator stalking prey. His eyes burned with irritation, yet Lucivar seemed utterly unaffected, sipping his wine with divine arrogance.
Then, finally, he spoke. His tone was blunt, almost disinterested.
"Sin."
Dax frowned. "Sin?"
"The way you unlocked my essence," Lucivar explained, his crimson eyes glinting with infernal light, "was through sin. The sin of fornication."
The realization struck Dax like lightning. His gaze darted to the frozen figures of the naked queen and Stevon, both suspended mid-act and mid-pleasure like wax statues of lust. A faint grin crept across his face.
"So you’re saying that... screwing makes me stronger?"
Lucivar’s stare hardened. His gaze deep, burning, and unreadable cut through the question like a blade.
"Don’t you hear your stats in your head?" he asked calmly.
Dax blinked. "My what?"
"It’s like a screen," Lucivar said, swirling his goblet gently, "that whispers truths about you. Every gain, every corruption. You’ll learn to see it."
"Oh," Dax muttered, his voice nearly a growl.
"So what is that thing, then? Some kind of game... system stats?"
Lucivar chuckled, a low, seductive sound. He leaned back, his aura spreading like thick smoke through the room.
"That," he said, "is the impact of the chip embedded inside you ... when you entered the Ascension Pod."
"Right," Dax replied flatly, suspicion threading his tone. "But you still haven’t answered my ques..."
"No." Lucivar’s tone snapped like a whip. "Not anymore. You’ve already unlocked my essence. It’s complete. There’s no longer a need to fuck, unless, of course..." His grin stretched. "...you want to."
He crossed one leg over the other, lounging deeper into the couch. "Speaking of fucking," he continued lazily, "I was... somewhat worried."
Dax blinked, then chuckled. "You? Worried? That’s strange."
Lucivar smirked, sipping again.
"You know what’s more strange?"
"Mmm... mmm," Dax murmured, shaking his head, feigning confusion.
Lucivar’s expression shifted, the unreadable, infernal calm deepened. "What’s more strange," he said at last, "is how you did it."
Dax frowned.
Lucivar leaned forward, setting his goblet down with care. "You didn’t just fuck any beast. You conquered a Rebate Sex Beast, one bred to destroy the men who touch her... and you did it, three times." His gaze sharpened. "You do realize that even I find that impressive?"
He slightly shook his head, his eyes settling and piercing through Dax like molten rubies. "You’re not supposed to be capable of that. Not you."
Dax snorted and slumped back on the bed. "What do you want me to say? Want a lecture on technique now?"
Lucivar’s grin widened, that devilish humor returning to his lips.
"Hey," he said softly, "even devils don’t know everything."
Dax winced at that, somehow, it sounded too human coming from him. Or was he being humble.
"Fine," Dax sighed. "I used foreplay. The very nasty kind."
Lucivar hummed approvingly, taking another measured sip of wine.
"Interesting," he drawled. "So... foreplay got you through your mission?"
Dax exhaled hard, his voice flat.
"No. What got me through it was not giving a damn. I didn’t care about consequences, or your brother’s little mission, for that matter." He paused, leaning forward.
"I just wanted satisfaction. You know... to enjoy the moment." He paused a bit, and looked up at him.
"You filled me with ignorance, remember? So I just... did what I wanted. Focused on getting satisfied. You know...on fucking that body."
He glanced toward the frozen queen, still bent in eternal ecstasy and let out another smile.
Lucivar leaned back on the couch, studying Dax with something between admiration and disbelief. "You’re fascinating," he muttered.
"You carry a weak will, yet you defy it. Too sinful to be mortal, too reckless to be divine. You’re chaos in flesh."
"Well," Lucivar added after a pause, raising his goblet again, "satisfy yourself, you say... but tell me, what’s there to satisfy? You’re just seventeen."
Dax grimaced, irritation flashing across his face. He hated being called a child. Seventeen was practically adulthood, he is a few months shy of eighteen. Why treat him like a boy?
"I wasn’t a child when I screwed the queen, was I?" he shot back sharply. "I was twenty-four. I was Stevon."
Lucivar grinned, clearly entertained. "Isn’t that clever," he mused, folding one leg over the other once more. "A mortal who thinks he’s two souls in one skin."
Dax ignored the jab. "So I got to be rich now, right?"
Lucivar’s brow arched slightly. "Rich?"
"Yeah," Dax said, growing impatient.
"The queen said if her orgasm was maxed, she’d give the man half her wealth and glo..."
"Yes," Lucivar interrupted, his tone sharp. "She said that. But was it to you? No. It was to Stevon."
Dax’s jaw tightened. "But Stevon is dea..."
"Was dead," Lucivar cut in coldly. "The bastard hung himself. Now he’s alive, thanks to you. He owes you, and he knows it."
Dax groaned and fell back on the bed, his arms thrown up in defeat. "So all that effort, for nothing."
Lucivar ignored the complaint entirely. He finished the last drop of his wine, stood, and with one elegant motion, lifted the hawk that had perched silently on his shoulder all this while.
The bird, feathers black as the void, spread its wings once before he set it on the couch.
"Haven’t your mama ever taught you," Lucivar began mockingly, "never to accept gifts from a dream?"
Dax frowned, irritation flashing across his face.
"This isn’t a dream," he hissed. "It’s a nightmare."
Lucivar smirked, walking to place his goblet down on the obsidian table. "Exactly," he murmured, his aura thickening, dark tendrils of crimson mist curling around him like living smoke.
"And you should never trust anything born from a nightmare."
He walked past the still forms of the queen and Stevon, his eyes glinting with devilish mirth.
"You only enjoyed this because it was *stabilized* and fashioned... well, by my brother, Elivar."
That name made Dax freeze. His heart raced. "So this isn’t a real nightmare...? The real one’s worse?"
Lucivar turned, his eyes glowing faintly. "Far worse," he said softly. "Don’t ever take anything made of nightmare out of one. Nothing here is what it seems."
He began walking toward the door. Just as he reached for the handle, Dax shot up. "Wait, your hawk!" he called, pointing to the bird.
Lucivar smiled faintly and opened the door. "Lil-Lucivar Daxon... Smith is now yours." He gave a low bow, eyes glinting. "And also..." he added "wake up."
With that, he stepped out, and the door sealed shut behind him.
"Don’t leave me with this asshole!" the hawk suddenly screeched, its voice sharp and unbearably loud.
"Ah-ha!" Dax bellowed. "I knew you were pretending to be a calm hawk!"
But before he could rant further, dizziness hit him.
The world spun violently. The walls folded into one another like liquid mirrors, and through the haze, he could see himself fading, disintegrating like smoke in the wind.
Somewhere in that distortion, the queen’s moans echoed again, soft at first, then louder, mingling with the rhythmic sound of *kpa... kpa... kpa...* flesh against flesh.
until...
Everything was consumed by darkness.