"Are you truly certain you can keep it holding for eternity, young one?" Hazkar smirked, a cruel twist of his petrified lips. "I may be incredibly old, but I am not senile. This prison exists solely based upon the divine energy you actively channel through it. It could certainly hold for several decades if you truly wished to stand here," he mused, his gaze calculating. "But I imagine an ambitious young Godling like you did not come all this way merely to imprison me. It would be remarkably vain, and far too childish of you." Absolute certainty painted his good eye. "No. You came here for something else entirely, and you simply cannot afford to stand here indefinitely maintaining this prison." His cold gaze dropped heavily to me. "The girl is certainly prodigious, but she is not powerful. It would take me, at most, seven full-powered blows to completely shatter this barrier under her sole vigil."
I felt deeply disheartened by his brutal callousness. To be forcefully made to face your own inadequacy so bluntly was not a comforting feeling at all. I had always known I was weak compared to the truly strong, but I had never been forced to face the stark reality of that knowledge until this exact moment.
"Oh, but you are wrong in so very many of your arrogant assumptions. You see, I am in no need of decades. I need only mere moments to wring the absolute truth out of you." Father raised his gauntleted hand, slowly twisting his outstretched fingers in a deliberate, circular motion.
A perfectly smooth, darkened sphere violently appeared in the damp air. The very mist itself physically recoiled from it, distancing itself several paces from our position.
Lemegeton.
Hazkar visibly paled, immediately feeling the oppressive and deadly presence of the object.
"What in ruination is that thing!?" he nearly yelled, scrambling backward on his hands and knees.
The dark sphere was arguably the single most powerful tool in Father's vast arsenal. By its sheer presence alone, it possessed the unnatural ability to deter and severely weaken the will of even the strongest, most resilient of enemies.
"This, old man, is the whip that will make you sing," Father said grimly. "It feeds on one thing, and one thing alone. Any guesses as to what that might be?" Father continued, his tone growing noticeably more sinister by the minute.
Hazkar gulped audibly, taking another desperate step back until his shoulders hit the far side of the magical barrier. Father smiled softly, and it sent a cold shiver racing down my spine just seeing him look like that. Pure, abject cruelty coloured his usually warm features.
"No guesses? Fine. I will enlighten you," he spoke humorously, though it only served to severely darken his lethal intentions. "It eats divine and demonic essence."
"No... that... that is simply not possible," Hazkar spoke rapidly, his stony face entirely pale and his gravelly voice stammering.
"Oh, but it most certainly is. And right now, it will eagerly eat your essence. When I finally have it contained, I will have all your centuries of memories to violently sift through. No more asking for answers. No more foolish delays," Father said, stepping forward and physically inserting Lemegeton into the glowing barrier. The dark sphere smoothly phased right through the divine bars, floating ominously in the enclosed air.
Father had lied. Lemegeton could certainly consume the pure essences of Gods and Demons, but it could only effectively do so once the essence had been completely separated from the living being, or if the entity was already severely, mortally weakened—just as Akua had been. As things currently stood, even if Lemegeton began to actively churn, its pull would be easily stopped by Hazkar once he gathered enough willpower to actually resist. It also possessed absolutely no ability to grant Father the memories of its victims, because it strictly purified and encased pure essence, leaving nothing else behind.
This was a deeply guarded secret—knowledge even Octavian and Lily did not possess, which Father had exclusively entrusted to me. Yet, watching the terrifying scene unfold, I found myself wondering if he had been severely mistaken to do so. My Occlumency shields were clearly not nearly as powerful as I had previously believed them to be. The psychic intrusion of the mist had been a glaring and persistent reminder of that weakness throughout this entire journey.
The Old Man, completely consumed by his fear, had retreated to the absolute furthest edge of the prison as Lemegeton slowly floated toward him. I could clearly see that Father was intensely straining himself. Just by standing next to him, I could physically feel how much of his internal mana was in violent turmoil just to keep Lemegeton fully manifested within the corrupting mist. Back home, the immense power of the Emerald Throne actively helped mitigate this massive expenditure. But here, there was absolutely no help.
Hazkar had even desperately attacked Lemegeton out of sheer, unadulterated panic, and that was exactly when he truly felt its power. The frantic physical attacks left no mark upon the smooth sphere, but each successive, desperate touch caused a fraction of his divine energy to simply vanish, as if consumed directly into an endless void. He grew increasingly, visibly terrified.
"Stop! Stop this foul abomination! I will answer your questions. Stop it!!" he screamed hoarsely.
Father offered a chilling smile. At his silent command, Lemegeton floated smoothly backward, phasing through the barrier before falling gently into Father's waiting hand and completely vanishing from sight.
"I sincerely hope you are truthful this time, but I do not expect actual honesty from you," Father said sternly, his emerald eyes glowing. "You will tell us absolutely everything we wish to know, and I will forcefully enter your mind to strictly test the veracity of your words."
The Old Man was visibly taken aback by this invasive demand, but he could not say anything to protest for fear of Lemegeton returning. He let out a long, defeated sigh before offering a single, slow nod.