—–
In front of us, there was a heartbreaking scene. Countless people were all frozen in perpetual ice that even sealed their souls inside, without leaving them any alternative but to remain in there.
Their bodies are not alive nor dead, but their souls cannot escape such bodies and go to the afterlife, perpetually sealed in this cold for countless days. I don’t know how long it has been since this happened. There was not a single soul to ask them this question.
It was all desolate.
Lucifer looked around as he went back to his humanoid form and suddenly kneeled over the floor while covering his face with his hands.
“How… How could this have happened? Who did this? Who… did this?!” he shouted.
I could clearly feel the frustration and anger swelling inside of his heart and showing clearly in the expressions on his often-expressionless face. Undead can show emotions. He had been simply suppressing them all this time.
But now, he was showing them all, and grief, frustration, anger, sorrow, and more were mixing together within his face as he began to hit the ground angrily, without being able to believe why this was happening to begin with.
“Why? What happened…” he muttered.
I walked toward him, and I patted his back.
“Calm down…” I said.
Lucifer looked at me as his eyes began to leak tears.
This really hurt him.
Perhaps because he had the faint hope that there would be survivors.
But now, he found them all frozen as if they were placed here as a trophy.
It was a disgrace to all of them and an insult to the demon lord and him as well.
Who exactly did this?
Well, whoever dared to do this is really the worst.
The complete disregard for the people.
And not even giving them a second chance at dying and reincarnation, but hating on them and sealing their souls in here.
In a way, it might be more ruthless than death.
Perpetually trapped in a prison of eternal cold, their bodies frozen, and their souls already shrouded in this cold so much that they must be paralyzed or agonizing in pain even now.
Just hearing this reminds me of when I was inside the graveyard, finding myself inside of my own grave, without even being able to run away from my own decomposing body.
I ended up spending years there seeing my own body decay. I slept, I tried to sleep, but it was quite hard to sleep… It wasn’t something easy to do, even as a ghost that doesn’t require sleep.
Maybe it might not be the same as these people, but the experience of being caged like this after death without even being given a chance to rest after death is rather frustrating.
I don’t know the background of these people or something, but there should be some reason behind why everyone is here. What happened after the Demon King died, and were these people from those ancient times or new?
Lucifer’s tears of sorrow began to flow out of his eyes as he averted his gaze from me.
“I really shouldn’t have held my hopes…” he sighed.
“No… They can be saved… Don’t be like this….” I said.
I approached him, and I hugged him from behind.
“We can find a way to save them together… Instead of thinking about all the sad things, how about we try to find a way to rescue them?” I asked.
“A way…” he sighed.
I smiled back at him as I tried to cheer him up. I cleaned the tears out of his eyes as he looked back at me with his aquamarine eyes, which were suddenly not crimson-red anymore.
“You’re okay now?” I asked.
“…Yeah,” he sighed.
“Come on now, stand up….” I said.
I lent him my hand, and he gently took it and stood up on his own. Standing up at my side, he looked around the pillars of ice with sorrow.
“What could have happened here?” he sighed.
“I believe something not so good….” I sighed.
“And there is just nobody that could have documented this. We are alone in searching for clues.” Said Emeraldine.
“Lucifer… Are you okay?” asked Partner.
She had grown close to him eventually and was worried when she saw him crying.
“Yes, I am okay… Thanks for worrying.” Said Lucifer with a faint smile.
“I-I didn’t worry for you or anything… It is just that… Maria-sama gets worried for you when you cry, so I get worried…” said Partner, trying to mask her concern.
“She’s just worried… I am also worried.” Said Emeraldine.
“We are all into this together,” I said.
“You girls…” sighed Lucifer.
“Not only them, but we are here as well to help… We’ll get to the end of this mystery together.” Said Catarina while crossing her arms.
“Indeed. Our flames cannot unseal nor melt this ice… But we’ll find another way!” said Silvio.
“Yes, we’ll do it!” said Francesco.
“I cannot do much, but please count me in,” said Syllis.
“I don’t know what I could even do… But I am also with big brother…” said Bellerine.
“I also want to heal these people… They really didn’t deserve such a fate…” said Laura.
“It makes me feel bad for them… If their souls are still there, then we could even find a way to revive them if we find how to melt the ice!” said Takeshi.
“Indeed, there can be a way…” said the Goblin Elder.
“We can cooperate to find the solution.” Said the Goblin Chief.
“Cheer up, uncle Lucifer!” said Gofumin.
Lucifer smiled as he petted Gofumin’s head.
“Yeah… I am good. Don’t worry about me. We’ll find a way together out of this…” said Lucifer.
We looked into the large Demon King’s castle as we all walked inside with a new will reforged in our hearts.
It was a dark and damp place, and it was also quite cold, but this was going to be our new home.
—–