22 Who are you?

…

That night, Juin was dreaming about standing on the same cliff again. The sounds of the waves and wind were clearly reflected in his ears as he watched the waves crashing into the side of the cliff.

He was staring dazedly out at the sea with tears falling down his cheeks when he suddenly heard someone saying, "We will start your training now."

Juin turned and saw the red-eyed man with the darker than black hair. "Who…" He was about to ask who the man was when he finally remembered who he was. "Your Majesty?"

"Bingo. Let's go to that white world," Lucifer said and turned around.

Juin blinked, and he slowly entered lucid dreaming state before the environment around them changed to the pure white world.

Lucifer glanced around and noticed that nothing about the world had changed. He looked at Juin and said, "Sit in the lotus position."

Juin raised a brow, but he still did as he was told. When he was sitting down on the floor, Lucifer created low-intensity Daemon Flames that surrounded Juin.

"What…" Juin gasped in panic as he looked around at the yellow flames surrounding him. Those flames were tall enough to create a cage around him.

"Sit upright and try to endure the heat…" Lucifer said as he sat opposite Juin. His red eyes pierced through the flames as he stared at Juin's every movement.

When he heard Lucifer's instruction, Juin gulped and looked at the flames that were inches away from his body. He could even feel them singed his eyebrows. He wanted to say no, but when he saw Lucifer glaring at him, he immediately sat upright, though the position made him feel uncomfortable.

"What do you feel?" Lucifer asked as he looked at Juin's sweaty forehead. He did not know if Juin was feeling the heat or the fear of being burned alive.

Juin thought for a while before saying, "It's hot… And I can feel the fire licking on parts of my skin…"

Lucifer nodded as he thought, "So my soul strength can easily hurt his soul…"

He then looked up at Juin, whose eyes kept darting around as he tried to make sure that all his body parts were fine.

"Focus! Learn how to regulate the heat," Lucifer said. "Close your eyes, meditate, and focus your mind on your surroundings."

"What would I get out of this?" Juin asked as he closed your eyes, still clearly bothered by the burning yellow flames around him. He was unsure of Lucifer's method, and he kept feeling that his soul would be gone if Lucifer's method was wrong.

"If you survive through the flame training that I have planned for you, you'd be able to learn Soul Fire."

"What's that?" Juin asked, slouching slightly. "And what do you mean by survive?"

"Soul Fire a weaker form of my Daemon Flame. Since I can't merge with you for a long period of time without your useless body failing on me, you need something to protect yourself with," Lucifer explained. "Soul Fire is something we learned as kids. It's a simple magic trick that can be used for pranks. But in your world, Soul Fire is something that is something to be fearful of."

Upon hearing that he was about to learn something powerful, Juin immediately sat upright again.

"Soul Fire attacks the soul. When it hit a person's body, it wouldn't cause physical harm to the victim's body. Instead, it would attack the victim's soul right where his physical body was hit, and the victim would feel that part of his body burning. Remember how your foot felt the other day?"

When Juin nodded, Lucifer continued, "It's something like that. Of course, if the victim's soul is strong enough, he would be able to handle this type of flame, or he might have a way to disperse it. That kid who attacked you, as someone who can control elements, he should have methods to deal with it. And people who are going to come for you, they would probably have it as well. So you have to keep this as a secret and only use it as a surprise attack."

"Oh..." Juin slouched again upon hearing that. "It's not that powerful then…"

Lucifer raised a brow as he asked mockingly, "Do you think you are capable of learning anything more powerful?"

Juin blushed slightly and sat upright again. Lucifer was right. Based on his current condition, he doubted that he would be able to handle anything more powerful. "Erm… What do you mean by survive?" Juin suddenly asked again.

Lucifer looked at him before answering in an honest, tactless manner, "Probability of your soul dying is extremely high. Human souls are incapable of learning soul magic. Only talented ones would be able to succeed."

When he saw that Juin was starting to panic and was about to stand up, he immediately snapped his fingers and locked Juin in place.

"I don't want to die!" Juin cried as he struggled to move. His body felt as if it were being weighed down by something that weighed a ton.

"You idiot!" Lucifer snapped. "Are you really willing to be weak forever?!"

"Better be a live weakling than a dead hero!" Juin snapped back, completely forgotten who he was speaking to. And at that moment, unknown to them, the ceiling of the pure white environment turned slightly red, as if it was reflecting Juin's emotions at that time.

"You won't die!" Lucifer groaned as he facepalmed. He then moved the flames closer to Juin. "Learn how to control the heat!"

However, Juin was unconvinced, and he shouted as he tried to move away from the flames, which was to no avail, "You just said that the probability of me dying is high!"

"And the probability of you successfully summoning a great demon king like me is near zero, but you still managed to do it!" Lucifer pointed out.

Juin glared at him as an intense wave of anger started to boil in his heart. "FYI, I don't even know how I did it!"

"Regardless," Lucifer said sternly, "you've managed to summon me here. This means that you're my slave now!"

"No!"

"Either you take the risks, or you take the chance of having your little girlfriend killed when the others come for you," Lucifer snapped. "And I promise you, after that last stunt, they are already on the way!"

Juin glared at him. Lucifer had clearly known what was his weakest spot. At that moment, Juin's eyes changed from black to red. It was brief, so brief that Lucifer did not even notice it, and when it happened, Juin himself only felt a strong pain on his chest, as if he were being suffocated.

Lucifer refused to back down as he continued to put the hammer down, "Have you forgotten what it was like to see her being hurt? Or that Ashton kid that you kept mentioning in your dreams! He died, didn't he?! You could protect them only by being stronger, not by hiding away!"

"ARGH!" Juin shouted upon being reminded of Ashton, and when the scenes of Ashton falling off the cliff appeared in his mind, he temporary lost his sanity, breaking the shackle that Lucifer placed on him before floating up in midair.

Lucifer's eyes widened when he saw bright red flames appeared around Juin's soul before being sent out in waves toward him, and he quickly jumped back a few meters.

"What the-" Lucifer thought before waving a hand nonchalantly to disperse the flames that reached him. "How the hell…" Lucifer looked at his hand and murmured, "Daemon Flame..."

The aura in the flame; he could recognize it. All demons could recognize it.

Narrowing his eyes, Lucifer then looked up at his vessel.

To his surprise, Juin was now dangled in midair.

"He fainted in his soul form?" Lucifer murmured before floating over to take a look at Juin's unconscious soul. As he stared at Juin's soul, he thought about something, and after a while, he flew a few meters back before chanting a spell.

He put his palms out in the middle of his chest, clapped together, before separating them apart, leaving only the thumbs, index fingers, and middle fingers connected. As he continued to chant the spell, he slowly raised his hands up until they were in the front of his eyes.

"Detect!"

His red eyes turned golden as he looked through the gap between his palms. The moment he saw the invisible shackles, which were now visible to him, his eyes went wide in surprise while his lower jaw dropped slightly.

"What the f*ck!" he gasped as he watched golden characters moving along the three invisible small paths, which were possibly the invisible ropes holding Juin's soul. Those golden characters were constantly moving around in a circular pattern, going up the "rope" before going down again.

And Lucifer recognized those words. They were the characters of his language. Lucifer gritted his teeth as he separated his palms and put them down.

"Why would someone placed such a powerful shackle on him?" Lucifer thought with a frown as he stared at Juin's face. "Who exactly are you, Juin?"