47 Going back to the pas

…

For the next couple of days, Juin kept his training up. In addition to physical training, he also practiced drawing different magical diagrams as well. When his physical body could no longer take it, Lucifer would drag him into the white place in his mind, and they would continue with the training there.

As a result, he was constantly working on an exhausted mood, and the main reason why he kept going was due to Lucifer, who threatened to hurt him every time he showed signs of slacking off.

"It's not just Silence, but any other diagrams would cause the papers to burn up…" Juin remarked thoughtfully as he looked at the mushy burned papers floating in the bowl of water next to him. With slightly uneven breathing patterns, he rubbed his left palm with his right thumb to get rid of the cramp.

Never would he have thought that one day, he would be having sore hand just from drawing stuff. In addition to that, drawing these diagrams took a lot of his energy, and he was almost completely wiped out.

It was Saturday, and Wesley went to stay overnight at his friend's place, thus giving Juin an opportunity to practice drawing the diagrams in real life.

But no matter what diagrams he drew, the papers just burned up.

He looked at Lucifer, who was sitting on his bed, and asked, "The shackles?"

"Could be…" Lucifer nodded with his eyes closed and his arms folded. "I thought that it was the fact that we merged, and thus, you gained some of my soul power. But I think it's far more complicated than that. Those shackles are meant to lock down your soul, but for what reason, I don't know. My theory is that, since one of them is broken, some of your soul power has leaked out. And because you haven't learned how to regulate and control the soul power in your body, every time you tried to draw the magical diagrams, your power leaked out from your body without your control…"

"Then how?" Juin asked as he looked at a thin piece of burned wood on his desk. "I can't possibly be walking around with so many pieces of thick wood. And you saw what happened earlier when I tried to use a thinner piece of wood…"

The piece of wood burst into flames, just like the rest of the papers.

"More and more power is leaking out…" Lucifer mumbled with a slight frown. He then opened his eyes and looked at Juin; his red eyes startled Juin a little. Even after so many days, Juin wasn't used to seeing Lucifer's red, piercing eyes. "The only way we can know is if you search for your past. Whoever placed those shackles on your soul… I'm sure he or she meant to lock your soul power, at least it would be one of the reasons why. It might be because of what Warlock said, that your soul was extremely delicious to spirits and whoever locked it was trying to protect you… Or someone was trying to keep you weak...

"Anyhow, given the rate of the leak… I would say that you have an extremely strong soul in you."

Lucifer did not add the next sentence, but he could not help but think uneasily, "Perhaps even stronger than mine… if it warrants such a shackle."

"Strong?" Juin pointed to himself. "Me?"

"Hey, I find it hard to believe too…" Lucifer shrugged. "But I don't have any other explanations. Before our first merge, all four shackles were intact, and after that time, one of them broke. Since then, I can feel the soul power within you slowly growing stronger and stronger. And with all the training that you've been doing with your physical body, I can feel that your power is growing exponentially…"

Lucifer had taken a couple of looks on the shackles whenever Juin was completely unconscious, and the shackle on Juin's left foot was already showing the signs of cracking. Furthermore, Juin's behavior for the last couple of days had changed slightly too. He was less cowardly…

Not that Lucifer was complaining, since his vessel should be a brave person instead of a goddamn coward… But the changes came too fast, and he wondered if it was because something was broken in Juin, or if it was because Juin was feeling braver now that he had Lucifer to protect him.

Anyway, Lucifer felt that this was something that he had to take note of. He was even thinking of visiting Warlock soon, to ask him about Juin personally. However, he doubted that the infuriating man would cooperate with him that easily.

"Anyhow… The best way for us to find out is to slowly trace back your past…" Lucifer continued.

"Past…" Juin thought about Lucifer's words. He then gasped, "Do you mean to go back to the cliff?"

Lucifer nodded.

"No!" Juin replied vehemently. "No!"

"Even if you keep hiding, the truth would still come out eventually. Don't you want to know what really happened back then?"

Juin frowned as he clenched his fists tightly. He was afraid of the answer. And most importantly, he was afraid that he might have been the one who pushed Ashton to his death.

His memory was so fuzzy, but he could swear that he heard Ashton yell, "Juin, no!", before the image of his best friend falling down the cliff with a horrified expression appeared in Juin's mind.

Not knowing what Juin was thinking, Lucifer said in a stern voice, "And more… You felt it yourself, that Ashton might not be as simple as you thought him to be. So we need to look for more clues."

He floated to the window and glanced outside, where it was completely quiet saved for a few strays. Ever since he sent those spies away in fire, there had been no other spies. He figured he was right; that whoever sent those men intended to test out Juin's ability. And once they knew what Juin could do, they decided to retreat and reorganize their plans, whatever their plans were.

Still looking out the window, Lucifer said, "The orphanage that you stayed in previously… It's nearby, right? Let's go talk to whoever was in charge back then. We will start there for now, and who knows, maybe someone would know something."

Juin thought about it. He hadn't been back to the orphanage ever since he moved here, mostly because the orphanage contained too many memories of him and Ashton.

And he had wanted to avoid these memories for now. Besides, without Ashton there, the kids in the orphanage could be cruel toward him at times.

"Weakling…"

"Crybaby…"

"Girly idiot…"

Even though the kids always behaved civilly whenever Ashton was around, Juin knew what they really thought of him.

However, when he thought about how his life could have been different, and that there might be a lot more things about himself that he had yet to find out, he nodded. "Alright. Let's go tomorrow."