As the strange reality set in for Lucen, another thought appeared in his mind. A thought that may have come a few hours too late.
"(Haven't I been so oddly accepting of this situation…? Should I not be freaking out right now? My hand was on fire not too long ago and yet it's perfectly fine right now. These two crazy looking girls practically kidnapped me and I'm suddenly a part of their Family?)"
"I know this is a lot to take in so suddenly. You have a lot of questions, I am sure. Do not worry though, Lia will answer them."
"I sure do.", Lucen said, getting up from the bed.
"But firstly, we should get you a change of clothes."
"Eh? Where's my shirt?" Lucen looked down, noticing his shirt was gone.
"Your shirt had gotten pretty dirty, so I am cleaning it for you. For now though, you will have to wear something else. Here, I have already brought it for you."
"I see…" Lucen takes the shirt from Vonica. The shirt, a black t-shirt. Luckily for Lucen, it pairs well with his dark grey school uniform pants.
"Looks great on you."
"Thanks…"
"Where's my other stuff like my bag and phone?"
"Your cellphone, I put on the coffee table next to the bed over there and your bag is under that desk next to the screen door to the balcony."
"Alright good. At least it wasn't left in that alley."`
"Follow me please. I will take you downstairs." Lucen follows behind Vonica, out of the room. Walking behind her, his mind wandered as he stared at her.
"(This woman… her personality, the way she acts is so different from her sister but something is off about her. The way she speaks, slowly and carefully. The way she walks so composed. It's all so… uniform. Compared to Lia, who was a bit too straight forward, I feel like this one's hiding something.)"
Ever since Lucen was young, he's always had an unusually high level of perception. Reading someone was always easy for him, even to the point it freaked people out. Unfortunately though, that fails to help his decision making skills.
"Is there something you would like to ask me?"
"Oh no. Nothing."
The two walked down the stairs and through a few hallways. Lucen made note of just how huge the place was. All of the large rooms, the brown goldish color of the walls and the floor, the clean furniture, the various paintings on the wall, none of which Lucen could recognize, screamed classic and refined. Walking through the corridors, Lucen picked up a lavender scent.
"Smells nice here."
"Do you like it? It was my personal choice."
"Yeah, I think you made a pretty good decision."
The two arrived in front of a large door. Vonica opened the door to what looked like a huge lounge room. One side, a sizable couch and just a few feet from it was a black grand piano. Directly across the entrance on the wall were 5 large bookshelves lined up, filled with different types of books. To the right of the entrance was a large, grandiosely designed desk which on it, were a few things like a notebook and a very old school telephone. Behind the desk was Lia, sitting in a chair, looking through the notebook.
"He is awake now, Lia!" Vonica walked in, alerting Lia of their arrival.
"(Hm, I could get used to this. Probably.)"
"You must be Lucen!" All of a sudden, another girl suddenly appeared in front of Lucen.
"Yes… I am."
Looking at this new girl, he noticed once again, they were a spitting image of Lia and Vonica. Her hair, a medium bob with bangs covering her forehead. Compared to the mature look of the other two, this girl seemed a lot younger. Maybe by 2-3 years? Especially with her being inches shorter than not only Lucen, but Vonica as well. Her hair, just like the others, was white with a streak of black on the right side of her bangs. She too, of course, wore jet-black lipstick and her skin was as light as the other two. She carried the same pitch black right eye but her left was also a different color. A bright, emerald green with a very intriguing spiral-like pattern. Towards the edge of her eye was an intricate thorn marking that ran down to her cheekbone.
"Hmmm, how old are you? You look pretty young!", the girl asked while looking Lucen up and down.
"I'm 18… Surely you're the last person to be calling someone young-"
"18?! I'm older than you! Vonny! I'm not the youngest one here anymore!", the girl jumped excitedly.
"Is that so? Good for you, Sana."
"Wait, you're not about to tell me this little girl is older than me?!"
"Little?! Who's little?! I'll have you know that I just turned 19 recently!"
"19?! Seriously?! Wait, how old are you two then?!"
"I am 21 years old. Our eldest sister, Lia, is 22 years old."
"What the hell…"
The girl named Sana giggled and patted Lucen on the shoulder.
"It's okay! As your senior, I will take good care of you! Hehe!"
"This little…"
"Ahem." Across the room, Lia loudly cleared her throat. Catching the obvious signal, Lucen made his way to Lia's desk as Vonica and Sana went about their separate businesses inside the room.
"I am sure you have a lot to ask me. I will try my best to answer them all but first, how are you feeling right now?"
"I feel… fine. Nothing feels out of the ordinary, I think."
"No issues like headaches or pain anywhere?"
"Nope. All good."
"I see. The process of entering a Binding Contract can be straining so it's good that not much of it is affecting you right now."
"That. That right there. What exactly is this contract?"
"Well, the purpose of the contract is to link two souls together and in doing so, the unstable demonic energy that was coming from your hand could be contained by me taking part of the burden."
"Wait wait, I heard this earlier but our two souls are actually linked…? What does that even mean?"
"Think of it like a thread holding together two pins. Before the thread was created, one pin was burning up in flames. The other pin creates a thread, connects the thread to itself, and then connects it to the other pin so that the fire spreads evenly through the pins and the thread, maintaining a certain balance. But what would happen if the thread was cut? The fire would burn up both pins. Or what if one of the pins were destroyed? The thread would fall and the other pin would, again, burn up."
"Wait, so you mean…"
"Yes, if I were to die, your demonic energy would become unstable again and before long, it would kill you and in the case you were to die, I would die due to the contained demonic energy that's being stabilized by the both of us having nowhere to go. That's what it means for our souls to be linked."
"What…? That's- That's insane! I can't believe I just so easily agreed to something like this… Why would you do something like that?!"
Lia hesitated for a moment before answering.
"It was… necessary."
"Necessary?! What could possibly be necessary about this?! Wait… That blue flame that was on my hand, demonic energy or whatever it's called, you mean to tell me it would've killed me if it stayed there? But I felt no pain from it at all."
"Yes, while normally, demonic energy can't kill its own user, yours is different. You could tell by your fire, which is only supposed to be red, being blue."
"What's the reason for that?"
"I don't know… But I knew it had to be stabilized somehow or it would be dangerous, not just for you, but those around you."
"And so, you entered a contract with me to stop that."
"Yes."
"Ok. So let me get this straight. I have superpowers that could potentially kill me. What the hell is going on…? Anyways, one other question, who are you people? I have to point out how unreal you look. No offense, of course."
"We are devils, more specifically, us three are what's left of the Azaroth Family."
"Devils…? As in, the big red, horned creatures who live in Hell? Like Satan?"
"That's just the fairytale perception of us. But no, most devils look just like you appearance wise."
"(Not counting the completely crazy hair and eyes.)"
"And what is this Azaroth Family?"
"We were one of the three Royal Families of the Underworld along with the Azmodeus and Diabolos Families. 20 years after the former Devil King, Dekir Azaroth was killed, we were purged by the Diabolos Family. Our parents and the other Azaroths were killed but us three escaped to Velstrea. Only thanks to the help of Norman."
Lia paused for a bit and stared at Lucen. It almost seemed like she was waiting for him to react to something.
"Who's Norman?"
"He is… was… someone we owed our lives to. We would not be here without him."
"I see… I'm sorry you all had to go through so much."
Suddenly, the telephone on the desk started ringing, interrupting the conversation. Lia picked up the phone.
"(A telephone? In 2028? Talk about old school.)"
"Hello? Yes. Yes. How soon? Ok, got it and the details on what to look for? Understood. We will get back to you once it is done." Lia hung up the phone and put it back down. "Sana! Vonica! Come here!"
Sana, who popped up from the couch and Vonica, who sat up from the piano chair both made their way to Lia's desk. "We have a new request."
"Finally! I was getting pretty bored, you know! We haven't had something to do in a few days!", Sana exclaimed excitedly.
"I do find these outings quite fun.", Vonica added.
"Wait what's going on?", Lucen asked confused.
"Occasionally, we receive requests from different, smaller Families in the Underworld. Typically, they ask us to hunt stray devils who have escaped and have hid themselves in District 8."
"District 8?? Downreach?? Isn't that place infamous for being a giant slum full of the worst kinds of people you can meet?"
"Yes, a perfect place for a stray devil to hide."
"And what's a stray devil?"
"A devil who's committed a crime against their Family and was imprisoned but somehow ended up escaping. Escaping imprisonment is punishable by death and the devil is branded as a stray. Either the Family themselves hunt the stray or they request another to do it. Hence, where we come into play."
"So you guys are going to travel to District 8 to kill it?"
"That is correct."
"I see… Well, good luck. I'm not too well-versed in this business but I'm sure you guys will be just fine."
"You must be mistaken, Lucen. You are coming with us."
"Eh?"
"I have to keep an eye on you in case your demonic energy becomes unstable again despite the Binding Contract. If you were to go back home, you'd put not only yourself, but many others in potential danger."
"So… you mean I have to go with you guys to District 8…? Ha…. Ha… That's… That's not a funny joke…"
"Don't worry!", Sana said, aggressively patting Lucen on the back.
"Your seniors will keep you safe! I won't let anything hurt you!"
"(I'm not going back home anytime soon, am I…?)"