Episode-1032
Chapter : 2063
Lucifer stood in the center of the devastation. The white Command Harness he wore looked alien against his pale skin and dark wings. The device was clamped over his chest and shoulders, glowing with a rhythmic purple light. It was Fire Fly technology, a machine designed to take a natural ability and force it past its breaking point.
Lloyd walked out of the shadows. He didn't draw a weapon. He didn't run. He just walked, his boots crunching on the broken glass and stone. Jasmin walked beside him, her diamond body reflecting the fires burning on the roof.
"You look different," Lloyd said. His voice was calm, almost conversational. It was the only weapon he had right now—his composure. "Did you get a makeover? That plastic suit doesn't really match your style."
Lucifer chuckled. The sound was like stones grinding together underwater.
"Evolution is rarely stylish, Lloyd Ferrum," Lucifer replied. "But it is effective."
Lucifer raised one finger.
THOOM.
The air pressure in the courtyard spiked.
It wasn't an attack directed at Lloyd. It was an attack on everything. The gravity in the area suddenly doubled. Then it tripled.
Fifty yards away, Ren’s massive Aegis suit groaned. The hydraulic knees buckled. The twelve-ton machine was forced down onto one knee, the metal screaming in protest. Ren grunted over the comms, struggling to breathe as his own weight tried to crush him.
"Rook!" Vala shouted, trying to help him, but she was pinned too. She was pressed flat against the ground, her vibro-blades digging into the dirt.
The Wraiths, the agile assassins who relied on speed, were the worst affected. They dropped like stones, pinned to the earth, unable to lift their heads. The weaker demons—Lucifer’s own soldiers—were not spared. They collapsed, their cybernetic implants sparking as the gravity crushed their internal components.
Lucifer didn't care. He sacrificed his own troops just to make a point.
Only Lloyd and Jasmin remained standing.
Jasmin’s body was made of Compressed Star-Diamond. She was conceptually unbreakable. The gravity pulled at her, but she stood firm, her feet cracking the flagstones beneath her, refusing to bow.
Lloyd was different. He was human. He felt the weight slamming down on his shoulders. It felt like carrying a car. His knees shook. His vision blurred. But he had reinforced his skeleton with [Steel Blood], turning his bones into iron girders. He locked his legs and refused to fall.
"Is this it?" Lloyd gritted out, tasting blood in his mouth. "You came all this way... just to make us heavy?"
"I came," Lucifer said, taking a casual step forward, "to show you the difference between a clever human and a King."
Lucifer walked through the gravity field as if he were strolling through a park. The weight didn't affect him; he controlled it. He controlled the "Down."
He stopped ten feet from Lloyd. The heat coming off the Devil King was intense.
"Your father tried to fight me," Lucifer said conversationally. "He summoned his titans. He used his liquid metal. It was adorable."
Lloyd’s heart skipped a beat. "Where is he?"
"Oh, he’s alive," Lucifer said with a dismissive wave. "I pinned him to the wall of his study with his own cane. I wanted him to watch. I wanted him to see his legacy burn before I let him die."
Lloyd’s hands curled into fists. The urge to summon Iffrit and burn this monster was overwhelming, but he knew he couldn't. Not yet. The gravity was too strong. If he tried to summon a spirit now, the pressure might crush the spirit's form before it fully materialized.
"You’re waiting for something," Lloyd realized. "You could have flattened the house an hour ago. You could have killed everyone. Why are you just standing here?"
Lucifer smiled. It was a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Because killing you is easy," Lucifer said. "Too easy. Bael wanted you dead. I? I want you broken."
The white harness on Lucifer’s chest pulsed brighter. The hum grew louder.
"The Fire Fly Corporation calls this a 'Singularity Driver,'" Lucifer explained, tapping the device. "They tell me that if I push it to maximum output, I can condense all the matter in this estate—the stone, the wood, the flesh, the blood—into a sphere the size of an apple."
He looked up at the burning manor house.
"Your wife is in there, isn't she? The new one. And the child."
Lloyd went cold. "Don't."
Chapter : 2064
"And the other one," Lucifer continued, ignoring him. "The failure. The Ice Queen who ran away. Is she hiding under the bed? Or did she leave you to die alone?"
"She isn't a failure," Lloyd said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
"It doesn't matter," Lucifer said. "They are all just mass. They are just matter waiting to be compressed."
Lucifer spread his arms wide. The gravity increased again. The stones of the courtyard began to crack and float upward, caught in the distortion field. The roof of the manor groaned, the beams snapping under the invisible weight.
"Here is the deal," Lucifer announced. His voice boomed, reaching every corner of the estate. He wanted everyone to hear. He wanted the dying soldiers and the terrified servants to know exactly who held their lives in his hand.
"Show me your true power, Lloyd Ferrum," Lucifer commanded. "Stop hiding behind your toys. Stop hiding behind your strategies. Come out and face me. Use that 'Void' power I’ve heard so much about."
He pointed a finger at the main house.
"If you do not defeat me... if you do not make me kneel... I will trigger the Singularity. I will crush this house until there is nothing left but a dense, bloody marble. I will erase the name Ferrum from history."
The threat was absolute. There was no negotiation. There was no clever trick to get out of this.
Ren was down. Vala was down. The army was broken. The wards were gone.
It was just Lloyd.
He looked at the burning house. He thought about Mina holding Sullivan. He thought about his father bleeding in the study. He thought about Jasmin standing next to him, ready to die again.
Lloyd took a deep breath. The air was heavy, hard to pull into his lungs.
He looked at Lucifer.
"You want to see my power?" Lloyd asked.
He unbuttoned the collar of his torn coat. He rolled his shoulders, feeling the iron in his blood grind against the gravity.
"Careful what you wish for," Lloyd whispered.
He stepped forward, leaving the safety of Jasmin’s shadow. He walked into the full, crushing force of the Gravity Well.
His bones creaked. His nose started to bleed. But he didn't stop.
The Siege of Ironhold was over. The Duel was about to begin.
Lloyd Ferrum felt the world trying to flatten him. The weight of Lucifer’s gravity was unlike anything he had ever experienced. It wasn’t just like carrying a heavy backpack; it felt like the very molecules of his body were being pulled toward the center of the earth by a greedy, invisible hand. His bones creaked inside his skin, and the internal reinforcement of his Steel Blood was the only thing keeping his skeleton from snapping like dry twigs. He could see the Titan Squad—Ren, Vala, and Kaito—pinned down nearby, their massive Aegis suits groaning under the same pressure. They were the best pilots he had, but even their machines were hitting their limits.
Lucifer stood there, looking completely relaxed, his white armor gleaming despite the smoke. He was waiting. He wanted to see Lloyd break. He wanted to see the "Major General" crawl in the dirt like an ant.
"Is that all?" Lloyd grunted. His voice was a rasp, muffled by the helmet of his suit.
But Lloyd wasn't alone. He had brought back a prize from the depths of the underworld, a soul that had been forged in the Archive of the Lost and returned to the living.
"Jasmin," Lloyd whispered through the internal comms. "Do it."
From behind Lloyd’s battered form, a figure stepped forward. It was Jasmin, but not the shy, quiet handmaiden who used to bring him tea. This was the newly evolved Jasmin, the Black Diamond Queen. Her skin wasn't just hard; it was a dark, shimmering crystal that seemed to absorb the light from the fires around them. She moved with a strange, liquid grace that shouldn't have been possible under such high gravity.
Jasmin didn't say a word. She didn't need to. She raised her hands, and a pulse of dark, crystalline energy erupted from her core.
Suddenly, the air around the Titan Squad changed. A translucent, black-tinted dome expanded outward from Jasmin, covering Lloyd and the fallen mechs. As the edge of the dome passed over them, the crushing weight simply vanished. It was like a giant hand had suddenly let go of their shoulders.