Cross Effects > Areas
Little Russia
YOLF:
Lubei
Lubei's jaw felt so tight he feared it would break, as he seized her wrists, dragging her hands away. He didn't think it was panic, but a churning premonition took hold in his stomach. "Stop! Hurting yourself won't help anything, do you even understand what you're trying to repent for?!" He called out, trying to reach Ivanna through the torment.
The young demon lord had seen and heard various preposterous things in his short time in the Nexus, and almost every time it seemed as they manifested to threaten him to say or do something he would regret. A cold trepidation accompanied every action he took in response, whether they felt just or misguided in hindsight. This time, he forgot all about whether he had the right to make his feelings known, or to aid another, or care for things such as justice. Who had set alight this poison in the seraph's mind? He would not tolerate that Ivanna suffer without clarity or hope.
Lubei squezed her hands. "Ignorance is not a crime, but if you have done anything worthy of punishment, then don't shut your eyes and ears to the evidence out of fear, or you will never learn how to make it better. I don't know if you were wrong, but I understand - you have done your best."
SINIB:
Ivanna
"Your world sounds positively idyllic in comparison—where I hail from, it is. Only those who accept god into their heart are capable of being saved. Those souls who are deemed the most worthy constitute the next generation of his angellic host. Fuhuhu..." Ivanna laughed into a pained sigh, and the divine light surrounding her seemed to falter. Discussing the details of his host and plans with an unclean one was a grave sin, but the thoughts she put to words and the fears and concerns that had come to dominate her being had a far greater effect.
"Lubei. I shall no longer allow myself to be part of his host. It is corrupt, destitute and lacking in morality. I can have no further part in it."
YOLF:
Lubei Sang
He could not help but feel the change as a tremble in his blood, holding her arms with a resolved expression. "You speak of rebellion against the divine."
It was a natural extension of what Lubei had been asking Ivanna all this conversation, to recognize the good and ill of her place in the world in its own merits and make her decisions accordingly. But the demon was ordained by his dharma to be in conflict with heaven; the seraph was turning her back on that she had been born to. Their standings were not equal. But from where did dharma flow, and what decided their obligations when they were put upon the earth? Lubei had seen that which rose above and that which fell below, and in this life he lacked an answer. But at last here, his shade made its voice heard.
'It is righteous to turn against evil, but it is not yours the right to upturn the heavens. Remember that even gods are subject to judgement.' So it spoke, and the demon lord knew it to be true. But he would not turn away from Ivanna now.
"What will you do?" He asked.
SINIB:
--- Quote from: YOLF on August 04, 2021, 02:22:36 AM ---Lubei Sang
He could not help but feel the change as a tremble in his blood, holding her arms with a resolved expression. "You speak of rebellion against the divine."
It was a natural extension of what Lubei had been asking Ivanna all this conversation, to recognize the good and ill of her place in the world in its own merits and make her decisions accordingly. But the demon was ordained by his dharma to be in conflict with heaven; the seraph was turning her back on that she had been born to. Their standings were not equal. But from where did dharma flow, and what decided their obligations when they were put upon the earth? Lubei had seen that which rose above and that which fell below, and in this life he lacked an answer. But at last here, his shade made its voice heard.
'It is righteous to turn against evil, but it is not yours the right to upturn the heavens. Remember that even gods are subject to judgement.' So it spoke, and the demon lord knew it to be true. But he would not turn away from Ivanna now.
"What will you do?" He asked.
--- End quote ---
Ivanna
Ivanna raised her arms to the sky as if in prayer. The sky responded with a resounding crack of lightning slamming into her small form. "Isn't that obvious? I don't know what's happening next. That's freedom." She turned around and looked away from him, bathing herself in her divinely gifted flames. "Was I not right? Is this not the gravest of sins?" She took a breath. "Should I not end myself where I stand? It would be the rightous thing to do—rebellion... does it really suit one as exalted as myself?"
Ivanna chuckled. She just didn't want him to see her crying.
YOLF:
Lubei
Lubei shook his head slowly. "No decision that is deeply and solely yours is unsuited to your person," he said, but a dark burden slipped into his tone. "This may lack persuasion, but I have trodden a like path before. To overturn the foundations of woe demands sacrifice, and guarantees nothing. Those who are not prepared to carry this karma will become no better than beasts, and lose all sight of their aspiration. To those who carry on will fall the demerit of drenching steel in their blood. These are the wages of rebellion."
The Ascendant Heretic Sunray had not been alone when he rose from the dirt to purge evil, and raised his blade to the celestial dome. He had companions who followed him in his grudge against the heavens, and whether by sharing his impurity, or aspiring too purely to the same deeds, lost themselves and became monsters of karma. Hollow of conscience or restraint, catastrophic in power, it fell to him to kill them. Lubei did not wish that on anyone else.
At least, the figure of Ivanna hiding herself from him stoked images not just of these times, but also of lighter things that taught him again what fondness was. He would keep this to himself, but she reminded him of his younger sister's tenderness. Perhaps that made giving this advice easier.
"If you are willing to fight for your freedom," he continued, "Then think carefully and calmly on what must be done. Consider the costs to others, and determine what you want to achieve, and who is your real enemy. Reflect patiently, think over your conclusions, and then come up with your plan."
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