Book One
Volume 1
Ch. 4 Ursa
Pov.
-Ignia-
I opened my eyes.
It was dark.
Dammit.
Did I get trapped in some kind of genjutsu?
His Sharingan shouldn't even be active, let alone able to pull me into an illusion.
I bring my hands together to break it when a faint giggle reached me.
"Scrubby scrubby scrubby. Hey! You're standing in my way! A small child looks up at me... she was scrubbing the floors of an all white temple. " she had small white angelic wings.

"What is this place?" I ask her
"My prayer room and you're stepping on my floor!"
"Oh, sorry." I levitate a few inches off the ground.
She giggles before wiping my footprints off the floor.
...
"This is Eden, mister."
"Eden?"
"The garden of life." She nods happily.
"And you are?"
"I... you want to know who I am?"
"Sure"
"Well, I'm glad you asked." She puffs her chest proudly "Hold on to your pants, mister because I'm an angel, but not just any angel-"
She pauses after someone outside snatches her attention.
She paddles over cautiously
I follow her as she peeks from behind the door.
"So beautiful..." she melts to the ground
"Who is that?"
"K-Kara."

"Oh..." she lays there lost in her little world.
"Kara?" I step outside
...
"Hello, big brother."
A young girl stood by the temple grounds, smiling up at her brother
"Look what I made for you," she said lightly, holding up a crown of flowers. For him as he caught his breath.
Is that...?
My father?
His hair was a dark brown instead of the silver I was used to. He looked young, by Titan standards-roughly thirty five hundred years old. The child beside him, Ursa, someone I had never heard up until now, was around twenty five hundred years old.
"So this is what he's calling a homo-sapien?" a man asked from behind Ursa.
Father turned. "Huh?"

"He hasn't made those quite yet, our job is going to be to protect everyone!" Ursa said, excitement clear in her voice.
"Hmm. Is that so?" The man leaned closer to father.
"Mhmm." Ursa nodded.
"So what's your name?" the man asked.
"I'm Kara. Amaterasu Kara." Father's aura faded as he answered.
"Ah, the Divine Light that Illuminates the Heavens. That would make you the one he shaped from my essence." The man studied him, then looked at Ursa. "And what's your name?"
"Amaterasu Ursa." She offered her hand politely. "My brother called me Ursa, and I like it. It means bear! Sir Archangel Gabriel gave daddy his essence to create me."
"How wonderful..." he gives her a fake smile.
"Is something bothering you again, big brother?" Ursa asked, resting a hand on father's back.
"I..." he hesitated. "I don't know."
"Well, daddy said we'll be having another brother soon. And another sister too." She smiled, then noticed he still looked unsettled. "You sure you're okay?"
"Y-yeah."
Ursa frowned slightly, then turned back to the man. "What's your name, mister?"
"Me?" He smiled. "Why, I am none other than the Great Archangel Lucifer, of course." He opened his arms.
"Oh..." Ursa ponders for a moment. "Well, it's nice to meet you, sir." She inclines her head respectfully.
"Now would you two want to do something fun?" Lucifer asked.
"Hmm, I don't know." Ursa took a small step back.
"Come on, while you wait for Michael." Lucifer shrugged.
"How did you know my brother was waiting for him?" Ursa asked, cautious now.
"Yeah," Kara said, standing beside her. "Besides us, only Father and Michael himself know about this training." He rested a hand on her shoulder.
Lucifer sighed. "Relax." He tapped father lightly on the head. "Since you were shaped from my essence, we are essentially the same being, but in the strictest sense, you are my son," he hides a wicked grin behind his softness of his voice
Father hesitated, then sighed. "Whatever." He lay back down, trying to rest.
Lucifer crouched in front of Ursa and spoke quietly. "Imagine how exhausted your brother must be after every session with Michael. Don't you think he might appreciate his sister helping him... getting his mind off things for once?"
Ursa glanced at Kara, who was half-asleep. "Okay," she said after a moment.
"Come on, big brother." She tugged at his arm.
"Mgh... what is it, Ursa?"
"Let's go with Mr. Lucifer."
"For what?" he asked, still half-asleep as she pulled him up.
"Come on."
He sighed. "Alright."
They disappeared with Lucifer.
I thought the genjutsu might have ended.
Then I heard the sound of a blade being sharpened, over and over.
A dim light flickered on.
Father was there again-only a few centuries older-chained and bloodied, facing Ursa who was bound the same way. Both of them were.
How long has it been?
Father was begging him to stop.
Lucifer laughed while methodically tracing lines across her back that never quite finished the job. As Kara hung by the palms of his hands.
Yes, palms. He had a chain pierced through both hands and he was hanging over a fire that reached his chin, so he can see every laceration that was dealt unto the girl
Lucifer applied heat to her wounds until the air filled with the smell of seared flesh, then withdrew just before her body could shut down. He applied pressure to her joints until something gave with a wet snap, only for the process to restart the moment she heaked. He kept her conscious through every moment, forcing him to watch as each new injury was added with deliberate care.
Amazingly, they both healed almost instantaneously.
While he continued, Lucifer spoke of his work.
He described in precise detail what each slice would feel like in the coming hours and days. He told her exactly how long the nerves would keep firing, and how much longer he intended to keep her alive.
Every time her brother tried to look away, Lucifer forced his head back into position. He made sure Kara saw every new cut, every broken joint, every moment Ursa's body convulsed under the latest method. He timed the worst of the pain for the exact moments when Kara's skin melted off his muscles.
"Find it Kara," Lucifer said.
"Stop!" Father cries, straining against the chains until the metal tore through his palms.
"Find your will to hate..."
Ursa's voice cracked with every fresh wave of pain.
"Hate Me, Hate Me." Lucifer laughed, wipping at her like a maniac.
I stepped back, unable to watch any longer just as Kara's voice dropped into something deep and broken. "I'll kill you!"
A wicked grin stretches across Lucifer's face before he calls for Asmodeus.
A demon crawled up from the ground.
"Don't let her breath. Not for a second."
The demon took over without pause-claws, teeth, and something colder that left no lasting marks but made her body seize and convulse for long stretches. Whenever she started to fade, it dragged her back.
Kara sobbed, calling out for help that never came.
I closed my eyes, forced to listen to the prolonged, careful work until the sounds finally faded into silence.
When I opened them again it was dark once more. As my vision adjusted I saw Kara sitting on the floor, holding Ursa close. Both had aged another five hundred years. He was covered in deep cuts and dark bruises that had never been allowed to fully close.
By now his fur had stained into a bloody red.
And Ursa trembled against him, body marked by years of measured torment: joints that no longer bent correctly, skin that still smoked faintly in places, and a constant low shaking that spoke of nerves pushed past their limits.
"It's okay, Ursa. We'll get out of here," he whispered.
She whispered back, voice shaking. "He killed it, Kara."
"What?"
"There was... something growing inside me... and it died."
He pulled her head against his shoulder. "It's better off somewhere with Him."
She nodded, still crying, unable to stop even though she tried.
The door swung open. Lucifer stepped in, looking far more monstrous than before-whatever mask he had worn was gone.
He stumbled around before he noticed Kara shielding Ursa.
"My boy..."
Father rose, keeping her behind him as Lucifer approached.
"Get away from her."
Lucifer moved too fast. He snatched Ursa away in an instant.
Father lunged, but a kick to the gut knocked the air from his lungs and left him gasping on the floor.
"Now watch," Lucifer said with a grin.
Kara could barely speak. "Leave... her... alone..."
Ursa looked down at him as Lucifer held her by the nape. A single tear ran down her cheek just before the blade went through her chest-slow, deliberate, angled so she remained aware for several long excruciating seconds.
Blood spilled across Kara's face. He sat frozen, staring.
"No..." he finally whispered.
Her body fell to the floor in front of him.
He gathered her up. "Wake up, Ursa. Please."
Her eyes fluttered. "Kara...?"
"Yes?" He held back tears, trying to stay steady for her.
"It doesn't hurt, big brother." She managed a small smile.
"You'll be fine." He pressed a hand over the wound.
"No." She caught his hand. "Sorry... I have to leave now."
He squeezed her fingers. "It's okay."
"At least it's finally over," she said.
"Yes... it is." Tears fell onto her face as he pressed his lips to her forehead. "Rest easy. I love you."
"I love you too, big brother." Her head rolled aside.
Father sobbed, helpless.
...
"No! No! No! No! No! What have you done!? He was finally ready!" Lucifer's howls pierce my head as the memory faded in and out as if overlapping with another before settling out.
...
"Why?" Kara whimpered, voice raw with pain. "Why are you doing this?"
Lucifer smiled. "He never came to save the two of you, did he? You must hate him for that."
"Shut up!"
Father's breathing turned irregular. He was holding onto the last scraps of sanity by force.
"This isn't his fault. If only I had just listened...."
...
-to be continued