Chapter 61: The Edict of the Morning Star
Time remained frozen under Lucifer's will while the angel walked around Darkseid's massive figure with an elegance that was insulting to any warrior.
Lucifer exhaled a cloud of silver smoke that floated lazily in the static air and snapped his fingers, allowing the tyrant's voice to return even though his body remained a statue.
"This universe already has an owner and his order is inevitable, Morningstar. Your interference is a mistake that tyranny will not forget," Darkseid's voice roared with an echo of breaking stones.
Lucifer let out a soft laugh that contained no joy but rather aristocratic contempt, while observing the ruins of the candy shop with a grimace of absolute boredom.
"You have always had an inclination for grandiloquent and boring speeches, Darkseid. But you must understand that your presence in this place is a discordant note in my own retirement," Lucifer responded.
The angel walked toward Urahara, who remained on the ground breathing with difficulty, and observed him with a curiosity that seemed to ignore the threat of the Omega Beams frozen in the air.
"Lucifer-san, I apologize for the mess," Urahara murmured with a voice that was barely a thread of life as he tried to maintain consciousness.
"Do not worry about the furniture, Urahara. The one responsible for this disaster is about to learn that bad manners have very severe consequences in my presence," said Lucifer with a smile.
Darkseid attempted to force his will against the void, but discovered that his power had no effect on the angel. Lucifer was not an inhabitant of creation, but its original and most ancient architect.
"I am the necessary balance for evil to define good in this multiverse. My right to exist and act is a constant that you cannot ignore," Darkseid decreed.
Lucifer took another drag from his cigarette and nodded with an indifference that proved more hurtful than any physical blow, while adjusting the collar of his impeccable suit.
"You are necessary, I suppose. But that does not change the fact that you are incredibly annoying and noisy when you decide to play conqueror in neighborhoods that do not belong to you," Lucifer commented.
The air began to vibrate with a frequency that was not of this world while the Morningstar's white light claimed every atom of the alley, displacing Apokolips's shadow definitively.
Lucifer looked directly into Darkseid's red eyes and his gaze contained the coldness of stars before being ignited by the Creator, forcing the tyrant to acknowledge his own inferiority.
"You have turned a quiet afternoon into a vulgar spectacle of brute force. And that is something I simply will not allow while I decide to walk these streets," the angel concluded firmly.
* * *
Lucifer raised his right hand and the air of Kyoto ceased vibrating to become a vacuum of absolute stillness. The white light emanating from his figure began to solidify in space, creating a pressure that surpassed any known physical law.
The angel did not use weapons or complicated spells, because his mere will was the original source from which all matter was born. The God of Tyranny discovered with horror that his granite body was beginning to obey foreign commands.
"From this instant until the last star of this multiverse is extinguished, you, Darkseid, are forbidden from manifesting your essence or your avatars in this universe under any form or pretext," Lucifer decreed with an authority that resonated in the soul of every living being.
White light burst from the ground and the sky, enveloping the invader in a net of incandescent chains that were engraved directly into Darkseid's skin like eternal scars of a contract that no one could break.
Darkseid attempted to invoke the Omega Effect to resist the expulsion, but the red energy extinguished before leaving his eyes. Lucifer's primordial light had decided that shadow no longer had permission to exist in that sector of creation.
"Lucifer-san, thank you for your intervention," Urahara murmured from the ground while watching how the Supreme Rule manifested through filaments of pure energy that sealed the cracks of the pocket dimension.
Lucifer ignored the thanks and concentrated on the task of rewriting the local laws of the universe, ensuring that Darkseid's name was erased from the list of permitted physical possibilities on Earth until the end of time.
The humiliation of the Dark God was total when he felt his own consciousness being pushed toward the void of the Boom Tubes back to Apokolips, without being able to offer the slightest resistance before the word of the first fallen.
"You are a tyrant who plays at being a god, Darkseid. But I am the bearer of the light that gave origin to your own shadow. And now I have decided that your time in this theater has ended forever," Lucifer added with masterful contempt.
The edict was sealed with a pulse of energy that swept away the remains of Apokolips's influence in Kyoto, returning the city to a forced peace while the angel finished his silver cigarette with divine leisureliness.
* * *
Darkseid felt for the first time in eons the unbearable weight of a will that could not be bent or ignored by his own tyranny. The chains of white light that Lucifer had invoked sank into his granite flesh, engraving themselves as fundamental laws that his body could not disobey.
The God of Tyranny attempted to roar one last time, but his voice was drowned by an absolute void that began to suction his presence out of earthly reality. The Omega Effect that had previously devoured the city's light extinguished completely, leaving only the trace of a divine humiliation that would mark Apokolips's history.
"This is not over, Urahara. Tyranny is a seed that always finds a crack in freedom to sprout again," Darkseid decreed as his red eyes dimmed.
He directed a look of pure hatred toward the shopkeeper before a Boom Tube of pure white color opened behind his massive figure.
Lucifer Morningstar observed the tyrant's departure with masterful indifference while shaking the ashes from his silver cigarette onto the shop's rubble.
"You talk too much for someone who has just been expelled from a candy shop by a bored angel," the Morning Star commented with an aristocratic tone.
With a gesture of Lucifer's hand, the portal closed abruptly and the gravitational pressure that threatened to crush Kyoto disappeared instantly. The air began to flow naturally again and time recovered its linear rhythm, allowing the sound of the ruined city to return to those present.
Urahara collapsed against the remains of a broken wooden shelf, feeling that every ounce of his spiritual energy had been drained by the battle and the use of his Bankai. Blood continued to stain his destroyed robe while he watched Lucifer's impeccable figure walk toward him with an elegance that did not belong to this world.
"Lucifer-san, I thank you for honoring our old agreement despite the inopportune timing of the situation," Urahara murmured with a weak smile that barely managed to hide his exhaustion.
The shopkeeper adjusted what remained of his hat with trembling hands while trying to stabilize his own internal pulse before the angel's presence.
Lucifer stopped a few meters from the shopkeeper and looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and warning that made the air feel heavy again for an instant.
"I did not do it out of kindness, Urahara. I did it because I detest debts being left unpaid and styleless tyrants interrupting my vacations," the Morningstar responded.
The stain of evil that Darkseid had left in the area began to dissolve under the light emanating from Lucifer, leaving the alley clean of any trace of Omega energy. Kara and the other defenders began to recover their movement, feeling immense relief but keeping a prudent distance before the authority of the first fallen.
"Consider the debt settled, Urahara. Although I must admit it was entertaining to see Darkseid humiliated in this manner," Lucifer added before beginning to fade into the light.