Seraphic Wings

108. The Third Guardian

As Lucette saw the object that 'Nocte' sent flying at her previously, she quickly moved to shield the one who was shielding her. But, as she did so, she got pushed out of the way by a body and landed on the ground under them. This resulted in whatever the thing that 'Nocte' sent flying at her to sail straight past them.

"What are you? Stupid?" Annoyed grey eyes stared down at her.

"I don't want anyone else dying on me again whilst shielding me! Especially not you, Sanctus!"

"Urgh...." Sanctus grumbled.

"Sorry to burst this lovely romantic evening that you two seem to be having, but duties call...."

As she looked over, Lucette saw what she gathered to have been Nocte clicking his fingers, and she saw his usual outfit change. He was now sporting a black outfit underneath a black coat. She thought that him just wearing that felt really off.

"But you do have a mighty interesting trick, it'd be nice to maybe test that out lately. Aye, pretty boy?"

"I strongly recommend that you leave...." Sanctus half growled at the man, as he still shielded her from him.

"Oh, I just was...." 'Nocte' looked right in her direction and smiled with malicious intent again. "I'll be seeing you, sweetie...." 'Nocte' smirked before he waved and vanished entirely.

"Dammit....." Sanctus grumbled as he got off of her and dusted himself off. "Why does he have to change here of all places....?"

Lucette, being extremely confused about what exactly happened, looked up at Sanctus from her position on the ground.

"What... Just happened?"

Sanctus looked in her direction with a sorrowful expression on his face. Still confused, she looked over to where Nocte was and she saw something on the ground. As she stood up, she walked over to the item that was on the ground, and crouched down. She saw that there, in the grass, was a broken black pendant. As she picked it up, she asked herself 'wasn't this the necklace that Nocte always wore'?

"I can give you the answers that you seek...."

Alerted by the sudden voice, she turned her head around and she saw that there, standing a short distance from them, was a rather tired Victus. Lucette stood up, pocketed the broken necklace and walked over to him.

"Please."

"Then follow me...." Victus turned to walk off, but he stopped and turned back a little. "You as well...."

"Sure, why not?" Sanctus shrugged as he walked over to them.

Victus narrowed his eyes at the man, and carried on walking.

Victus led them back to the castle and into a room that she had never even seen before, but she noticed that there was something rather interesting about the room. It had piles of dictionaries on a bookcase near her, and the place was way too neat. Wait, was this Victus' room? As she turned around to see where the owner of the room went, she saw him sit down in front of a desk and gestured for both her and Sanctus to sit down in front of it. Sanctus obliged and crossed his legs, and she also came over and took a seat as well. Victus leaned forward, with his elbows on the desk.

"For what it's worth, you did not meet Nocte back there...."

"Huh?"

Victus eyed her up. "You may have been speaking to him originally but, after a while, it was purely someone else."

"Wait, then who was it? I mean, it looked very much like him, minus the new eye colour and attitude...." Lucette scratched her head in confusion.

"You met Mephisto...." Victus leaned back into his chair. "Nocte's other self."