They walked deeper into the cavern. Kito seemed to respect Baelor's need for secrecy and didn't follow, though his blue form lingered at the entrance.
"Bye," Sage called back, surprised to find he meant it. Despite Kito's manipulative games, there was something genuinely likeable about the mischievous demon.
"Don't trust him." Baelor's voice cut through his thoughts like a blade.
"What?"
"I know he seems charming, and that we appear to be old friends, but that's a dangerous illusion. Never fully trust any spirit demon... especially the white and purple ones. They're the worst kind of manipulators."
"You're a spirit demon."
"That's different." Baelor's tone grew serious. "We have a contract. Our interests are aligned—I need you to succeed almost as much as you do. That creates... reliability. Trust born of necessity."
Sage absorbed this wisdom. Baelor hadn't steered him wrong yet, and his survival depended on learning to read the politics of this realm.
As they ventured deeper, the cavern walls began to change. What had been rough crimson stone was now smooth, almost polished, with veins of gold running through it like frozen lightning.
"Tell me about this Heart we're looking for," Sage said.
Baelor's form flickered, as if the very topic made him unstable. "You asked about the Divine War earlier. Gods once fought for mortal worship, but thats not the focus. After the gods finished their battles for mortal worship, while they rested and licked their wounds, a second threat emerged from the void between worlds."
His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "I don't know much about these entities. I don't think anyone truly does. Most don't even know there was a second war, it's been erased from most histories."
The air grew thicker as they walked, pressing against Sage's chest like an invisible weight.
"During that forgotten conflict, a pantheon ruled by the Father of Angels, the Golden God himself, faced the armies of Hell led by their first king, Satan. In desperation, as their forces crumbled, six of the Seven Deadly Sins attempted something that had never been done before."
"Six?" Sage interrupted, frowning. His limited education among humans had taught him there should be seven.
Baelor nodded grimly. "You know the stories, then. Yes, there should have been seven. But Pride, Satan himself, was locked in single combat with the Golden God. He couldn't abandon that fight to join the merger."
The cavern began to slope downward more sharply, and Sage noticed his breathing becoming labored.
"So the remaining six, Wrath, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, and Sloth, performed a forbidden ritual. They merged their very essences, transforming into something that defied comprehension: a dragon the size of mountains, with scales like black holes and breath that could incinerate entire star systems."
Sage felt his knees wobble slightly. "What happened then?"
"The Golden God's children weren't idle. The Seven Heavenly Virtues, Humility, Charity, Chastity, Gratitude, Temperance, Patience, and Diligence, performed their own merger in response. They became a phoenix of pure divine light, wings that could span solar systems, fire that burned with the fury of creation itself."
The oppressive feeling was getting stronger. Sage had to focus on each step to keep moving forward.
"I believe," Baelor continued, "that the eternal war between dragons and phoenixes, the hatred that runs so deep it transcends reason... it all began in that moment."
They reached a junction where multiple passages branched off. Without hesitation, Baelor led them down the center path, which glowed with a faint golden light.
"The Sin Dragon, even with six of the most powerful entities in existence combined, couldn't match the complete Virtue Phoenix. The battle raged across multiple dimensions, destroying countless worlds in the crossfire. In the end, the Virtues were winning."
"But?"
"But the Sins had one final gambit. In their death throes, they performed a mutual annihilation technique, something that killed both merged beings simultaneously. The explosion... gods, Sage, it created three new galaxies and destroyed twice that many."
They finally emerged into a vast chamber. The ceiling disappeared into darkness above, but the walls... the walls pulsed with veins of light that seemed to have their own heartbeat.
Sage immediately collapsed to one knee. The pressure here was overwhelming, like trying to stand at the bottom of an ocean while someone pressed down on his shoulders with the weight of mountains.
"The residual divine aura," Baelor explained, his own form flickering more rapidly. "Even in death, beings of that magnitude leave impressions on reality itself."
"Where is it?"
Sage looked around the chamber but saw only blinding, pure white light emanating from the center. It was so intense that looking directly at it made his eyes water and his head throb.
"All I can see is light."
"Exactly. Mortal eyes weren't designed to perceive objects of such concentrated divinity. If you traveled the worlds and asked about demons, mortals would tell you they're evil, twisted, horrifying creatures. And they'd be absolutely correct, even the most benevolent demon is fundamentally malevolent by mortal standards."
Baelor paused, studying the light. "But in the cosmic hierarchy, demons and angels sit much closer to each other than either sits to mortals. It's only recently that demons have fallen further into corruption. Whether they've gotten worse since my imprisonment... I honestly can't say."
Sage struggled to his feet, fighting against the divine pressure. "How do you know all this? For someone who's been trapped here, you seem remarkably well-informed about cosmic history."
"Books, manuscripts, testimonies from other trapped souls... I've had centuries to piece together fragments of truth. Knowledge is the only currency that retains value in places like this." His expression grew thoughtful. "Though I should warn you, history is written by survivors, and survivors often have agendas. Some of what I've told you could be propaganda, myth, or outright lies. The truth died with those who lived it."
Baelor turned to face him fully, his red form somehow more solid despite the oppressive aura. "Are you ready? Once we do Heart merging, there's no going back. Your seal will break, but the process... it might change more than just your access to power."
Sage stared at the brilliant radiance before them. This was it, the key to everything. His path to saving his mother, to making Móði pay, to becoming strong enough that no one could ever take anything from him again.
He didn't know exactly what breaking the seal would do to him, what powers it might unleash, or what price it might demand.
And he found he didn't care.
"I'm ready."