Blessed by Night-Chapter 179: The Problem With Nightmares

Malachi was having a hard time processing everything that was going on, so much so that he was admittedly a bit slow to react.

"What the hell... You're...?"

"The devil, yes. Are you afraid?"

"More like I'm not in the mood. Fuck off."

A swipe of Malachi's hand released a strong blast of black lightning in the form of a tidal wave.

The storm came crashing down on top of the devil's visage, and made aloud crackling sound as if it had struck the earth.

Malachi wasn't really expecting to kill Lucifer if he was being honest, but he hoped that this attack would help get his point across.

Unfortunately, he ended up rather disappointed to see that not only had he failed, but the devil had reappeared beside him even closer than he was the first time.

"Now that's not nice! Here I am trying to exchange friendly greetings and you just-"

"Why are you here, Lucifer? No, how are you here!?" Nyx yelled angrily.

This space was like a shared bridge between Malachi and his mother, meaning that absolutely no one should have been able to intrude upon it.

Least of all someone who Nyx so openly despised.

Out of all of the highers in creation, Lucifer was undoubtedly the one she hated most.

To her, Lucifer represented everything that was wrong with the universe.

At first there was nothing but glorious night and shadow as far as the eye could see, and everything was surrounded by an air of calmness and tranquility.

But with Lucifer's birth and rebellion within heaven, all of the quiet she so loved was stripped away from reality, and instead it became filled with what she saw as meaningless strife.

Every time that she saw his perfectly angelic face she became filled with so much rage that she wanted to pull out his tonsils through his anus.

"Ah, well you should know the answer to that right, my dear? Our boy here is part nightmare after a-"

"He is MY son, you rejected pigeon! If you ever dare to lay any kind of claim to him again I will finish the job your father wasn't man enough to complete!"

Lucifer smiled dangerously at Nyx's enraged state and his red eyes shone with a red light.

"You sure do have quite the mouth on you, Night Mother. I wonder if you truly have the talent to follow through with such a threat?"

As a response, Nyx uttered some words that were in a language that sounded so old and foreign that Malachi couldn't even begin to fix his lips to utter the syllables.

However... it left him utterly transfixed.

"That's... beautiful. What language is that?" he asked in a hollow voice.

No matter how mad Nyx may have been, she would never lose herself enough to not react when one of her beloved children spoke.

Her frightening and limitless aura of aggression vanished almost as quickly as it began, and she looked rather caught off guard to receive such a sudden and sincere compliment.

"Ah... It's a chthonic dialect, my son. Does it interest you?"

"Little bit... Would you mind teaching me?"

"Of course not." Nyx smiled warmly at Malachi and it seemed as though she had completely forgotten about their uninvited guest.

Unfortunately, he was very much still around.

"The two of you are such a cute mother son pair. I can see why you are trying so hard to hide his little secret."

Once again, Nyx's face twisted up into a scowl and Malachi wondered just how it was possible for someone's mood to change at the drop of a hat like this.

'I wonder if it's hereditary... Are Aubrey and I gonna have this problem too?'

Deciding not to think about it for now, Malachi finally decided to get to the bottom of Lucifer's sudden visit.

"Why are you here, man? I hope it's not to take revenge for your chosen."

"Hm? Ah, no it's nothing like that." Lucifer said as he waived his hand. "You really don't know much about what you are now, do you?"

"Lightbringer.." Nyx said dangerously.

"He can know some things can't he? It does pertain to him after all. The boy should at least know why I'm suddenly in his head."

Nyx looked like she wanted to protest, but upon finding no justifiable reason to she fell into a silence instead.

"The thing about the nightmares is that they have a peculiar ability to occasionally steal the abilities of the prey they eat. About a 1 in 100 chance I believe.

It seems like upon eating Kendrick's arm, you copied his ability. And since his gift comes from me, you now have something of a bastardized version of my blessing. Aren't you glad?"

"Fuck... did I really eat his arm?"

Nyx gave her son a sad look as she sat behind him and wrapped her arms around his back.

"You did, but your sister was able to stop you before you could do anything further. Please, take the small victory."

Malachi was trying to tell himself that things could have gone worse, but it was extremely difficult.

He wasn't a stranger to killing and it wasn't really something that he lost sleep over anymore, but eating people was different.

He felt that with every bit of human flesh that passed between his teeth was subsequently stripping him away of his humanity.

And when he passed the point of no return... What would be left?

What would he become?

It was a thought that terrified him to his core and haunted his dreams at night.

"So how do I get you out of my head? I don't feel like listening to you sell me some nonsensical shit about killing all humans or eating apples. You can take your fucking powers back too."

Lucifer smiled as he placed a hand across his chest like he was truly hurt. "You wound me, Malachi. You have such a human idea of who I am and what I represent.

It's true that I'm even less fond of humanity than your mother, but that doesn't really have anything to do with you now, does it?

I am free will personified, Malachi. You do whatever you like with the power that you have stolen from me, and know that I could not care less about what you will do with it. But I do hope that you amuse me a bit."

"Got other shit to do that's higher on my list of priorities than acting as a jester for the devil. Find some other sad soul to do that annoying shit."

Malachi suddenly stood up and stretched before giving his mother a hug.

"I'll see you later, Ma. Hopefully without any extras around."

Nyx was more than a bit worried about Malachi, but she was never one to turn down her precious son's affection.

"Alright then... I'll come visit you soon."

Lucifer: "Me too!"

""No!""

-

When Malachi opened his eyes, he expected to be in a bed or even lying on Morgan's island.

What he did not expect was to be falling out of the sky like a dead bird, plummeting towards a turbulent ocean underneath him.

"It's always some bullshit whenever I wake up..."