Key of Lucifer

(Excerpt from "Key of Lucifer," The Lock on Heaven; an original and unfinished novel by me)

Again, he found himself in Purgatory.

"Fuck..." He mumbled to himself. He glanced around the heavenly tower full of intersecting paths and golden gateways whose tunnels were dark and mysterious, drawing you in and begging you to come closer. That's what he hated about Purgatory. This bewildering place. As he looked up, he only saw more and more intersecting bridges ascending into the white mist. He dared not to look down.

He knew he couldn't linger in Purgatory for long. His only choice was to go back or go forward, though. He had the Key of the Hare, but using it for a reason like this wasn't ideal...

And falling onto the bridges below without the Key of the Saint wasn't ideal either.

He had used it before in the previous battle with the Rivera twins.

He had on him the Key of the Hare, the Key of Mammon, the Key of Duality, the Key of Ignorance, and the Key of Self, the Tanaka Key. His key, which acted as his heart. And he could not lose that.

Getting the Key of Self snatched from you is the equivalent of being murdered. Tanaka was about to thank God for not requiring every single one of the Keys of Self to ascend, but then he realized God had put him into this position.

While he sat there wondering if he would survive the fall onto the nearby bridges, they shifted. He forgot! Every once in a while, the paths would lead to another gate! Now he had four new options. He decided to go for the left since he was right-handed. If you were to ask him why he made that choice, he would shrug it off.

As he ran across the bridge, his boots clacking against the marble, he thought about what key he should go for next.

Mari held the Key of Prosperity, and she was insanely agile, so Tanaka would never catch up to her. He ruled that key out. Olive held both the Key of Creation and the Key of Destruction. Tanaka didn't need those yet, and neither did Olive. He ruled those keys out as well. The best options were to go for the rest of the Seven Deadly Keys since he already held the Key of Mammon, and wielding all of those keys would give him a significant advantage in battle and the race for ascension.

As he approached the golden gate, which opened for him, welcoming him in, he stumbled into Eden's Garden.

And there, he found the wielder of the Key of Lucifer, and its wielder, Zhou Delun.

The one Key Wielder he could never fight.

Why? Simple.

He was smitten with him.