Chapter 79

**A Glimpse of the Forgotten**

Lucifer had spent countless ages cultivating an iron heart, one impervious to the ravages of emotion. Yet, Athena's absence had hollowed him out, her absence striking him with an agony that gnawed at his very core. He hadn't felt like this for millennia—not since his rebellion, not since the solitude of falling. But this grief was different. It wasn't for his own suffering; it was for the love he had lost, the love she had willingly forsaken to protect him.

Azazel's words had been like a dagger twisting in his heart. *She remembers nothing of you…nothing of what you shared.* The knowledge left him haunted, torn between fury and sorrow. Every inch of him screamed against it, against the council's manipulation, against fate itself. But he was bound, helpless in a way that made his rage feel futile. The raw ache of it was enough to drive him to madness.