A blade he'd have recognized on sight—except there's an abrupt absence where Ciri's memory sits. It happens quick, a flash. A shift in his eyes that perhaps Lucifer can see. Then there is only Lucifer before of him.

He isn't often one to strike first, either. Another day, this encounter would've ended with him walking away long ago. Letting Lucifer see rooms and places as he will; in a space that isn't even real, with a demon who knows nothing of him, what would it matter? What would the creature even comprehend?

But between a surge inside him that runs hot, nerves taut, and a sudden narrowing of the world to one singular prey (a thousand screams piercing the air)—

He moves on reflex, one hand moving to wrap around Lucifer's holding the knife and the other swinging his sword in an upward stroke.