Taking a suitable present with him, Lucas found a good looking one after searching for a bit. Knocking them out, he left for the nearby forest. Searching for a river, he found one after some searching. The river wasn't anything special, but it led to a place he hadn't visited in forever. Going upstream for some time, Lucas spread his willpower far and wide to detect as much as he could.
Eventually he found it. A small outskirt village. Small, frail, and completely wiped off the map. Landing near it, he took a deep breath before entering it. Well, if one could even consider it a village at this point, since not a single building was still standing upright.
'The air is still the same.'
'Yeah, but everything else is missing.'
Lucas had returned home. He had forgotten how long it had truly been. But the place he grew up in was right in front of him. All the destroyed buildings, the dilapidated church, the rough roads, everything was still here.
The only place he often visited his home was in his mental sphere, but due to his own personal rune and aura, it often caught fire before monsters invaded. Yet here, he could stare at the destroyed buildings for as long as he wanted without his mind twisting it into horrible images. It felt strange, as if a mirage was becoming reality. He felt odd walking between the rubble.
Taking a slight stroll through the town, Lucas felt a strange sense of nostalgia, the buildings, or what remained of them, were completely overtaken by nature. Vines and plants had hidden most of the scars, turning even the most horrific memory into a batch of flowers. Bathing in the sunlight, Lucas found it hard to describe what he felt.
Inside his heart there was a foreboding feeling, one of fear, that the illusion in front of him would break apart at any moment. He didn't want to admit it, he didn't find it fitting, but for once, in a long time, he found his home pleasant.
As he slowly made his way towards the church, he felt his foot step on something hard and a loud crunch filled the air. Lucas froze in place as the fear in his heart started to grow. He knew what it was, there was little doubt in his mind. Peering down, he regretted it almost immediately. A small broken skull laid underneath his foot. Seeing the skull, couldn't have been from anyone else but a child's, Lucas clenched his hands tight. No matter how much nature tried to hide the wounds, the ugliness was still very much present.
Lucas lost all his sense of joy as he stared deeply into the empty sockets of the broken skull.
'That's right, this place can't hold any happiness.'
Suddenly, his personal rune at the top of his Mental Sphere started to collect energy.
'Fucker! Why are you activating it now?!'
'I didn't do anything! Just... I can't stop it!', the rune started to glow with a strange intensity. Perhaps due to being so close to the real thing or the turbulent emotions going through his heart, the rune kept gathering energy without any command.
Soon, his eyes started to fog over, as the plants and vines climbing around the buildings started to twist and turn into spiraling flames. The bushes of flowers made place for sparking embers, turning the beautiful night into a flaming sea.
'Shit! I can't get a grasp on it either.'
The rune was completely out of control, the only saving grace was the fact he still managed his aura to not go on a rampage. He felt his dome being tainted by the scarlet red, the visions of the burning houses intensified, but no monsters showed up to haunt him.
No, there was no screaming in the distance, no looming shadows stalking him, he was alone.
Steeling his nerves as best he could, he traced his steps from back then. Starting from the church door, he slowly trod forward.
'This is where Gregory, Rast, and Jack stayed behind to protect us.'
'...'
The fire scorched the ground black, but a single broken skull was still lying on the ground. Lucas had no clue who it truly belonged to, but to him it was clear. This skull must've come from one of his brothers.
Lucas threw the offering he brought with him to the ground as he grabbed every single bone between his arms. They were still quite small, it pained his heart with every movement, but he wasn't going to let this boy remain in the open.
He didn't find any other bones nearby except those of monsters, giving him false hope his other brothers survived. Continuing forward, he approached the place where Korian and Tris met their fate.
Finding his sister in the spider den was traumatic enough, but realizing Korian was most likely there as well, his bones scattered between the remains of others fueled something dark inside him. There were no bones to pick up, no bodies to bury. Nothing had remained of them.
Using all the power in his body to not clench his arms together, he tried to keep the brittle bones of his brother intact. Taking a few steps further, he stopped in place.
There it was, the entrance of the alley just a few feet removed from him. Flames surrounded the passage, making it hard to see through. Lucas trembled.
'There...'
'Don't.'
Thinking straight wasn't possible any longer, his mind was wrapped up in thunderous emotions that ruled his heart. Just a simple wall of flames blocked him off from where he was truly born. Not the nameless babe who was left behind at the church, not the Lucas who was given a loving family. But this monster, obsessed with power and survival, he had become.
Lifting his foot, he dared to move forward towards the towering flames. All was but an illusion, something Lucas had long forgotten as his mind was covered in fog.
The alley, that alley, just a few steps wide, it was where his most precious was lost. The one person he loved from the depths of his heart. Someone who went out of her way to help those in need and without a home. Someone who was ridiculed and had to keep a family together with nothing but her determination.
A practitioner of faith, a mother to all, a sister in need, a person of love and warmth.
The flames touched his nose, the smell felt so real, the heat and singe could be felt on his skin, but nothing in his body even dared to think of stepping back. Enveloped in flames, a trial by fire, yet Lucas kept trudging on. Nothing would stop his forward momentum now.
In that small alley, lit up by flames, laid a single pale skeleton. One broken apart and pecked into pieces.
The moment he laid his eyes on those frail bones, he collapsed to his knees. Forced by his personal rune, emotions from when he was a child surged through his body. Notwithstanding his many grueling experiences and training, he felt powerless in the face of his raging emotions. Visions of his time as a child, all the warmth he received from her, his family, all burning and being ripped apart.
Collapsing to his knees, he crawled towards the pile of bones so close yet so far away. Clutching the remains of his brother close to his chest, he reached the last place his dear mother was alive, screaming in pain as Lucas had to watch on. He felt dirty, he felt in pain. His immense desire for power took over his mind as he stared at the final resting place of his most beloved.
Reaching out to the bones, Lucas saw his own fingers tremble. Shutting his eyes shut, he hoped to push away all the haunting images, but the screams didn't need to be seen. His Mental Sphere had long submitted to the horrific scenes of his family being tortured by monsters, burning or eaten alive, his imagination didn't hold back in forming the most painful images possible.
Finally reaching her skull, Lucas wrapped his hand around it. Placing it against his chest, he felt his heart beat loudly. His eyes closed off, he tried to focus on her skull, the one person he truly loved with all his heart. The only one who placed the safety of others before her own.
"Marie... I'm home."
Lucas needed a moment to think on the good memories he still had of her. All the while he tried his hardest to focus on her smile, the dome in his Mental Sphere slowly started to lose it's color. The crimson red faded as a bright yellow took over. The screams sounded distant, the burning feeling in his lungs lightened up.
Opening his eyes, all he found was a few bones surrounded by flowers, as if nature knew how special she truly was. Taking all the bones with him, he moved back to the dilapidated church.
Making a grave, he placed all the bones inside except a single one. Keeping the index finger of Marie, he stored it in his ring for now. Closing the grave, he made a basic cross and gathered the flowers from around the church to decorate the grave. It would be the only two people who finally got put to rest, but it would have to do.
His heart pained, fear of what Marie would think of him now always critizised him from the back of his mind. Marie was someone who saw every life as equally beautiful and precious, Lucas was meant to grow up in the same way, but he knew he was too twisted to return to such a mindset. He stared too deep into the abyss, letting it consume him from the inside out.
'It's time.'
'I know, I.. I know.'
'Want me to do it?'
'Yes.'
A slight but noticeable change occurred in his posture, as a switch was flipped. His emotions didn't wane, but he wouldn't falter either. He was here to check something, something extremely important. Something that would alter the future of his life. Nothing stood in his way to make him figure it out.
Walking to his offering he picked from the village he was meant to protect, it was a young and cute woman. She looked like she was in her early twenties, but Lucas cared not for her or her family. He saw her in the village and found her suitable as a present, that was all she had become, a tool to further his own plans.
Writing runes over her body, he suddenly stood up and clapped his hands. "Souls of the afterlife! I know you guys are still here! I bring you this woman's body to inhabit, but in return you will have to answer all my questions. If I detect a lie or even the slightest bit of hesitation, I will rip your soul out of her body! Got it?"
Grabbing the unconscious woman by her hair, he lifted her up. The pain was enough to wake her up, but it was already far too late.
"I need a soul that has experienced the Scarlet Moon that happened here! Any will do!"
The runes on the woman's body started to light up. She started to scream, but the desperate and furious look in Lucas's eyes silenced her instantly. Grabbing her by the throat, he choked her out until the life left her eyes. "There, a fresh body! Come and get it!"
Throwing the woman to the ground, he waited for a moment as the runes kept being lit up. It didn't take long before her eyes started to move again. A large unnatural gasp for air came from her mouth as her hands quickly ran over her face and body. Clenching her thighs and breasts, the woman held a large smile on her face.
"Good day, Lord mage. Whatever question you have, I will be able to answer," she held a strange smirk, one far too different from her previous disgraceful face.
"During the scarlet moon, who exited this church?"
The woman didn't hesitate or think about it, she knew not to upset this man, "I saw five boys and two girls run from the church. The three oldest of the boys stayed behind to drive off the approaching monsters while the rest ran."
"Good," his answer positive, the look in his eyes only started to get darker and darker. The soul that inhabited the body could feel the power radiating from his clenched fists. A single flick would be enough to blow her head apart, so she knew not to fail.
"Are any of the souls of those people still lingering around this place?"
"Hmm? I've been here for a couple of hundred years, so I know all the souls in this area. The three boys that died while fighting passed away without leaving a soul behind."
'At least they didn't have any lingering attachment.'
"I saw the youngest of the girls get taken away by some spiders, I don't know the monster's name or where they took her, but the boy that got killed also didn't leave behind a soul."
Lucas tried his hardest to simply nod along as the rage in his body got more and more uncontrollable. All of this happened because he was too weak to protect even a single one of his family members, people who were struggling yet still took someone so useless as him in.
"The older girl did leave behind a sou-", she barely got the words out before Lucas grabbed both her shoulders. His grasp was just strong enough to not break apart her bones, but the piercing stare in his eyes froze her heart for a moment. She had lived long enough, and she had longed to feel again, to experience the joy of a body, but she almost regretted taking this chance at a new life.
"WHERE?!"
"I-I- I... She was taken away.."
"WHAT HAPPENED?!", the crazed look in his eyes frightened the woman, but she knew not to falter here.
"S-Some mage came by and took only soul with him. I-I- was bound to this place, I d-didn't," the grasp on her shoulders gone, Lucas turned away from her as he felt the muscles in his arms tense up.
Screaming out his anger, he slammed his fists on the ground, completely devastating the village.
'Hey! Her grave!'
"Fuck!", disregarding the destruction he caused around him, he rushed to the graves to check up on them. Heaving a sigh of relief, he instantly reinforced the grave's grounds tenfold, creating an almost steel-like coffin around the bodies underground. He roughly gathered the flowers again and recreated the cross all whilst saying nothing.
The woman simply watched on with a hint of fear in her heart. Once he was done, he stood back up and faced her. The craziness in his eyes had lessened, but that didn't make her feel any better.
"What did he look like?"
"Uh- Like, like an old scholar? He had a large round hat... I think in dark blue? He used a cane to walk, it looked like he was wealthy as well."
"His Rank?"
"I-I don't know..."
Clenching and releasing his fist for the final time, he turned away from her. "I don't have any more questions, now get the fuck out of this place. If I ever hear you returned or brought someone here I'll slaughter your entire bloodline."
Lucas spoke strangely calm, as if a storm was right around the corner. The woman also didn't need to hear anything else as she quickly bowed to him, "Thank you for giving this old woman another chance at life!", and with that, she rushed out of the village. Lucas didn't feel any gratitude from her, she was a tool, her emotions mattered not.
Staring at the destruction he caused in the village, a part of him felt terrible. "Let's get the hell out of here."
'Yes... we have another goal now.'
"Another person to turn inside out."
'Another person to bring back to life. Now we just have to check on Elam.'
Taking to the sky, Lucas rushed back to the little village. He still held turbulent emotions in his heart, but taking them out on the environment already proved inefficient. Following the river back, Lucas didn't need a lot of time to find his way back. Not because he knew where the village was, if anything, Lucas was terrible with directions, but the smell of sulfur reached his nose.
With his senses already improved a ton, it took no detective work to figure out from where it came. In the extremely early hours of the day, the bright fire covering the village was plenty clear.
"Shit."
'At least that woman's husband won't have to worry anymore about his missing wife.'
"That order to tie us down to this place was because they knew some forces would rush this place, wasn't it? Fuck. What now?"
Staring from afar, he could tell there were still some mages fighting, the force of enemy mages was too small to be the main force, perhaps an offshoot from of the forces that marched alongside the village.
'Oh well, just destroy it all at this point, the local forces would've died anyway. If any of them survive they'll know we disobeyed the orders to stay here. We need to get rid of them.'
"Wait, you're telling me to just go and... go loose?"
'There's plenty of excuses, we've just entered Rank 4, covering up the destruction due to a miscalculation in a spell is easy. Just get rid of all the remaining people, members of the cult or otherwise, we don't need any witnesses that can bite us in the ass later on.'
Looking down on the village, he still heard some ruckus. Looking at his trembling hands, he knew it was time to relieve himself from his visit back home. Diving down towards the village, Lucas fueled his body with mana as he slammed his fists on the center of the village, completely evaporating anything that came close.
With his body upgraded due to Trials in the Underground and his evolution into Rank 4, his bodies durability and strength had reached heights he never expected.
Truly, the world was unfair.
Standing in the center of a large crater, the flames around him were doused while the buildings were completely blown apart. His entrance certainly attracted enough attention, as the few mages left rushed towards him, not caring in the slightest about their own lives.
Pulling out his modified Greatsword of extremely compressed metal, he grabbed the hilt with both hands before swinging the massive blade around. The blade wasn't exactly sharp, but the pure kinetic force and speed forced anything that came into contact with it to tear apart.
Mages were blown to smithereens as any unfortunate building that was in the way were reduced to rubble and dirt. It didn't matter what spells or defenses the mages were using, they were slaughtered with ease as the blade cut through it all without hesitation.
Hearing noises of a battle close by he rushed towards the place. Finding a large burly man covered in wounds and his fists covered in stone, he was holding off a couple of mages. Seeing Lucas for a moment, his eyes lit up. "Lucas! Thank the Goddess you're here!", dodging a few spells, he jumped towards Lucas.
Once he got close, Lucas healed the man as he raised a basic barrier that stopped the fireballs being flung at them.
"The fuck happened?"
"We were ambushed by a small party of the main force that's going through the mountain pass. I think there's only a few of my soldiers left, but we'll have to move fast if we-", the man couldn't get his words out as a large blade was lodged inside his head. The skull cleaved in two, Lucas didn't worry about him sacrificing his core to damage him.
"Thanks," with that, Lucas tore down his own barrier as he let the flames hit his body. Drowned in adrenaline, he kept swinging his sword until not a single mage was left standing.
By the end, Lucas was surrounded by a large pool of blood and dozens of bodies. None stood a chance against him, even if he didn't use his weapon. Frankly, all he did was getting used to the weight of the weapon. The lives lost around him were just useful training dummies.
Due to the large arc of his swings and the power behind them, many of the buildings were reduced to scraps, but at least the flames were doused because with each swing, a large wind blade was formed naturally, blasting anything in the way apart.
Putting his blade away, he felt his muscles ache as he had pushed his body to swing the blade around. Despite his upgrades, he still needed to get used to his weapon. Walking through the village in the early morning, he heard a few coughs.
Locating the sound, he moved some debris out of the way to find a wounded mother and her little daughter coughing. The mother stared at Lucas with wide but tired eyes. She pushed the child towards him before collapsing.
"Mama!", the child screamed and wailed as tears and snot ran down her face. Looking at the mother with his magic vision, he could tell there was still some heat in her body. Reaching out to the woman, he grabbed her neck before crushing it in pieces. Perhaps due to his training with the greatsword, he forgot to manage his strength properly, completely crushing the neck. The terrifying gasp that escaped the mother's mouth as her head left her body scared the child so badly she stopped crying.
Hands covered in blood, Lucas didn't bother shaking it off, he was far too used to his hands being bloody.
"Tch, don't worry kid, I won't let you suffer in this dark world," grabbing the head of the wailing girl, he crushed her skull with ease. Turning the dark village quiet once more, Lucas did a last check to find a few more people alive. Killing them without hesitation, he launched a few more spells at the building that were standing up to completely obliterate the once bustling place.
"Aaah... It's been a while since I've really let loose. I feel way better."
'Good, because we're not done yet. I used some tracking spells and figured out where this main force should be. We need to make up for our failure and eliminate them.'
"Point the way."