"Where will I go now?"
"Maybe I’ll look for a cheap apartment and stay there for now."
He stared at the night’s starry sky, a soothing breeze sweeping the loose sand directly at him.
Cough.
"I hope I don’t catch a cold here."
He leaned in on the bodies he had poured sand over and dipped his hands into their pockets.
A few coins, and some notes.
They had money—enough to get him through the night, but it was far from being sufficient to sustain him.
"A man can’t survive without dinner. These supplements just won’t cut it for long."
He brushed the sand mixed with blood off the coins and dipped them into the pocket of his loose trousers. He grabbed the cloak of one of the soldiers.
It looked cleaner than the others, and a strange text was etched on the fabric.
[2nd Party, 7th Division]
"He must have some rank. No wonder he’s not as blood-bathed as the others."
"I can’t believe I’ve been living under a rock this whole time."
He cloaked himself with the cloak and sprinted off into the distance. Time waited for no one, and he wasn’t an exception.
A strong wind blew momentarily, forcing Lucien to slow down. While taking long strides, he stared up at the sky.
Rain clouds.
That was a bad sign and a cue for Lucien to find shelter as fast as he could. With a mild cold gradually worsening, he tried to avoid anything that could cause him to be ill.
In the situation he found himself, sickness meant immediate death.
Cleverly, he managed to channel Wrath’s Mana to his eyes, substantially improving his vision. He wasn’t able to do the same at multiple parts of his body, but he was steadily getting there.
Far off to the west, there was a small building surrounded by the thick greenery. Lights from within the rooms flooded its surroundings.
On sight, Lucien could only think of a single thing.
Food and shelter.
Most especially, food.
He hadn’t eaten in a while, and after the exhaustive experiences he had undergone, being famished was completely understandable.
His stomach rumbled at irregular intervals, causing him to stagger each time. They were accompanied by an unusual emptiness and moderate ache that felt more uncomfortable than the ones he got from his fight with Vaelion.
"Most of my wounds were healed after that final transformation that Wrath granted me."
"But my empty stomach is still the same."
One last time, he let the demonic Mana flow through his entire body, and subsequently summoned Wrath’s form.
He called it a hybrid form—the odd cloak, his destroyed shoes, crimson-red eyes, and most especially the thick black and red aura that flowed around his skin like a river.
Everything screamed ’merging with an entity’.
He focused a high-powered beam at his feet and shot off into the sky at an optimal angle, letting gravity pull him to increase his range.
Wrath’s Mana was overflowing, almost like it hadn’t even been depleted at all. But with each transformation, Lucien’s body took a hit. He couldn’t remember how many times he had used this form, but the severe strain he felt proved it was a lot of times.
"One more? Maybe I can squeeze a second beam in." He said as his body approached the floor.
"That’s one."
"And... 2"
He successfully managed 2 beams, but a third one would most likely leave him unconscious. He raised his head mid-flight, arranging his silver-white hair with one hand as it obstructed his vision.
Suddenly, his vision blurred and his consciousness drifted away. He could feel his lips move, but his ears were too weakened to pick up on what he was saying.
"I knew 2 would push me this far..."
*****
’He’s awake, Mom!’
Lucien opened his eyes, and a white ceiling beautified by golden designs and a large chandelier met his gaze.
He lifted his body and twisted and turned as his eyes wandered around the room.
The walls were painted in a grey shade with multiple books lined to his right. His weakened vision couldn’t fully spot the details, but one thought continuously ran through his mind.
Wealth.
He looked straight ahead, and multiple sophisticated paintings filled his vision, framed in silver and gold. He blinked, then wiped his eyes.
’What’s... going on here?’
His arms immediately caught his attention. The cloak he had worn wasn’t on his body anymore. Instead, he was wearing a plain light-blue T-shirt and trousers of the same color.
"Sorry, that’s all we could find," a feminine voice stated.
To Lucien, it sounded like muffled noise, and he didn’t pay any attention to it. He lifted the blanket that covered his lower body in an attempt to get some air, and slowly dozed off again.
His eyes blinked continuously under the weight of his exhaustion, but a female figure slowly approached him from the corner of his vision.
"Can’t you see or hear me?" She said, her right brow raised in annoyance.
She had short silver hair, much like Lucien’s but slightly darker. Her frame sat right at the middle of petite and normal.
Looking at her face, Lucien concluded she was a young teenager, most likely in her mid-teens. His eyes circled her entire figure, and then he eventually saw the rest of her body.
In simple terms, it didn’t look nearly as young as her face was.
"Hmph."
Lucien lifted his body even further and turned to face the girl.
"How old are you?"
She looked back at him and suddenly kept silent. Suddenly, she burst out laughing, hitting Lucien on his leg.
Ouch
"Sorry, that’s just how I laugh. That’s a weird way to start a conversation though."
She stood up from her seat that was stationed directly at Lucien’s right.
"I’m 20. Since you’re responsive now, I guess I’ll leave."
"If you ever get hungry, go downstairs. There’s some food there."
She opened the door, walked past it, and shut it. The thud from the door being slammed resonated in Lucien’s ears.
...Ahh
He stretched his hand to the glass of water behind him and slowly drank it to refresh his memory.