He picked up a toothpick and poked at the meat. The pick sank through its tenderness, and Lucien gradually lifted it and dropped it into his mouth.
"A-agh! It’s hot!" He shouted, gasping for air to cool the meat in his mouth. He couldn’t just waste food—he wasn’t trained to do it.
Despite the pain the sudden heat brought to his mouth, it did strike a thought.
The meat was fresh, new, and most importantly hot. Not warm. Lucien looked around, wrapping the other snacks he had looted in a small plastic bag he found lying around.
"The owner couldn’t be far, and what was that disturbance I felt earlier?"
Lucien closed his eyes, focusing his attention on the sound surrounding him. His ear twitched like a dog’s, and he instantly turned around.
"I hear something. Something’s not right," he wondered, pulling the door behind the shop open. It wouldn’t budge, as though it was being pulled in the opposite direction by someone with his exact might.
It was probably the work of a curse. Lucien had understood that curses were more than just forces that brought doom and bad luck. They influenced the very fabric of reality of the victim of the curse.
"I think I’m strong enough to use the demon’s powers," Lucien stated, placing his hands on the hidden door behind the shop as a subtle smirk spread across his face. He always smiled unusually when he was unable to process his emotions, and this was his first time in many years.
"W—wrath!"
The dark energy within him immediately shot out of every part of his body.
"Now, I just wish I could contain it..." Lucien grunted, holding his body tightly with his arms.
"Ughh, it’s so discomforting. It’s almost like my insides are being pulled into a deep dark abyss," Lucien stated. The reason for his description was unknown, even to him.
A deep dark abyss? That did sound familiar.
[Little boy, have you sought my might once more?] The deep voice rumbled, even deeper than before.
Lucien looked at the emptiness of the darkness, his arms slowly loosening around his body.
"I’m not going to let you keep controlling my body, you shit!" Lucien howled, bottling up his fear deep within his mind.
’Acting authoritative seems to be the only plausible course of action. Or at least, the only one I can think of right now,’ he thought, still staring into the abyss.
A deafening laughter immediately filled the entire environment. Lucien pressed his ears with his palms as the voice was so powerful that even his eardrums trembled from its fullness.
[Do you really think such a silly approach would work? But since I have no reason to control your body, you might use my powers this once. Of course, I’m not guaranteeing anything after this.] The voice concluded, fading away as it neared the end of its statement.
The darkness gradually faded away, revealing Lucien’s black and red robe that cloaked his entire body. He hovered above the floor barefoot in the same manner as he had done at the bar.
The sight of the door before him brought him back to his senses.
"I’m surprised it’s still shut. The curse is strong, but it doesn’t feel like it’s created a being like that bartender," he mumbled, pulling the door.
Immediately, the door fell in Lucien’s direction. It was of fine metal, strong but lighter than it looked. Lucien tossed it aside with his enhanced strength.
’From my last battle, I could channel this strange energy to my hands to enhance my strength and to my legs for speed. This certainly seems like it’ll be fun,’ he thought as he stepped into the room filled with thick smoke.
He swiped it away with his hands and followed the signal he felt earlier. While using the demon’s power in his current form, he didn’t require any focus to sense Mana, but even with his newly achieved feat, finding the cursed individual still proved difficult.
Suddenly, his leg hit something soft. The thick fog concealed what Lucien had hit, but he bent down and tried spreading the smoke out.
"Where’s this stuff even coming from?" He muttered, placing his hand on what felt like a person.
Lucien’s eyes widened in shock as he carried the person in his arms. It was an old man with short grey hair. He was shorter than the bartender and weaker in every respect, but Lucien found it more calming that he didn’t have to deal with another strange creature.
Lucien rushed out of the shop with the man cradled in his arms. The old man’s skin was marred by burns and strange markings that emitted thick smoke.
"So that’s where the smoke is coming from. It’s probably poison based on how his skin is responding to it, but with Wrath’s power cloaking me, it shouldn’t be effective." Lucien placed his fingers on the man’s neck to check for a pulse.
It was faint, but its presence was unmistakable. Lucien dropped the man on the fine sand, picking up his right arm and scrutinizing it. It had various marks, and none of them seemed like a readable language.
Lucien rubbed his chin while sitting on the floor with the old man directly in front of him.
"How did our Division Captain explain it again? He told us to channel our Mana, right?" Lucien recalled, but that raised a deeper question.
Wouldn’t the energy from a demon just result in a new curse?
Lucien thought of that, but he hadn’t even figured out how to extend the ominous energy outside his body properly. He focused on the natural Mana around him, but Wrath’s demonic Mana kept disrupting his attempts.
"My individual Mana isn’t something to boast of based on my observations. Its existence is negligible, and that probably stems from how I was brought into this world in the first place."
Lucien placed his hand on the old man, having no other choice but to attempt channeling demonic Mana into him. Lucien slid his palm across the body of the old man, hoping to get a feel of how infusing aura would feel.
"Oh— that’s it!" Lucien felt the demonic energy from him slowly seep into the body of the unconscious man. He focused on the feeling, and he gradually infused it increasingly faster.
[Not today, boy. I will not permit that] the demon’s voice stated, only audible in Lucien’s mind.