Chapter 263: The Lost And Rune Crystals

While Gabriel was giving his orders and figuring out the things to do after the battle, Lucius was looking around the battlefield. His mind was at work, sensing and feeling the faint presences that were in the area right now.

'Ah~ just perfect. The lack of a divine pull is perfect! This will give me a decent enough boost.' Lucius thought to himself.

And while he was doing this, his eyes detected something shocking him.

"What the hell…?" Lucius said as a few strings of words appeared in front of his eyes.

Gift Name: Icy Winds

Description: The user can release freezing winds from his hands and body that can freeze water and other surfaces. The duration of winds generated is directly proportional to the amount of Aether used.

Rank: Epic

Type: Emission / Physical 

The information that had appeared in front of him was something he had seen before, of course. But what he was more surprised was the fact that he had not actually activated Nexus and had not felt the drain on his Aether either.

"This only happens if… I see something I had already used Nexus on. But if this is appearing, then it must mean that person is still alive?" Lucius muttered to himself.

It was a shocking thing to Lucius not because he had seen the information, but because of the fact that the survivability of the Ice user was utterly zero. After all, he was missing the majority of his heart and a quarter of his lungs as well.

And if that was not enough, over ninety percent of his body's blood was spilled outside on the ground. Thus, unless he had some special gift or artifact that allowed him to survive despite all that, there was no way for the gift's information to appear.

Lucius approached the dead body to check for himself. It was now that he noticed something rather specific. 

"Hang on… this information… it's missing some parts." Lucius realized that the information about the other owners was not there anymore.

He narrowed his eyes and thought over it a bit before finally realizing. 

"It can't be, can it?" Lucius said in disbelief.

He searched the mangled corpse but didn't find anything on its surface. Lucius then inserted his hands into the hole that was in the dead man's chest and probed around without caring about the blood dirtying his hands.

After about a minute, Lucius finally found something. He pulled the spherical item out and looked at it. It was a blood covered marble that had a bluish sheen on it. Lucius rubbed the marble on his inner clothes and revealed its true look.

"So it really is that… A Rune Crystal." Lucius said as he looked at the blue marble that had a strange rune present on it.

This was the second time he was finding a rune crystal like this, and he was left a bit baffled. He did not know how it had happened and it made him think as hard as he could for now.

His mind ran at a great speed and it was as if lightning itself was fueling his thoughts. And then finally… it struck him.

"THE LOST!" Lucius exclaimed.

He recognized the one common link that was between the death of this ice user and the other spy that had been found by him and Kiana before. Both of them had been killed by a Lost.

At that time, he had not thought much and had been unable to come to any conclusion as to why a gift had turned into a rune crystal. But now he knew that the Lost certainly had something to do with it.

Of course, there could be other reasons that he was missing, but there was an easy way to confirm it right now.

"I have to see the others," Lucius muttered to himself as he looked at the other corpses that he knew for sure were killed by Lost.

~shua~shua~shua~

And just as he had expected, Aether started to be drained at a great speed as one by one, strings of information started to pop up in front of him. Lucius had to forcibly stop Nexus as his Aether had been drained in just five seconds of use.

This showed just how many gifts were currently present here. A slight headache appeared in Lucius's head, but he did not wince. Rather than that, a wide smile appeared on his face as he searched through the corpses of the other dead enemy soldiers as well.

About five minutes later, Lucius had several small marbles in his hand, each having a different kind of a rune present on it.

"So it is pretty much confirmed now… Gifted humans that are killed by the Lost will have their gifts turned into Rune crystal upon death." Lucius concluded.

He looked at the rune crystals for a few seconds before bursting into laughter.

"AHAHAHA! PERFECT! THIS IS PERFECT!" Lucius said out loud, catching the attention of the nearby soldiers.

~step~step~step~

"Is there a problem, Young Lord Asher?" The soldiers asked with concern.

Lucius looked at them and shook his head.

"A problem? No…" Lucius said before thinking something.

"Then do you need something from us?" The soldiers asked.

"Ah yes, I'd like to sit and think for a bit. Please make sure no one disturbs me for an hour or two." Lucius replied.

"Huh?" the soldiers were confused.

"It shall be done, Young Lord Asher." The commander Taylor approached at this moment.

He had heard what Lucius had said before and was not intending to question it.

"But commander…" the soldiers were about to speak but were interrupted.

"That's enough. Young Lord Asher just wants to think over the battle. Don't forget this is his first battle like this." Taylor said, giving an excuse on behalf of Lucius.

Lucius raised his brows at this and was intrigued by the man's response, taking note to know more about him later.

"At once!" the soldiers said before taking their leaves.