Chapter 82: Suspicions

"You might be imprisoned, but I won't let you suffer. That's the least the son of Zale Azarel deserves," Xander muttered before he dialed the number of Flourance to get an update on the situation.

....

Flourance ran through the swampy streets that had a hard time handling the heavy influx of water from the heavy rain.

His clothes were already drenched however he didn't care. After updating Xander on the situation, he soon reached the location where Xander was standing.

As he reached there, he saw two people dead, lying near Lucifer. The rest of the members were standing far away from him, keeping their distance. In fact, they stood more than a hundred steps away from him.

"Good. Get them there. To get to you, he would have to go there," Flourance mumbled as he saw the situation.

Lucifer was glaring at the variants standing far away from him. Tapping his foot on the group, he soon started flying towards them.

Looking at Lucifer flying away, Flourance smiled. "Right! Get there. It will all be over. Just a little more."

Ring! Ring!

Just as he finished his words, his phone started ringing. 

His face turned pale as he heard the ring. The ring's sound was not too high, but it wasn't low enough to be drowned by the noise of rain either.

Flourance saw Lucifer stopping. He realized it was bad. Lucifer had heard. 

....

"Where is Xander?" Lucifer asked in a casual tone.

"He left the city, yes-" Markel blurted out without thinking, but it was too late by the time he realized it.

His face turned pale as he realized what he had done, but it was too late. Even though Flourance was commanding him what to do next, he couldn't as his collar was grabbed by Lucifer, who dragged him out from the other side of the counter, smashing him on the street.

"You set a trap for me here?" Lucifer said grimly as he raised his foot and smashed it on the head of the middle-aged man, crushing it.

The blonde man who was in the nearest shop screamed as he watched his friend die, "Markel!"

He came out of the shop and ran towards Lucifer to kill him in his anger, ignoring the commands of Flourance.

"I don't care who you all are! Anyone who comes in my way will suffer the same fate," Lucifer declared, ignoring the screams of the man who came running towards him.

"Die!" the man thundered as he disappeared, turning into a shadow.

Watching the man disappear, Lucifer was stunned however he soon noticed the shadow moving on the ground.

'He turned to a shadow? Or is he invisible but unable to control shadow? No, there is no sun in the sky. It can't be a normal shadow. He definitely turned into a shadow!'

Hurriedly analyzing the situation, he instantly realized what the power of the man was.

The blonde man was called Treston, a Warrior-Grade Variant who had a Physical Power of transformation. His power of transformation was different from Caen, though. 

While the first level leader of Variant Uprising Caen was able to transform into any humanoid shape, which helped him impersonate anyone, Treston could only transform into a shadow. 

His transformation ability was more limited as well since he could only stay in his shadow form for twenty seconds at a time before he returned to normal unwillingly.

Despite this limitation, Treston used this ability as he believed that twenty seconds were enough for him to kill Lucifer for what he did to his friend.

"Come," Lucifer mumbled as he watched the shadow getting closer. 

He raised his foot slightly and smashed it on the ground as he flew towards the shadow instead, leaving a crater in his wake.

Treston was stunned to see Lucifer moving towards him as he wondered if he had realized his powers.

"No! He couldn't have known," Treston convinced himself as he prepared his knife, ready to attack Lucifer. 

As soon as Lucifer reached near Treston, the man jumped out of the shadow, thrusting his knife towards him. 

"Too slow," Lucifer replied as if he was already expecting it. 

Twisting his body mid-air, he dodged the sharp edge of the knife while catching the neck of the middle-aged man. Clenching his fist, he crushed the neck of the man.

The man's eyes opened wide as his throat was crushed. He didn't know how it happened so fast. As soon as he came out of the shadow to attack Lucifer, everything turned dark. 

Landing on the ground, Lucifer threw his body to the side.

Two dead bodies lay around Lucifer as he glanced to his left towards a big group of people who had just reached there.

Despite watching Treston die, none of them ran towards him to attack. Lucifer found it strange, but he gave credit to them being worried.

He was sure that people knew about him being able to use lightning to kill his enemies by now. Maybe that's why they kept their distance? He wondered.

Clenching his fist, he raised his right foot above the ground. Tapping it on the ground, he started flying towards the enemies.

Ring!

Lucifer had only flown for a few feet when he heard a phone ring amidst the sound of the rain, coming from behind him.

Stopping in his tracks, he looked behind only to find Flourance standing there. 

As it was his first time seeing Flourance, he didn't recognize him, but he could feel that this man was different from others. He seemed to be more intimidating and experienced.

Lucifer looked to his right at Flourance before looking to his left towards the many men who stood there, as if they were waiting for him.

He wondered who he needed to kill first. Something seemed strange here as well. Why wasn't anyone attacking him?

'Is it some kind of trap? They can't be so nice as not to try to harm me. Something is not right,' he thought. 

He turned towards Flourance, decided on a target.

"Attack him! Attract his attention now. Your first goal is to get him to spot 0! He is getting suspicious. Attack him now!" Flourance muttered, keeping his voice low, making sure that only his men will hear him through comms.