Lucifer stepped out of his car, stopping it right outside the mansion.
He stepped inside the mansion to find Cassius having lunch. Veracity was also with him. As for Jiang, he wasn't visible anywhere as he had already left.
Lucifer also joined up with them as he took a chair. Lunch was served for him as well.
"Where did you go?" Cassius asked Lucifer.
"Delivering a letter and preparing for the big day tomorrow," Lucifer responded.
...
Raia was informed about the demands of Lucifer, and he didn't think too much of it. He had agreed to come to Kensington himself if that was what it took. Moreover, he wasn't coming alone either.
He stopped before the helicopter and started waiting for someone. It didn't take long before he noticed a person coming from the distance.
Vega was walking towards the helicopter as well. Unlike before, he was dressed fully in clothes made of Cardigan Particles.
Raia was also wearing his usual robe made of Cardigan Particles that was the invention of the Variant Uprising. Surprisingly, Raia wasn't coming alone, though. A girl was walking beside him.
The girl seemed to be in her early twenties, according to her looks. Her flaming red hair came down to her waist, matching her beautiful crimson eyes.
Her beautiful eyes, thin lips, and cute cheeks made her seem like a princess that had come from the world of fantasy, but there were no expressions on her face.
Vega and the girl stopped before Raia.
"Greetings, Uncle Raia," the girl said as she bowed her head in respect before Raia.
"Ah, Alicia. How have you been?" Raia asked, smiling brightly.
"I've been perfectly fine. Father has been taking good care of me," the red-haired girl said with proper manners as she glanced at Vega when mentioning father.
"That's good. Let's leave then. I think it's about time we showed you the outside world," Raia said to the girl as he stepped inside the helicopter.
Alicia also stepped inside with Vega.
The roof opened up, letting the sunlight pass through. The helicopter started rising in the air and soon left the base.
As the helicopter was flying, Alicia was constantly looking outside, amazed.
It was her first time outside the base as far as she could remember, but she had always dreamt of seeing the world one day. She couldn't believe that day came so soon.
"Do you like what you see?" Raia asked, amused at Alicia's overreaction.
"Yes. It's beautiful. The sun and the sand... And it's so big. I can't even see the end of it," Alicia replied.
"Are you sad that we didn't let you leave the base in the last six years?" Raia asked.
"Not at all," Alicia responded as she glanced at Raia. "I can understand why father, and you didn't let me leave. It was for my own safety."
"That's right. Six years ago, your father had taken you outside. But he was attacked. In the battle, you got injured. That's why he placed the condition before you, to learn as much as you can before going out. It was all so you could protect yourself," Raia said, sighing.
Even though he was making this whole thing up, his acting was so good that it didn't seem like a lie at all.
In reality, Alicia was none other than the girl who was kept at the Dilion Research Facility by Doctor Rao.
After a long time, Vega had managed to bring her out successfully without destroying that place.
Vega could still remember the day he had brought Alicia out of the Cylindrical Container, filled with liquid.
She was still breathing, but she seemed to be unconscious. It was only after a few days that she woke up, but she didn't have any of her memories.
She only remembered her childhood, but even that was erased by Raia, who manipulated her memories to make her think that she had always been with Variant Uprising.
Raia erased all of her memories belonging to the moment before she met them. And when she woke up, she was lied to. With the help of Manipulated Memories, Raia made Vega Alicia's father.
"That's right. I know Father only has my best interest in his mind," Alicia said as she nodded.
"By the way, you like the desert? You'll like the cities even more. That's where the fun really starts. We're going there to bring home another family member. I'm sure you'll like him."
"You two are going to work in a team in the future," Raia told Alicia as he imagined the two young Warlock Kings working in a team under him.
'I wonder who will be stronger? Alicia or Lucifer? Both of them have a different specialty of their own.'
'While Lucifer has immortal healing, Alicia has the unbreakable defense. While Lucifer has many powers, Alicia also has many of them, even though different ones.'
' I guess Alicia would be slightly stronger since she can become even stronger in the future. Whatever the case, I must praise the human scientists.'
'Who would have thought they'd be able to make a monster from a girl who only had one power which was seemingly useless. They found her ability and used it to their advantage.'
Raia lost himself in deep thought as he observed Alicia, who had started looking outside.
'They found her special ability which was hidden inside her blood... The Gene Absorption. The power to absorb abilities from the genes of others as long as they were inserted in proper sequencing.'
'I don't know how they did it exactly, but they did manage to inject the genes of the Variants that had awakened in the lab inside her, increasing her abilities.'
' Generally, most people should have died from that, even if they had the power of Gene Absorption; but still, they succeeded.'
'If only we find out her original Gene Sequencing, we should be able to achieve it too.'
'But after absorption of so many Variant genes, finding her raw genes sequencing is impossible. If we want to continue gene injection, we need her original genes sequencing, which she had before she was first injected with genes.'
'Hopefully, our scientists can find her original gene sequencing from the diary of Rao. He was the only person who knew it, and now he's dead. If we find it, it should be easy to make Alicia even stronger, maybe even more so than Lucifer.'
'If only Lucifer had awakened inside the lab, Rao might have taken his awakened genes too. Alicia would have had his abilities too. It's too bad that he awakened later. Alicia lost the chance of having Lucifer's powers.'
As Raia gazed at Alicia, there was hope inside him about the future.