Chapter 61 - 61 - Leaving

September 18th, 2018

Looking at his own figure in the bathroom's mirror, Lucien could still hardly believe everything that happened in these last couple of days.

A month ago, he was but a weak, bullied test subject kept deep below the ground serving only the purpose of some greedy and demonic figures. The eerie, demonic, twisted smile of that doctor… that woman was forever etched into the deepest, darkest recesses of Lucien's mind.

Still, he still overcame that hellish nightmare. He woke up, he escaped. True, for a while, Lucien wasn't certain that whatever he felt, whatever he experienced wasn't just another layer of his endless torments, his nightmares.

For a while, he just went with the flow, he let 'fate' guide him, leading him to experience kindness, an emotion that was alien to him for the first time in his life. For a very brief moment, he almost believed that destiny wouldn't selfishly intervene and let him feel true happiness… Even if briefly.

Yet, reality knocked again, his very existence engulfing the innocent Lewis husband and wife and causing them to suffer similar pain that he was probably quite accustomed to at this point.

The director of the Facility came after him, bringing his own twisted goons, looking for his traces, ready to bring him back even if they had to torture or even kill some innocents in the process. 'Collateral Damage' as they would have called it, no doubt.

Thankfully, a bright, shining pillar of light, a ray of hope still managed to pierce through this… this endless darkness, this harrowing despair and come to his and with it, the Lewis family's save.

An enigmatic blonde girl, Sera, who shook his already crazy world once again. With her help, he survived, escaped hell once again, and was nursed back up.

Even more, with her, Lucien, for the first time in his short and cursed life no longer felt pathetic. He felt a surge of new strength, and with it, a new thirst, a hunger, greed for even more. He learned how to hunt, how to accept… himself. How to control his abilities.

For the first time, he was no longer hurting.

Eventually, as the days went on, his strength grew exponentially.

Still, as usual, reality would soon come kicking. Just as he finally found a path towards unlocking the secrets that were still lying dormant in his own body and understanding more of the mysteries that probably went back to the primordial era, an incredibly powerful creature, something that Lucien never knew existed outside of tales and legends…

Her savior, her only friend, and probably, his servant was maimed and beaten by a Heavenly Beast, a humongous, purple-furred tiger!

As he saw her fragile body fall down on the grass without any signs of life in his tearful eyes, he almost lost it.

He felt his rage, his anger rapidly surging, overcoming his senses, his mind, and throwing him to become nothing more than a berserk monster…

But just like before, not all hope was lost. At the brink of losing his sanity, he realized he is not alone. He never was, and never will be. HIM, his other side, this creature that lived inside him, the one that called itself Pravitas was always with him.

Although Lucien rejected him at first and did not want to have anything to do with the one he deemed as a monster, still in this crucial time, he offered his help. The two became one and finally completed what the system and even Pravitas called the 'True Awakening'.

In the end, together with Pravitas, they overcame the impossible and even gained incredible benefits.

Lucien smugly smirked as he willed the system's interface to come up. He watched with a growing delight as the dark, semi-transparent image appeared floating in front of him, and the dark, ominous blood-red dripping letters slowly made up his latest statistics.

[…::: ℭ???????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ::: ???????????????????????? ????????????????????????????: 01 - 6.025% :::…]

[…:::

????????????????: ???????????????????????? ????????????????

* ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????: 40.00% - ????????????????????????????????????

???????????????????? ????????????????????: ???????????????????????????? ::: * ℜ????????k: 1 ::: 98.5%

?҉?҉?҉?҉?҉:҉ ҉?҉?҉?҉?҉?҉

????????:: 200

****

????????????????????????: 35 / 35 (ℭ???????????????????????? ℜ????????????: +0.01 / 10 ????????????????????????????)

????????????????????????: 25 / 25 (ℭ???????????????????????? ℜ????????????: -0.01 / 10 ????????????????????????????)

****

:ђгɭ ฬﻮєฬгɭรภאɭ๔ ђภคɭ ภเ קฬєן קเ. ๓๓ςɭן รгєเɭן єןɭ

* ????????????????????????????????: 12.00

* ????????????????????????????: 9.00 (+1.20)

* ????????????????????????????: 11.00 (+0.15)

ฬ๔гɭร: ????

ђ๓รг๓ς: ????

???????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ℭ????????????????????????????: 0

****

????????????????????????:

True Form: Pravitas (Unique - Rank: -)

???????????????????? ℜ???????????????????????????????????????????? (???????????????????? - ℜ????????????: 1)

???????????? ???????????????????? (???????????????????? - ℜ????????????: 1)

???????????????????? ???????????????? (???????????????????????????? - ℜ????????????: 1)

???????????????????????????? ℜ???????????? (???????????????????????? - ℜ???????????? 1)

Twilight Flames (Active - Rank 1)

:::…]

The gains were incredible, almost unbelievable. Apart from gaining a massive boost to his synchronization with Pravitas, he was also at the peak of his current ready. With only needing a tiny bit more to rank up and finally find out what that would mean.

Also, the second thing that was quite stunning was the huge stockpile of EP he gained after defeating and absorbing the beast. 200 Entropy Points!

Although he has yet to check the Essence Pool that supposedly was the place where he could invest in evolving, morphing, and upgrading his abilities or even supposedly acquiring new ones, he was busy helping Sera to recover.

His attributes also almost completely surpassed the one digit and besides his Agility, the other two were now in the double digits! Although there were still two that weren't available, Lucien still felt content with what he gained.

Especially the fact that he gained two new skills. One being his transformation skill where he would unleash his other side, and fuse together with Pravitas once again, whilst the other is an active ability that he gained from absorbing the heavenly beast, the Twilight Flames.

Activating the skill would coat either his arms, or his legs in the same purple flames, giving not just extra power to his kicks or strikes, but also temporarily enhance the output of his muscles, whilst also providing him with an additional layer of specialized protection.

He sighed with content as he willed the screen away. His eyes wandered to his bare chest, his fingers trailed over the deep claw marks that he kept on his chest. He could heal it, make his skin return to its unblemished, perfect state… but he wanted to keep this as a reminder of the struggles he went through.

It was the perfect memento of the culmination of every dark moment of his growing up, its owner being the closure he needed to finally be able to go on and start a new chapter of his life.

He smiled at his image once again, before giving himself a slight nod, and walking away, and finishing up his washing up.

Some minutes later, as he left the bathroom, the gentle, warm voice of his partner, his guardian, Sera came from the living room.

"You ready Lucien? Come and let's finish up breakfast, we need to leave shortly after! You do know we need to leave this place and return to the real world, right?"

Listening to her voice, a content, satisfied smile emerged on his youthful face. He looked in the direction of the living room and happily responded to the call.

"Sure, Sera! I will be there in a moment, I just need to grab a shirt!"

As he walked back to his room, an old mantra, a mocking rhyme came to his mind. He smirked, as he was sure that strangely it no longer bothered him.

No, he could now happily embrace it and have finally made it his.

He was Lucien Shaw, the wretched one.

[End of Vol 1 (well technically 2 as I counted the Prologue as its own volume.]

—

(AN.: Following this, we will finally return to the real world, where behind the veil, many dangers are lurking!)

(AN.. 2: Also if you like the story, please let me know by pushing it up in the ranking list with your Power Stones. It is a free resource you get daily, don't let it go to waste! :) )