Lucius lazily gazed at the weapons aimed at him. The hummed dangerously with the strange source of power of the marks. His face seemed to shift downwards and cast an unknown gaze at the man on the ground and took another step. Instantly, the weapons vanished, vaporized by the pressure the black-haired boy was exuding.
"No. No. I can't. The world hasn't paid for what it did to me. You are like the others. You are supposed to be like me.
Why are you like the others!?" the man cried out. He curled into a fetal position, rocking back and forth, muttering intelligible words to himself.
From this distance, Rena was able to pick up on the man's cries, but whatever he was mumbling about was impossible to say. Jen rushed out of the building, so she followed by instinct. She knew what was going to happen next. Lucius was going to kill that man.
Both of the girls approached Lucius cautiously from behind. Rena knew that he could tell they were, but he did not make any moves to acknowledge them at all. Instead, his gaze was locked on the man trembling in fear with his face covered in tears and mucus.
"Lucius. He's finished. Let's take him into custody." Jen said, gently moving her hand towards him. Rena grabbed it before Jen could make contact.
"Don't. That is a profoundly BAD idea." She warned. Her point was proven by the fact that until they moved their eyes away from each other, Lucius' blade was gingerly pressed against Jen's neck.
"She's harmless, Lucius. But she is right. We can take him into custody and take the city the proof needed to show what happened here."
"Proof?" Lucius asked, the air seeming to vibrate from the sound of his voice. "Okay. We will get proof."
"Good..." Rena whispered.
Lucius gave her a smile, one that did not seem to reach his eyes. There was a strange squelching sound, followed by a strange crunch, and then side of his face turned red as something splattered against it.
Grimm seemed to grumble and pout for some reason but joined in. 'Yeah, yeah, I have a sword thing too...but with Luz's technique...how about something else...ahhh. I know!'
Grimm did not tell Lucius what ability he was planning to give him. For some reason, he thought it was for the purpose of not exposing the ability to Luz directly...but surely that wasn't the case...right?
The experience and understanding of his mark's new abilities entered his brain. He was reminded on how to activate the Heavenly Blade ability from Luz and was filled with understanding of Grimm's gift... it was a much less powerful version of the shadow tendrils and armor that he had used in his last fight. Abyss Armor.
While using the ability, his current armor was covered with living shadows that increased his defense and he had one shadow tendril that could control as though it were an extra appendage.
When the information was fully absorbed he finally understood what his mark was. It truly was an Inverse mark. The symbol from one orientation was that of a valley and when flipped it was that of a mountain. The meaning: Celestia, the realm of the gods and light, and the Abyss, the realm of demons and darkness.
Lucius had a feeling that there were way more abilities this mark granted him beyond a powerful sword and armor enhancement, but for the purposes of filling out the registration of his mark when he returned to town, as was law, he would only share that information.
Luz and Grimm's presence in his mind diminished alongside the unbelievable well of power he had been experiencing and soon things felt normal. He was much stronger than before, as one would feel with an increase in rank, but he was not even a drop in the ocean to the power he just witnessed. Still, it was something he was proud of.
Lucius opened his eyes and looked softly at Rena who was giving him a gentle, yet complicated smile, and then fell to his knees.
"Lucius!"
"I'm fucking tired..."
"I bet you would be, kid. What rank are you now? Did you break through once or did you get a double breakthrough?" Jen asked in a measured tone. It seemed she was still nervous about the sword to the throat thing, which was understandable.
"Just the one. I'm Beginner now. And I understand my mark." He answered. Each word felt difficult as exhaustion began to overwhelm him. "We can talk later...can we rest...and you guys can burn the bodies...I need to sleep. Keep the hand though."