84 Rank 3

Once he was in front of the family, Lucien picked up the woman and strapped her to a chair. A lot of equipment has been prepared beforehand for his needs. He then proceeded to strap the man to a chair that was right across his wife. They could both look at each other.

He then proceeded with inflicting pain. The methods of torture were something he learned in his previous life and were now creatively mixed with Particles from his multitude of Paths to inflict even greater amounts of pain without letting the person die. He was using Darkness to corrode small pieces of skin which he then healed with the Light Path. Since they were commoners, the only thing Lucien had to worry about was the amount of power he used.

For hours and hours screams were heard from the room, and decent amounts of negative energy was continuously poured inside of Lucien. Now that he was a Devil, he didn't have to be in any state to absorb this energy, it would naturally be attracted if it was inside his Domain.

The woman broke and her hoarse screams stopped all together after the forth hour. Commoners would never be able to hold this long, but Lucien took special care of her and made sure to push her to the absolute boundaries. Looking back at the man, who was now petrified and tears silently streaked on his face, Lucien smiled and cut off the head of the woman. All her blood flew out and disappeared once it was near Lucien.

The man was completely hopeless, but seeing his wife die like that, rage filled his heart.

"You will get what is coming for you, you Devil."

The man uttered with a hoarse voice this sentence before trying to bite his tongue. Of course before he could, the control he had over his body was taken away.

"Now now, don't try to get away so easy. Your wife suffered so much and you should experience it as well, so that you have something to talk about when you meet on the other side. Oh right, I take the Souls as well so there is not much of another side."

Once he heard that even their Souls were not spared, the man broke as well. His will was crushed and he only stood there and took whatever Lucien did to him without a sound.

"Not fun at all..." Lucien finished him off not long after, it was boring torturing a shell of a human.

Sensing the amount of negative energy he received, it seemed a little bit more than when he made them kill each other, but it also took longer using this method. So it was pretty balanced in the end.

'Visualize how the progress with negative energy is going.'

-The price for the levels of Devil Armor and current progress would be 10 000 Existence Points-

'Is it because I would reach it even on my own at some point, that it is classifying the information as a lower rarity.'

'Take it.'

Lucien knew that this amount of points was still a lot, but the information was really important to him.

-Devil Armor Level 0: Below Rank 3 amplification is 5 times, above Rank 3 amplification is 2 times and after Rank 4 there is no amplification.

-Devil Armor Level 1: Below Rank 3 amplification is 10 times, above Rank 3 amplification is 4 times and after Rank 4 there is no amplification.

-Devil Armor Level 2: Below Rank 3 amplification is 20 times, above Rank 3 amplification is 8 times and after Rank 4 amplification is 2 times.

-Devil Armor Level 3: Requirements not met-

-Devil Armor Level 0: Complete-

-Devil Armor Level 1: 0.01% Complete-

-Devil Armor Level 2: Locked-

'Phew... the amplifications are insane. But going with the logic, I would need to torture 10 000 families to unlock Level 1, it would take almost half a decade.'

'Is there a way to increase my domain, then I could gather it faster.'

-Soul Devour Rank 3 changes the Soul quality-

Even through Lucien was just thinking, All Existence provided an answer to his plight.

'So after Darkness, Soul Devour would be next. The amounts of Blood I would need for the Blood Count are ridiculous. I'm already collecting from any possible source, but it will still take some time.

Lucien managed to put a lot of things that he was worried about behind him, which brought him some peace of mind and clarity. He was ready to push past that last obstacle.

He called out the clone and both of them went to the Dusky Woods, Lucien made sure that both of them wear different disguises. Even through the density of Particles was not that high, it was better than nothing and his plan involved using the Rank 2 Herb, so the extra quantity was just a bonus.

He found a cave where the density was particularly high, and after killing a Rank 1 Beast that was occupying it, both he and his clone sat down and meditated for a bit.

"Start."

Both of them uttered the word at the same time, which was super easy as the clone was part of him.

The clone started pulling Particles from as far as he could, only concentrating on that task. All the Particles that he pulled were then sent into the main body. At the same time Lucien pulled the Rank 2 Herb that already completed a quarter of it's evolution out, it was much more vibrant that when he got it, but he didn't hesitate to put it in his mouth and crush it. It released incredible amounts of Particles which Lucien started leading to outside his body.

The first gate was just 1 meter above his head. And it opened with incomparable ease. The amounts of Particles Lucien could control was already at the peak of Rank 2, if opening the first gate was still a problem, then he would have to doubt his talent.

The Particles that were being released from the Herb were like an endless ocean, and the clone made sure to pour in a lot more streams to keep the ocean saturated. His preparations were impeccable.

The second gate was 2 meters above his head and each following one was 1 meter higher. Lucien already practiced endless amounts of time all the way to the 8th gate and he got there with no problems once again.

The ocean still had almost 60% of it's capacity and the clone was still pouring large amounts, restoring it slowly.

Lucien started controlling that ocean and battered the final gate with his wave tactic, wave after wave of Particles smashed like an endless tide and slowly opened the final door. Once the ocean was left with barely 10% of it's capacity, Lucien saw the final gate fully open.

The feeling that came with it was as addicting as always. He suddenly felt as if the world within 9 meters of him awaken. Anything was more vibrant, he could feel the lifeforces of anything within that range. He could even see some dim lines that were connecting the different forms of life. Some bugs that were on the wall were connected, but the brightest connection was the clone and himself. He felt like a God in this space of his, but that was not absolute.

The previous fight had already showed to him that the Domain of Lower Paths was fragile in front of Middle Paths. And once control was lost, it was useless.

Nevertheless, he was pretty sure that he could convert Particles from one Path into Darkness Particles in this Domain. He had already seen this done by Henry when he was building his cultivation room as a kid, but the scale he could influence was minuscule in comparison

Anything out of that range was also more pronounced in his vision, but he knew that was because his Soul got rapidly strengthened.

'Ahhh, I can never get enough of this feeling.'

Lucien almost wanted to moan, because of the feeling of power. He slowly opened his eyes, which sparkled with expectations for the future.