Concern

Warning

The following novel contains material that may be harmful or traumatic to some readers.

It contains graphic descriptions of murder, violence, and other unpleasant texts.

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-Continent of Ithrai, Kingdom of Sedruan, Year of 1005, Age of Wars-

"Hatred and its memory are much deeper than the memory of love."

- Lucius Cain

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There may be a lot of names in the introduction that are an important part of the story. You may be confused, but as the story progresses, we will get to all of them and explain what they are.

-Omnis

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Ithrai.

A beautiful and vast continent, full of life and love.

A continent brimming with magic and knowledge.

A continent where everyone is happy...

Where everyone was happy.

The continent became a battleground for many wars 9 years ago. Sedruan with Estagardia, then the rise of the Demon Emperor's power in the East of Ithrai itself.

In any case, there were three groups in Ithrai that make the place what it is said to be.

The first, most ordinary group are people who want peace, family and happiness. They grow up, work, start a family and then die in old age.

The second, rarer group is the upper elite. Powerful families, with considerable influence on the throne, or rich slave-trading families. They were an integral and influential part of Ithrai.

What happens to those who cannot fit into the first, or second society?

They automatically go to the third option, which is the most dangerous. The Underworld. A place where people with no future can take on contracts involving murder, theft, spying and more. It's public knowledge that it's the place of many murderers who want to escape justice. The Underworld has its own laws, and that means the Kingdom must abide by them. The Underworld has many branches across the continent, the main one being in the Kingdom of Frieland, the capital of Mythrondale. The Deep Underworld, home of the Underworld King Leviathan Blake.

...

They become mercenaries of the Ithrai underworld.

An underworld where only the worst, and the most sinister, gather.

These bastards of all kinds have only two choices.

The two options this underworld offers.

And who have to respect those two options.

One is to die.

The other is to survive.

But there was only one case in the entire history of the Underworld that did not desire to both survive and die.

Who didn't want fame or money.

Who didn't want the quiet life or the noisy one.

And who simply wanted blood to spurt from his sword.

Only one case that could kill a cute innocent child because of his hatred and cold nature.

One man who couldn't bear the thought of a quiet and uninteresting life.

One man who was described as the embodiment of all others' fears.

One man who could take the lives of thousands of people and never bat an eyelid.

Described as the Alksador's Heir himself.

Infamous, and a name to dread.

Lucius Cain, The Phantom Of Hatred

---

But what of him now?

A Phantom who's been inactive for two years and hasn't taken a single job in two years?

There have been many theories and stories.

That he killed himself because his conscience got to him. Or he was murdered by one of the eight wonders of the world. Or maybe he's just tired of this life and is hiding somewhere. Then there was only one more, the most absurd theory... And that was that he was following love.

It sounds ridiculous, really ridiculous, but yes.

Love that could conquer hate.

A love that could defeat the unbeatable Lucius Cain himself.

This really tall, chiseled, scarred, red-eyed, white-haired, 28 old man who could drive away his hatred and replace it with love.

Lucius Cain and...

Sophia Caddel.

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-A small village near Red City, Red Province, Kingdom of Sedruan, Year 1005-

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~ZZZzzz~

"Honey?" Sophia trying to wake Lucius from a heavy sleep.

~ZZZzzz~

"Honey?!" She hardens up the volume on her voice, but Lucius still doesn't respond.

Sophia looks thoughtfully at his stomach.

~ZZZzzz~

And at his legs.

More specifically, his privates.

"Penis or belly?" She thinks even more, looking at his balls, and says to herself.

"No. I like that too much." She smiles and elbows Lucius madly in the stomach.

...

...

~ZZZzzz~

Sophia looks at Lucius with a disbelieving and angry look.

"Is that fucking possible?" Sophia raises her voice.

Then she hears a child's voice from outside and thinks for a bit.

An idea immediately comes to her mind, and she even chuckles a little.

...

"HONEY, I'M PREGNANT!" Sophia shouts across the room.

~blink~ ~blink~

He opens his blue-white eyes, and the sentence rings through his head again.

Completely shocked, he flies out of bed, grabs Sophia by the shoulders, and looks into her eyes with a cold and shocked expression.

"If it's a guy, it's Lucius."

Sophia is startled at first, but then smiles.

"And if it's a woman?" Sophia asks.

Lucius thinks and immediately comes up with a name.

"Sophia." And he smiles a little.

Sophia laughs, and starts nodding her head because she can't believe Lucius.

She looks into his eyes.

"I'm not pregnant, Phantom. You're coming with me nicely to the marketplace." She smiles and hands Lucius the clothes.

Lucius with a slight disappointment on his face looks at the clothes with on his face, and is reminded of his iconic and familiar white suit he first put on.

His mind flashes to how he had a lot of blood on his suit when he killed, or even pieces of his brain flying out of heads due to his immense strength.

He loved blood. Indeed.

He loved this feeling.

The feeling of mastery over death.

But he stops thinking and then looks at Sophia.

There, his mind reels back a few memories of where he spent good times with her.

His face gives a small hint of a smile.

"I..."

"Love you more." Lucius says to himself.---

---

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-Outside-

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(9 Minutes later)

They both leave the house, and head towards the centre of the village to the market place.

On the way, they are stopped by a neighbour who exchanges smiles and a few verbs with Sophie.

But Lucius, who is listening carefully to the conversation, spots a strange figure looking directly at him out of the corner of his eye.

Lucius twists his head a little, and sees a hint of nervousness and fright in the figure who immediately redirects his gaze.

He decides to walk towards it, but before he can do so Sophia grabs his arm, and smiles at him.

He clutches her tighter to him and they walk further into the center.

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-Village Center-

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Sophia gives Lucius a kiss, and heads off to the shops.

Lucius kept thinking of the figure he saw, and it didn't give him any peace.

He stays calm, and decides to think about it. He goes to see Lucius, but is interrupted by some children who are playing.

He looks at them.

He sees laughter, joy, an innocent face.

///

Drastic memories of his former life are replayed in his mind.

He's had to kill countless people for his job.

Even children.

Lucius did everything for his job. That included killing little children.

Little children begging for help from their dead mothers.

///

It was... a job.

He tells the reminiscing Lucius, where he is interrupted by Sophia, who notices him looking at the children.

"I must have hurt you too much this morning, didn't I?" Sophia says sadly.

"Really... Do you want kids?" Sophia asks.

He thinks for a moment, where he recalls another ominous memory.

He lowers her gaze.

"Honestly Sophia. I don't know." Lucius says, with a quiet sigh at the end.

"I don't know if I could hide my past from them." He looks at Sophia.

"And especially... my hatred." He looks deeply into Sophia's eyes.

///

But then another memory flashes through his mind.

Memories of dead eyes.

The eyes were where life was extinguished.

And they've gone white.

Eyes that grew cold.

///

It was... it was work.

He tells himself again.

Sophia interrupts his reminiscing with a deep kiss.

"You're not the man you used to be, Lucius."

"And you never will be." Sophia smiles at him.

However, Lucius was still worried that his hatred would grow past his love for Sophia.

But he stops thinking about it again, and they head home together.

---

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-House of Lucius and Sophia-

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(7 Minutes later)

"Honestly, I'm very glad there is still such a peaceful and beautiful place here in Itrai." Sophia says as she enters.

Lucius smiles and helps Sophia with her shopping.

They make their way to the kitchen, and put the groceries on the table.

They take out the groceries, and Lucius' memories come back to him as he takes out the meat.

///

A memory involving the guts.

How many hearts that Lucius ripped out were still beating in his hand.

How many intestines he had unraveled and from which all the filth had flowed.

How many brains ended up on the ground that were still thinking.

///

It's starting to bother Lucius.

He sighs angrily and visibly, and leans against the table what Sophia notices.

She grabs him gently by the arm.

"Is something wrong?" Sophia says worriedly.

With a slightly annoyed face, and downcast eyes though, he looks up at the beautiful black-haired Sophia, and her golden eyes bring a smile to his face.

He gives her a kiss on the forehead, and hugs her.

"Nothing honey. Everything is as it should be."

Sophia laughs.

"Not yet..." She gently pushes away Lucius who pauses.

She pulls a kitchen knife on him, and that startles Lucius even more.

Then she shows him the meat in front of his face.

"The meat is not yet." He laughs, making Lucius smile.

He turns towards their bedroom and makes him way over to him.

This time his memories come back, with the people he stabbed.

///

Stabbing young soldiers who were just doing their job.

How many throats did Lucius cut with his knife to make sure they were dead.

How many arteries did he cut to make them bleed to death.

///

It kept coming back to him.

He stops, lowers his gaze and lightly clenches his fists, causing the building to shake.

Sophia is surprised and Lucius, who immediately recovers.

"Sorry, honey." He points his hand at her.

"I used more force than I meant to."

He calms Sophia down.

"Well, you better watch out for that. I don't want this beautiful village to end up on fire." She laughs and starts making meat next.

Lucius just nods his head, and decides to head towards the bedroom again but is immediately stopped by Sophia with the words.

"Oh my God." Issues a disappointed Sophia, who puts down her knife and starts rummaging through the groceries.

Lucius turns around.

"Did you forget something?"

"I forgot the dark spices." He gets a little annoyed.

"Shall I go get it?" The quick-witted Lucius offers, but Sophia declines.

"I'll go get it. I was going to buy you a present anyway." She makes her way over to Lucius and grabs his hand.

The latter, with a calm expression, is seized with a question.

"What present?" Lucius asks, curious.

Sophia smiles from ear to ear.

"Let me surprise you." She gives him a kiss, and leaves.

Before she leaves, she gives him another wave and thinks a little at the sight of him.

They both smile, and she leaves.

Lucius lowers his gaze, then looks at the bedroom.

"I'm going to get some more sleep." And he makes his way to the bed, where he slowly, slowly falls asleep.

He sees the darkness.

Darkness.

-

Darkness.

-

Darkness.

-

Darkness.

...

///

The white void in which Lucius stood.

He looked behind him and saw a bloody hell.

Thousands of bodies from which souls were escaping to hide from Lucius.

Thousands of limbs that still oozed blood.

Thousands of entrails are being gnawed by birds.

And on the bloody throne, he sits, with his smiling self.

He looked at himself sitting on the throne.

"Old times."

Suddenly a strong sharp feeling of killer instinct went through his head.

///

And immediately he wakes up, gets up and quickly heads for the door where he hears and feels a huge explosion on the way.

This shocks him, and he immediately thinks of Sophia, and her face.

His look turns to one of utter despair and he quickly heads outside where he can see the dust from the explosion still visible towards the centre.

The people running the other way, however, are stopped by one of them, Lucius, with a very mad expression.

"What happened?!" He asks with a very aggressive but calm expression.

The man gets scared and tries to get out of Lucius' hands, but he can't.

"LET ME GO!" Yells the completely frightened man at Lucius.

"FUCKING LET ME GO!" He yells even more but Lucius gives his shoulders a huge squeeze and asks with an even more crazed expression.

"What happened in there you fucker?"

The man screams in pain, realizing he has to answer or he'll die.

"So- Some fucking maniac used magic in there, and he's killing people one by one!" Tears begin to flow.

"Now please let me go." Lucius releases his hands, and the man runs away.

He turns his head towards the Centers, and looks towards the Centers with a crazed expression.

The blink of an eye is enough to make Lucius disappear in an instant.

Disappeared.

to find his lost

...

...

HATRED

To be continued...