Chapter 52

[Third Person's PoV]

Lucian's hair flowed in the wind as he manipulated the earth on the wall of a hidden underground lair to ride across it, with a black cloth obscuring his vision.

In front of him, people wearing what seemed to be black hoods were seen running away from him, fear evident on their faces.

"Just leave us alone, you freak!" the man in front of Lucian shouted.

Lucian maintained a cold expression, "Sorry, but the Goddess hates it when you cultists sacrifice children. So she sent me to personally deal with you."

As Lucian surfed on the wall with his feet inside it, he waved his hand, summoning a couple of balls of darkness and sending them flying towards the cultists.

Some of the cult members dodged out of the way, avoiding the projectiles, but others weren't so fortunate and ended up injured.

As they rolled away, they turned towards Lucian, held out their hands, and shouted, "Πυρία σφαίρα πέμπω!" causing multiple fireballs to be shot out of their hands, flying towards Lucian.

Lucian jumped from the wall, which exploded, and looked towards the cult members upside-down with his index and middle fingers pointed towards them at an angle.

A black fireball quickly formed at the end of his fingers, compressing on itself, and was sent flying towards them, causing a large explosion, killing some and sending the others crashing against the wall while coughing up blood.

Lucian executed a flip in the air and landed back on the ground safely, revealing his lack of shoes or any footwear.

The remaining occultists groaned and coughed in pain as they attempted to get back up.

Lucian kicked the floor, creating a wave and slamming them back onto the wall. A part of them sank into the wall, rendering them unable to move. Lucian then wrapped their mouths with part of the wall, making them unable to speak or cast a spell, and slowly approached them.

All the cultists struggled as they tried to move or talk, their expressions shifting from fear to rage.

When Lucian stood in the midst of them, he turned toward the one who was the least injured. Although they couldn't see his eyes, they could sense his gaze fixed upon them.

"Mmmmhmmmm."

They attempted to scream and yell, but were rendered mute and powerless.

Lucian undid the mouth binding of the person he focused on and asked in a cold tone, "Where are the children?"

To the others, it was an odd question as Lucian was a child himself.

The cultist didn't answer but spit a bit of blood towards Lucian, who easily turned his head out of the way. "Go to hell, kid, I ain't telling you anything."

Lucian's shoulders slumped as he let out a sigh, "You know, normally I would have tortured and punished you for such a thing, but that's not my job to do… it's my father's."

Lucian grinned, exposing his fang-like teeth, his forearm and hand covered with black flames, and his fingers turning into claws. Lucian pushed his hand forward, impaling the guy's chest and clenching his heart, destroying it.

"Tell him I say hi and that I'll come visit him later, will you?" Lucian said as his grin became wider.

The guy didn't answer; all he ended up doing was coughing blood, some of which landed across Lucian's cheek, while taking his final breath. The center of his chest then started to catch on fire, and the black flames slowly engulfed his entire body until there was nothing left.

Lucian withdrew his hand and flicked it, causing the blood to fly off his hand. He undid the flame gauntlet and looked around at the others who were staring at him in fear, with some even so terrified that they soiled their clothes, causing Lucian to look at them in disgust.

Lucian's expression of disgust quickly morphed into another grin while simultaneously wiping the blood from his cheek, causing a shiver to crawl down their backs.

"Ah, don't worry. I already know where the children are; I just wanted to see if you guys had any redeeming qualities, which clearly you don't."

"Now then, any last words before I send you all off to face the judgment of three renowned judges," Lucian said, smirking as he cuffed a hand towards his ear, but all he heard was the sound of their muffled screaming.

Still smirking, Lucian clapped his hands, "No? Alright then, enjoy your trip."

Lucian's smirking expression simply evaporated as he sent a blazing storm of black flames towards everyone, burning them all alive. Once he stopped, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, acknowledging that although he doesn't regret what he's done, it isn't easy.

Leaning back, Lucian made a grabbing motion in front of him, taking hold of something. He made a twisting motion, causing whatever was in front to grunt in pain and release what was in his hands. It appeared to be a cultist using magic to hide himself. Lucian kicked the guy in the back of his knee, bringing them close to the same height.

Lucian kicked the ground, causing the knife that the cultist tried to stab him with to fly up. He grabbed it midair and stabbed it right into the remaining cultist's temple.

"That should be the last of them," Lucian coldly told himself, unable to detect any more movement using seismic sensing, a skill he had been practicing, which was why his eyes were covered.

Seismic sensing, an ability that works similarly to echolocation. This skill enables him to detect vibrations in the ground to perceive objects, people, and other aspects of their environment, essentially acting as sonar, but through earth and metal.

Lucian burnt the corpse and walked away without even looking back.

…

Lucian walked down a flight of stairs leading downwards further down underground, he stopped when he came in front of a large metal door.

Lucian put his hand on the door which sent it flying back landing on the ground with a large sound causing the sound of chains clattering to be heard deeper inside the room.

What Lucian perceived inside caused him to sigh and shake his head in disappointment and disgust. There were children from multiple ages chained up, malnourished and locked away in a cell.

Lucian walked through the middle of the multiple cells and as he passed through, the chains and jail cells would unlock themselves, leaving those mortal kids shocked, looking at Lucian in surprise.

When he reached the end he turned towards everyone that came out of their cells, "Come, follow me, I'll take you guys back towards the surface"

"It's not that we're not grateful but who are you?" One of the olders kids asked, looking at Lucian weirdly as what he just saw him do was quite shocking.

"Can we really go home?" One of the smaller ones asked with expectations in his voice.

More and more kids started bombarding Lucian with questions. He just started walking back the way he came from, "Follow me and find out"

They looked between each other some with suspicion and apprehension but ultimately decided to trust Lucian as he was the one to unchain them.

As Lucian walked, he could practically feel the curious gazes on him, wanting to ask him questions but were too scared to. Due to having blinded himself for practice, Lucian's other senses heightened slightly, one of those senses made him sensitive to the gazes of those around him.

'Since I'm going to alter their memories once they're out might as well satisfy their curiosity,' he thought to himself.

"Just ask your questions already, I'm not going to bite."

Hearing him, some of them jumped in surprise. One of the older ones had the courage to be the first one to ask, "Can you really see? Are you blind? Is that why you're wearing a blindfold?"

"Yes, I can still see. No, I'm not blind, and I'm wearing it for training."

One of the girls went and asked, "How were you able to do that? That was so cool how you simply blasted the door open and freed us!"

"Magic," Lucian simply replied.

"How old are you?"

"8."

"Do you actually expect us to believe you use magic?"

"No."

"Why are you wearing a fur coat? Aren't you hot?"

"Because it's fashionable, and thanks for the compliment."

"What happened to everyone that captured us?"

"Facing judgment."

"What does that mean?"

"It means they're facing judgment."

"Why aren't you wearing any shoes?"

"So I can see."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"How do you see with your feet?"

"The same way you see with your eyes."

The more comfortable they got, the more questions they asked. Some even laughed at the answers Lucian was giving them, making them more relaxed.

When they reached the surface and outside, Lucian turned towards them and smiled, "Sweet dreams."

This confused all of them. Lucian blew into his hand, and a white mist surrounded them. Their eyes rolled back to the back of their heads as they slowly fell down and started to sleep.

Lucian used the mist to make them remember things differently. Instead of him rescuing them and being caught by cultists, they were caught by human traffickers and managed to escape as they were being drugged, explaining why they fell asleep as soon as they stepped outside.

Lucian then used the mist to change his appearance and look like one of them. He ran towards someone close by while crying and grabbing onto their pants.

"Mister! Mister! Please help us! We escaped confinement, and my friends all fell unconscious. Call 9-1-1."

The person was in shock and followed Lucian as he led him towards the other children. The person quickly called the cops. With that, Lucian changed the person's memory of meeting him and left.

As he left Lucian changed what he was wearing, he was wearing a black three piece suit, black boots, with his fur coat still hanging loosely on his shoulder, Lucian still had the black cloth covering his eyes.

(Image)