Chapter 11: Lucian's Strength

"Shakira, Eduardo…"

Amidst all the chaos that Lucian has surrounded himself with, he finally found solace as he stood in front of two piles of trash — piles of trash which served as Eduardo and Shakira's grave. He ordered his new slaves—his new subordinates to clean up the mess they made and make a grave for the two.

In truth, he shouldn't be doing this at all and he knows that — he barely even knew them, they were pests of the dark and he would barely even look twice at them in his previous life, if at all. It made no sense that someone like him would be doing anything like this — but he is, because he wants to.

They were the first creatures he had met in this new and mysterious world he knew nothing about, aside from his father whom he saw briefly before he was flushed in the toilet. He may have not learned anything about this world from them, but he learned about one thing.

"..." …Actually, he learned nothing from them.

"But even still…" Lucian crouched down as he threw a piece of unknown trash to add to the pile, "...I now treat you as my parents in this place. May the two of you find peace in death, not all of us get to do the same."

This would perhaps be a very touching scene, if it were not for the fact that Lucian's stomach was still a little bloated from having devoured the Hoarder King and he could actually barely even reach the ground when he tried to crouch.

"D…damn it…" Lucian was trying to pick a tiny teeny trash to place on the pile, but he could not, "You! Come hand me that… whatever that small thing is!"

"C…Chi!?" One of the Hoarders who just happened to be passing by Lucian was suddenly slapped by his hair; his hair which he could have very well used to pick up the trash instead.

"What do you mean chii chii chii!?" Lucian slapped the poor Hoarder on the face again, "How many times do I have to tell you to use words? We are civilized people! Do you see this, Eduardo…? These mongrels prevented you from seeing your wife one final time… Oh, woe… woe is you."

The Hoarder did not really have a choice, carefully approaching Lucian while crawling on four legs like a normal rat, and handing him the tiny bit of trash, which seemed like the cotton tip of a swab considering it still had ear wax around it.

"G…good," Lucian struggled to pick it from the hoarder's hand, "You may go, Rodent."

"T…thank you," the Hoarder bowed its head several times while backing away; careful not to show its back to Lucian in fear of being eaten alive like their king, whose body was still slightly etched on Lucian's stomach.

"See, words," Lucian shook his head as he once again faced the pile of trash, "Shakira — or perhaps should I say, mother… I truly am sorry that I couldn't protect you as promised… and I even merged with your child and overtook his body completely. This face…"

Lucian then let out a sigh as he slithered away and looked at himself in a shard of broken glass; holding his chubby face as he stared at himself.

"This face is that of a human baby…" Lucian continued to talk to himself, "...the cute kind, thankfully. Not one of those babies that look like they are 80 years old. If there is one thing I can thank my human father for, it is his face. I have Eduardo's unusually large ears that are almost bigger than my head… and my lower half is that of a snake… and my eyes…"

Lucian's left and right eyes had different colors; his right eye was the same as Shakira's, yellow and almost golden — his left eye, however, was perhaps one of the things that reminded him of what he was previously.

It was green and glowing, very much like his color when he was still a sentient sperm.

"What sort of creature am I, then?" Lucian stared at his own eyes before he pulled on his face, extending it to its limits and causing it to slightly be translucent like jelly, "And what sort of creature are you… for a god to come down from his throne and ensure that you do not live, my other half? You do not have to worry, I will avenge our—"

"King!"

"Can't you see I am monologuing!?" Lucian once again slapped an unfortunate Hoarder on the face with his hair as it suddenly approached him from behind, "What is it? Speak, Rodent."

"We gather all glowy!"

"Hm?" Lucian turned to look to where the mutated rat was pointing, only to see a part of the sewer glowing green, "So, it is done?"

"Yes, yes! We gather all! No more!" The Hoarder did not dare to look at Lucian at all as it just bowed its head repeatedly.

"I see," Lucian cleared his throat as he gently touched the hoarder with his tail, causing it to flinch in anxiety, "Very good, Rodent. I apologize for screaming at you."

"N…no," the hoarder shook its head as it looked at Lucian with pride, "It… okay."

"Now die."

"Chii!?"

"It was a jest, Rodent. Ha!" Lucian then slithered away, flapping his white cape which was previously the napkin his sentient sperm body was a part of. He did not even mind that he just terrorized a mutated rat and almost caused it to defecate itself there and then. Of course, Lucian was actually actively antagonizing the Hoarders because of what happened to Eduardo and for chasing him and Shakira through the sewers — possibly being led to be found by that lightning-clad god.

He was already giving them mercy by not killing all of them outright.

"I am merciful, 'tis true," Lucian once again spoke to himself, causing the hoarders he was passing by to just look at each other in fear. Just what did they do to deserve this kind of fate, they all thought.

Lucian did not heed any of them any mind as he and his exaggeratingly large stomach slithered their way toward the bright green area — and as soon as he reached it, a wild and almost menacing smile crawled onto Lucian's face.

It was a sea of radioactive trash, almost endless from Lucian's tiny perspective of the world. And very soon, Lucian's hair turned into tendrils and started extending toward the sea of trash — and he could feel it, he could feel himself getting stronger by the second.

"...Ack. If only I still had the System. I would probably know just how much all of this is making me stronger…" Lucian whispered out in disappointment, "...Ack, I suppose a surprise is welcome too. Now, now, enough talking, Lucian…"

Lucian closed his eyes and took in a very long and very deep breath even though he did not even have lungs at all — and soon, more of his hair shot out and started moving through the radioactive trash.

A second.

A minute.

An hour.

Lucian probably spent an entire day there, with the Hoarders watching as the green light that painted the walls of the sewers faded bit by bit until the darkness once again took over. And very soon, Lucian emerged from the sea of trash…

…looking the exact same as he did before, except for his stomach which was no longer bulging.

"Damn it! This is why I should have a System!" Lucian screamed in frustration, "At least I would see some random numbers increasing as a result of my hard work!"

Hard… work? All the hoarders thought — after all, they were the ones who gathered all the glowing trash. Of course, none of them really said anything.

"Agh!" Lucian then whipped his tail in frustration, causing some of the piles of trash around him to just be blown away from the sheer force and scatter across the wall. And as Lucian saw this, he very slowly started to calm down,

"Good, very good."

Lucian let out a long and deep breath as he placed his hand behind his back and calmly slithered his way back to Eduardo and Shakira's graves.

"Shakira…" Lucian whispered, "...I may not be able to avenge you now — but you only need to wait. Eduardo…"

Lucian then dramatically looked at Eduardo's grave, "I'm going to kill the bug that did this to you. I truly only wish you were here to see it — I would bring your head with me, but as it is still attached to the rest of your body, that will be very disrespectful. And so…

…I must do this alone."

Lucian turned around as he once again flapped his cape, "Hoarders, this place better be clean once I return. And now, I am off to kill the Scorpion Assassin!"

And as Lucian slithered away from the Trash Mountain, all the Hoarders just looked at each other. And when Lucian disappeared into the darkness, they all suddenly raised their arms high.

"Gone! Crazy King. Gone!"

"Scorpion Assassin will kill!"

They all celebrated Lucian's death — how could they not, when the Scorpion Assassin is known to be the strongest creature in this part of the sewers and all the creatures just make way for it.

Lucian was as good as dead.

"I found you, Bug."

And it did not really take Lucian any time at all to find the Scorpion Assassin, he only needed to follow the trail of scratched walls and floors, as well as the dismembered corpses of everything and anything in the sewers.

The Scorpion Assassin was eating something, but as soon as he heard Lucian, it quickly turned around and made a rattling noise that whispered throughout the entire canal.

"...And now you are looking at me?" Lucian spread his hair like a peacock to make himself look more intimidating — after all, the scorpion was the size of a large dog… while he was literally just the size of a house mouse,

"Come, Bug — once I defeat you, I will take it as my sign to finally venture forth in the open world…

…En Garde!"