Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

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.

"Lucius…" Rena whispered sorrowfully. She knew what happened immediately, but still looked down. The perpetrator was laying on the ground, no longer shaking. No longer mumbling. Laying next to him and no longer attached to his body, was a severed hand that was cut just below the wrist and on the back of it was a mark.

"This will be proof enough." He stated plainly.

"Okay." Jen answered, carefully prying herself free from Rena\'s grasp. She mouthed the words \'thank you\' at the girl and stepped backwards out of reach of Lucius\' weapon. Though they all knew that it meant nothing. Lucius was currently powered what the world considered his peak potential.

Given the state of things, until that temporary protection passed, Jen was equivalent to Lucius stepping on an ant.

For a moment they stood there awkwardly while Lucius closed his eyes and pointed his head at towards the sky. He seemed closed off from the world somehow and because of that, neither Jen nor Rena could bring themselves to interrupt whatever it was he was doing.

*****

\'Congratulations on your breakthrough, Lucius.\' A kind, gentle voice echoed through his mind.

\'Heh…right, congratulations.\' Grimm added. Lucius was confused, but ultimately chose to ignore the strangely annoyed tone Grimm had. It was not directed towards him, but rather at Luz for some reason.

\'Thank you both.\' He answered. He closed his eyes and looked upwards, letting the light from the sun peaking over the trees warm his face. This was for two reasons. The first was that he wanted to calm himself after his small outburst towards Jen. He was moving on instinct and everything seemed like a threat for some reason, even her attempt at a guiding touch.

The second was that it was easier to focus on talking to the voices he had not heard from in a long time.

\'With this you will be able to use your Thunder Magic and your mark…to an extent.\' Luz advised hesitantly. \'I doubt you will be able to do much other than strengthen your sword, but it should help you immensely.\'

Lucius smiled at him growing in strength. He was finally a Beginner Rank, like Rena, and there were more skills he could access and the ones he had were stronger.

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."