LUCIUS
"Hey... I don't feel so good. Just say it. Say what's already screaming inside both our heads," I told him.
My heart was hammering, my hands were trembling, and my eyes refused to focus. I couldn't even think straight, and thinking, especially overthinking, was the one thing I was good at. Normally.
Arcane stayed still. Calm. Cold as the winds around us.
I wish I had that same calm, whatever the hell it was, that lets you stay sane when the world is flipping upside down.
"This story of yours... it wasn't random, was it?" I managed to ask, the words barely making it out.
Arcane nodded slowly. No rush. No mercy.
I rubbed my palms against my thighs — an old habit when the nerves got too much. His silence made it worse. My mind spun faster and faster, begging him to say something, anything, before I scared myself to death with my own imagination.
Finally, he spoke:
"Yes. It's not random. It's history. Our history."
'Yeah, no shit, genius.'
Of course, it was our history. Who the hell hadn't heard about Lucifer — the fallen angel, the first divine son of the heavens, The Chosen One?
The one who planted the first seeds of rebellion.
"...Acronis, the Demon King of Chaos and Destruction — he's Lucifer's descendant," Arcane added. "Though whether direct, indirect or distant, I'm not sure."
Acronis.
The demon god.
The annihilator of the Seven Empires.
The demi-god who nearly wiped out 70–85% of Verdun's population... and wiped the elves off the face of the world. The living nightmare who dragged the world into hell a thousand years ago and left us barely crawling from the ashes.
It made sense that there was a connection.
After all, demons were descendants of devils.
"Just — just make your damn point already," I snapped. "Out with it. Whatever theory you've cooked up in that messed-up head of ours, say it!"
Arcane didn't rush. Didn't even flinch. He just stared up at the stars like he had all the time in the world, while I was down here falling apart.
He muttered something under his breath, asking if I was sure.
I said yes. I yelled yes.
I needed to know.
I needed to prepare.
"Remember the story?" he said finally. "The part about the scripts and sculptures? How were they messed up — destroyed — hiding how Lucifer gained the strength to transcend his limits?"
I nodded. Of course, I remembered. It had stood out like a sore thumb.
"The dungeon where I found all this... someone else had visited it before me. Someone who also uncovered these ancient truths. But that person — that thing — deliberately destroyed that one crucial part.
The part that explained how Lucifer and his legion gained the power to rise beyond the gods."
Arcane's voice dropped lower, almost a whisper now.
"And that entity... it wanted someone to find the rest of it. The story. The history. It allowed someone like me to discover all this.
Except the one piece that mattered most."
He paused. I barely breathed.
"It's like they're challenging us.
Daring us to try to stop whatever the hell they've set in motion."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
I connected the dots faster than I wanted to.
The entity had been there.
The entity had read everything.
Understood everything.
And then wiped the evidence clean, keeping the secret to god-like strength for themselves.
Leaving behind just enough scraps for someone else to panic over.
We were meant to find it.
Meant to realise what was coming.
But not meant to stop it.
"Fuck," I muttered under my breath. "We're screwed, aren't we?"
This wasn't an accident.
This wasn't some cosmic mercy.
We were meant to find these scraps.
Meant to panic. Meant to realise — far too late — that we were already pieces on someone else's board.
A game that had started long before we were even born.
A game we had already lost.
"Fuck!!" I yelled again, my voice breaking. "We're not even players, we're the sacrifice."
Arcane said nothing.
He didn't have to.
The silence was the answer.
Above us, the stars kept spinning.
Uncaring.
Unreachable.
Already watching the funeral of a world that just didn't know it was dead yet.
***
"...You alright?" Arcane asked, pulling me out of my spiralling thoughts.
"Yeah, I am... It's just—" I hesitated, frowning. "I don't know what's wrong with me... but it's like I physically can't stay panicked or sad after a certain point. I can't explain it. It's like my mind just... shuts it off, flip a switch..."
I trailed off, waving the thought away. "Never mind."
Arcane didn't push. He stayed silent, letting me gather my swirling fears — fears about the future, the empire, the world unravelling in front of us.
"First the corrupted beasts... then the disappearance of the Nmanas..." I muttered. "Don't bother correcting me on which came first. Honestly, it doesn't matter anymore. And now these Wraiths."
The pattern was clear as blood on snow.
Three crises — two external, one internal.
"You must've heard the children's term for Wraiths, right?" I asked quietly.
Arcane nodded, the word echoing in my mind.
'Shadow Demons.'
And then the Nmanas... Why were we still prioritising them even now?
The thought slipped out, and Arcane just shook his head, disappointed, like a teacher watching a student miss the obvious.
I wanted to snap at him, but deep down, I knew I was missing something important. I wasn't some all-knowing lord like that old hag Ninia.
Arcane sighed.
"The Nmanas' disappearance... that's what worries me the most. It feels planned, Lucius. Think about it."
"If you're the culprit, you have some kind of motive. Maybe you like torturing men, raping women, and selling children, so you abduct a specific group. Maybe you need slaves. Laborers. Mana sources. Either way, you'd leave a pattern."
He rubbed his temples, frustration bleeding into his voice.
"But in the cases I studied... the abductees seem random. Yet, at the same time, carefully chosen. It's hard to explain unless you've sat with the families. Listened to the ones left behind."
He paused, locking his eyes onto mine.
"Lucius. These people were discriminated against, beaten, massacred and separated for centuries. Even now, even under strict law, they're still treated like pests.
Tell me — how many Nmana individuals do you know personally?"
I froze.
None.
Except... that girl and her mother.
The ones I encountered on the way towards Sonic's shop, before the Valgura raid.
Arcane saw the answer in my silence.
"See?" he said grimly. "Ten years living in Varis, and you know two, maybe three Nmanas by name. That's how invisible they've been forced to become."
He leaned closer, voice low and tense.
"Now imagine this: what if they were offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? To gain mana. To gain strength. To fight back for the misery they suffered simply for existing."
I scoffed, anger bubbling up.
"Bullshit," I spat. "They're Nmanas. They can't circulate mana knowingly! What the hell are you talking about, Arvain?"
The second the name slipped, my heart plummeted.
Shit.
I immediately dropped to my knees, forehead pressed against Buck's rough branch, hands outstretched for punishment.
I had no excuse.
The deal was clear — reveal his real name, and I would pay the price.
My body trembled, bracing for whatever came next.
"...Do you know who else thought like you?" he asked calmly, ignoring my pathetic posture.
I swallowed hard. "No, sir."
"The Inner Gods," he said simply, but I could feel the coldness in his tone; he's holding back his anger.
I blinked.
"When Lucifer reappeared... they mocked him. Dismissed him. Underestimated him. Guess what happened next."
He killed them.
I clenched my fists. "But they were angels, not... lowly Nmanas," I muttered.
"And yet they died," Arcane whispered. "Gods. Crushed by one they deemed inferior, like the ants we crush under our feet."
His words were knives under my skin.
"The sculptures explaining how he gained his power? Destroyed.
The ancient scripts? Vanished."
He leaned back, eyes sharp.
"So go on, Lucius. Tell me I'm overthinking. Tell me these 'weak, non-threatening Nmanas' aren't a danger."
I had nothing.
No defence.
No words.
He'd already out-thought any argument I could raise.
I slumped back against Buck, defeated.
I give up.
Wherever this man leads... I'll follow.
He's right. He has to be.
"You know," he said softly, "I'd love to believe I'm wrong. I'd love to think I'm chasing fairy tales."
"But the clues... the evidence... the victims' cries... they won't let me and trust me when I say this, it sucks to be right, on point, especially during times like these."
He clenched his fists, jaw tightening.
"And now with the emergence of Wraiths. The corrupted beasts. It's all connected, Lucius. Like a spider spinning its web while we sleep.
And when it strikes... We'll be defenceless."
I nodded shakily.
He was right.
I had been blind.
Blinded by pride. By anger. By the same prejudice that made everyone ignore the Nmanas in the first place.
"Mana has a twisted way of choosing, Lucius," Arcane said.
"It has never been fair. It never will be. Sometimes... it chooses the ones we least expect."
He gazed at me—not coldly, but almost... sadly.
"Just like you.
Just like Lucifer."
I blinked, stunned.
"Me?" I whispered.
"Were you not an Nmana before Sia found you?" he asked.
I nodded stiffly, though the memories were fogged and broken, lost somewhere I couldn't reach.
"And yet... here you are," he said. "Almost reaching S-rank. Wielding Absolute Zero — an ability even the gods would fear."
I shivered.
I didn't want to think about that.
I didn't want this burden.
Arcane leaned in, his voice dropping even lower.
"Now imagine those missing Nmanas... imagine them gaining even a fraction of your strength, of your connection, of your potential...
Imagine an army of S-rank, SS-rank, even Saint-rank warriors, hidden among us.
Fuelled by anger. Vengeance. Years of hatred... and perhaps manipulation and corruption as well, after all, if 'The First Divine Creation', Lucifer, can be corrupted, who are we mortal beings in comparison? Last I checked, most of us are greedy assholes with unreal desires."
"And the Wraiths? The corrupted beasts?
Multiple fronts. Inside and out."
He let the horror of it sink into me.
"If it all breaks loose at once... the empire will fall in days," he said.
"And that's me being optimistic."
I could barely breathe.
"Had you never existed," Arcane murmured, "I wouldn't have cared so much about the Nmanas. But here you are.
Once abandoned by mana. Now a prodigy capable of shattering the norms set by those nobles and royals."
"Who knows..." His eyes darkened.
"Maybe you were abducted, too. Experimented... Maybe you escaped. Lost your memories in the process—"
"Please," I choked, tears sliding down my cheeks. "Stop. Please. I get it."
I wasn't ready for this.
I wasn't ready for any of it.
This wasn't the future I dreamed of.
This was a nightmare.