His eyes snapped open. Silence was shattered, not with sound, but with a chilling aura that crept in like death itself.
The three thugs recoiled, their bravado evaporating into pure terror. The air in the narrow alley grew thick, heavy with foreboding.
This was no longer the gaze of a heartbroken heir - it was the stare of a predator from the darkest depths, ravenous and merciless.
"What's... happened to him?" one thug whispered, voice trembling violently, his courage shrunk to the size of a pebble.
Lucian rose slowly, his every movement feeling strange, unnatural, as if a puppet whose strings were being pulled by an invisible force.
The dark veins in his arms pulsed with a sickening purple light. He stared at his hands, as if they belonged to someone else.
A whisper crept into his mind, sweet as poison, cold as ice. "See, Lucian. This is true power. Not an old inheritance, not your father's approval."
It was the voice of the Echo of the Abyss, the entity now fused with his shattered soul.
Before his eyes, the system interface flickered with corrupted blood-red text.
[SYSTEM UNSTABLE… USER CONSCIOUSNESS INTERRUPTED… ACTIVATING AUTOMATIC PROTOCOL: THREAT DISAPPEARANCE…]
"He… he's a monster!" the third thug screamed, turning to run. He never got a second step.
Lucian's body shot forward with impossible speed. His movements were no longer those of a trained warrior, but of a wild beast.
He didn't swing his sword. He used his hands, now coated in shadow energy.
His grip landed on the thug's neck. The horrific sound of bone cracking echoed through the narrow alley, shattering the silence of the night.
The lifeless body collapsed to the ground. The two remaining thugs froze, their faces ashen with terror.
"You… you killed her! You crazy bastard!" the thug leader shouted, raising his knife with trembling hands. "You will pay for this, Aurelius scum!"
Lucian tilted his head, a movement utterly inhuman. A thin, cruel smile played across his lips.
"Payment? Tonight, only one person is collecting the debt, and that is me," he hissed, his voice layered with Lucian's voice and the cold echo of the abyss.
He lunged again. The thug leader swung his knife wildly, an act of desperation.
Lucian didn't dodge. He let the blade sink into his shoulder. Blood spurted, but he didn't even flinch.
Instead, he grinned wider, his purple eyes gleaming with sadistic triumph.
"Your attack is pathetic. Is this the best Valerius's dogs can do?" he taunted, each word cutting deeper than any knife.
The thug leader's eyes widened in shock and horror. "How… how do you know that name?"
Lucian grabbed the man's arm, shadow energy crackling between his fingers. The bones shattered beneath his grip.
"AAAAARGH!" The man howled in pain, falling to his knees, the knife slipping from his shattered grip.
"Valerius sent you to ensure my utter destruction, didn't he?" Lucian crouched, his gaze burning into the man's soul. "He wants me to die in this gutter, forgotten like trash."
Behind a nearby pillar, a shadowy figure watched with bated breath. It was a young woman, Elara, a healer from the lower district.
She was supposed to be gathering rare herbs that only grew in dank crevices, but now she was trapped in a nightmare.
She saw the fallen heir transform into something else. Something dark and terrifying, yet a familiar despair, loomed in his eyes.
The last thug tried to flee, crawling backward in panic. "Please… don't kill me! I was only ordered to! I have a family!"
Lucian turned to him, his smile gone, replaced by a frozen emptiness.
"Show mercy," screamed a small voice in Lucian's mind, a remnant of his former self.
"Mercy is for the weak," replied the Echo of the Abyss coldly. "They didn't show it to you. Destroy them all!"
Lucian raised his hand—sharp shadow claws formed at his fingertips.
"No one will remember you," he whispered, before slashing downward. Blood splattered the stone wall, painting a scene of horrific horror.
The thug leader stared at Lucian with eyes filled with hatred and fear. "You… you demon… Valerius will hunt you to the ends of the earth…"
"Let him come," Lucian replied, his voice returning to a flat tone. "I will wait for him. Say hello to me in hell."
With one final, swift movement, he ended the man's suffering.
Silence returned to the alley, now reeking of blood and death.
The shadow energy receded from Lucian's body. The intoxicating power vanished, leaving him with a painful emptiness.
His knees buckled. He fell to his knees in a pool of blood, gasping for breath. The pain of his wounds returned with full force.
He stared at his bloodied hands. The hands that had just taken three lives without hesitation.
A terrible nausea rose in his throat. He stumbled against the wall and vomited, throwing up the contents of his empty stomach.
"What... what have I done?" he whispered into the darkness, his voice cracking with horror.
This wasn't revenge. This was slaughter. He had become the monster they had accused him of being.
"You survived," Gem corrected.
"This is the law of this dome. The strong devour the weak. You just ate your first meal."
Lucian shuddered violently, not from the cold, but from fear of himself. He drew his sword, pointing it at his neck.
"I would rather die than become… this," he sobbed, tears finally flowing, mixing with blood and dirt.
"Don't."
A soft voice broke his despair. Lucian looked up, his eyes still dimly lit with purple light, meeting Elara's.
He stepped out of the shadows, his hands raised gingerly, as if approaching a wounded wild animal.
"Go away!" Lucian growled, his tone threatening. "Go away before I hurt you too! Don't you see what I am?"
Elara didn't back down. She saw the blood, the darkness, but she also saw something else beneath it all. Excruciating pain.
"I see a man forced to do terrible things to survive," she answered calmly, her voice an anchor amidst the storm in Lucian's mind.
"You understand nothing! This power… it's corrupting me, changing me!" Lucian shouted, frustrated and desperate. "You must run from me while you can!"
Elara took a step closer, her eyes fixed on the stab wound in Lucian's shoulder that was still bleeding.
"Running won't heal your wound. Let me help you, at least stop the bleeding," she pleaded softly, ignoring Lucian's harsh warnings.
Lucian laughed bitterly, a laugh filled with self-loathing. "Help me? No one can help me. I'm doomed."
As he said that, a wave of pain shot through his head, making him scream.
The system interface appeared again, this time with a more horrifying message.
[SOUL DEBT INCURRED. THE POWER OF THE ABYSS HAS BEEN USED FOR THE FIRST TIME.]
[A PAYMENT MUST BE MADE TO MAINTAIN THE BALANCE. COST: ONE PRECIOUS MEMORY.][CHOOSE TARGET MEMORY AT RANDOM…]
"No… no, don't!" Lucian clutched his head, feeling something precious being ripped from his memory.
A faint image flashed through his mind: the face of a gentle woman who sang him a lullaby as a child. The scent of his mother's hair. The feeling of safety in her arms.
[MEMORY: MOTHER'S LAUGHTER… SELECTED.][ERASION PROCESS BEGIN… 10%… 50%… 90%…]
"STOP!" he screamed in despair.
But it was too late.
[ERASION COMPLETE. DEBT OF THE SOUL HAS BEEN PAID. SYSTEM TEMPORARILY STABLE.]
A cold, unfamiliar emptiness enveloped a part of his heart. He tried to remember his mother's face, but all that was there was a blur. Her song was gone. Her warmth was gone.
The first price of his power had been paid. And it had broken him more than any betrayal could have.
He stared at Elara with eyes that were now completely empty. The terror, the anger, and the sadness had been eroded, leaving only a cold abyss.
Elara saw the change. The purple light in his eyes dimmed, but so did the human warmth.
He stood there, amidst death and despair, facing the remains of a shattered heir.
And in that moment, he made a decision that would change both of their destinies forever.
He did not run. He stepped forward.