Lucy's Backstory

Hailing from a noble family in the Cerulean Kingdom, Lucia's father passed away when she was about four years old. Her mother decided not to remarry, and withdrew from the social stage. Lucia's mother spent the majority of her days within the manor, personally tutoring and raising Lucia. Lucia's divine spark was noticed from a young age. Often found mending the wounds of small animals with her gift, her mother taught her the importance of kindness. Lucia was naive, believing that selfless acts could help everyone. For a long time, Lucia watched her extended family constantly visit the manor, day after day to speak with her mother. She would catch glimpses of her extended family smiling and grateful, her mother faltering before being handed scores of documents. Not long after, Lucia's mother spent less and less time with her, having become preoccupied at all times with the documents constantly being sent to her. Eventually, her mother was found dead in bed, no unnatural causes for it could be found. Lucia grieved, her remaining parent left her, and went silent. Her extended family, specifically an uncle with marginally less influence than her parents had, took her in for a moment. He raised her, keeping his distance and remaining like a stranger.

Once she became seven years old, she was sent to the Heinrich Holy Order. The Order, ecstatic over Lucia's arrival as someone touched by divinity, was immediately accepted as a Page to the stalwart Knight Sir Barnabas. A shining example of virtue, Sir Barnabas showed Lucia that the she needed to move on eventually. She learned how to maintain equipment, the basics of combat, and how the kindness her mother instructed her in translated into chivalry. Still, she had almost no real friends, only superiors and acquaintances.

Lucia eventually graduated to a squire, and in time, a Paladin. Nonetheless, many of her peers despised her due to the lack of conviction she showed. Truthfully speaking, Lucia knew she never performed any real duties to be expected of a Paladin, only menial tasks for the public to applaud. The Aasimar of the Heinrich Holy Order was nothing more than a pretty public figure to showcase, and climbing the rankings with nothing to show for it but the coincidence of her divine spark, those peers constantly pressured and bullied her since her days as a Page.

Eventually, a cult surfaced. The Apostles of Mist, a group of foul villains with crimes ranging from vile sacrificial rituals to usage of forbidden taboo magics. An organization sheathed in mystery, the Heinrich Holy Order struggled to suppress them for a significant period of time, before eventually one of their main bases of operation was found.

A squad of Paladins were mustered up to delve into this lair, bringing the inhabitants within to justice. Prepared to make the best of this turn of events, the Order planned on making Lucia act as a major component facilitating this, declaring her the leader of this mission.

Despite the position of leader for this particular mission, Lucia and her allies knew she would be of no use in combat, at best able to heal slightly better than the rest of the squad. Shuffled to the backline, she was well aware she was only a figurehead to have the successes of her comrades attributed as her own instead. What should have been an easy enough subjugation became an intense struggle as Lucia continuously hampered the squad’s efforts to slay the cultists.

Declaring that it wasn’t right to kill them, to have mercy and try diplomacy, at worst, nonlethally capturing them as prisoners, every encounter with the enemy in the lair grew progressively more difficult. Lucia allowed no stealth with her requests to surrender peacefully, providing the cultists with more than ample time to prepare in advance.

As expected, her allies grew weaker at a rapid pace, before the ragged group entered a wide open chamber. Intricately engraved with depictions of human suffering across the entirety of the wall, a mural of dark gods and overbearing darkness enshrouding the world was illustrated. In the center of the room was a simple iron chair, bolted to the floor.

In the center of the room surrounding the chair were a group of a dozen or so cultists, each one in the scarlet robes designating their affiliation with the Apostles of Mist that Lucia’s group had already imprinted in their minds to attack on sight. Perfectly smooth white masks, each one decorated in a unique abstract detail of swirls, runes, and letting, one cultist in the center was different. Taller, broader, in a robe of black, an indigo mantle and several lengths of chain and rings decorating himself, he was obviously a leadership figure amongst them.

The doors to the room shut behind Lucia’s group, the leading cultist introduced himself as Auron, a Thought, the name given to his role as the leader of the Apostles of Mist in the surrounding area. Explaining how exciting it will be to torture and sacrifice each of the Paladins personally, the Heinrich Holy Order’s Paladins and Apostle of Mist’s Cultists went into battle.
Lucia’s allies fell one by one, most being slain, but others being able to be captured for later use. They were too tired, too wounded, and she was too weak to help them herself. Attempting to make herself useful by healing her allies, her magic had already run out long ago and was completely dry. Taken in by the cultists herself, Lucia was captured and kept by them for their own dark purposes.

Lucia breathes in, counting down mentally, "Three... hundred seventy." She drives a shovel into the earth, the densely packed dirt causes her to strain herself to uproot a notable amount.

"Three hundred... sixty three." She whispers, throwing the dirt overhead and onto the pile outside the hole. Waist deep about four feet into the pit, Lucy continues shoveling.

"Three hundred fifty six..." She continues digging, nonstop. Getting eight feet deep about eight hours later, she finally collapses from sheer exhaustion.

She wakes up, her face in the dirt. A crippling sore courses through her body, in every joint and every muscle. Managing to turn herself over to look up, she sees the light outside the hole she's in, far above.

"Luciaaaa, what do you think you're doing?" The voice sounded like it could barely keep from laughing at the series of events unfolding, thick and saturated with snickers under its breath.

The possessor appeared at the edge of the hole, Auron. He was no longer wearing the ceremonial, gilded robes. Instead, he tightened adjusted a sleeve of his doublet, making sure his handkerchief was properly tucked in. Fear. Pure fear, the simplest of emotional responses. In the fight or flight impulse that surged through Lucia, she could barely move, only able to wail and gurgle. Using the entirety of her remaining energy to turn her head away from his stare.

Auron squatted at the hole's edge, whispering a sickeningly sweet and reasonable course of action, "Continue digging."

Lucia's eyes lost focus, before mechanically pushing her spent body back up to its feet. She took the shovel in hand, and pushed it into the earth.

A sneer on his face, Auron offhandedly mentioned, "Don't forget to count," and disappeared again.
This continued for several more days.

...

Lucia woke up to see the distant opening of the hole again, the walls well over twenty feet high around her. Auron appeared again, as if knowing she was conscious, he gave a pleasant smile as two ropes with hooks at the end descended beside him and into the hole.

Sliding down each rope was a cultist, their scarlet robes completely covering their bodies. They wore the abstractly decorated, smooth white masks that all cultists wore. Approaching Lucia, they worked together to pick her up, attaching a hook at the end of each rope to a harness they were wearing, before ascending with her in hand, lifted by a cultist elsewhere via a pulley. Finally escaping the pit, she was dragged into an iron chair.

She remembered it was the one that was here the entire time, she saw it the first time she was taken to this room. Upon being seated, as the chains were being wrapped around her wrists, and ankles, her eyes rolled back at the sudden onslaught of burning pain.

Her body was exhausted beyond exhaustion, the lactic acid buildup from her digging had finally settled into her muscles now that she was seated. Pain so intense it was blinding, a thin film of spittle trickled from grit teeth as her body was wracked by a searing burn and soreness from the inside.

Auron cracked his neck, as if he was the one to do the work, "Finally, we can get rid of those rotting bodies. You two, dump them in." Silently getting to work, the two masked cultists pushed the several corpses piled beside the newly dug grave. Each one fell the full distance down with a crash of limbs, Lucia could only try to ignore the desecration of the corpses of her allies happening in front of her as they were each dumped inside.

"Now now, no time for rest. It's time for the show," Auron brought Lucia's chin up meet his face. "What does the Heinrich Holy Order have locked away in their catacombs?"

Lucia shut her eyes, turning away with a faint shake of her head.

"You realize things will only grow more dire for you the longer you refuse to tell us?" Auron stated matter-of-factly.

Lucia didn't respond, knowing that striking back wouldn't help. It was better to be hurt rather than to hurt others, of course. Suddenly, she let out a screech of pain when something in her hand broke. Looking down at it, she saw the knuckle of her pinky was caught in the vice of a nutcracker, clamped shut over it and held by Auron.

He gave a slight smile, "Count down from one thousand at intervals of seven," he reminded her. He removed the nutcracker from her pinky's knuckle to let Lucia watch it droop limply, unable to move. Breathing at a rapid pace, Lucia struggled against her chains to no avail, unable to tear her eyes away as Auron moved to the next finger, the next, the next, and the next. The room echoed constantly with Lucia's screams for days.

...
Auron left for a break as the two cultists that pulled her out of the hole appeared as usual. Lucia kept counting, having realized the meaning of the numbers. It was to keep her as sane as possible, they were all she could concentrate on when agony was everywhere else. Mops in hand, the cultists cleaned up the pool of blood beneath Lucia in her seat, using healing magic afterwards to restore her fractured bones and scores of cuts across the entirety of her body. The cuts in question were each just barely deep enough to draw blood, separated by only millimeters in distance, salt and other substances were rubbed into them to cause her more pain.

She barely registered their presence, when one facing away from her whispered, "Lucia, I swear. I'll find an opening and get you out." Turning slightly to face her, they took off their mask to reveal themself.

"...Binuel?" Lucia was understandably confused, unable to understand what he was doing here.

"...Yeah. Sorry we reunited in this kind of situation," He responded.

"Why... me?" Lucia spoke in a hushed tone.

"Meredith is dead. You didn't tell me in order to spare my feelings, right? You're a good person. Just hang in there for a while."

He continued mopping, gesturing at the other cultist beside him, "That's Aelonda, she's my friend, if anything comes up, tell her. Lucia... hang in there."

A faint tone of regret, Aelonda muttered "How cruel." Binuel and Aelonda finished their work, heading out the door. Lucia is left behind, still sobbing, alone in the room.

…

Later, Auron once again left for his usual break after repeatedly shattering her bones again. While Lucia continued counting "Five hundred... forty five. Five hundred thirty... eight." She felt a hand caress her face, comfortingly so. Lucia pressed against it, "Mom... mommy-," looking up to who it was, Lucia saw her again. Nith, who she hadn't seen since childhood.

"Long time no see, Lucia. What's wrong? You look like a mess, don't you? That's hilarious," she sneered. Behind her, the torture chamber disappeared. Lucia was somewhere else, still chained to her chair. White flowers covered the floor, red ones directly beneath her instead. The sky was a simple featureless white.

Nith giggled, "He's back," before everything reverted to normal. The double door entrance to the room swung open again, and Auron entered.

"Hello again, what number were you on?" He steadily closed the distance between them. Lucia in her confusion over the previous appearance of Nith forgot to count, panicking when she couldn't find an answer.

Auron frowned, "It's important to listen to instructions, you know? Such as telling me what I want to know. Have you decided to speak yet?" Lucia balled her hands into fists, trying to shrink and look as small as possible, shutting her eyes and trying to find somewhere else to be again, but Auron was still there. A small stoppered bottle in hand, he held it up to be seen. Within was a shimmering light, glowing softly with a barely audible hum.

"Something just for you, to bring out that wonderful celestial blood you have," Auron used that same magic that kept her digging.

"You should have a drink of it," his words slithering their way through her ears and clouding her thoughts, Lucia obediently opened her mouth for Auron to pour the tincture in, gulping it down without a thought. A burning sensation, before from behind her burst the snow-white, dovelike feathered wings that were the proof of her divine touch. She couldn't even put to words the disgust she felt when Auron caressed them with a curious hand.

"Wonderful, have you decided to speak yet?" Auron asked a final time out of her sight behind her, but Lucia refused.

"As you wish," Auron said, before she felt the same snapping sensation she felt in her knuckles.

"I see, I see! Did you know wings have a surprisingly large amount of bones? And each one is so soft, tender, and light. Are these sensitive?" He asked while continuing to feel her wings, Lucia felt every brush of his fingers against them, and even moreso the spreading pain from the site where her wings were cracked. Auron continued to shatter each of the bones in her wings to her agony, before the pain suddenly faded away.

A small hum, before a "Good morning," was heard beside her. Opening her eyes, Nith was there again, in the same flowery background.

"Nith, you're here?" Lucia whispered.

"It doesn't really matter, does it?" Nith responded, standing up from her position of laying her head on Lucia's lap.

"Hey, Lucia, what kind of person was your mother?" Nith walked to Lucia's opposite side, brushing cheeks with her. Lucia was confused, giving a questioning look, to which Nith continued with "You said mom a moment ago. Is that her?" she looked in front of Lucia, causing Lucia to look up and see as well. The white room faded away, becoming the familiar garden her mother was always in. Under the sunlight, parasol in hand, she placed a flower on the small monument of Lucia's father, made after he passed away.

Lucia's eyes glistened, a warmth in her chest at the memory. From the entrance to the courtyard, a small girl entered, announcing that she was home. Lucia's mother left the monument to greet her.

"Is that you?" Nith asked as the scene changed to the girl clumsily cutting vegetables in the kitchen alongside Lucia's mother. Lucia gave a small nod. "You're adorable, aren't you? What are you doing?" Nith continued questioning.

"She would let me help her cook, and I liked spending time with her," Lucia said with a relieved breath, caught in the moment.

A servant entered the kitchen, saying something to Lucia's mother, she said some words of comfort to the small Lucia, before leaving the room.

"What is your mother doing?" Nith asked. Lucia didn't realize the scene changed again, this time to a hushed conversation between Lucia's relative and her mother.

"Work, with the family." The small Lucia was watching from a doorway, peeking out, before leaving to return to the kitchen, assisting the servants with the preparation of dinner instead.

"I think I got my love for cooking from my father, he would always make delicious food for us. I inherited my dad's talent, and my mother was kind to me. She was really a terrific person, she even did most of the housework for the servants. She never once scowled, or caused anyone any trouble, and treated everyone equally kindly. My mother was my pride."

Nith seemed to have grown bored, running her fingers through her own hair as Lucia was swept up in the memories. Lucia felt a hand caressing her face just like before, pressing into it once again.

She heard the voice of her mother, "Lucia, it's okay to feel loss. Nice girls like you can be happy with just that."

Lucia made a small noise of agreement, whispering "It's better to be hurt than to hurt others. Nice people can be happy with just that. That's what she taught me." The room returned to the white space of flowers.

Nith in the midst of playing with her hair rolled her eyes, "She was really a terrific person, wasn't she? Which is why you're going through all this." One of the flowers turned red.

Lucia screamed, tears running down her face when she was suddenly thrust back into reality. Auron kept snapping and snapping and snapping- "The Blade of Grisold's Light! It's still there- the weapon used to seal one of the Primal Titans! Stop!"

Auron stopped his work, laughing. "Lucia, you don't know why I'm doing this, do you?"

Lucia whimpered, "Please... I told you, please."

Auron continued, "This information is indeed valuable, but what we're after is a catalyst."

Lucia wheezed out, "What do you mean...?"

"A touch of divinity, the spark of it needed to make contact with the source itself. Corrupt it, and it will seek out the opposite," Auron explained.

A rising dread inside Lucia, the next sentence sent over the edge, "We're after just you, Lucia. To corrupt and use you to contact our own divinity.

This won't end until that happens," Auron leaned in close to her, caressing her cheek the same way her mother did, "Whether you go insane, or die first."

Auron pressed in, licking at the trail of tears going down her cheeks. He then stepped back, producing a centipede held at one end between his fingers. Lucy's maddened eyes froze, unsure of what he planned. The centipede was a dark purple, like an eggplant. The head of it was a scarlet red. Its dozens of legs twitched while the body squirmed, trying to escape Auron's grip. In the wide open room that constantly echoed with Lucia's screams, even over her own haggard breathing she could hear the faint skittering and chitters produced by the centipede.

"I want to put this in your ear," Auron plainly stated.

"You don't mind, right?" He asked.

"N-no, please. I spoke already, I told you what you wanted... I beg you! No...! No...! Don't! Don't!"

Stomping the ground despite the shackles keeping her bound scraping the skin off her ankles, the burning in head blotted everything else out as the slithering creature chewed the interior of her ear canal in its aggravation, its venom filling her.

"How is it!? Do you want to die, want to die!? Say it, Luciaaaaa!" Auron howled over Lucia's own fevered shrieking, she was completely unresponsive and frothing at the mouth, only able to cry out "Kill me...! Kill me...! Please, kill me already!"

Once again, everything faded to the white room. A hand reaches out to the suffering Lucia, her pain fading.

"It's better to be hurt than to hurt others. Have you really lived your life believing that?" It was Nith again, crouching in front of Lucia.

"...That's what my mother taught me. So I..." Lucia incoherently mumbled.

Nith removed her hand, standing up. She looked down at Lucia, who had fallen limp in her seat, head lolling. "You obeyed what she told you to do. What is that? How dull. Don't you want him to be punished? Do you really think his actions are okay? Are you sure your mother was as nice and wonderful as you think? What's that there?" She glanced off to the side, the scene fading into a view of Lucia watching her mother in her father's study. An all too familiar scene, she was endlessly writing and reviewing documents.

"Her work," Lucia answered.

"What kind?" Nith asked.

"The rest of the family's. After father passed away, and because I wasn't fit to become the head of the family, everyone asked what she was going to do about who would lead them. She avoided answering, taking over herself. She didn't really know how to be a head. Writing documents by day, signing them by night, she spent the next year keeping the family from questioning again by doing the work for their own subhouses for them. They let her, she did a good job," Lucia explained.

The scene changes to one of the child Lucia pulling a blanket over her mother, who had fallen asleep on her deck, paperwork fallen to the ground. "I'm fine," her mother whispers with a smile as the child Lucia covers her.

"...And then?" Nith continues her line of questioning. A white flower in a vase in the study turned red.

"And then..." Lucia struggled to speak, before a drop of rain falls on her cheek. Looking up, she sees overcast, gloomy clouds. She recognizes them, looking down again to see her mother being lowered in her casket.

"She overworked herself. I was all alone after that, there wasn't a place for me to belong anymore. My uncle, he knew it would happen, and waited for this. He became the family head, and I lived under his roof like a stranger. He sent me to the Heinrich Holy Order so he wouldn't have to deal with me the first chance he had... Oh yeah, there was... someone." Lucia looked up from her the sight of her mother, watching the scene change to one where the slightly more aged child Lucia was limping home, a welt on her face. From behind, a similarly sized child tackles her from behind, moving in front of her to catch her before she falls.

"Lucy what're you going home again for!? Don't you get how hard it is for me when you do this all the time, cmon, why won't you live a l-..." The boy reveals himself to be Kavvac, Lucia's only and closest friend.

"What happened to your face? It was Donovan wasn't it, hold on. I have something for this." Kavvac pulled out a small bundle, producing a small salve that he rubbed on Lucia's injury.

Lucia watched beside Nith, a thin smile. "Kavvac was always there. Bandage my wounds, take me outside, talk with me. He wasn't very brave, but he really tried. Kavvac was some of the only moral support I had."

"He's a dear friend, isn't he?" Nith glanced back at Lucia.

"But you're going to lose him too, aren't you? And it's all your fault," Nith whispers into Lucia's ear, who widens her eyes with a start, Nith disappears.

Auron picks up the drooping Lucia's head, pulling it up by the hair. Someone is screaming, muffled in the room, and isn't Lucia for once. Looking where Auron directed her gaze, she sees two figures tied and gagged on the floor. Binuel and Aelonda.

His back straight, as if proud of the spectacle, Auron states "All the disadvantage in this world stems from a person's lack of ability, a pretty phrase, isn't it? I just thought it up. Lucia, I've come to understand something. Nevermind your body, but your mind is pretty tough too. So I devised a little plan," Binuel and Aelonda continue squirming, tied by the chains around their arms and legs, unable to do anything have their words muffled by the cloth gags.

Yelling it out over the screaming duo, "A man and a woman, who love each other...! I caught these two conspiring against me! Did they tell you that they'd help you escape!? Did you believe them? Hold out a glimmer of hope for them!? You saw them as your saviors right!? Now... you will choose which one I kill!" A pause.

"Which one will it be? If you don't pick, I'll kill them both." Auron gives a sickeningly smug grin.

"Want me to rephrase it? Which one will you save?" Auron tilts his head, shivers going down his spine. From the ground, Aelonda continues struggling, panicked. On the other hand, Binuel stops, staring directly at Lucia. His eyes are filled with a resolve, nodding grimly.

"...Why me? Why- why do I have to be the one to choose?" Lucia choked out a sob, trying to turn away.

Auron pulls her back to look at the two figures, "Come on, hurry up and choose."

Lucia tries to pull away again, "I can't do that! It would be like I'm the one doing the killing, wouldn't it?!"

Auron grows aggravated, shaking Lucia's head, "Pick one! Pick one! Pick ooone! Pick one! The man? The woman? The right one? The left one? Pick one!"

Lucia refuses to look at the figures, shutting her eyes every time, saying "There's no way I can pick one! If you have to kill someone, kill me!"

Auron narrows his eyes in displeasure, "All right. Very well." He lets go of Lucia, stepping to the incapacitated duo.

Auron glances back, "Watch closely now." He takes ahold of Aelonda, holding her up completely off the ground by her neck. Binuel's frantic and muffled screams increase in intensity, looking desperate.

"This one?! How about this one?! No?!" He tightens his grip around her neck, she struggles pitifully, unable to breath.

"Come on! Pick one! Pick one, I say!" Auron bends over backwards, still gripping Aelonda. Lucia shrinks back, staring at the dried spatters of blood on the ground instead.

The insanity in Auron's eyes twitches as he yells again, "She's gonna die! Well, Lucia?! Come on! Come one! Pick one! Pick one! Well? Weeeeell?!" Aelonda twitches slightly, her eyes rolling to the back of her head. Auron squeezes harder.

Binuel desperately screams through his gag, "Pick me Lucia! Aelonda... Aelonda is going to die! Pick me! Me! Pick me, Luciaaaaa!" Tears stream down his face as he fights to get out of his chains at all costs, failing to do so. Auron roars out in anger as a cracking sound echoes in the room. Aelonda's body falls limp, Auron drops her without a second thought. Binuel moans out in agony and anguish, losing all the energy in his body.

Auron exhales a breath of relief, "She broke, didn't she?" He moves to grab Binuel, who only breathes out roughly, pure, unbridled rage in his eyes. Prepared to burst free and avenge his lover, Binuel is lifted by the hair off the ground to face Lucia's shocked visage.

"And it's all your fault," Auron says, before he slits Binuel's throat. The choking gasps of Binuel spray a couple flecks of blood on Lucia's face.

"They can share the grave you dug for your other friends, right? You won't mind?" Auron hefts Aelonda's corpse back up, tossing it into the hole she dug all those days ago, similarly kicking Binuel's as well. Lucia doesn't respond, her eyes glazed over while her vision fades back to the white room.

"N-... not me...." Lucia whimpered, "No... it's... it's my fault."

Nith, who was sitting on the ground, using the side of the chair to rest on, asked "How are you just now getting it? You'll just sit there blaming yourself, and keep blaming yourself, but going on blaming yourself won't change anything. You don't try to change. It's all your fault. That much is obvious, isn't it?"

Nith stands up, dusting off her dress, "Whose fault is it that things ended up like this?"

She whirls around, resting her hands on the chair as she whispers in Lucia's ear, "Coincidence?"

She playfully moves to whisper in Lucia's other ear, "Accident?"

Returning to the previous position, she continues speaking in a patronizing tone "Fate? No, there's no such thing as fate."

She distances herself from Lucia, explaining like a teacher to her pupil, "It's simply a combination of one circumstance with another. And who is it that creates those circumstances? Who is it?"

Her amused expression turns into disdain, "It's you. All of the disadvantage in this world stems from a person's lack of ability. He's right, isn't he?"

Nith takes measured steps back towards Lucia, placing her hands on the sides of Lucia's face and moving it about where she pleases, "This whole thing started because you're such a fool to the ways of the world. You were a fool, and the world tricked you. It's all because of you."

Nith makes her way behind Lucia, embracing the shivering girl from behind, repeating that phrase, "It's better to be hurt than to hurt others. Which is why you're going through all this. If you had been strong and killed Auron when you had the chance, your friends wouldn't be rotting in the hole you dug just for them. If you had chosen the man, the woman might have been spared. If only you had been strong at that moment..."

Lucia watches the white room fade away again, into the view of an alleyway, the waxing gibbous moon is overhead, forcing Lucia to remember where this is. In front of her a teenage boy is looking in her direction.

"Makham..." Lucia recognizes him. In his eyes are acceptance, before at the other end of the alley scores of figures wearing the gleaming armor of the Heinrich Holy Order appear, crossbows pointed.

Lucia struggles against the bonds of her chair, but is proven once again that she can't break them, a hoarse cry of "Stop it!" escapes her lips. The glimmering tips of the silvered bolts under the moonlight go flying, piercing Makham dozens of times.

The scene fades away, but Nith continues, "Then there's what's to come,"

The sound of glass shattering, before Lucia looks to the side. Standing in a dimly lit corridor, Auron is lifting two figures up by the neck, just as he did to Aelonda.

Lucia struggles again, "Sir Barnabas-... Kavvac...!"

Despite being unable to breath, Kavvac responded, "Why did you let... this happen..."

Barnabas wheezed out in pained gasps, "Why didn't you open up to me-? I did my best...! Once again you failed to choose, and so- this... happens..."

The familiar crunching noise of two windpipes filled Lucia's ears.

Lucia screams, screams in anguish, her way of life until now being torn apart in front of her, but Nith simply asks, "You see? This is the way of life that you chose. This is the future that you chose."

Nith pats Lucia's disheveled hair, "Why are you crying? Why are you sobbing? You choose to be hurt instead of to hurt others, right? You're nice and wonderful. But while it seems like you're choosing both, you're really forsaking both. Your mother was the same way. If she turned aside the position of head she would have continued her life with you completely fine. She wouldn't have died of overwork."

"Shut up," Lucia begs, barely audible.

Nith is unfazed, "What a foolish mother, huh? If she loved you, she would have abandoned something as silly as leading your family."

"Stop it," Lucia's heart wrenches, sniffling.

Nith holds Lucia closer to her embrace, "That's what you really wanted her to do, wasn't it?"

"Stop it..." Lucia chokes out, "Mom... mommy... why? Why did you leave me all alone? I missed you... I hate being alone... I wish... I wish you would have chosen me...! I wish you would have lived... for me!"

A shadow covers Nith's face, as if she'd been waiting for this, stepping in front of Lucia, she asks "Even if it meant forsaking your family?"

"Even if it meant that!" Lucia shrieks, frustration boiling into anger.

Nith cranes her head up, licking her lips, "Even if it meant hurting someone?"

"Even if it meant that!" Lucia's bloodshot eyes stare unblinkingly at Nith, resolute in her decision.

Nith asks clearly, "Even if it meant taking her life?"

"Even if it meant thaaat!" Lucia's hands ball into fists, rage swirling within.

"Good girl," Nith uses a finger to bring the exhausted Lucia's chin up to meet her gaze.

Maintaining her eye contact, Nith says, "There are times when you have to give up on one thing to preserve the other. Your mother couldn't do that. That isn't being kindness. That isn't being a nice person. That's just being weak. She didn't have the strength, nor the resolve, to turn her back. Can you still remain on the side of being hurt?"

"No... I can't!" Lucia's vision blurs. Nith distances herself again, looking to the side. Following her gaze, Lucia sees the white room of flowers is being rustled by a wind. Spotless white petals flowing in the wind.

Nith spoke up, "The Apostles of Mist will grow much stronger if they succeed in their plan of using you, you know? They'll do a lot of damage to the area, especially around where your loved ones live."

"I won't allow that to happen," Lucia responds with a conviction. A flower nearby turns red.

Nith stands in the wind, her hair and dress blowing in it, "Your best friend Kavvac and your friends in the Order might also go through what just happened here."

"Anyone who tries to take my place from me will get no mercy," Lucia responds unflinchingly. Back to back, several more flowers undergo the scarlet transformation.

Nith brings a nail up to her lip, pressing it with a tilt of her head, "Do you have that kind of strength?"

"I do," Lucia responds as more of the flowers take on the bloodied tint.

Nith brushes back her hair, the sclera of her eyes goes black, with an iris of scarlet. She asks, "Are you saying you accept me?"

Lucia shakes her head, her matted hair obscuring most of her vision, "No, I'm not saying that."

A dull snapping of metal rings out, Nith falls back into the field of flowers in the midst of metamorphosis, pinned down by the now unchained Lucia.

Her voice full of resolution, Lucia declares, "I can always surpass you," underneath Nith, the field of flowers continues shifting like an expanding pool of blood.

Nith's expression doesn't change, nor does she try to escape, asking "Even if that is the wrong choice?"

Lucia refuses, saying "I'm not the one who's wrong..." A tear falls from her cheek to the ground, "What's wrong is... this whole damn world!" The field is bathed in a sea of red, the rest of the flowers changing.

Nith has a twinkle in her eye, a smile, when she whispers, "That will do, Lucia... To live is to devour others," As Lucia bit into her flesh, she doesn't fight back, her last words simply being, "Eat..."

Nith's hand brushes against Lucia's face, smearing it in her blood. Lucia looks up from her act, completely accepting of it, Lucia speaks out to herself, "I will... devour," her hair loses its pigment, becoming a stark white.

Auron enters the room again, the nutcracker in his hands. "Luciaaaa, are you ready for our next session?" Lucia doesn't respond, simply willing her divine spark into existence. With the snapping crackle of bones suddenly fixing themself into place after jutting their way out her shoulder blades, the razor sharp, bleached white pair of fragmented bone wings expose themself to Auron.

He falters in his step, a smile on his face, clapping, "Well done, oh ho ho, you've finally done it. My dear, dear Lucia, how beautiful you look now. In that case, we can now proceed with your sacrifice!"

He closes the distance, but Lucia giggles, "Hilarious. You really are a despicable man."

Auron gives a mad grin, "Really now, if you wanted to be sacrificed so quick, you simply needed to ask! Fine!" Looming over Lucia, he pulls out a jagged ceremonial dagger. With one stroke, he intends to stab her in the heart right away but-.

A dull snapping of metal rings out, and Lucia leaps over Auron, landing behind him whilst at the same time winding the chains fastened around her wrists around his neck.

To the choking Auron, scrabbling at the chain, Lucia spitefully whispers, "Sacrifice this." She leaps back over him, landing at the opposite end of the torture chamber, the broken chains of her wrists and ankles trailing behind her.

Auron gasps for breath, hunched over as he takes in the situation, he feels a trail of something at his neck, an oddly shaped wound, "You... you bit me?"

Lucia wipes her mouth, blood smearing across it, spitting a globule of his flesh out, "How disgusting. Like the guts of a fish gone rotten." Auron summons his mana, bringing forth a grasping, spiked tentacle to restrain Lucia. She sidesteps it, closing the distance between them immediately with a kick.

Auron catches her leg before it makes contact, scowling "I'm not letting go!"

Lucia doesn't stop for a moment, as she twists her body against the direction her leg should go, the bones of it jutting out with every rotation before she uses the momentum to knee Auron with her other leg across his face, sending him flying back. Standing on her thrice-twisted leg from the knee down, the limb spins back the way it came, the bones settling back into their place as if never broken.

Lucia tilts her head as if confused, "Did you really think after everything you did, that'd hurt?"

"Kill you... Kill you.. I'll kill you! I'll kill you, I'll kill you and eat you! I'll make a sloppy mess out of you!" Auron was infuriated, picking himself up once the dust settled from his landing. His skin took on a reddish tint, veins bulging to the surface as he reinforced himself further with his magic. Charging at Lucia, he made to tear her limb from limb. Seemingly unable to dodge out the way in time, Lucia was picked up bodily by Auron, being tossed into the wall of the torture chamber with an explosive shower of dust. Auron watched the dust, breathing raggedly, pleased with himself until he could hear something stepping out of the obscuring cloud.

Lucia's shadow appeared at first, before her form made its way out of the dust. With a mad grin, she parted her lips to reveal rows of needlelike teeth, a frosted white vapor leaking out of her mouth.

A voice like nails on a chalkboard, her eyes took on the color of a black sclera with red iris, declaring "Now, it's my turn!" The disjointed bones floating behind her expanded to their full wingspan, before she charged at Auron just the same as he did. After a series of clashes, Lucia slammed Auron to the ground, the reddish tint of his skin fading away as he howled in pain.

She held out her hand, a dark energy shifting into a specific form within it. A plain leather grip, surrounded by a weathered stone pommel and guard. Above the guard was a spiked chain, like barbed wire, that ended in an oddly similar dull stone blade. Intricate gold runes covering the split blade and rest of the weapon, it looked like something barely recognizable as a flail. She holds it out boredly, the barbed wire chain extends itself several times over, the dull stone blade piercing Auron's hand as easily as a knife through butter. Auron cries out in pain, groaning, unable to move.

Lucia seems unconcerned, asking "What's one thousand minus seven?" Auron looks up at Lucia hatefully, his teeth gritted in pain. He cries out again when the flail splits its heads, now piercing his foot.

"I'll ask again. What's one thousand minus seven?" Auron still refuses to answer, faltering and gurgling.

He begins tearing up, Lucy stabs his other foot and repeats herself, "What's one thousand minus seven?"

Auron chokes out a sob, muttering "Nine hundred n-ninety three... Nine hundred... eighty six... Nine hundred seventy... nine...."

Lucia straddles his back, her weapon in hand. Lucia pinches her fingers together, reaching deep into her ear. Pulling out a still squirming and blood-slicked centipede, she asks "Hey... you tried to sacrifice me, didn't you? You don't mind... if I sacrifice you instead, right?" Within the dimly lit torture chamber, Auron's screams echoed for an eternity before finally falling silent. Exiting the room, the bloodsoaked Lucia glanced over to see Nith leaning against the wall.

Nith gave a pleasant smile, saying "You've grown strong. But you still need more, are you willing to obtain that strength?"

Lucia shifted her eyes away, continuing to walk towards the exit of the cultist lair, "What do you have in mind?

Nith stood up from the wall, "You'll go on a journey, of course. I want to see what it is you'll do to survive in this world, is that fine?"

Lucia takes her first steps up the stairs towards the light of the surface, moving towards it, "Whatever it takes, I'll make sure no one can oppose me."











Lucia's deep-seated fears include being in deep holes with no way out, and many-limbed insects (like, over ten), especially the slithery kind.