"A lesser demon it is."

The demon muttered, pleased with the outcome.

Right then—

Lucian’s hand grabbed his wrist, his claws dug deep into the demon’s flesh, drawing his blood.

The demon’s eyes widened in surprise, still, he didn’t let go. He wanted to see what it would do.

Since Lucian couldn’t free himself like that, he used another method, he planted both his feet against the demon’s chest and pushed with everything he had. The combined force of his four limbs overpowered the demon’s arm and he was forced to release him.

Lucian crashed to the floor on all fours like an animal. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"KHHRRAAAKKKKKKK!!!!"

Then, he let out a guttural, inhuman shout that felt more like a screech.

Lucian moved forward with savage violence, with no sign of skill or technique. His claws slashed wildly, teeth bared, he resembled a complete animal as he crashed into the demon, biting and tearing him like a beast.

The demon slammed a fist into Lucian’s ribs.

Crack

In just one attack, Lucian’s bones cracked, his body flew back and smashed into the dining table, breaking it apart.

That should have been enough to put him down.

But...

"Grrr..."

Lucian stood again, a sickening wet sound came as his broken ribs shifted inside his body, dark steam rose from the wound as his flesh knit itself back together just enough for him to move.

"KHHRRAAAKKKKKKK!!!!"

Then, he charged again.

The demon raised a hand and unleashed invisible force, the same power he had used to stop Eleanor. Lucian’s body froze mid-air, but he didn’t let go, he continued pushing himself forward, going against whatever force was stopping him.

Crack Crack

More and more of his bones cracked under pressure, for a second it looked like it would crush him, then Lucian’s muscles bulged, his claws dug into the floor, and he pushed forward while his bones strengthened themselves to resist the invisible force and... not break.

Yes, his body had begun to adapt.

And that made the demon frown.

A lesser demon shouldn’t be this strong...

Soon, however, he shook his head.

A lesser demon wasn’t supposed to drink such pure blood all at once either, but he did, so of course he would be stronger than normal.

The demon grinned at that thought, not because the enemy was stronger than he expected, from start to finish, he never once considered him an enemy.

To him, he was... amusing at best.

The demon switched tactics, a wave of violet energy slammed into Lucian, it was meant to paralyze and torment him.

"KHHRRAAAKKKKKKK!!!!"

Lucian let out another broken scream as his body began to convulse, was he actually feeling the pain? Even the demon did not know, it wasn’t known if lesser demons could feel pain or not, what was known however, was that pain didn’t stop them, so in most cases, they continued to move until their body couldn’t bear to take it anymore and gave out entirely.

But that didn’t happen here.

Lucian’s body didn’t give in and perish at this moment, instead, it did something else—

BOOOM

A raw Incubus Aura Burst exploded out of him, the air became thick and heavy, lights in the hall flickered, the glass cracked and for a split second—

The demon’s focus broke, his own energy was dissipated, Lucian was freed and in that little window, Lucian lunged forward and sank his teeth into the demon’s shoulder, biting down hard.

Bite

"Aggghhh!!"

The demon screamed, more in disgust than pain.

Lucian didn’t care, his body was focusing on the warm demonic blood that was flooding into his mouth, for one brief moment, addictive power surged through him like lightning but that was it—

The demon had already grabbed his head, moved his mouth away from his shoulder through brute force and then threw him off.

Crash

Lucian crashed into the wall, leaving a crack. Blood came from his mouth and nose, but he was already getting up again, he grabbed his dislocated and deformed shoulder and in one smooth motion, he popped it back into place.

Crack

A sickening, wet crack sounded in the place.

Lucian stared at the demon with the same, hungry, mindless, terrifying violet eyes and the demon...

He stepped back.

The demon knew, he was still stronger than this thing in front of him, much stronger, and if he tried hard enough, he could kill it.

But...

He didn’t want to.

As he said before—

Death was fortunate, it would be mercy.

And mercy he did not have.

He wanted the boy to suffer for as long as possible, to remain in that state, to wander around like the mindless beast he was and become an example to others.

What happens when one reaches for what they should not.

Not to mention the blood was already inside this thing, and whatever it was, the boy was right about one thing, once the blood was in the system, he couldn’t retrieve it.

There was nothing he could get out of the fight, so there was no reason for him to go against a mindless entity that had surprised him more than once in just a few minutes of their battle.

The demon looked at the violet-eyed monster in front of him with a mix of disgust and satisfaction.

What he himself didn’t see was that together with those two, there was something else in his eyes, something he missed.

A sense of... unease.

"Enjoy your curse, boy,"

He just shrugged, oblivious to his own emotions.

"I hope you survive the night."

He spoke, his heightened senses could already hear sirens a bit further away.

They were here.

Then, his body blurred into violet smoke and vanished right when Lucian pounced at him. Lucian hit the floor, his body didn’t grab anything.

He quickly raised his head, trying to look around, his purple eyes flared, his nose twitched, his head moved in a particular direction as he picked up the demon’s scent, there, he saw it, black smoke moving out of the door.

"KKHRRAARKKKKKK!!"

Lucian roared and tried to chase him, his claws scraped across the floor as he lunged toward the door—

Or at least...

He tried to.

But his body had already reached its limit, the strength that had kept him moving disappeared all of a sudden, his limbs gave out, his claws that had dug into the floor for a better grip slowly pulled back into his fingers, the violet light in his eyes flickered and... he collapsed.

Right next to his mother’s body.

His hand stretched towards her, even in his mindless state, he still sought his mother’s warmth.

The moment his hand touched his mother’s face, as if he had used the last of his strength to do the only thing he still wanted—

He passed out.