Prime Evolver System

(AN.: Please bear with me for a couple more days as I prepare and transition into the steady stream of releases in the near future. I know I have been quite silent, and I have no valid excuse... (It was hot as h*ll here for the last two weeks and I just couldn't force myself to do anything. :D )

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Sitting at the back of the car, many thoughts flashed through Lucien's mind as his eyes were gazed out of the window. He absentmindedly stared at the slowly thinning crowd of pedestrians on the streets as the two burly guards calmly drove through the thick of the city.

Next to him, the blonde mature girl, Sera was looking at the boy with a silent, but gentle smile stretched across her beautiful face. She couldn't help but wonder what the future would hold for them.

Back in the past, that somehow was also a future, albeit hopefully a different one, he was once found by the man that later became her Master as well as the one she could proudly call her father. She witnessed how this curse, this… parasite empowered him, gave him incredible abilities, seemingly provided him with endless support before once he got to the peak of the world revealed his true face and almost completely corroded him.

The darkness, the vile, chaotic energy, the 'Taint' as the Master called it, was ultimately too powerful, too strong for him to defeat. Still, before the end, he seemed to have found the answer, the way to control the 'beast', the only solution to the timeless question.

Albeit it was too late for him, he made a gamble, and by using the last strains of his own vitality he made the impossible… possible.

He made the ultimate taboo, the one power that no mortal was allowed to handle. He made a tear through time and got her beloved Sera to go back and start again.

The whole 'next in line', this inheritor business was just a convenient lie, to cover what was just impossible to tell.

As he looked at Lucien, a small tear escaped through the corner of Sera's eyes.

Now, through the twist of fate, she who was the daughter, now would become the mother, the guardian?

'Fate is quite a funny thing…' She muttered inwardly, as the corner of her lips curved into a half-baked, crooked smile.

Her reverie was interrupted by the sudden exclamation of the boy sitting next to him. As she was abruptly brought back to reality with his sudden yell, she asked out as the car parked down behind a nearby grey van.

Two similar-looking cars were parked in front of a corner-side general store. There was no light coming from the inside, the shop was seemingly closed, yet there was a strange feel to it.

This strange, eerie, ominous feeling was what caught Lucien's attention. As the car cruised towards its destination, a strange, inexplicable sensation suddenly hit him. A strange feeling, a familiar sensation… As he closed his eyes and slowly inhaled, he suddenly realized. This was the very same energy, the very same spiritual power he felt from that meadow in Eden!

"Stop the car behind that van! I need to check something!" He called out to the driver, who nodded without hesitation and parked down.

This call was what brought Sera back to reality, who, as the car slowly came to a halt beside the pavement, turned to Lucien and asked.

"Why did we stop? What is wrong, Lucien?"

However, Lucien was too deep in his own world to hear the woman's question. He squinted his eyes, trying to spot something out of the ordinary, as albeit everything seemed to be closed down, he felt the presence of several unique figures from the store.

Affirming his suspicions, as the car stopped and he stepped out of the vehicle, the faint, muffled sounds of what best could be described as a series of heaves and sighs reached his sensitive ears.

Just like him, as soon as they parked the car, and Sera stepped out and joined her soon-to-be adopted son on the sidewalk, her expression instantly soured. Just like Lucien, her ears were also much more sensitive than the average person, she could also hear the strange sounds.

However, unlike the boy, she could also connect the dots and understand all the clues to draw a dark conclusion.

"They are fighting." She spoke curtly, her expression was solemn as she gazed towards the back of the building.

She turned towards the two guards, signaling them to cover the front entrance, whilst she turned towards Lucien. A smile briefly returned to her face as she asked him.

"What would you like to do?"

Lucien looked at the building, listening to the muffled, faint sounds for a few seconds with a gradually shifting expression. From the previously neutral stance, he was now looking with a stern, cold slightly angered look. The scarlet outline around his left iris glimmered, his hands slowly clenched themselves into fists.

Still, he couldn't understand, why was he so emotional. Why would he care whatever was going on? Still, as he felt the strange, yet vaguely familiar energy, he knew he needed to find the source. He needed to know more about this power, otherwise, he would never be able to find what he was still missing. He would never complete his spiritual vessel, his Meridians, and would never breakthrough this Mortal Shell.

He heaved a sigh, calming his mind. Without averting his gaze, he responded to the woman's question with only a few short, determination-filled words.

"We go in. I need to see it." He responded, as he slowly began to walk towards the back alley, the hind side of the store.

Although his response was cryptic, Sera didn't mind it, nor did she question him. She simply nodded with the lingering warm smile on her face, following behind her young master.

Meanwhile, although she seemed calm and nonchalant on the outside, she was already circulating the same holy energies inside her body. She would not act rashly, but would not allow anyone to lay a hand on her Young Lord.

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As they steadily made their way towards the back, the sounds gradually started to clear out. Muffled hits, grunts, cracks could be heard. Painful cries, woeful hollers reached their ears.

From what they could make out, it felt as if two groups of roughly equal strength were fighting, which made Lucien stop in his tracks, and with a confused look in his eyes, turn towards Sera.

"Why are they fighting?" He asked.

Sera couldn't help herself, as she listened to the pure, innocent, naive question of the youngster but to giggle as she responded.

"Fufufu, that is the question, isn't it!" She chuckled a bit more, before stepping closer to the boy and giving a gentle, light rub at his back. "This is the actions of the rotten youth, the delinquents, the sad reality we live in. Who knows why they are fighting? Territory? Or some misguided feud? A girl? Or the loot they wanted to raid from this store?"

She shrugged, turning towards the source of the faint sounds of battle.

"Are you sure you want to see this side of the world? You just escaped it, don't be in such a rush to return to it."

Following her gaze, Lucien nodded without thinking too much about her warning.

"I do. I need to see… it." He answered her question.. Realizing that his words could be misinterpreted, he sighed giving a bit more to correct himself. "I need to see the source of this… sensation…"