Nemobrosus
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Redemption Arc 70
🕑 Added 2025-12-13 06:56:31 +0000 UTCWith both Denzel and Rowan vouching for Lucian, they were able to return to Verne without suffering an inquisition. Denzel played the role of the man that didn’t like him, but was honest for honesty’s sake. Rowan was more straightforward in his support, declaring that he believed Lucian full-heartedly. Charlton was brought in as a supposedly neutral third-party, and he verified that Lucian’s soul was damaged.
Lucian found that it was all just a blur. He ended up at Charlton’s estate for recovery and observation. There, he intended to try and gain some mastery over his Formless Essence under the supervision of one of the most qualified healers in the world. He also wanted to keep abreast on how the situation was developing after Lombard’s death. Vivari was dead, but so was Lombard. An accelerant had been destroyed, but the catalyst had been activated. Lucian honestly didn’t know how the situation would unfold from there.
Over the following days, Lucian uncovered various different things about his newfound power. The first was that the injury to his soul had been impacting the speed at which he could manipulate the Formless Essence. As the days possessed, it moved less like cold molasses and more like warm syrup. It was still far, far slower than magic, but the improvement seemed substantial. On other fronts…
Lucian laid on his bed, Evercodex at his lap. Rowan sat at his bedside. He’d been consigned to the mother-in-law suite of Charlton’s estate, which was quite nice. The Evercodex was open his stats. He’d estimated them based on how many enemies he knew to be in the stronghold, alongside Vivari. He wasn’t sure it even applied anymore, but updating it comforted him.
HP: 50 (+13)
STR: 29 (+15)
CON: 29 (+11)
DEX: 29 (+7)
SPD: 32 (+10)
MAG: 48 (+22)
Those stats… they were solid. Very solid, even. He’d probably leapfrogged everyone. He’d estimate these stats as fitting for Mission 3. His MAG and HP in particular were amazing. People would catch up soon, but he was far ahead.
But… with the Formless Essence, did that even matter anymore?
“I’ll never get accustomed to seeing that,” Rowan commented. “Explain it to me, please.”
Lucian held a blame flame in hand, waving it around. He didn’t recoil in fear, seeing dark magic. Maybe he’d fear the First Emperor. Best-case scenario, he’d fear that old man form he’d taken. He looked to the flame of dark magic. Rather than illuminate the surroundings, this flame ate the light. The past days, Lucian had to throw his build out the window, and consider thousands of different possibilities. Not just for his build—for the entire future.
Lucian waved the flame once more. “I’m still working things out.”
“Then at least tell me what you’ve learned. Sometimes trying to explain something to another person can help you take a step forward.” Rowan looked at the flame closer. “You said this power was something the First Emperor was aiming to possess?”
“Yeah.” The magic wore off and dissipated. “I can basically customize magic however I want. But you’ve already learned that. What else… oh, yeah. Charlton has been trying to help me with the other aspects—forms of power that are seldomly wielded by people. Like… uhh, demonic energy,” he said in a half-cough. He added quickly, “I’m still very wounded, by the way. In case you were curious.”
“Relax. My father is a demonologist. I know not to conflate energy with influence,” Rowan said. “What about other forms of power? Divinity, perhaps?”
Lucian looked over. “Charlton has been speculating that I might be able to recreate things like purified essence, even blessings of the gods,” he said with a pleased smile. “But I’ve been trying for a while without success. Every single time I have tried it, it feels as if it’s ripping something out within me. I’m concerned.”
Rowan considered that. “Best not to try, then, maybe.”
A clock rung out, and both of them looked toward it.
“Oh, that’s my timer.” Lucian took a deep breath, then activated the Blessing of the Titan’s Heart. He felt a surge of vitality erupt from his heart, and gripped his chest in response. “Whoo… that feels so good, every time.”
“What’s that?” Rowan asked curiously.
“A blessing of mine. Purges negative status ailments. It’s helping with my recovery tremendously. Charlton said my recovery will be complete in a few more days,” Lucian said eagerly.
Rowan looked disconcerted. “How many blessings do you have, exactly?”
“Mmm… more than two.”
Rowan’s eyes widened. “Three?” Lucian wavered. “Four?” Rowan pressed.
“Four,” Lucian confirmed. “Anyway, that ties into why I think I need to consider forcing these blessings out of my body, and giving it to everyone else who’s going to be actually fighting.”
Rowan raised a hand. “What do you mean, ‘actually fighting?’ I’ve seen you in the thick of things plenty.”
“Rowan, I think…” Lucian laid his head back on the pillow. “I’m not cut out for this. I’m just not. Objectively speaking, I’d be a hell of a lot more useful staying in the back, being the coach for all of you. You guys—you Student Ambassadors—are all more talented than I am. I can tell you the enemies that you might be fighting, what do you need to prepare, where you can go to get blessings. And on top of that, I can do it all without risking my neck,” Lucian admitted honestly. “Meanwhile, you save the world.”
Rowan stood up and walked around. He looked to be chewing on Lucian’s words. “But you’re good at fighting.”
Lucian laughed. “Please…”
“You think someone can do what you have and survive while being terrible?” Rowan sat back down. “Against the bandits. Against that shellfish knight. Against—”
“Merspawn Knight,” Lucian corrected.
“Whatever. Against Metterand—there must’ve been some close calls. Just recently, when Belcourt showed up—you moved. You acted immediately. That kind of judgment is amazing, Lucian.”
Lucian looked at him intently, all humor gone. “Even if that is true, it doesn’t matter. All I have to do is fuck up once. Be a little slow… be a little late.” He clapped his hands and said quickly, “Bam, everything I’m good for—my knowledge—evaporates.”
“Are you illiterate?” Rowan asked pointedly. “Can’t you write it down?”
“I have.” Lucian grabbed his Evercodex and held it up.
“In an Evercodex,” Rowan said dryly. “So that no one in the world can ever read it. Very smart.”
“Demons can read, too, in case you forgot,” Lucian reminded him. “I can’t just go around spilling the whole world’s secrets on some highly-accessible book.”
“Fair point. But you can share that knowledge with others—people like me, like Miriam. We can record it as well. We can act as a failsafe in case you fall,” Rowan said, his logic ironclad. “But if what you’re saying is true—that you can give blessings, can give purified essence, that you have this powerful Formless Essence—there’s no one better suited to fighting than you.”
“The bit about giving blessings is only Charlton’s theory,” Lucian said quietly.
“Whatever,” Rowan said with a shake of his head. “My point is, you’re good at this. If I had to choose one other person to fight with, I’d choose you. Not Denzel, not Miriam, not Helen, not Arslan, not Ruth, not Isran—you, Lucian Villamar,” he said, then let the words hang.
Lucian met his blue-eyed gaze. He saw sincerity in them. “That’s stupid. Choose Christoph. Or Lorenna. Hell, even Cyril.”
Rowan hung his head, chuckling. He sighed for a bit, then stood up and brushed off his pants. “I’m going to fight the demons. I’m going to fight them until I die, or they do—whichever comes first. If you were to come along with me, I’d be over the moon. Ultimately, though… that’s your choice to make. Whichever way things go, I won’t hold it against you. But I want you to know I’d gladly march into the Hells at your side. In fact, I’m a little disappointed you didn’t invite me the first time.”
Lucian smiled. He understood why Rowan was the protagonist, a little. This guy was good at words. Not just good, either—he meant what he said. Lucian had been pretty certain about becoming a coach, but now?
“I have to get through my trial alive, first,” Lucian said. “Even that’s not a given. It’s going to get started in force soon enough.”
Lucian laid his head back and looked out the window, wondering what the future would hold for him.
***
“Oh, Lucy…”
Lucian opened his eyes, blinking tiredly. When he saw the face near his own, he jumped. Before he could shout, there was a cloth over his mouth.
“Hush. I don’t want to get caught,” Theobald said. “Gonna take this cloth off. Don’t scream. It’s your old pal, Teddy.” Theobald pulled away the cloth covering Lucian’s mouth.
Lucian said incredulously, “What in God’s name are you doing here?”
Theobald held his arms wide. He wore the clothes of the canal engineers all around Verne. “I told the butler I was inspecting a possible crack in the foundation, which might lead to potential flooding or shifting if not properly handled. He let me in.”
Lucian sputtered for a bit, and then cradled his forehead. He’d told Charlton to allow no visitors whatsoever without his prior approval. He didn’t know whether that was a testament to the alchemist’s lack of caution, or Theobald’s exceptional ability to investigate. The man was a suspicious lumbering giant—how did he manage to do this?
“And what was so damn urgent you had to break the law just to talk to me?” Lucian asked.
“I didn’t break the law. They let me in,” Theobald defended.
“You just said that you didn’t want to get caught,” Lucian snapped.
Theobald ignored that point, staring at Lucian. “I hear that you got hurt. Can you walk around?”
“I stumble a little, but I can go anywhere I need to,” Lucian said. “Why?”
Theobald smiled, and leaned down. “How would you like to meet the star witness for your case?”
Lucian blinked a few times, still tired. “Will they vanish like morning dew if I don’t attend now? If not, I think I’d like to sleep a little bit more.”
“Aw, c’mon…” Theobald sat on Lucian’s bed. “I can guarantee you you’re going to like this. Hell, I’m in love with this. Your case, it just turned from a walk through the Hells to a…”
“…cakewalk?” Lucian said hopefully.
Theobald waved his hands. “More like a… jaunt through fields of cacti. Very painful, yes, but survivable. And since you have me in your corner, a veritable survivalist of the legal profession, I can lead you through this jaunt with minimal damage.”
Lucian clicked his tongue for a few seconds, thinking. After working up the motivation, he threw off the covers. “Let’s go.”
***
“I checked it out. Problem solved. Crack’s sealed,” Theobald said with a thumbs up.
The butler of the Lowenthal estate held his hands together as if in prayer. “I cannot thank you enough, sir. The master would’ve been furious.”
Lucian shook his head and walked out. The butler looked slightly confused at the fact that Lucian was leaving with the canal engineer, but he didn’t have time to provide any commentary. Theobald caught up with Lucian and gestured toward the right way.
“They’re waiting for you in a carriage,” Theobald said. “Not too far away.”
Lucian looked at him. “You walk by the canal. I don’t want to stumble in.”
“Certainly.” They set off through Verne. “Now, what if I told you that your father had a partner in crime, someone who did a great majority of the things that he achieved right alongside him? Another very potent dark mage, and now one with reason to turn against him?” Theobald asked.
“…okay,” Lucian said, too tired to guess.
“As I suspected, Cyril was too careful to leave evidence lying around in the opening. I wasn’t able to find anything that led me to incriminate him directly. Either way, with our witness, we’ll have the ability to make things very uncomfortable for your father.” Theobald smiled broadly. “Very, very uncomfortable.”
They made their way through the streets of Verne, heading for the perimeter where carriages could enter. Eventually, they came to a rather covert carriage that didn’t appear at all like the luxurious coaches that he’d often seen the nobles take. Theobald walked up to it.
“Lucian. I’m happy to reunite you with… your mother.” Theobald opened the doors to the carriage with a huge smile.
A glass bottle fell and clinked onto the pavement, rolling along and spilling wine until it stopped at Lucian’s foot. Tearing his gaze from the bottle, he looked inside the carriage to see an older version of the gray-haired woman he’d seen in his vision. She looked somewhat like Cate. Duchess Lydia Villamar was out cold, drooling on the cushion of the carriage.
Lucian looked back to the wine bottle. Once he’d seen his fill, Lucian turned his head to watch Theobald silently.
Theobald squeezed his lower lip with his finger, a grimace on his face. “She, uhh… she didn’t have that when I last saw her. She told me she wanted to… surprise you. She seemed quite excited.”
“Yeah?” Lucian asked, deadpan. “I am surprised, I’ll give her that.”
“Must’ve hidden the bottle in her dress, or something.” Theobald bit his fingernail. He shut the carriage doors, then rested his head against it for a while before turning to Lucian with a guilty expression. “I’m, uhh… sorry to wake you.”
“Sorry to be awake.”
Theobald walked up, some optimism returning as he held out two pointed fingers. “Anyway, I swear to you, your mother can turn everything around for you. The stories that she’s told… and she really seemed quite clear, before.”
Lucian smiled. Running away to Heavenwatch Monastery continued to become more appealing.
***
Going to delete that scene in chap 69 with Theobald in the RR draft, because it makes this one more predictable and redundant.
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Comments
Michael Vonica
It would be strange if all Lucian could do was push out his blessings and essence. If that is even what that ripping feeling is. Maybe that feeling was more like muscle strain. The Formless Essence is said to be a precursor form to all types of energy. The idea seems to be that it can become any type of energy, if manipulated in the right way. So why not divine energy? Could it be a lack of strength, improper technique, or a misunderstanding on what divine energy even is? Also, one last idea. People corrupted by demons can't receive blessing and essence. Does that mean a person loses their blessings and essence, if they become corrupted after receiving them? What else prevents someone from getting blessings, or could potentially cause them to lose them? If you ask me, someone trying to create their own blessings sounds pretty heretical. Then again, Lucian's blessings haven't cared about the demonic energy he's started throwing around, so maybe that's not it.
AddnSubtract
I’m not thrilled about the idea of Lucian permanently transferring/cloning any blessings or forcing purified essence out of his body to somebody else. Maybe I’m being stingy, but Lucian painstakingly earned them by committing crimes lol. I’m aware that Student Ambassadors are talented with high potential enough to save the world, and yet I feel they are undeserving and do not have the right to have his blessings. The contempt at the Collegium opening day and the hostility at the Ambassadors’ meeting is still fresh on my mind. However, I think it would cool if Lucian can act as buffer rather doing all that in permanence— enhancing others temporarily from his blessings while providing critical support during battles. Maybe buffs improving on stats and healing capabilities? Besides Miriam, Rowan, Denzel, Helen, and Olivia, there’s no close bond/reveal of their backstories with the rest of them yet. I would like Lucian to hold some leverage over the other nineteen Student Ambassadors. (There’s 24 in total I think)
Michael Vonica
I wonder if Lucian is underutilizing his soothsayer blessing? He hasn't had it for long, but there are some interesting things he could try with it. The biggest problem, though, is how it can seemingly only see a few seconds into the future. Useful for something like combat, but if you wanted to, say, use it to speed up research, on things like developing new spells or alchemy recipes, it just can't see far enough. You could, theoretically, simulate ten thousand different random recipes or spell formulas, and identify the most useful ones, without spending the time and resources, or risking the danger of wild experimentation. But again, it takes too long. I can't think of any useful areas of research that could massively benifit from peeking forward a few seconds. Maybe very specific ones, if you set the experiments up just right? And the titan's heart blessing. I had this thought when Lucian originally received it, but could it possibly fix his disabilities? I originally dismissed the possibility, because we were told the blessing only cleared status ailments. And Lucian's disabilities aren't status ailments. They might be old wounds from some kind of experimentation, or they might result from genetic defects. Not abnormalities, just part of who Lucian is. But we've just seen the blessing help heal soul damage (although, this is just it speeding up a natural process). And things have started to appear that do not adhere to the regular mechanics of the game. Like the Formless Essence. Plus, I'm sure no one with disabilities like Lucian's ever received the blessing in the original game, so there's nothing to show that it doesn't work this way. So, who knows what it could do?
Jake
Ty for the chapter 🫡
Maedreas
Blame flame sounds cool 😎
Maedreas
Lmao. Sorry to be awake
Logrus
Based on Nemo's usual schtick... both of this parents are going to end up being a LOT more complicated than expected based on what we know so far.
WarStrider72
Nemobrosus editing chapter 69. NICE......
Undead Writer
TFTC
Michael Vonica
I was kind of expecting Lucian to have more to do with the labor union. I guess it makes sense that things with them would be done, now that Lucian is so injured, and the immediate danger has passed. Still, I'd worry about Belcourt trying to salvage things. Maybe the demons have just abandoned this operation, to reinforce their others. I wonder about that ripping sensation Lucian feels when he tries to copy divine energy and purified essence. I guess it could be any number of things. His soul is still damaged. Maybe his stats are just too low to attempt to recreate them. Maybe a special technique is required. Could it literally just be the blessings and purified essence he already has getting ripped out?
AddnSubtract
I want to give Lydia Villamar the benefit of the doubt. She’s going to serve as a witness after all. I’m more under the impression that she’s like what .m said in the previous chapter. I mean if Aurelia is given a chance to redeem herself, why not the mother? Despite her first appearance and reunion…
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! So if he CAN get her Lucid we can finally figure out what kind of evil, ruthless and disgusting FUCKSHIT this duchy couple was up to then? I'm personal still banking on her having a condition making "normal birth" either impossible or dangerous and they did "something" to help the birth of both Lucian and Cate along )and then potentially also experimented further to get the affinity so high) but it only made both children come out more and less crippled which made both parents to essentially abandon them as "damaged useless goods". Well and then Demon posessed Metterend just had a perfect use for Lucian as his pawn who was forced to do all the insulting, causing trouble, basic level scheming and threatening and even got pinned with the murder of whoever it is here.
AddnSubtract
“Lucian held a blame flame in hand, waving it around.” Did you mean a black flame?
John
Thanks!
