“We have a way of testing your ability kid, come with me.”

Lucifer shook his head, “Sorry but I have to pick my sister up from work, can we do it tomorrow?”

“Sure, but don’t eat anything tonight or tomorrow morning.”

Lucif rushed out and made his way to Aruna’s work place. She worked at a processing plant, it was impossible to miss because it produced giant plumes of black smoke.

Aruna was waiting outside her worksite when Lucif arrived. They slowly made their way home while carrying the extra food Lucifer scammed off the old man.

“How was work?”

“Just the usual, how about you?” As he looked at her he noticed how lifeless her eyes seemed today, this made his blood boil even more. But he calmed his thoughts and buried his emotions inside his heart.

“It was good, I managed 8 loads of gold and made $125.”

“What?!”

Lucif nodded his head, “I can support us single handedly, so why don’t you quit your job?”

Aruna shook her head, “Work is a good distraction for me right now, I hate working there but if I didn’t work then what would I do? I’d be stuck at home every day, having to face my own thoughts and emotions alone.”

Lucif looked into the distance and pointed towards a giant island floating in the sky. It was a sky island and on it were various prestigious and beautiful white buildings.

This was Enochian Academia, an institute of higher learning. There were more than five thousand nobles on this planet currently overseeing the operations. They needed a place to send their children so their learning wouldn’t be halted and that’s why they built this academy.

It was filled with some of the best teachers in the galaxy and it had top of the art facilities. Over 100,000 children, teenagers and young adults lived and schooled here. It wasn’t just one school, it catered to the masses because it was the only school on the planet!

Preschool, elementary, middle school, high school and university; It was an institute of higher learning suitable for anyone willing to learn, but there was one problem, tuition was incredibly expensive.

“Im..impossible, this institutes tuition is $40,000 a year. How can we afford that?”

His voice went quiet and he brought his mouth closer to her ear and whispered, “Do you remember how much money we found on the bodies of those guards? After we counted it all it was nearly $800. We have guns now so all we have to do is rob 150 more guards and we will have enough for your first year’s tuition.”

“No, that’s way too dangerous. If we got caught we would be sentenced to death.”

Lucif nodded his head, “Yeah, you are right. If we get caught then we are heading for the gallows, but are we really living? Is that what life is all about? We struggle everyday but for what? Just so we can struggle some more without ever seeing the rising sun and hope of a new day. This is the only hope we have, we can improve our situation and we can escape this hell hole.

If we fail then we die, if we don’t try we still die. It’s the same either way; I’m willing to stake my life on this, how about you?”

Aruna sunk into contemplation for a long time but didn’t give an answer.

They arrived home and had dinner. Lately Lucif had been mixing it up, you could give diverse meals to the chefs at work and they would bring it to you all nicely wrapped in a black pack. The food was always piping hot and 9 times out 10 it tasted delicious. He had made some weird orders and got some weird combinations and flavors which didn’t taste so good. But sometimes he would strike gold.

This world was quite strange, all the food they ate were grown in machines. The machines themselves were amazing pieces of technology and science. They could grow anything as long as they had the genes and materials for them, this including vegetables and animals. Well not the whole animal, they would just grow the parts we wanted to eat. It was a process similar to cloning but the meat tasted fresh and delicious.

The meals themselves were quite plain. The ten meals Buck ordered were some of his own creations and some that others had created. The machines themselves had to be programmed to make food a certain way, that’s why the chefs were there. They were actually programmers. The miners were superhumans that excelled in strength but the chefs were superhumans with high intelligence instead of brawn.

They found it easy to write the code and have the food made in only a matter of minutes when it would take others a few hours. But it seemed like a waste of talent to have them working in the kitchen. If they were to stride out into the world, which organization would dare not have such brilliant minds on their team?

For pre coded food it only took 30 seconds to create.

Today Lucifer successfully created butter chicken, it was a recipe he learnt during his travels to India when he was learning their language and setting up another mafia division there. Even though he knew how to make it, it was hard to explain to them the process. So there were a few horrendous monstrosities that came out of the machine until he finally achieved success.

Before that no one here had tasted butter chicken. During the year 2101 there was a worldwide ban on meat and animal products. Due to that a lot of recipes were lost, including the recipe for his favorite drink coca cola. He had been experimenting but he hadn’t a single success with that yet.

The butter chicken instantly became a hit with the other workers. They even gifted him a few thousand meal tickets in thanks.

Aruna and Lucif’s stomachs were full and satisfied so they were ready to head to sleep but then they heard the sounds of screams, followed by the soft cries of pain and anguish. Then they heard the sounds of someone coughing up blood, a squishing sound and then the muffled cries of a girl.

As they looked out the window and peaked across the road they saw a man lying dead on the ground, his face had been crushed by someone’s foot and the girl next to him had her clothes torn off.

They rushed outside with their weapons in hand. There was only one guard this time. Aruna went into a state of shock when she saw the girl being violated by that filthy guard. Memories flashed through her head and she started shivering. The gun fell from her hand and landed on the ground.

Lucifer took note of her reaction. It seems she was experiencing a post traumatic flash back.

She was only assaulted yesterday and now something similar was happening right before her eyes. Lucif was surprised she never passed out in shock, but no matter how hard she tried to hide it he could still see that her heart was overcome with anxiety and it was only getting worse.

Lucifer hugged her for 3 minutes before she came back to her senses.

She picked the gun back up and was about to shoot when Lucif stopped her, “Why let him off easy when we can make him suffer?”

They were standing right behind him but he still has yet to notice them. ‘These guards are really careless.’

Lucif ran forward, the guys arms were already raised as he was using his hands to pull the girls hair back and ram her against the wall. Lucif’s left hand fingers were still broken, this time he used his right hand and stabbed into the underarm of the man.

He dropped to the ground, almost losing consciousness when he saw all the blood pouring out the side of his chest. Lucif quickly disarmed him and pulled off his helmet, followed by the rest of his suit. Now he was bleeding on the ground while butt naked.

Aruna went and hugged the girl and covered her body with her jacket. She cried and wiped her eyes, “He…he killed my grand papa…He was onl..hu…only try…trying to…hu…protect me.”

Lucif looked over towards the girls grandfathers smashed head on the concrete, one of his eyes were hanging out of his head. The guard whimpered and cowered as he held the side that was currently bleeding all over the concrete. He started coughing and convulsing as blood filled his throat.

Lucifer felt his right hand fingers, 2 of his fingernails had ripped off and the flesh of those fingers were exposed. The underarms were the weak point but the armor was still incredibly strong. But after a few test he was relieved that he could still move them, that meant they weren’t broken.