Chapter 14 – A Fateful Encounter

Author note: Sometimes Lucifer can be a bit thick headed, but he had his own set of rules. School arc coming soon.

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[POV] At the mansion:

The mansion was a hubbub of worry and panic. Servants were darting from one location to another, as they prepared to create a search party. Aunt Hilda was a mess; she was on the edge, constantly panicking about what had happened to her nephew Avaritia. Some of the female servants were frantic, as they really adored the young master; he had always treated them respectfully, unlike the other nobles they had encountered. They were completely attached to him, remembering his frail looking body the panicked even more. However, one person clearly trembled with joy at the situation, Avaritia mother Athena. In her room, she smiled with joy, she had always hated Alexander and being forcefully wed to him, was her worst nightmare. Every time she looked at Avaritia, she had the urge to strangle him to death.

Now, she was free and finally could be with her true love Douglas and her son. Her wish had finally come true. Aunt Hilda had ordered for several search parties, but none of them could find any traces of the carriage, neither the people who were in it. They even used mana compasses to track them. However, not a single hint was received, as if they had vanished into nothingness.

[POV] Back to the forest:

Lucifer strolled into the luscious forest, unique plants sprouted from the soft forest floor. He could even hear the gentle sway of the wind; the birds chirping produced a melodious symphony. Drowned in tranquility, he suddenly felt dizzy. His thoughts slowly fading away and sleep was drawing in. At that instant, grabbing his wrist he cracked it. The jolt of pain was all he needed, to bring his consciousness back.

“This entire forest is a trap”, he murmured. As he ventured further into the forest, he found skeletal figures of people, cuddled up, on the forest floor. The forest released a toxin, which once enters the blood stream of a person would shut down the functions of one’s body, putting them into an eternal sleep. So all the skeletal corpses were people killed by sleep. Furthermore, the flow of mana was irregular, so his mana perception was of absolutely no use. So he had no way of escaping the forest.

The more he ventured deeper into the forest, the stronger the toxin became his consciousness could only last for a few more hours at best. He tried various methods to dispel the toxin to no avail, even brandishing his blaze sword he tried to purify it, rather it had the opposite effect, the toxin became stronger. It had a strange property, using anything that consisted of mana made the toxin stronger.

After a while of walking, he finally reached an oak wood tree at the very center of the forest. At the foot of it was a blood colored coffin, yet it gave of a terrifying aura. Walking up to the coffin, he opened the lid. What he saw caught him by surprise. A girl, maybe of fifteen years of age, lay asleep, as if she was taking a nap. Her beautiful, silky black hair and pale white skin made her a marvelous beauty; she would be in the top five beauties of the continent.

Lucifer noticed a set of fangs at the corners of her mouth, having read about vampires, he knew the scent of fresh blood could strengthen their being. Having no other method to escape the forest, his only method was to rely on her. Producing the crystallized dagger from cryokinesis, he slit his wrist bringing it towards he let it flow gently into her mouth. His consciousness was slowly fading now, and the loss of blood and the toxin present didn`t help. The girl at that moment woke up, scanning her surroundings at first; she then looked at him before giving a placid smile.

He felt something warm on his lips and sweet sensation was transmitted, at that instance a ring was slipped onto his left hand finger. The last words he heard were” I Brigitte Roark Valkyrie take you as my beloved husband”, and then his consciousness blacked out.

After blacking out, Lucifer In his mind palace reminisced the eons of torture he had to suffer. He was not evil by nature, he had a clear set of rules, which he adhered too and he would only destroy those who blocked his path towards his goal. He just didn`t kill mindlessly all the time, maybe sometimes. As he breezed through the memories of his years of torture, he felt empty, even without emotions this feeling caused him distress. His goal of killing god felt obscure, “what would he do then after killing, if he did?” he thought. The vivid memories of the pain and suffering he had caused him to remember that his only purpose in life was ‘revenge’ beside that he had nothing.

“I am just like a puppet tuned for revenge” he muttered, at that moment he understood he was never in control of his life. Given a chance at life, he thought, “Maybe I should enjoy it more than just thinking about surviving”.

His consciousness returned, he noticed that he was laying on someone`s lap, an intoxicating fragrance invaded his nose. Looking at him was the girl he previously released; she casually leaned her face towards him, and passionately kissed him. After a while, she pulled her face back blushing and gave a breath taking smile. Lucifer getting up, scanned the forest, no residue of the toxin was present. Looking at the girl, he said smiling, “Thank you, Brigitte”. He would thank those who have helped him. He still had his sense of morals.

Brigitte getting up, faced him, grabbing his hand she placed a ring on it. “Put it on my left hand finger”, she signaled. Lucifer slipped the finger onto her ring. He knew him that it signified his engagement, to her. But he didn`t care because he felt a connection to her instinctually, like he would lose something if he missed the chance. “I Avaritia Lu Isemver take Brigitte Roark Valkyrie as my beloved wife”, he said out loud while smiling. His smile at the moment was absolutely angelic; Brigitte was completely mesmerized by it. As the rites were finished, silver specks of light enveloped them both, and strings of golden light seemed to extend from their bodies, intertwining with each other.

“Now our souls are connected as one”, Brigitte spoke.

Instantly, around them, a band of 8 people appeared, they were covered from head to toe, with some kind of dragonish shaped, golden armor. Only their pupils could be seen, their eyes were crimson in shade. As their gazes landed on Brigitte, the simultaneously release their monstrous, Lucifer feeling the intensity, felt he was suffocating from just the pressure. During that moment, he understood all this armored warriors far surpassed the fragment realm they could be from the mystical realm or even a higher realm. Aunt Hilda`s aura couldn`t even hold a candle at their pressure.

“What have I gotten myself into now", he thought. Analyzing the mysterious people he assumed by the flick of their, they could instantly splatter his brains out. As he tried to use blood manipulation silently, his mana couldn`t even invade their bodies, as they had a high density mana shield coating them.

“Am I going to die? Man, this sucks, I didn`t even get a chance to punish mother”, he muttered while being depressed. The fear of death was didn`t scare him, but not achieving his goals did. As he was mentally contemplating his final moments, Brigitte stepped forward. As soon as she stepped, an overbearing aura pressurized the armored warriors to the ground, comparing the pressure released by Brigitte to the warriors was like comparing heaven to earth. As her gaze settled upon the guards, hands erupted from the shadows that were present into the woods, quickly reaching the guards they curled around them. As soon as the warriors got in contact with the hands, their bodies started to disintegrate at the molecular level.

Their howls erupted as they were eaten by the pitch black hands, while being pressurized on the ground. Brigitte gaze was ice cold, an unexpected shivers burst forth from. Even with the lack of emotions, he understood how terrifying she was. As soon as the warriors were erased, her gentle atmosphere again bust forth. As jollily hopped towards, looking at him, she said” I don`t want anything to happen to my darling husband now would I” and a kiss on the lips, followed.

Brigitte intertwining her hand with his led him out of the forest. As they walked through the forest, several S class beasts had been awakened from the release of the toxin. As they rushed to attack, with just a glance from Brigitte they were chopped into tiny little chucks of meat.

Along the way he had understood, that she was an existence that far exceeded the beings of this continent except for the Emperion dragon. "No wonder she was sealed, having that much power she could decimate, the entire continents population alone”, he thought. At best during the fight she had only released 10 percent of her total capabilities.

Finally, they had exited the forest, a wide meadow, laid before them. The gentle wind ruffled, Brigitte hair, her gaze contained complete serenity. Her looks penetrated his soul, as she could read his thoughts. “Honey, I have to go somewhere, I have a task to complete, but I will be back to be with you soon”, she softly muttered.

“The ring which I have given to you, tells me your exact location, so I will be able to find you wherever you are”, her gentle voice reached his ears. After, that she vanished into thin air.

“I will have her teach me that soon enough”, he muttered before heading towards the road at the west of the meadow. As he reached the route, a carriage appeared in sight. Gesturing them to halt, the carriage halted a few meters away, a man with in his mid-forties got off, his frame was robust, and his arms were as thick as a log. The man scanning Lucifer asked “what did he want?”

“Sir, my carriage had been recently ambushed by bandits and I was the only survivor”, he said while acting out a trembling figure

“How did you survive?” the robust man asked by pressure. People would expectedly find it weird, if only one person survived.

“A man in a black hood, helped me, he slew all the bandits and vanished, sir” he said

“Get on, Brat, we are heading to Casaria” the man signaled at the carriage

The journey was comfortable; the carriage had several other merchants who wanted to sell their garment, and other objects in the city. Some of their daughters kept on glancing at him, he wondered ‘why’. Every time they looked at him, he would give back a smile. Which would make them blush and turn back, he also saw several beast men mercenaries in the carriage, and they were recruited as guards to protect the carriage if it was attacked. Their feature were very similar to humans, though they were taller, two wolf shaped ears protruded from their scalp and a bushy tail from their backs.

He often had conversation with them, and found out there were different types of beast men, and had their own tribes. The people in the carriage enjoyed his mature way of talking and quickly got attached. The journey was uneventful, but he improved his already abnormal reflexes and also how to wield a sword. At first they were hesitant to teach him, looking at his frail body. However, one day he challenged one of the mercenaries, as they evoked a stance and began their spar, his abnormal reflexes were displayed in front of them, dodging the beast man`s swings by a thin margin, he assaulted him with a flurry of attacks instantly overpowering the mercenary. The beast men were utterly astonished, they had absolute pride in their superior strength, but today it had been broken by a frail human.

After the event, the beast men trained his in several of their techniques and his quick learning abilities surprised them even further. Other boys present, joined all with him. By the time they had reached the capital, his sword wielding skills had improved by a large margin. He had far surpassed the mercenaries and even developed some technique of his own.

Saying his goodbyes, he hired a carriage from the village back to the mansion.

“Mother, I am back!” he thought, as he stood in front of the door way of the mansion.

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Please comment on the story and present your thoughts. And finally thank you for reading. In further chapters, i will explain about her origins, so for now i will leave Brigitte as a mystery to spice up the story.