Mayhem...
That's the sight that greeted the mortals upon reaching the training camp: gardens plundered, the orchards destroyed, and the Tama-Artists residential houses were a total wreckage.
One would possibly be elegiac at such a sight, but the group smiled in joy... and some, went over to the point of laughing.
Tsukino and Mikino ostracized themselves from the men, searching for a pleasant place to rest.
Lucien, however, facepalmed inwardly, looking at the person who had caused this —Shinji. Only him, with the help of his Tama would lure profound beasts to the trying camp without much thought.
'I would like to see him handle the Bushi, but I have to go see that cousin of mine.'
Did he forgive Goro after the man force-feed him a concoction of his poop and urine? Is he a saint who plays deaf to vicious insults? Is he so benevolent to forgive someone who beats him until he feels like he was stepped by an elephant?
—Hell no!
On that day, Lucy was walking on the street, on his way to buy tomatoes, when he suddenly got harassed for no reason.
He fought back because of his mother, not because of him; that didn't end well.
Back then, Lucy was frustrated. He wanted to know the reason why Goro was tormenting him, but he knew the answer was more stupid than the question.
At one point, he thought of reporting, but he laughed it off as he received a giant punch on the face —there was no one to report to; telling Akane would just worry her.
When you're a mortal —male—, reporting a Tama-Artist is similar to someone in the reader's world, a jobless person with no social status, who wants to report that he got beat up by top government officials and the police general —ruthless bastards who make everyone who crosses them miserable— to a police station. How many people are going to risk their lives for such a person when their families depend on their jobs? The person might think of taking it above, but does the prime minister care about a nobody when he has a country to look at? I'll live that to the reader.
Taking long strides, Lucien noticed Goro's body hidden among the rubble, however, he had died in the most painful possible.
'As someone who got harassed a lot I just wanted to kill him not torture him.'
Lucien furrows his brows, observing the mutilated corpse with intestines pulled out.
'This...'
Before he could finish his notion, a shark looking leopard leaps over behind him. Turning around, Lucy thrusts his fist into the stage 2 profound beast's skull, breaking it apart.
Bang!!
Other shark leopards were alerted, and turned their direction to the scarlet haired man. Feeling a surge of rage thanks to the memories surfing up in his mind, Lucy takes his otsuchi from behind.
"I'll make this quick." He said coldly.
With a bang here, bang there, countless Shark leopards were turned into paste in mere minutes. The others sensing the crisis took a run for it, but Lucy isn't the one to forgive those who attack him first, howling his otsuchi at them.
Swish! Bang! Swish! Bang! Spin. Strike. Spin. Strike.
The sequence maintained the same until the otsuchi came back to Lucy dripping in the blood of the beasts like tomato sauce.
Wiping his silver hammer with Goro's clothes, Lucy heads in the direction were a loud shriek echoed from not to long ago.
'I've had my suspicions since last year when I found some people missing.' He thought, 'I hope it's not you Sora... but I can't shake the feeling off.'
Sora was born with a perfect body that is neither male nor female which can switch in between genders at will. Furthermore, she has no sexual attractions or hormones.
Although, she had a rough upbringing because of that, in Lucy's eyes she is the closest thing to perfection. She is both her husband and wife, with a unique way to produce children which doesn't involve pain in the slightest.
As Lucien beat up profound beasts along the way, the feeling got deeper. And, when he reached the cabbage garden, his fears were confirmed, but he stayed nonchalant: everything is possible in this world —one day you're laughing with your mother, the next you're killing her.
Crossing his arms, Lucien watches Sora devour the old ladies into her stomach with an emotionless gaze.
Deep down in his heart, Lucien is somewhat happy. He researched about kyuketsuki for a long time, but the results he wanted came too late.
He figured out that a kyuketsuki is a spirit with a consciousness, but doesn't have a mind of its own.
When it enters a person, the first thing it does is fight the consciousness of that person before manifesting.
Secondly, after manifesting, it feeds on blood and flesh. However, its true purpose is to eat the fragments of the soul hidden in a person's blood. It can't eat the whole soul, since souls are partially eternal, but its spirit would grow stronger from the soul fragments.
This gives its consciousness more power to fight the host's. After all, a consciousness is strengthened by desires —the stronger the desires, the more will one has to live. The more the kyuketsuki's desire for blood is met, the more it raises its chance of possession.
Thirdly, the kyuketsuki starts to feed on the host's soul from the inside to strengthen itself, gain memories, and the body.
To defeat it, Tama-Artists suggest killing it on the spot, before it feeds on more people to grow stronger to a point of beating someone of Lila's level.
However, Lucien is different from them, because he is the first Entropy user: something that was created specifically to handle spirits, souls, and mostly kyuketsuki.
The other reason Entropy is so exhausting after use is that it carries part of his consciousness; if he injects it in a person two things happen:
Lucien's soul is violent, hence his Entropy is too, and the victim will die in the most painful way possible.
Secondly, part of his consciousness will fight a foreign consciousness —slightly that of the person— to clear the mind from anything harmful.
—It's also painful.
This method helps the soul suppress the consciousness to gain control of the body. Also, if luck takes place, the soul would eat the spirit, strengthening itself.
—The stronger the soul, the stronger the body and more days of life!
Meanwhile, the kyuketsuki finishes it meal. The old ladies were nothing short of bitter, but it had to compromise —there is nothing to do about it
Licking the blood on its fingers, the kyuketsuki stands up sulking. However, upon turning around, it grins in joy.
'He came! Derniere has come to me!'
—If I feed on him, I'll strengthen myself and take this body in an instant.
The kyuketsuki licks it's blooded lips, looking at Lucien's soul.
—Most people think that a soul has a humanoid shape, but that's not it. When it gains that shape, it's no longer a soul, it's something different.
In the kyuketsuki's eyes it could see a bright, silver cloud on his chest with several veins stretching to various parts of his body, mostly the head.
Upon closer inspection, the kyuketsuki could notice sprinkles of several bright colors that blinded it for a split second hidden in the soul.
'I knew everyone with that birthmark is special, but to think his soul is this pure (bright).'
—Maybe, I should've possessed him instead of Sora. Her soul is closer to light (pure), but It's nothing compared to this.
"Are you done observing?
The kyuketsuki flinched, jumping back with a face filled with horror.
'How did he get in front of me?'
Much to its bewilderment, the glow on Lucien's soul intensified as he infused his Entropy into her forehead.
"Wh—! Ahhhhhh!"
The creature didn't have time to check what caused this, as it immediately gave back Sora her body, resting from the one-second pain Entropy left on it.
***
"Hahaha."
Shinji released a faint chuckle as he examines Miyato's bamboo book. Last time, he just said things in his mind to anger the man, but to see he was right made him want to laugh more.
Tracing the title with his frail fingers, Shinji's face became gloomy
"The Sword of loneliness... such a fierce name."
The name called out to the depths of his heart.
As someone who suffered from all the acts of mental darkness, loneliness has moved with Shinji for a long time. Moreover, looking at the book title made him recall the days he was on his own striving on the streets with no one to call a friend.
'How time moves... one day you are in your mother's womb with your sibling, the other you're watching her dead boy on the street.'
Shinji shows a faint smile, standing up.
This isn't the time to be thinking about such things!
Gazing at the resting mortals, Shinji's smile turns wicked.
'It's time for the cow to feed on the owner.'
—They have already fallen for my crocodile tears, I wonder if they have enough courage to kill Tama-Artists.
"Hehe! Huhuhuh!"