Chapter 24: Soul(2)
"Just close your eyes and try not to resist too strongly."
Luka pondered Raven's suggestion for several minutes before reluctantly agreeing.
He warned her sternly against any unnecessary actions, emphasizing the severe consequences that would follow.
"If I sense any danger, none of your magic will have a chance to activate against me."
Raven nodded eagerly, promising to remain completely lucid throughout the process.
They relocated to an abandoned warehouse.
The girl extended a finger, carefully and slowly reaching toward Luka's forehead.
Just before their skin made contact, Luka thought he heard her swallow nervously.
The next second, those memory images that had grown somewhat blurry due to Viltrum's high-pressure environment and the passage of time gradually became clear in Luka's mind.
"Huh?"
Luka and Raven seemed to be watching a movie of his life together.
Under Luka's deliberate control, all memories of his previous life were concealed. To Raven, there was only an endless stretch of darkness. Still, she could clearly sense his soul growing, maturing, steadily taking shape within that void.
She glanced sideways at Luka but offered no comment.
Only after the prolonged darkness did images finally begin to unfold.
"Oh? Another elite, and this kid's awakening is quite impressive."
Luka, still unable to fully open his eyes, was passed around by several large hands. Some of the adults seemed particularly pleased with certain qualities he possessed.
"This kid's got incredible strength! He nearly broke my finger! Take him! Put him in the elite area's incubation pod."
During his brief infancy, Luka spent almost all his time immersed in a nutrient pod. Though classified as an elite, he received little further attention from the adults afterward.
Occasionally, he would be released to get some fresh air and given strange-looking toys.
But Luka showed no interest, remaining quietly seated whenever he was let out.
Raven's eyes narrowed with amusement. At this point in the memories, Luka's soul began to acquire a complex, intriguing flavor.
The opening tone was loneliness steeped in confusion.
From the age of one, Luka was required to watch videos provided by the adults on a daily schedule.
The content was complex, ranging from indoctrination in Viltrum's culture to scenes of Viltrumite warriors displaying their might on other planets.
Luka finally understood where those bizarre toys came from.
They were trophies scavenged from the ruins of civilizations wiped out across the cosmos, carelessly picked up by the adults with bloodstained hands.
At two years old, Luka had left the nutrient tank but still underwent regular testing.
This included monitoring the development of his superpower and routine blood tests.
The video content became more comprehensive, covering the history of the Viltrumites, language lessons, and combat and assassination techniques.
A tremor ran through Luka's soul.
At three years old, Luka was thrown into a group of children.
The children varied in age, some around Luka's age, others as old as seven or eight.
The adult who brought Luka spoke sternly.
"Luka, you are an elite. Those around you are all Viltrumites deemed unqualified from birth."
"Your mission is to kill them all."
Then the adult addressed the other children.
"From the moment you were born, you were nothing more than slightly better than defective products. Ordinary beings."
"But thanks to your glorious Viltrumite genes, you can still endure Viltrum's gravity, which is over twenty-five times stronger than that of standard life-sustaining planets."
"That means you possess considerable combat capability. If you don't want to be labeled unqualified for life, use every ounce of strength you have to kill the elite among you!"
Luka's soul began to tremble violently.
Words that completely shattered the worldview built over thirty years of his past life brought a powerfully impactful flavor to his soul's essence.
Raven's face was now flushed, but at the same time, an expression of disbelief appeared in her demeanor.
In the real world, Raven couldn't resist stealing glances at Luka, whose eyes were now wide open, but she saw only an indescribable emptiness in his gaze.
Three days later, the door finally opened.
Covered in blood, Luka was led out by the man, who wore a satisfied smile.
On this planet, he received his first official praise and commendation.
"No wonder you're an elite. Let me check which lineage you belong to... Ah, it's Lord Thragg's bloodline. That explains it."
The man grinned, lifting the hollow-eyed Luka by the scruff of his neck like a swordsmith hefting the unrefined blade of a legendary sword.
At age five, Luka entered Viltrum's elite training program.
At age eight, Luka stood before the pristine white incubation chamber, his instructor's stern voice ringing in his ears.
"Remember the standards: Elite, Unqualified, and Defective. I'll select all the Elite and Unqualified specimens. You stay here and destroy all the Defective ones."
As Luka gazed at the infants curled up inside the incubation pods, wailing in despair, a deathly grayness crept into his hollow eyes.
Raven's body began to tremble. The scene struck her with a force no less devastating than when Trigon had invaded other worlds.
In that moment, Luka's soul seemed to age by a decade.
Ten years old. As the most outstanding student among the Elite, Luka was granted the honor of witnessing a glorious spectacle.
He boarded a spacecraft and traversed light-years to experience his first flight through the natural skies. He watched a squadron of Viltrumite warriors, already eager for battle, soar overhead.
Then, they brought utter annihilation to this planet teeming with fifty million intelligent beings.
A month later, the blood-soaked instructor returned with a sinister grin, escorting the expressionless Luka to the planet's last refuge.
"Luka, my finest student," the instructor said, "I saved this experience just for you. Those elites back home won't get to feel this for a long time."
The instructor pointed to the last thousand survivors huddled in a corner, their despair so profound they couldn't even weep.
With a rough shove to Luka's back, the instructor barked, "Go! Bask in your glory!"
Ten minutes later, Luka, drenched in blood, suddenly roared, exploding through the mountain of corpses and sea of blood like a crimson lightning bolt. He lunged at the instructor, aiming a fist at his heart.
But the instructor was a warrior who had fought for Viltrum for over a thousand years. After a brief moment of surprise, he slapped Luka into the ground with a single blow.
"Gone mad with killing? Daring to attack me? A Viltrumite who can't think calmly amidst slaughter is defective all the same."
Later, the fourteen-year-old Luka was specially selected to participate in the coming-of-age ceremony alongside seventeen-year-old Viltrumites.
When he learned that the target planet was incredibly distant and that the ceremony required the complete extermination of its entire population to pass the test, a faint glimmer rekindled in Luka's eyes, which had been lifeless for a decade.
The extermination of an entire planet, provided its population exceeded a certain threshold, meant the coming-of-age ceremony would last an exceptionally long time.
.....
The final shot showed Luka descending slowly from the sky, his hands clasped behind his back, landing amidst the sea of people.
He was surrounded by eyes burning with hatred and madness, tens of thousands of gazes piercing him like daggers.
But Luka seemed completely indifferent to their hostility.
He scanned the crowd and spoke clearly, his tone numb and lifeless.
"Rou Planet is beyond saving. In three months, the Viltrumites will have nearly wiped out your entire planet. If you continue to resist, you won't even leave behind the seeds of your civilization!"
Amidst the bone-deep hatred in the surrounding eyes, a flicker of inexplicable confusion appeared.
Luka extended his right hand, palm open, revealing a square storage chip resting quietly in his palm.
"Your spirit of unity is commendable. Your warriors have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the front lines, and those who remain in this shelter are among Rou Planet's foremost scientific minds."
"This chip contains the blueprints for an escape vessel developed by another extinct civilization in their final moments. Their technology is roughly on par with yours, perfectly compatible with your remaining production equipment."
Luka spoke calmly.
"We are employing a partitioned carpet-bombing extermination strategy. These three months are your last chance. Preserve a portion of your civilization's seeds and seek refuge in the cosmos, far from Viltrum's reach."