Cold darkness…..
The sensation of falling through an endless void, and then..
Lucius gasped, his eyes snapping open.
He was still in the corridor, still pinned by the throat and still alive.
Valeria's amber eyes stared closely into his, her expression unreadable. Her grip hadn't loosened a bit, the cold feeling at his neck was gone, had it ever been real?.
'What just happened?'
[Survival Instinct (Passive) - Alert!]
[You experienced a killing intent projection - Target demonstrated lethal capability without execution]
An illusion of some sort. The sensation of his throat being cut had been her intent made real. A casual warning, a demonstration of how easily she could kill him.
And he felt every second of it.
His hand still clawed weakly at her wrist, his body shaking from the phantom pain. Blood roared in his ears, his vision swam.
Valeria titled her head slightly, studying his face. "You felt it, didn't you?" Her smile fell across her face in a cold way.
"Good, now you understand the power gap between us."
She pulled him closer until they were face to face, her breath landing softly on his face. "You're interesting. Strong enough to kill blessed warriors, but nowhere near ready for what's waiting in that room." Her gaze flicked toward the prince's chambers for a second before returning.
"If you go in there now, you'll die. For real this time."
Lucius tried to speak, but her grip cut off his air.
"So here's what happens," Valeria continued. "I let you go, you run, and I pretend I never saw you." Her smile widened.
"Because I want to see what you become, whether you're worth what everyone say about you."
Then she moved.
She spun, and lucius felt himself lifted, weightless for one moment, before she hurled him down the corridor with terrifying strength.
He crashed through the first wall, stone exploded around him.
[HP: -17]
He tumbled through empty air, a storage room, and smashed through the opposite wall.
[HP: -16]
He crashed through another room, furniture shattered under him. Something cracked, and before he knew it, he was airborne again.
[HP: -14]
He crashed through the third and the fourth. Each impact stole more breath, and more strength from him.
[HP: -13]
He crashed through the final barrier and fell.
His body hit metal, and the impact drove the last air from his lungs. He slid, tumbling, unable to stop himself.
Then he was still.
The sound of his own ragged breathing bouncing off narrow walls.
Lucius lay motionless, every part of him screaming. Broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder. His left leg wouldn't respond to him, blood dripped from a dozen cuts.
He forced his eyes open.
A maintenance shaft. A narrow tunnel running between the palace walls. Pipes lined the ceiling, dim light filtered through grates overhead.
[HP: 35/150]
[Status Effects: Broken Ribs (3), Dislocated Shoulder, Internal Bleeding, Severe Bruising]
[Warning: Critical health threshold reached]
Lucius bit down on a scream as he shifted. The pain was overwhelming, his vision kept blurring.
'Move, I have to move. She's coming.'
He forced himself onto his hands and knees, grinding through the agony. Every breath was like knives in his chest, his shoulder hung at a wrong angle.
Footsteps echoed through the floor above, slow and measured. Walking through the wreckage he had left behind.
Lucius pressed against the wall of the shaft, fighting to control his breathing. Too loud, or she'd hear him.
The footsteps stopped directly above the grate he'd fallen through.
He held his breath, ignoring the screaming pain in his ribs. His hand moved through slowly to the knife, still sheathed at his belt.
Through the grate, he saw her shadow. She was looking down, looking right at him.
She had to have seen him. The shaft wasn't that dark.
Valeria crouched, peering through the gate.
Lucius's heart hammered. His grip tightened on the knife, if she came down, if she decided to finish it…..
Then she stood.
"Where did you go, little anomaly?" Her voice was playful. "Can't have gotten far with those injuries."
The footsteps resumed, moving away from him.
Lucius waited a while, breathing slowly until the footsteps faded completely.
'She…she actually let me go.'
He slumped against the wall, shaking, from pain, from the crash of adrenaline, from sheer disbelief.
He had survived, by the thinnest margin possible and she allowed it.
'I need to get somewhere safe, I need to heal.'
Lucius gritted his teeth and started crawling. Every movement was torture, his useless shoulder dragged. His broken ribs ground together.
[HP: -2]
[Internal Bleeding worsening]
He found a junction where three shafts met, a small chamber with just enough room to sit upright. An old maintenance access point, rusted tools lay scattered in the corners, thick with dust.
Lucius collapsed against the wall, gasping. Blood soaked through his servant's uniform.
'I'm dying, I'm slowly dying.'
He pulled up his status window with trembling hands.
[STATUS WINDOW]
HP: 33/150 (Critical)
MP: 35/120
[SHOP FUNCTION: UNLOCKED]
'Shop? When did I….'
He tapped on it, and a list appeared, glowing faintly in the dark.
[SHOP]
• Minor Healing Potion — 20 MP — Restores 50 HP
• Moderate Healing Potion — 40 MP — Restores 100 HP, clears minor status effects
• Antidote — 15 MP
• Stamina Elixir — 25 MP』
Lucius stared at the Moderate Healing Potion. A hundred HP, it would fix his broken ribs, stop the internal bleeding and pull him back from the edge of darkness.
And it only cost 40MP, but he currently had only 35MP.
"Damn it," he whispered.
The Minor Potion wouldn't be enough, fifty HP would keep him breathing but leave him crippled, unable to run. And he still had to get out of the palace, out of solara entirely.
He needed the Moderate Potion, which means he needed more MP.
He scanned his skills for anything that generated mana, but there was nothing. His skills burned MP, they didn't produce it.
Then he noticed two lines in his status window.
[MP Recovery Rate: 2 per minute (passive)]
[Combat MP Recovery: 50 per enemy defeated]
Fifty MP per kill and two per minute.
He just needed to kill something, anything with enough presence to register as an enemy.
His gaze drifted toward the ceiling, in the direction of the prince's chambers.
Prince Aurelius. The sun god reincarnate, even as a child, his divine presence would count. Would easily count actually.
One kill, fifty MP. Get the moderate potion and escape.
'No. I can barely move and if Valeria comes back…'
But what was the alternative? Bleed out in a maintenance shaft? Try to escape with broken bones and thirty-three HP?.
He had come too far. Two hundred kilometres, killed dozens of blessed warriors. Absorbed each one, all of it leading here.
He couldn't stop now.
Lucius forced himself upright, using the wall for support. His leg nearly buckled, his vision went grey for a moment.
[HP: -2]
He steadied himself, breathed through the pain, and started moving.
The shaft led to another access gate. Through it, a servants' corridor, empty and quiet. The festival noise outside had died down, guards would be returning to their posts soon.
Lucius pried the grate open and dragged himself through. Every movement was agony, his broken ribs shifted. Blood dripped steadily from cuts across his arms and chest.
He activated divine sense.
[Divine Sense (Passive) - Active Scan]
[Divine signatures detected:]
• Valeria — 3 floors below, moving away
• Palace guards — scattered, returning to posts
• Prince Aurelius — Central tower, third floor, OVERWHELMING presence]
She was far enough, if he moved now, quietly….
Lucius limped down the corridor, one hand dragging along the wall. His broken leg barely held his weight, every breath was short and sharp.
The prince's chambers were close, just around the corner.
He reached the golden double doors. There were no guards, Valeria must have dismissed them during her search.
He pressed his ear to the door, silence. He tested the handle, and unlocked it slowly.
'One kill, fifty MP, Healing, then escape.'
He pushed the door open slowly, the hinges creaked.
The chamber was dark except for sunlight pouring through tall windows. Silk curtains drifted in a gentle breeze, toys lay scattered across plush carpets. Golden furniture caught the pale light.
In the center of an enormous canopied bed, a child slept.
Prince Aurelius. Blonde hair spread across silk pillows, small chest rising and falling in steady rhythm, he looked peaceful.
A supposedly six-year-old boy who had done nothing wrong in this life.
Lucius stepped inside and closed the door behind him, his hand moved to the knife at his belt.
'One strike, I'll make it quick and clean. He won't even wake up.'
He took one step forward, and the boy's eyes opened.
Divine energy erupted from that small body, like a tidal wave of pure solar power that flooded the room. The pressure was immense, almost crushing. The Divine Charm around Lucius's neck burned against his skin.
He staggered, his injuries screaming.
'Can…..can I actually kill this guy?'.....