"That’s impossible," Gideon said with disbelief. "How can you not know the limits of your own ability?"
Usually, when soone first awakens their ability, they would try everything, testing what they can and can’t do, finding their strengths and limits.
However, Lucian ... he had never even bothered to find his limit.
The only struggle he’d ever ntioned was how hard it was to control his abilities.
And honestly, if Lucian ever did try to figure out how far his ability could go, deia was afraid the only way to find out would be by accidentally destroying an entire country.
"This isn’t the ti to talk about that," deia stepped in, defending him. "We’ve got sothing more important to focus on."
She turned toward Tian. "Now tell , why exactly can’t we leave this place?"
Tian replied calmly, "I’m not completely sure. But I think ... a certain number of people had to enter the building to activate the trap or chanism the monster set up."
deia counted the people inside, then said, "Ten people?"
Tian gave a slight shrug. "Looks like it. Those scientists have been staying here for days and nothing happened to them."
"Are you sure we’re actually locked in here?" Ethan asked skeptically. "Maybe you misunderstood sothing."
Tian gave him a flat look and answered coolly, "Then why don’t you try opening the door?"
"The doors and windows are sealed. Obviously, I can’t just open them," Ethan replied, pausing for a mont. "But ... maybe we can break one of the windows."
As soon as Ethan said that, everyone imdiately rushed toward the windows, except for deia and Tian, who stayed back.
They simply watched from a distance, already knowing that whatever they did, it wouldn’t work.
"Did you only find out about this the mont you stepped inside?" deia asked.
"I did," Tian answered without hesitation. "I knew we were supposed to co here, but I didn’t see the chanism until I was already inside."
deia figured he couldn’t explain everything, so she shared what she was thinking instead.
"So ... I guess the only way out is to kill whatever created the chanism," she said slowly. "I got a new quest from the system. It told to kill the King of Worms."
"Since I also got a mission to kill all the demons in the underground chamber, I think both quests are connected," she continued.
"The King of Worms must be hiding under this building. Maybe ... he’s been sleeping all this ti, and only started to awake when the underground started collapsing."
That would explain why the system told her to kill every last demon, and why Tian brought her down there.
Maybe it wasn’t directly part of his mission, but he had said he wanted her to kill them, because he wanted it.
It could’ve been his way of erasing all the painful mories of his past by killing every demon, or maybe he wanted deia to do it, so he could finally leave this place.
Tian didn’t say anything. But he didn’t argue with a single word she said, either.
That silence told deia everything she needed to know, and because of that, she was convinced that her guess was completely right.
"So then ... why hasn’t the King of Worms appeared yet?" she murmured, more to herself than anyone else. "What is it waiting for?"
This ti, Tian actually responded to deia’s words, and that, in itself, wasn’t a very good sign. "My vision about that is too blurry, so I don’t know anything this ti either."
deia frowned. "How can it be blurry?"
Tian’s eyes drifted toward the group still struggling to pull the wooden boards off the windows.
But deia noticed that he wasn’t really looking at them. He was watching Lucian.
"It’s because of him," Tian said. "Any vision that’s connected to him always cos out blurry."
He suddenly turned his eyes to deia. "I can see soone’s future and read their emotions by looking at their soul. But him ... he doesn’t have one."
deia’s brow furrowed even more. Now she was staring at Tian like he’d lost his mind.
"Don’t joke about sothing like that," she said sharply. "No one can live without a soul."
Even Lucifer had a soul. So did deia.
"I know it sounds unbelievable," Tian whispered, almost like he didn’t want to hear himself say it. "But if you could see what I see, you’d understand. When I look at him, it’s just ... empty. Just a void vessel. Like a living mannequin."
"That’s why ..." he looked away, lowering his voice, "I’m a bit afraid of him."
deia caught the way Tian avoided eye contact when Lucian turned toward them, and in that mont, she knew Tian wasn’t joking at all.
"That’s impossible," she muttered to herself.
She wanted to believe it was impossible. But deep down, she couldn’t ignore the signs.
Every ti her system tried to scan Lucian’s mories, it either crashed or said the data was locked.
Lucian had always been like a pandora box, one that couldn’t be opened, no matter how hard she tried.
She knew his story. She knew about his family, his abilities, his life.
But what if ... what if there was more?
What if he had another past, one even he didn’t rember?
What if he was like her? What if he’d taken soone else’s body?
But to steal a body ... you needed a soul, and yet, Lucian didn’t seem to have one.
"You don’t have to believe ," Tian said quietly. "As long as he doesn’t try to harm or Ren, I won’t interfere in your relationship."
deia was silent for a mont before finally asking, "If he doesn’t have a soul ... then what is he?"
Ahead of them, the others finally dropped the wooden planks and began trying to open the window.
But no matter how hard they pushed or pulled, it didn’t budge, not even an inch.
Even when Lucian used his telekinesis, the window only trembled slightly. It wouldn’t move or break, like there was an invisible barrier blocking his ability from reaching it.
"I don’t have an answer for that," Tian whispered under his breath.
Suddenly, the howling wind outside stopped. And just then, deia realized the temperature around them had slowly started to return to normal.
"All I know is," Tian continued, "he’s not human ... not a demon ... not even a ghost. He feels like a machine. Sothing that exists without needing a soul."
[Ding! Ding!]
[System progress: 78% complete.]
[System is attempting to run another beta scan to detect other nearby systems ...]
deia imdiately turned her head toward Lucian, hoping that the system would detect sothing.
[System has detected two nearby systems ...]
Her eyes widened. So he really does have a system?
[Scan failed to complete.]
[Only one system detected.]
She frowned. That didn’t make sense. Was her system glitching because the update hadn’t finished?
[Error! Error! Two syste—no, one syste—]
[Error! Error!]
[Restarting system scan ...]
A minute passed before a new hologram appeared in front of her.
[System has detected two system owners: deia Vega & Tian Zhang.]
Then what about Lucian?
[System has detected one system ... without an owner.]
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