The Mark

Chapter 51

Chapter 51

"Can you tell me where it was last seen and where it was going, so I can arrange for a search party to find its pieces?" he asked.

"It was coming towards our base from Erygas city with a prisoner. You can arrange for a search party," Xander answered as he disconnected the call.

He gazed at his phone as he softly muttered, "I doubt you will find it, in any case. You think the first possibility is true, but I believe it’s the second. It would be impossible to find it now."

"As I expected, this isn’t the work of Lucifer. He can’t have knowledge on how to deactivate that thing. Someone else is involved who helped him. And it’s because of that person that we lost Lucifer," he acknowledged as he gazed towards the distant horizon.

"Who could it be?" he mumbled to himself. That was when he remembered something. He remembered Ayn’s words.

Before coming here, he had talked to her, where she told him about Variant Uprising members stalking the facility, which was Lucifer’s target. When he heard about them leaving without doing anything, he already found it strange. Now he understood everything.

He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath.

"They didn’t leave because they knew that our teams had found their trail. They left because they had already found Lucifer. Those sneaky bastards, I should have understood right then!"

"When they knew about the facility, they might also have known about Erygas and our plan. Those bastards!" he let out as he clenched his teeth.

"Now that Variant Uprising is also involved, this enters into Varant’s jurisdiction. I wanted to help Lucifer, but that doesn’t seem possible now. Albeit all because of my negligence," he mumbled under his breath as he walked towards the helicopter in which he had come here.

He was regretting his actions so much. The biggest mistake was his. When Flourance had informed him about them catching Lucifer, he should have gone straight to them instead of telling them to go back to base alone to save time.

If he hadn’t done that, he would have been with them. He would be able to save them. Just that single moment was what he was blaming the most for this event.

Even though he knew that Lucifer had killed them, he knew his mistake was just as significant. The blame for his men’s death was as much on his shoulders as it was on Lucifer.

...

The doors of the lift opened, revealing a big hall before Lucifer. The floor was properly marbled, and the walls seemed to be made of metal, at least from the surface it appeared.

There was a big crowd of people, already present inside the hall, seemingly waiting for them.

It seemed like there were hundreds of people. Despite accompanying so many people, the hall seemed primarily empty, which only showed how big it was,

The people were dressed in a wide variety of clothes. It didn’t seem like there was any dress code in this place. Some men were even standing bare-chested entirely.

Two men and one woman were standing in front of those hundreds of people like the leaders.

"Welcome to our base," Caen said softly in Lucifer’s ears before he stepped out of the lift and stood sideways.

Lucifer also stepped out.

The three people that seemed to be the in-charge here were none other than Dion, Isona, and Vega.

Isona was the level two leader of Variant Uprising and the only woman amongst the five leaders of VU.

She was wearing a revealing grey dress that showed her cleavage full well. Her dark crimson hair was longer than shoulder length but didn’t reach her waist. They were mid-length.

Her eyes seemed like they were a mixture of blue and green, which sometimes seemed light blue and sometimes green. There was a necklace in her neck which had three pearl-like semi-transparent jewels.

The second person who stood right beside Isona was Dion, who was one rank higher than her in leadership. He was a level three leader. He had ashen skin like he was a dead person.

His eyes were beautiful golden that matched with his looks while making him seem dangerously charming. He was dressed in a white shirt under a black coat. He also wore black pants to finish his professional look.

The third person was technically the person who had the highest authority here, at least amongst the people that were present here.

The third man was Vega, who was a level leader. In leadership, he was just under the leader of the Variant Uprising, Raia, in position.

Vega seemed like a librarian from the way he presented himself. There were two books in his hand, one of which was blue while the other one was orange.

- : Welcome

- : Welcome

- : Welcome

Vega was standing with a subtle smile on his face. As soon as he saw Lucifer coming out of the lift, he started walking towards him.

"Welcome, Lucifer Azarel. Welcome to your real — a place where you won’t have to worry about betrayal as you had to amongst the humans," Vega said merrily as he reached Lucifer.

He reached out his hand to shake Lucifer’s hand.

"Ah, I wouldn’t do that if I was in your place. Not until I was suicidal, at least," Caen let out with a wry smile as he saw Vega do what he had attempted unknowingly previously.

"Little Lucifer can’t control his decay powers. If you shake his hand, you would be at the receiving end of his S-grade ability. And I think you wouldn’t want that," he continued as he warned Vega.

"Oh, so this is it," Vega muttered as he retracted his hand.

’I thought he could control his powers. I was wrong, I guess,’ Vega thought as he looked towards Lucifer’s hand.

"Anyway, as I was saying, Welcome... to your true family," Vega greeted Lucifer again while he touched his hand together to offer a different kind of greeting.

"I only have one family: my father and my mother. No one else," Lucifer replied grimly.

"Ah, of course. I didn’t mean to imply that we were placing ourselves in their place. I just meant that we are going to be here for you like a real family. Like brothers...." Vega improvised.

Lucifer nodded his head softly but didn’t say anything. Even though the words seemed sincere, he realized that humans were good actors. Not every genuine-sounding statement was the truth.

"Is he not here?" Caen asked softly.

"Raia? He is outside, dealing with some important matters with his team. There is no way he would have missed welcoming a new member to our family. Especially the one he was so excited about," Vega answered.

Lucifer seemed to not even be the least bit interested in Vega’s words. Instead, he was more concerned about his clothes. He was still bare-chested.

He gazed towards Caen and said, "Shirt."

His single word reminded Caen that he had promised the kid to get him clothes. Vega, on the other hand, wondered what it was all about.

"Carl!" Caen raised his hand as he called out to the man who was standing in the back.

"Yes, leader," a long-haired man answered.

"Bring me new clothes from the storage in Lucifer’s size. Be fast," Caen commanded Carl, who was a part of his team.

The long-haired man didn’t ask a second time and instantly left.

"His clothes got destroyed in the battle with the Deltas. I promised to give him clothes here," Caen told Vega.

"Oh. It’s nothing. We have plenty of clothes in all sizes," Vega let out as he understood everything. "They’re all his now."

"Boss, why don’t you introduce us to little brother as well?" a bulky man in the back shouted.

Vega turned back and gazed at the man who had spoken. It was all a part of Vega’s plan anyway. He had told everyone how they should act to make a good impression and to seem more welcoming.

If it weren’t that, the man would never have dared to speak before Vega, let alone yell.

"Right, little brother, while your clothes are being brought here, let me introduce you to everyone."

"I will start with myself. I am Vega Ozborne. I am the second in command in this place after Raia," Vega said as he introduced himself.

"Command?" Lucifer muttered softly.

’As expected, this place was no different. They also had hierarchy and commands where they treated the rest as slaves and ruled over people lower in commands,’ he thought as he gazed at the hundreds of people who stood in the back.

They were no different, but he wasn’t surprised. Even if there were no command, he wouldn’t have trusted them. He had already made up his mind about not trusting anyone. Even if he saw a utopia or god himself came before him, he wasn’t going to trust or lower his guard.

"Oh, you might be misunderstanding when I say the command. It only means responsibility. Not in the hierarchy. As the person higher in command, it’s my responsibility to make sure that weaker ones are safe," Vega replied with a calm smile on his face as he noticed subtle discomfort on Lucifer’s face.

He knew the adversities Lucifer faced and what impacts it might have had on his psyche. He wished to separate the perception of VU from the facility as much as he could.

Lucifer nodded without actually believing anything.

"I believe you already met Caen," Vega continued as he pointed towards Caen, who was standing on the side.

"Caen is a really great guy. He is fifth in responsibility," he continued, making sure he used the correct word this time.

After introducing Caen, Vega shifted his focus to Isona, who was walking towards them. "And she is-"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Isona took the lead and cut him off, "I am Isona. In responsibility, I am the fourth here," she said.

"And Vega, Lucifer just came here. Can’t you do the introduction later? Have mercy on the little guy. Let him go to his room and rest. He can get to know others naturally later on. Don’t make him stand for the introduction of hundreds of people," she continued as she smiled wryly.

She reached Lucifer and reached out her hand towards his head to rub it like a caring sister.

Lucifer watched the hand come towards him slowly. He squinted his eyes as he resisted the urge to fry the head of Isona with his black lightning.

He stepped back since he didn’t wish to have her touch him. He even used his Wind Control to help his movement.

Within a second, he reached from the hand reach of Isona to ten meters away from her.

"Good movement," Vega complimented Lucifer’s swift movement.