Long before Lucian ever set foot in Blackwater Roost, before the war, and long before he survived his own First Trial to claim the Cenotaph of Pride, there was a girl.
She lived a life of quiet luxury in a grand mansion. She was a noble of Amai—a small, affluent town whose name literally translated to "The End," fittingly nestled at the very edge of the London Kingdom. Her life was idyllic; she was cherished by her family, adored by her loving brother, and attended to by a host of loyal maids.
That peace shattered exactly on her nineteenth birthday.
Without warning, she was pulled from her reality and dragged into the Crucible. To the rest of the world, the Crucible was simply the First Trial—a testing ground where the Awakened earn their Pathway Sequences. But in truth, it harbors secrets far deeper and more ancient than humanity understands.
While others faced standard trials, she was dragged straight into hell.
Most who enter the Crucible are given quests aligned with their destined Virtues. An Awakened bound for the War Pathway might be forced to lead a kingdom through a siege, while one destined for the Preservation Pathway might be tasked with saving a dying village from famine. These trials were tests of character, designed to awaken one of the Seven Absolute Virtue Pathways or their subordinate branches.
But her trial was an anomaly of pure nightmare.
Stripped of her nobility and forced into absolute degradation, her "quest" demanded she submit to and please the whims of vile men. It was a vile atrocity she had never known, nor was her sheltered heart equipped to endure. The sheer, unyielding trauma fractured her mind, plunging her into a deep, inescapable depression. Driven to the absolute brink of despair, she chose death over her continued torment. She hung herself right there within the trial, embracing failure to escape the pain.
But Fate had a much darker design.
As she hung there, choking out her final breaths on the precipice of death, the abyss answered her agony. The Crucible did not let her die; instead, she became a vessel. One of the primordial anomalies from the depths of the Sea of Concepts—a conceptual entity born from the twisted, sickening desires of the very humans who broke her—violently overtook her fading body.
It was the Sin of Lust.
"Ah... so this is what it means to be alive," she whispered.
Her voice was entirely different from the desperate, frightened girl's usual cadence. It dripped with a dark, intoxicatingly flirty confidence.
"I, Luxuria, have granted you a second life, my dear host," she purred, stretching the limbs of her newly acquired vessel.
Mikail, are you there? she called out internally.
[Yes, My Lady. I am here to serve you.]
Get me out of this trial, she commanded. This girl has technically completed her objective by securing a Pathway. Doesn't every person's Crucible end the moment they awaken either a Virtue or a Sin?
[Yes, My Lady. That is the absolute rule of the Crucible.]
Then take me back. I want to see what this new era has to offer. It has been ages since I last walked the physical realm.
[Initiating transport back to the physical world, My Lady.]
"Ah, wait. This rope is terribly uncomfortable," she mused aloud.
She casually reached up, gripped the thick, suffocating rope wrapped around her bruised neck, and snapped it with terrifying ease. She dropped gracefully to the floor, adjusting her torn, dirt-stained dress as if it were high fashion.
"Now then," she smiled, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Let us see what toys we have to play with in this new world."
A brief moment later, the oppressive, hellish atmosphere of the Crucible completely shattered. Her consciousness was violently pulled across the dimensional boundary, slamming back into reality.
The instant her senses returned, she found herself standing in the middle of her opulent, perfectly clean bedroom in the Amai mansion. Almost immediately, a frantic series of heavy knocks echoed from her bedroom door.
It was her parents. They must have been pacing in the hallway for hours, utterly terrified, waiting to see if their precious daughter had survived her First Trial.
"How is this?" she whispered to herself, still using Luxuria's sultry, commanding tone.
She paused. Ahem. She cleared her throat, carefully adjusting her vocal cords to suppress the primordial aura of the Sin.
When she finally spoke again, it was a flawless, pitch-perfect imitation of the innocent, fragile noble girl who had just died in the Crucible.
"You may enter," she called out meekly.
The heavy oak door clicked open, and her parents rushed into the room. It was painfully obvious they had been pacing the halls in absolute terror, agonizing over whether their beloved daughter would survive her First Trial. Not everyone was chosen to enter the Crucible—selection was entirely random, and the mortality rate was notoriously high. Their fear was more than justified.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" her mother cried, rushing forward to pull her into a tight, tearful embrace.
"Should I fetch a healer? Or medicine?" her father asked frantically, hovering close by. Behind his legs, her little brother peeked out, looking up at his older sister with wide, worried eyes.
Luxuria mentally filed away their reactions. She carefully adjusted her vocal cords, perfectly mimicking the sweet, fragile tone of the girl whose body she now wore.
"Father... Mother," she said softly, wrapping her arms around her mother in return. "I am alright. I safely completed the trial. It wasn't too difficult, and... I even awakened my abilities."
"Thank the God of Preservation," her father breathed out heavily. He placed a hand over his heart and looked upward in prayer. Her mother echoed the gesture, weeping in profound relief.
"We will leave you to rest," her mother sniffled, gently stroking her hair. "I will have the maids prepare a grand feast for you, my sweet child."
"Thank you," she smiled, the picture of innocence.
Her parents finally stepped back and exited the room, but her little brother lingered. His eyes were shining with unrestrained awe, exactly like a child who had just met a hero from a storybook.
"Sis... Sis!" he whispered excitedly. "Are you super strong now? Like the knights in the books? Can I become like you someday?"
"Yes, little brother, you will," she said, giving him a warm, gentle smile. "Now, run along to Father. Tell him I will be down shortly. I'll show you my new magic soon, okay?"
He beamed and sprinted out into the hallway.
The exact second the door clicked shut, her warm smile vanished, instantly replaced by an expression of dark, utter contempt.
"Thank the God of Preservation," she mocked under her breath. A cold, humorless laugh escaped her lips as she looked up at the ceiling, her gaze seeming to pierce right through the roof and into the heavens above. "So... you are still alive, I see."
She walked over to the edge of her lavish bed and sat down, the soft mattress dipping beneath her weight. Her mind was already churning, shifting from the mundane affairs of mortals to her true, ancient objectives.
I need to find the other Sins, she thought, her eyes narrowing with calculated purpose. But first... I need to find a way to make contact with Lord Lucifer.