Chapter 25: Soul(3)
In the end, the people of Rou still failed.
Strictly speaking, Luka had even bought them more time than fate had ever intended.
Three months later, a Viltrumite two years older than Luka discovered the location.
Perhaps because of Luka's consistently outstanding record over the past decade, coupled with his steady growth in power, the newcomer showed no suspicion toward him.
"Hey, why are you keeping tens of thousands of them alive?" the Viltrumite scoffed. "Whatever. I'll take care of it."
He carelessly flew past Luka, exposing his back completely.
Luka struck from behind.
The Viltrumite died in front of the last surviving Rou refugees, his body falling from the sky like broken debris.
About half a month later, a Viltrumite with a lazy demeanor flew in from the distant sky, occasionally calling out Luka's name.
"Luka? You didn't go berserk again, did you? We're regrouping. Time to head back!"
This one was stronger than the last and far more cautious. Still, at the cost of severe injuries, Luka managed to bring him down as well.
The survivors could not understand Luka's actions.
They worked day and night to complete the escape ship, all the while watching him hover silently in the sky, their gazes filled with hatred and wariness.
After all, they had personally witnessed Luka slaughter millions when he crushed the army guarding their final stronghold.
When one Viltrumite after another failed to return, the retreating Viltrumite force finally grew suspicious.
This time, a young man whose past achievements were nearly on par with Luka's, along with that nightmarish instructor, came together.
The escape spacecraft was complete, but its energy reserves were not yet fully charged.
Luka watched the instructor and his classmate rapidly flying towards him while shouting questions. He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.
Then, without hesitation, he charged forward to meet them.
The cataclysmic shockwaves of the ensuing battle tore the sky apart, engulfing the last tens of thousands of Rou survivors below. Almost all of them were wiped out by the collateral devastation.
Already exhausted from two prior fights, Luka stood no chance against the two of them together.
His body was hurled through the air like a rag doll, blood scattering like rain.
The Instructor furiously berated Luka for his stubbornness, but Luka silently rose to his feet, not even wiping the blood streaming from his mouth and nose, and resumed his fighting stance.
The next instant, the Viltrumite who had been chosen for the same coming-of-age ceremony drove a fist straight into him, blasting him away.
"Huff... Huff... He's done," the young Viltrumite said. "Look at his eyes. He's barely conscious."
But as the indicator lights on the escape ship began to glow one by one, both of them froze in disbelief.
Luka, who should have collapsed completely, endured what should have been the final, decisive blow.
Even with his mind fractured and his body on the verge of collapse, he unleashed a burst of power so violent that even the instructor failed to withstand it.
Half an hour later.
Luka, barely clinging to life, tossed aside the instructor's severed head, whose face was still frozen in shock.
Staggering, he boarded the escape ship just as its energy systems finished charging.
He weakly gazed at the remaining dozen survivors, and for the first time in over a decade since arriving in this world, a genuine smile appeared on his face.
"Let's go together. We need to avoid those guys. I can protect you. Your civilization still has a chance."
The refugees, reduced to just over a dozen survivors, exchanged uneasy glances. Finally, a man wielding a firearm stepped forward.
"Get down!" he snarled, his voice filled with loathing. "If you come with us, we'd rather detonate this ship ourselves!"
Luka froze, his smile fading as he lowered his head, concealing his expression in shadow.
He was too severely injured. Even with a Viltrumite's constitution, he could collapse at any moment. Moreover, he had no time left for persuasion.
If the other Viltrumites participating in the coming-of-age ceremony arrived, even if not all of them came to investigate, Luka's decade-long secret ambition would shatter like a burst bubble.
He raised his head, his eyes once again empty and dark.
"Then... I'm sorry."
This was the aftertaste in Luka's soul, its complexity a flavor even Raven couldn't decipher.
Raven withdrew her fingers, staring at Luka in a daze. A faint, unnatural flush lingered on her cheeks, like the afterglow of an addict who had just gotten their fix.
Luka, however, was completely different.
The girl hadn't lied to him. This magic wasn't evil; it had a dual nature.
He had glimpsed a part of Raven's past as well.
Oh, now he knew her full name: Rachel Roth.
And he finally understood what kind of existence Trigon truly was.
If the Viltrumites conquered planets, then Trigon's target was various planes and dimensions.
Remarkably, parts of Raven's experiences and emotional journey were eerily similar to his own.
"No wonder you help the homeless. You're just using the opportunity of giving them food to savor the scent of their souls, especially the elderly ones."
Who could have imagined such a peculiar habit? Not even Batman or Nightwing would have suspected it.
They probably just thought she was strangely kind.
Though the souls of the elderly were aged, to Rachel, their life experiences made them as rich and mellow as fine vintage wine.
Luka's soul, having undergone rebirth, internal conflict, prolonged suppression, and a myriad of other factors, had reached a new level of intensity and allure for Rachel.
The strange color on Rachel's face gradually faded. On her typically expressionless face, a brief look of satiation surfaced faintly.
Then, her expression reverted to its usual indifferent, dead-fish-eyed state.
But when her gaze returned to Luka, a trace of emotion surfaced.
She had not expected much. At first, she merely wanted to savor the most intense fragments of his soul.
But Luka had laid bare several of his most conflicting experiences from Viltrum without reservation.
That reckless, almost self-destructive openness shattered her expectations. She accidentally became engrossed while observing and savoring the latter part of Luka's soul and memories.
And in that brief lapse, Luka gained access to fragments of her past, along with emotions she had suppressed for years.
Simply put, Rachel, having lost her composure, briefly synchronized her soul with Luka's.
Luka silently avoided Rachel's questioning gaze.
In truth, it was the period before his rebirth that held the most secrets he couldn't reveal.
As for his decade-plus on Viltrum...
Keeping it bottled up for so long is exhausting.
Even after being targeted by Doctor Fate and confronted by Diana, Luka still hesitated to fully disclose his past on Viltrum.
Just recounting the events of his coming-of-age ceremony had left Diana unable to accept it. If he were to recount all those years in detail to them, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Seeing Rachel wasn't pressing further, Luka steered the conversation back to the original topic.
"So... can I ask you to help me deal with my problem now?"
He was clearly still troubled by her earlier claim that there was something wrong with his soul.
Rachel's deadpan eyes glanced sideways at Luka before she nodded slightly.
"I don't know much, only somewhat familiar with soul magic and teleportation magic. But your problem happens to be within my area of expertise."