Strength

(Lucan's POV)

"What the hell! This...This magic...It's just like in the stories!" shouted the gang leader.

"That's what I told you but you didn't listen to me!" cried the bully.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! We have to kill him otherwise he will use his magic again." the gang leader said.

He started swinging at me again, but the wounds healed immediately and the pain only lasted for a moment. No amount of swinging was resulting in anything and the black mass kept on erupting out of every wound and healing itself. I had covered my neck with my hands, so a fatal blow wasn't possible. The more he saw that his hits did not affect me, the more frustrated he became and the fiercer he was with his hits. His face was distorted into an expression that could only be described as ugly, but in his eyes, I could only see one emotion, fear. A fear so potent that it would make the most innocent of people commit the most heinous of crimes, a fear that is ingrained into every human being and shows itself when they are most vulnerable. A primal fear, the fear of death.

I couldn't understand why he was so scared, he looked at me like an existence that needs to be cleansed, because if he didn't only despair awaits him. Not only him, but every single person in that room also had the same feeling. What was in this magic or ability as they called it that made them so horrified?

These questions had to be answered later because there was something much more important right now. Each time I was hit and my wound was healed, I could feel a sudden surge of strength that was accumulating inside me. I knew what it was like to be weak and helpless, so I also knew what it means to have strength. The strength kept on piling up inside me the more I was hit, at first, I was ecstatic. I thought that I had finally found a source of strength that I had been longing for in my previous world. I would always accept what was handed to me without ever fighting back and that was probably one of the reasons for my undoing but with these abilities that I now have, I could finally fight back. It was one of the main things that would help me change my destiny. Though like all things, I should have known that things don't come so easy in life.

I could feel my strength rising for sure but I felt that my body and mind were being pushed to their limit each time I felt a surge in power. It was like a pipe that bursts if the pressure of the water in it is too much. My mind was being overwhelmed by this sudden surge of power and was cracking at its seams, my body was destroying itself under the immense power that flooded into me. I was losing control over my body, and it was like I was being taken over by this power. My vision was fading to black as I could see my body shattering under this pressure and cracks of the same color as the mass that was healing my wounds appeared all over my skin. I could also see fumes of black rising from the skin, it was the color of the fumes which arise from a volcano.

It seems that I was not the only one who could see this, everyone who was present was frozen on the spot. The gang leader was the only one still able to move but maybe that was due to his sheer survival instinct taking control over his fight or flight response. He slowly makes his way forward to make one last swing at me before he would be overwhelmed by the pressure that these fumes are exerting on him, but even that was all for naught because my hand automatically caught the pipe mid-swing and crushed it bare. It was then that I realized that I had totally lost control over my body and my conscience was next.

The gang leader staggered back in fear but in the process, he tripped on himself and fell on his ass. My body stood up and slowly made its way towards the gang leader one step after another. When my body was near the gang Leader, it bent down and peered into his eyes. In them, I could see the reflection of my own eyes, and the sight horrified me. 'Void' was the only way to describe it, there was no pupil or an iris, my eyes were completely black.

A pea-sized clump of that black mass accumulated and coalesced on my right hand, like a black hole that devours everything in its sight, and it was aimed right at the gang leader who was frozen and cowering in the corner. This was the last thing I saw before my vision went completely white and my conscience drowned to the bottom of the depths of this sea of power and I lost control of my body and mind.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw an entirely new scenery than what I had ever seen in my previous life, or rather it would be a false statement to call it a 'scenery' because it was just an infinite white space of nothingness. I had no sense of direction or position, and it was like I was floating in space. It was like a room with white walls on all sides but the walls would go farther and farther away from you the closer you moved to it. I started walking in a random direction to try to find something that will help me make sense of this situation.

"I didn't expect to see you here so soon" I heard an echoing voice.

I looked around to see where the voice came from but the source was nowhere to be seen.

"Don't worry kid, you are probably confused about this place, just wait a second" the voice said again.

Suddenly there was an eruption of black smoke in front of me, the smoke was moving in such that it looked like it was being sculpted into a vague figure of a man. Eventually, the smoke disappeared and in place of it was a man who looked like he was in his late thirties. The most surprising thing about him was his appearance, he looked exactly like Lucan would have, if he was older. The same beautiful yellow eyes as him and the unnaturally handsome face. The only difference was the absence of the childish cuteness that Lucan had.

"Surprised? I hope so" he said.

"Where am I and who are you?" I asked.

"Now-Now, your questions will be answered soon but before that, you have to answer my question. Who exactly are you?" he asked.

"What do you mean? It seemed to me that you were expecting me here" I replied.

"I was expecting only Lucan here not you. So, I repeat, who are you?" he asked again.

Another screen of smoke erupted in front of me and it transformed into a mirror. When I saw my reflection in it, I was shocked. My body was shifting continuously between the body of Lucan and the body of Souta Konue. I looked at the man and he only smiled back at me. His eyes were gentle and caring on the surface but it was clear that he was hiding some secrets.

"It's okay, you don't need to explain it. From what I can gather Lucan has died and you are the one occupying his body now, it also seems that you are not even of this world. Well, it is unfortunate that the child is dead but the semantics aren't important right now, there is a much more crucial issue to be solved. Now, As promised, ask away my boy and I will answer to the best of my abilities" he said.

"Why was I brought here? What is Lucan to you and most importantly, who are you?" I asked the three most important questions that had eaten away at me since I came here.

"Woah! Woah! Slow down kid those are very hard-hitting questions and also very hard to answer. Anyway, I don't know why or how you were brought here, it is even above the scope of my understanding. For the next question, Lucan is my direct descendant as you may have noticed already, or at least he was my descendant until his untimely death and for your last question, well, my name is Ambrose..."

I furrowed my eyebrows and I felt a bit disappointed, I thought he was going to reveal one of his many secrets that I knew he had. Though, it also seemed that he still had something to say but was hesitant. After a few seconds, his mouth finally opened again.

"But you probably know me better as the heretic..." he said with an anxious, almost mischievous smile.