When Lucien talks about a primal instinct that makes him want to help the mysterious woman in the glass coffin, the women around him get confused.
Not even Nea or the Sins can understand how he really feels due to something related to their nature, something Lucien can't understand now either.
"Alright..." Lust sighs and looks at Lucien with a loving expression. "If you've already decided to go help this woman, I'll support you... I always support you no matter what."
Lucien and Lust's relationship doesn't require any more improvement as it has already reached colossal levels; they think alike, and even when one of them suggests a crazy plan, the other accept it and support each other.
Still, he feels like expressing his gratitude that Lust is always on his side. "Thank you, my love... I know it sounds weird, but..."
"It's weird as hell!" Sloth can't help but comment. "I mean, really, fucking crazy, you know."
"And isn't the fact that we're both in love with the same man just so fucking crazy?" Envy asks in her usual provocative tone. "Or everything we've been through with him so far??"
"I'm not that... I..." Sloth tries not to seem so much in love with Lucien, but it's too late to deny that, especially around people who can see her feelings so clearly.
She sighs and then looks at Nea. "Anyway, why do you think a legendary Primordial is… sick? Is that because of the war that took place a thousand years ago??"
"Yes." Nea quickly responds. "My strength hasn't changed much since then due to my limitations, so I was already in the Immortal Realm peak, and even so, the dark energy of..."
She can't help but be sad as she looks at the Ghost Lady in Saria's hand. "Well, that energy controlled me easily; it was consuming all my vital energy... then she appeared, bright as a sunrise, beautiful as a rainbow after a storm, and serene as the blue sky."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Lucien can see that Nea greatly admires the Water Spirit, but somehow, what he saw inside that glass coffin was not such an amazing and powerful woman, but a fragile girl who needs to be protected and loved; maybe it's his overprotective nature speaking, or an even more primal instinct.
"We've already heard that story..." Envy comments in an annoyed tone. "Can you go straight to the part that interests us??"
"Ahem..." Nea nods and gets right to the point. "The dark energy generated by the souls of my Kaisa and the Second Fox Princess was something far beyond madness; such an overwhelming power could not be easily controlled even by someone as powerful as the Water Spirit..."
"Hmm..." Lucien makes a thoughtful and concerned expression. "And you think that made her somehow… sick?"
"I'm not sure if sick is the right term," She responds. "But surely saving us came at a cost… I remember when she arrived, she looked like the purest and most powerful creature ever, but when she left… well, she looked exhausted and less… glowing."
Envy rolls her eyes. "This talk about pure and glowing people is making me sick."
"But there's some logic in that, you know..." Sloth comments in her usual slow tone. "When even very powerful people are forced to absorb a lot of energy they have no affinity for, it does a lot of damage to them; getting sick is the least you expect, but dying happens often too."
"And in the case of dark mana, it's almost always death..." Lust comments in a concerned tone; she doesn't really care about the supposed Water Spirit, but she can see that Lucien has some kind of special bond with that woman.
While everyone seems to be thinking about the Water Spirit, Saria has another concern. "Could this be what is causing the extreme changes in the Blue Star???"
"Shouldn't it be it then dark mana flowing into the central region?" Envy thinks aloud.
Nea hesitates a bit, but she already trusts Lucien and can see that he cares about the Water Spirit. "Could be, but... I believe that everything that happens in the Blue Star is related to the Water Spirit."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"Look, I understand your people see this Primordial as a protector or something, but do you really think your whole world is connected to this woman?" Lust asks as Envy thinks the same thing.
"I do." Nea doesn't think twice before answering. "I know that for most people in the universe, the Primordial beings are just legends, but for us from the Seven Stars, they are special..."
She looks at Lucien before continuing. "This is not just a secret for me but for all the most important families and clans of the Seven Stars, so please don't talk about it with random people around."
"Of course." He responds with an honest expression.
"Alright..." She nods. "My ancestors believed that the Water Spirit always lived in the Blue Star; in fact, she created this world and the races that live here."
"As these races evolved, monsters took the lead by devouring other creatures, getting their power, so to balance things, the Water Spirit gave the sacred trees to my people and the Nagas and also created the Central Region to keep the most dangerous creatures there."
"Bullshit!" Envy can't help but exclaim because she can't believe something so crazy. "People creating whole worlds?? I've never heard anything so fanciful."
Nea ignores the annoying Sin and keeps looking at Lucien; the fact that he's still listening to her means he doesn't totally disbelieve in that. "I know this doesn't seem possible, but that's what my ancestors have believed for generations since the Water Spirit gave the sacred tree to us, allowing the Mermaids to evolve strongly."
Lust also finds Nea's words very surreal, but like Sloth, she understands that even their knowledge of thousands of years is limited, and since they started the journey with Lucien and his sisters, they have discovered incredible and wonderful things, so they learned not to doubt things so easily.
Lucien also finds his knowledge too limited to discern what may or may not be possible. Yet, he believes that Nea is a woman too intelligent to believe in anything impossible.
"Why did you say that is a secret from other Seven Stars families too?" He asks.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Because they went through similar things, didn't they?" Sloth asks before Nea can speak.
"Yes." Nea nods. "I haven't had much contact with races other than the Fox people, and they have a similar history of how the Nature Spirit created the Great Brown Oak, allowing life to grow in what was once a death-only world."
"Also..." She continues. "My mother told me stories about the Frost Empire and Dark Elves; they also tell the same things about the Primordial beings... it seems that each of the Seven Stars was created by a Primordial and improved until they became the wonderful worlds they are today."
Lucien and the Sins can't help but wonder about everything Nea just said. The Primordial Beings have always been legends shrouded in mysteries. Still, now they have a very possible hypothesis about them, and it puts the Seven Stars on an even more important degree in relation to the Superior Worlds.
He looks at the Sins and mentally talks to them. 'What do you think of this?'
'Too crazy...' Envy quickly mentally comments. 'But it doesn't seem entirely impossible.'
'This could be related to you...' Lust comments. 'I mean, whoever is trying to manipulate us, they brought us here, making you interested in the two most powerful races in this world...'
'So, they... that woman, could she be a Primordial??' Lucien asks.
'I think so.' Sloth answers. 'It seems that these Primordials want you to conquer the Seven Stars... and since you are half Demon and have Aylin's heritage, there would only be the Gods left as your enemies...'
'And you've kind of already started attacking them by helping Alexa free the Angels from slavery, lowering the power of the Gods.' Lust comments.
'...' Lucien doesn't know what to think about those hypotheses; they all put him at the center of the chaos, but all he wants is to solve his family's problems so they can live peacefully somewhere away from more problems.
'Would you be like a... champion for the Primordials?' Envy asks. 'Or the general of their armies?'
'What if your mother...' Sloth starts saying something very dangerous.
But Lucien quickly interrupts her by turning his attention to Nea and talking to her. "So, do you think Blue Star is suffering because the Water Spirit is sick?"
Nea nods, but then Lust comments out loud. "But she should have been like this since she helped you a thousand years ago, right?"
"I guess so..." She makes a confused expression.
"Isn't it evident??" Envy asks in a sarcastic tone. "If this Water Spirit had trouble dealing with a lot of dark mana before, she must have isolated herself to recover, purifying her body... But now, that Siren's dark spell is generating a lot of magic residue, which is being attracted by the dark energy remaining in the Water Spirit's body..."
"And this is causing damage in the Central Region, making the Whole Blue Star suffer..." Nea completes Envy's thought.
Lucien increasingly believes that their hypotheses are correct, and somehow, the Water Spirit managed to get his attention to ask for his help. But what he still doesn't understand is why she looked so familiar. [Could that feeling be false, or... could my mother...]
Any thoughts Lucien has about his mother being a villain and trying to turn him into a weapon look pretty surreal. He still clearly remembers how safe, loved, and protected he felt with her, so how could that kind person do that to him?
Every time he feels he is being manipulated and influenced to follow a path, he thinks about doing anything but that. However, he also feels like that way is the right one because all his instincts tell him to go that way.
Now is one of those moments. He can see the Nature Spirit took him to Blue Star not only to find the Phoenix but also to help the Water Spirit and bond with the Nagas and Mermaids.
But even if that's part of bigger plans, he doesn't see any downsides to earning the loyalty of such incredible races, and he can't help but want to help the woman in the glass coffin so badly.
Lucien is confused as everything around him seems to have more meaning than he can understand. But at the same time, he feels that if he'd stopped to think more and hesitated earlier, he wouldn't have met all of his wives and would be so powerful right now.
So he stops thinking about hesitating and does what his instincts tell him to do. "If our path is clear, we don't have to think about what to do."
"Yeah!" Saria exclaims as she is influenced by Lucien's determination. "Let's help the Water Spirit!"
Nea nods and looks at Lucien with an expectant expression. "Do you know how to get to her again?"
"Yes." He quickly responds. "The path is not short, but I think we can get there in a few days if we travel at full speed, however... there are many powerful and hostile creatures along the way."
"I already expected to face many dangers in Central Region, but..." Nea comments as happy sparkles appear in her eyes. "Now I understand that I couldn't do this without you..."
He smiles at her. "We're all here for a reason."
"Someone else's plan, you mean?" Envy laughs sarcastically.
"And who said we can't turn their plan our own?" Lust asks expectantly.
Sloth can't help but smile, too, because even though it all sounds crazy, it's also fascinating. She's never felt so keen to see how things will turn out, and of course, she also can't wait to have more relaxing moments with Lucien.
