Dawn of the 13th Era

The Plague(2)

Lucien, the bracelet you promised to buy for me, you still remember it?" The first thing Orion heard while walking towards Lucien was this.

'After everything Jerry sacrificed for her... she's just a gold digger in the end, but she's not getting away with this,' Orion thought to himself.

He walked over with the hood covering his head and a nose mask on his face.

"Hello, Miss Jessica," Orion called out when he was close.

"Umm, sorry, but do I know you?" Jessica asked with a cautious look on her face while moving close to Lucien and pulling on his sleeve.

"I'm a very huge fan of yours, and I've admired your beauty in all manners of ways possible. I would like to ask for just a handshake. Please grant me this one wish, divine goddess," he said with a fervent look in his eyes.

"Divine goddess?" Jessica asked.

"Yes, you look like a divine goddess fallen from the heavens to grace us mortals with your beauty. Please, just a handshake, and I'll be able to die happily," Orion said with the eyes of a person looking at his god.

"Since you want a handshake, I'll give you one on her behalf," Lucien said, wanting the creep gone from his sight.

'Admired her in all sorts of ways? A goober, of course,' Lucien thought while deciding he wouldn't let the strange guy touch Jessica.

Lucien stretched out his hand, ready to call the guard if he refused to accept the handshake. The two of them looked into each other's eyes for a while before Orion accepted the handshake "reluctantly."

Lucien held onto Orion's hand with the intention of teaching him some lessons, but to Orion, it was exactly what he wanted.

'Following my plans like a dumb fool,' he thought with a smile on his face.

He looked at Lucien's hand and saw the black cells rush over as usual, but this time, after they copied Lucien's cells, he held on, and the black cells returned again, creating a loop where they would keep traveling back and forth till one of the black cells totally took on the outer form of Lucien's cells. Then he pretended to be hurt.

With a pained look on his face, Orion quickly squeezed his hand out of Lucien's grip, then held it in his other hand and made a beeline for the door of the restaurant in a hurry.

Watching this scene, even Lucien was confused about how he suddenly broke free from him and ran away instantly without even attempting to get a signature or something from his "idol."

'Just a bum,' Lucien thought and forgot all about the strange guy he met.

-------------------------------

Two hours after that incident,

Orion was dressed in casual clothes, while in Lucien's form.

"Just as I guessed, if I don't think about reverting back, I won't change form, so I can stay like this for almost forever as long as I make contact for long enough," he thought while walking towards the restaurant.

When he entered, he walked towards the manager's office, then barged in.

"Sir Lucien, I assumed you went home already." The manager, a middle-aged man, hurriedly stood up when he saw Lucien entering the office.

"I don't have time on my hands right now. The profits account is with you, right?"

"Yes, it's with me. You never asked for it," the manager replied with a puzzled look on his face.

"Send everything over to this account," Orion said while picking up a pen and writing down an anonymous account he had opened a long while back.

The manager, with a puzzled look on his face, asked, "Sir Lucien, should I really send it all over?"

"Don't make me say it twice. Send it," Orion said while looking at the manager with an annoyed expression.

The manager hurriedly picked up the account details while Orion left the office, trusting he would send it. As for the manager doubting his identity—

That's impossible for the average human to guess.

He left the restaurant while still in Lucien's form and walked down the streets while pulling up his hood, still in Lucien's form.

"Would've been better if I could get at that gold digger, but I'll leave it for now. There's still time. I'll go deal with this cash and erase all traces first. She's not running anywhere."

While walking down the streets, he suddenly heard a sharp scream from a house nearby. When he and others nearby looked over, he saw a man in his early twenties being rushed into a car, with his body looking shriveled, even though they were seemingly trying to rush him to the hospital—he had already lost all life on his face.

Looking at the man reminded him of the dog he saw earlier that morning; the symptoms were way too similar. He asked those nearby what happened.

"Apparently, nothing was wrong with him this morning—only a slight fever and headache—but then he was suddenly found this way," one of them explained.

"This is getting more common now. The same thing happened to three people today around this area." Orion raised an eyebrow when he heard the man say that.

"It's not just here, it's all over the world. Check the news—they said it's a plague or something, and the symptoms vary, but they all end up deformed or something when they die."

Hearing that, Orion pulled up his hood and walked away. He pulled out his phone, and the first thing he saw on his feed was the new disease suddenly discovered that had killed over 100 million people within the span of two days. Orion almost dropped his phone in shock when he saw this.

A staggering two percent of the human population disappeared over two days, and no symptoms or cause of the plague was found—only that it suddenly spread all over the world. He picked up his pace and rushed home.