Doomsday Boss Returnee: Lucian Crownwald

Darkness

Chapter 10: Darkness

The sun was setting when Lucian arrived at the Valemont villa.

All the joy and warmth that he felt amidst the presence of his brother and sister was locked up inside his heart as soon as he stepped inside the gate of the villa.

The smiling face of Selestine cheekily poked out of the main door. Her gorgeous features lit up in a familiar naughtiness, the one that she always showed to him when they were kids.

Lucian stilled for a moment before striding forward with a soft smile. He reached Selestine and teasingly flicked her nose.

“You haven’t changed one bit. You’re still so playful.”

“Ugh, brother Lucien is the one that didn’t change. You still like to flick my nose!” Selestine’s face scrunched up as she hurriedly raised both her hands to cover her reddening nose.

Lucian chuckled as he shook his head. He half-embraced Selestine and led her inside the villa.

“Come on, I’m starving.”

“Hmph, I will tell mom not to prepare your favorite food!”

“Hey! That’s cheating! We clearly know that mom dotes on you the most.”

They are the perfect picture of a loving older brother and younger sister. At least that is what they look like in the eyes of Madam Seles, the servants, and even to Selestine.

They were all unaware of the freezing temperature hidden behind Lucian’s soft bluish-gray pupils.

This moving scene was his only wish in his first life. It was a wish to live happily with his adoptive family and to treasure them forever, but fate was too cruel. The family that he thought was genuine, and loved him even without blood ties, used him as a useful pawn from the start.

Taking a deep breath, Lucian had a hearty early dinner with the Valemonts.

He went back to his room after a ‘fatherly’ chat with Karion Valemont.

The moment he stepped inside the confines of his room, Lucian’s gentle face cooled down in chilling indifference.

He headed straight to the bathroom and took a shower.

It must be a psychological reaction, but Lucian couldn’t help feeling dirty after interacting and having close contact with any of the Valemonts.

After half an hour, Lucian walked out with a towel around his lower half.

Beads of water kept dripping from the ends of his hair to the floor, but Lucian’s mind was wandering so much to care about that.

“I didn’t expect that it started this early.”

Lucian walked to his luggage and put on a simple black tee, and a baggy gray track pants before lounging on the bed.

“System, show my status.”

“Bzzt…”

Host: Lucian Crownwald (Poisoned)

Race: Evolved Human

Storage Type: Innate Storage (Usable)

Awakened Power: Metal Flow (Currently not usable)

System coins: 4,699,500

Mission Reward/s: Life Rewind Card 1x (Used), SS-rank skill 1x (Used)

Extra Reward: Mirror Portal to Doomsday Domain (Can only be used twice a month, and must be recharged with energy)

Looking at the added health status next to his name, Lucian’s brows wrinkled into a knot.

Back when he died in the fire at his apartment, he could have had escaped if his body did not suddenly lose strength and was suddenly plunged into an agonizing pain. Before the fire, Lucian was already feeling that something was wrong with his body, and his suspicions led him to the Valemont villa, wherein he accidentally heard the truth about everything.

But he was already too late. The poison was already deep in his marrows, and the Valemonts timed its attack perfectly with an accidental fire.

With his evolved human body, Lucian instantly felt the miniscule difference in his system when he took a sip of the chicken soup prepared especially for him by Madam Seles.

‘They must have planned to keep me dosed on poison the moment I came back from the island.’

But he was not the same helpless and clueless person back then.

Host: Lucian Crownwald (Poisoned Detoxified)

Race: Evolved Human

Storage Type: Innate Storage (Usable)

Awakened Power: Metal Flow (Currently not usable)

System coins: 4,699,500

Mission Reward/s: Life Rewind Card 1x (Used), SS-rank skill 1x (Used)

Extra Reward: Mirror Portal to Doomsday Domain (Can only be used twice a month, and must be recharged with energy)

Any type of poison from this period would only stay in his system for mere minutes before being detoxified naturally.

Not taking the poisoning to heart, Lucian’s mind wandered back to his siblings and his real family.

“Giving them the pendant artifact was something to settle my worries, but I need to investigate about who those men were working for.”

Lucian fell asleep amidst the thoughts swirling around the destruction of the Crownwald and Sinclair families.

On the other hand, after parting with Lucian, Mikhail and Mishya were accompanied by their driver and one bodyguard to the Echelon garden district when three tinted cars followed them while hiding behind the traffic.

Mikhail looked down at the dangling jellyfish pendant on his chest. A small smile painted his lips at thinking back to that adorable junior.

“I did not expect to receive such a cute meeting gift.”

Mishya marveled at the pendant tied around on her wrist with a gleeful smile.

“My mood was terribly awful earlier, but meeting Lucien and gaining such a cute little brother made it better!”

Mikhail could not help but nod in agreement to that. Lucien was someone that instantly captured their acceptance, and it did not even rouse any suspicion in Mikhail’s mind.

“It was really a wonderful feeling.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that, brother?”

“It was nothing. I’m also happy to have another little brother like Lucien.”

“Right? Mom, dad, eldest brother and Malia would totally adore him too!”

“Yes, Lucien will surely make them-…”

Mikhail’s words were cut short as soon as their car turned to the spacious and sparsely populated road leading to the Echelon garden district.

Whether they are from the aristocracy, military and the business world, since only those in the high society lives in the staggeringly expensive houses in the Echelon garden, the wide road that could fit six cars side by side was always a bit quiet.

But this time, Mikhail could feel a strange sense of unease from the usually quiet road.

Suddenly, a tinted car came running aggressively behind their ride.

The driver instantly swerved to the side to avoid the man-made collision.

But another tinted car came from the side, and its speed was even faster than the first car, seemingly hellbent on causing a car accident.

“Get down!” The bodyguard hurriedly shouted while pulling out the handgun on his holster as he tried to aim at the wheels of the pursuing car.

Mikhail was stunned at first, but he quickly pulled Mishya in his embrace.

Two shots were fired, but the second car did not suffer much damage as it fully roared and crashed straight to their car.

“Boom!”

The collision pushed the two cars to the sidewalk before hitting the trunk of an oak tree.

Glass and metal exploded and littered the surroundings. Sparks flew and black smoke billowed out of the two cars along with the emergency alert of the 24/7 intelligence monitoring of the Echelon garden’s roads that was immediately sent to the rescue and defense ministry.

Before Mikhail passed out from the shock, he seemed to have seen a soft film of light that covered him and Mishya before the second car crashed into them and plowed them straight to the oak tree.

At the same time, across a dimension in the doomsday, inside a dark secluded alley filled with broken furniture, a rotting hand with protruding bones crawled out slowly. A hoarse and broken whisper accompanied the hideous figure as it rotten body healed slowly, allowing tender flesh to cover the missing body parts that looked like they were chewed out by extremely sharp canines.

“H-Humans…humans m-must d-disappear.”