LUCEM
XCI Chapter

"You don't know how much I hate you" he said, speaking more to the wall than to me. “How come I still hate you, sometimes. But now, finally—”

He sat down, looking me in the eye.

"Now you're perfect." He laughed, but there was no heart in it. “Now you are absolutely perfect and I have to let you go. Throw your body at the researcher, at the old man. He turned towards the wall again. "It's a shame."

Fear crept up, piercing through my chest. I try to ignore it.

Panpan stood up, took the empty glass from the nightstand, and disappeared for a while to refill it. When he came back, he looked at me from the doorway. I stared back. We stayed like that for a while before he said, suddenly—

"You know, when I was very young, I wanted to be a baker."

The shock penetrated me, widening my eyes.

"I know," he said, swallowing the yellow liquid again. He almost laughed. “Not as you expected. I always liked cake. Few people are aware of this, but grilling requires infinite precision and patience. It is a cruel and powerful science. I'll be a great bread maker.” And then: “I'm not so sure why I told you about this. I think it's been a long time since I felt like I could talk openly with anyone.”

"You can tell me anything, sir."

"Yes" he said slowly. "I'm starting to believe that."

We were both silent back then, but I couldn't stop staring at him, my mind suddenly flooded with unanswered questions.

Twenty seconds away from this and he finally broke the silence.

“Alright, what's up?” Voice's crisp. Make fun of yourself. "What do you want to know?"

"I'm sorry, sir," I said. “I just want to know— Why don't you try? Become a baker?”

Panpan shrugged, turning the glass in his hand. “When I grew older, my foster father used to force bleach into my throat. Ammonia. Anything he could find under the sink. It was never enough to kill me, ” he said, looking me in the eye. “Enough to torture me forever.” He threw back the rest of the drink. "You might say that I'm losing my appetite."

I couldn't cover up my horror fast enough. Panpan laughed at me, laughed at the look on my face.

"He never even had a good reason to do it" he said, turning around. "He just hates me."

"Master," I said, "Master, I—"

A man barged into the room.I flinched.

"What are you doing?"

“There are so many possible answers to that question,” Panpan said as he looked back. “Please be more specific. By the way, what are you doing with her clothes?”

"I'm talking about Anna" the man said angrily. "What are you doing?"

Panpan suddenly looked unsure. He glanced from the man to me then back again. "Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else."

But the man looks beyond reason. His eyes were so wild that I didn't know if he was angry or frightened. “Please tell me that it is not true. Tell me I was wrong. Tell me you didn't do the procedure to yourself.”

Panpan immediately looks relieved and annoyed. "Please yourself" he said. “I saw Anna doing this kind of thing many times—and last time, to me. The man was out of energy. The bottle is ready, just sit there on the counter, and you are so busy with”—she glanced at me—“ Anyway, I have time to wait, I have time to wait, and I thought I'd make myself useful while I was standing.”

"I can't believe— Of course you don't see the problem," said the man, grabbing his own hair. He shook his head. "You never see the problem."

“Panpan, there is a reason why most Unnatural only has one ability.” He's starting to pacing now. “The occurrence of two supernatural gifts on the same person is very rare.”

“How about—?” Panpan said disconnected, glancing at me. “Isn't that your job? And Anna? and on the orders of the old man.”

"No," said the man firmly. “It was a random natural error. We are as surprised by the discovery as anyone else.”

Panpan suddenly became tense. "What exactly is the problem?"

"It's not-"

A sudden siren sound and dead words in the man's throat. "Not anymore" he whispered. "Good, not again."

Panpan glanced at me briefly before he disappeared into his room, and this time, he reappeared in one piece. Not the hair that comes out of place. He checked the gun cartridge before he kept it, in a hidden holster.

"Lusio," he said sharply.

"Yes?"

“I order you to stay here. No matter what you see, no matter what you hear, you must not leave this room. You can't do anything unless I order you otherwise. Do you understand? “

"Yes." Yeah."

"Alfi, bring him something to wear" said Panpan loudly. “And then hide him. Protect him with your life

________________00000_________________

Here's plan.

We should all be invisible, Venus borrows her powers from me and Marbella, and jumps out of the plane just before landing. Moonflower would then activate her flying power, and with you strengthening her defense, the three of us would pass through the welcoming force to kill us. We will then head straight to the heart of the vast palace complex, where we will start searching for troops and—."

This is what actually happened later.

The three of them became invisible and jumped out of the plane upon landing. That part worked. The thing we didn't expect, of course, was because the welcoming/murder committee was really anticipating our move.

We were in the air, me, Moonflower and a troop of rats flying over the heads of at least two dozen heavily armed soldiers and a man who seemed to be Maria's father, when someone pointed a kind of long-barreled weapon at the sky. It seems he's looking for something.

We're.

"They scanned the heat signature," I said, noticing the positions of Marbella, Vunus and Magenta who had entered the newly formed protective chamber.

“I realized it,” Moonflower said, sounding frustrated. He's adding speed, and it doesn't matter.

A few seconds later, the man with the hot rifle shouted something to someone else, who pointed a different weapon at us, a weapon that immediately crippled our power.

Just as horrible as it sounds.

I didn't even have a chance to scream. I had no time to think about the fact that my heart was pounding a mile a minute, or that my hands were shaking, or that Moonflower, the fearless and invulnerable Moonflower, was immune, it seemed suddenly terrified as the sky collapsed from above our heads. Even Jiso looked stunned.

I've been very frightened about the idea of being shot from the sky, but I can honestly say that I wasn't mentally prepared for this. This is a whole new level of terror. We were all suddenly seen and circled towards our deaths and the soldiers below were just staring at us, waiting.