A Few Moments Later
Still at the Sakirami Building — Rooftop
During the Early Morning Hours
Through her enhanced vision, she can see almost ten kilometers away to where Karl stands, talking to himself and looking up at the sky, where the clouds announce the beginning of a storm over Tokyo.
Without realizing it, Luci feels her body move instinctively, and at the same time an invisible force, which seems to distort the environment around her, grows stronger with every heartbeat that pounds intensely within her chest.
As her eyes turn completely white, a look of absolute determination is clearly visible on her face. She will not allow Karl to succumb to his own darkness, as she sees his gaze grow distant and hopeless, not only toward the future but toward everything around him.
Luci believed that this feeling of darkness would not be able to consume Karl, because she still held hope that he would choose the light instead of falling into his own inner darkness, after everything he had discovered during his current mission in Japan.
A mission that was about to be concluded with the death of Oculi, only a few meters behind him, pinned against the rooftop wall in complete agony. Previously seated on the safety ledge of the Sakirami Building's rooftop, Luci, in an almost unbelievable way, uses her abilities to launch herself forward.
Luci screams, her long hair dancing as she unleashes her powers, creating an aura around her body that extends for nearly two meters. She throws herself into the air, shaking the entire protective structure of the rooftop railing that surrounded the area to prevent anyone from falling from the building.
After the leap, a faint pulse creates cracks in the glass of the upper floors of the Sakirami Building, where Luci had previously been sitting on the ledge. She surges forward, at times seeming to glide, heading toward the building where Karl was.
Luci, as she crossed the night of that dawn, could be seen many times reflected in the glass fa?ades of the numerous buildings she passed. Her black hair and her clothes swayed with an almost graceful elegance.
Through the use of her abilities, her clothes and hair took on the appearance of being submerged in water. The world around Luci seemed to slow down more and more, making that moment even more beautiful.
[Luci — Voice deeply emotional & enraged] I WILL NOT LET ANYONE ELSE BE SWALLOWED BY THEIR OWN DARKNESS! [Deep, panting breath] —
That use of her special abilities was so intense, driven by her emotions and feelings in that moment, that the bracelet which measured the limit her body could endure ended up burning out after short-circuiting.
[Luci — Voice deeply emotional & enraged] BECAUSE THAT SAME DARKNESS, IN A DISTANT PAST! [Deep, panting breath] —
Simultaneously, as she advanced at high speed, slicing through the air, she unknowingly created that unique vision of what the air itself could become.
[Luci — Voice deeply emotional & enraged] TOOK, RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES, THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN MY LIFE! [Deep, panting breath] —
The air around her seemed to take on a "cracked" appearance wherever she had passed, due to the force of her abilities compressing the oxygen and making it momentarily solid.
The intense fusion of her emotions, will, and desires, combined with the use of her abilities now at their new peak, granted her a release beyond what was considered normal in that moment.
Her desire was to save one of the few people she still genuinely cared deeply about in that world. This intense use of her powers was not only to save Karl from himself.
But also to save someone she considered important in her life, because she knew Karl's past, and she knew that if he fell into the darkness within his heart, the Sagittarius organization would possibly become something devoid of all hope.
That scene of Luci flying through the slowed-down world, surrounded by the invisible force of her abilities, gave her the appearance of being wrapped in a malleable flame.
Almost incandescent, even while translucent, it emanated from her body in all directions, leaving a faint trail behind where she had passed.
The environment around Luci seemed to distort slightly as she advanced toward Karl, who was now only a few kilometers away, considering the distance she had covered in mere seconds within the slowed world.
With an expression that showed her burning willpower, Luci seemed to dance through the air with her leaps between the buildings. Even though she could not fly freely into the sky due to the limitations of her abilities,
she continued to advance relentlessly, running and jumping across rooftops and along the side windows in her path toward her final destination.
Luci felt her heart tighten as the meters between her and Karl diminished. He was there, standing in the slowed world, on the rooftop of the building where the Kogana no Douragon restaurant was located.
At times, she used the glass fa?ades that surrounded the buildings as if they were the ground itself, running horizontally across the glass at a speed that often felt surreal.
Luci did not fall because her abilities kept her feet firmly anchored to the glass surface, while the windows cracked under the increasingly intense pressure of her steps as she continued running.
They often ended up breaking due to the subtle pulse caused by the soles of her feet as she pushed forward, launching herself toward the next building she would use to keep advancing.
At the same time, as Miss Luci advanced, her extremely determined eyes were fixed on Karl, seeing nothing less than his image within the slowed-down world.
No longer looking downward, but now upward, toward the increasingly stormy sky above the city and its dawn.
The breeze from the still-calm winds of a city about to witness a storm caused the gentle sway of Karl's black, short hair, as well as his dark clothing.
Karl was clearly lost in darker, more painful thoughts. He did not notice Luci running toward him, while he himself stared at the sky, as if searching for something he did not realize he was losing with every passing second.
While her gaze burned with the desire to reach Karl, she leaped between the buildings, spinning with her special abilities, which often made her float for a few meters.
Her reflexes and parkour-style jumping skills did not prevent her from feeling the pain in her chest, which became suffocating as she saw Karl's expression succumbing to his inner darkness.
The nonexistent colors of the world around Luci seemed to gradually return with every meter she advanced, after seeing Karl whisper words she could not hear.
Yet, she understood the weight of every syllable he spoke, while at the same time her heart tightened in an unimaginable way, knowing that for Karl to whisper those words to himself...
He was, without realizing it, giving up on himself in the face of everything he had endured since the death of his little sister, Suzi. At the same time, Luci was now only a few meters away from successfully reaching Karl.
She felt her body, pushed by the extreme use of her abilities, showing signs of muscular overload and nearing collapse. It was evident in Luci's expression, torn between anger at her own body for being so overburdened and wanting to give up advancing...
And pain, for not wanting the ember in Karl's heart to be extinguished once and for all. Because if she did not reach Karl in the next few seconds, there would not remain a single subtle light to shine within the darkness of his heart, which was about to be swallowed by the accumulated pain of the past after so many years.
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Luci felt, in the tightness of her heart, that this would be the worst thing that could happen in the present, for she wished to fight in that exhausting battle against the Oculi in the current moment by Karl's side.
In her eyes, she saw a world without any more color. That was the vision Karl was making her perceive, for their essences, even while still apart, were synchronized.
It made her see with her own eyes nothing less than Karl's perspective of the present: the world before him, the city of Tokyo with dim, blurred lights, and no color left at all.
Karl did not notice, for he was looking at the world before him, but in his chest it was visible that the essence behind his existence seemed to become luminous.
His essence appeared to burn no longer intensely, but in a faltering way, being the only subtle and faint light that still held color within the darkness that surrounded him, not only on that rooftop but throughout the entire city in his perception.
[Echoing, fearful whisper of Karl — coming from the past] ...These past few months, I have been able to feel that I am getting closer and closer to my limit, after everything I witnessed with my own eyes while fighting against the Oculi... [Deep breath] —
[Luci of the present — whispering, deeply emotional & angry] Karl, please... [Worried & deep breath] —
[Echoing, fearful whisper of Karl — coming from the past] Miss Luci, my sister Karla does not know this, but I am close to falling into darkness in this moment of my life. Do I still have any salvation, Luci?... [Deep breath] —
That single light of his essence, still bearing color, was seen as something truly beautiful within the darkness of the world. And that was only through Luci's eyes, who was now shedding tears without even realizing it, so focused she was on reaching Karl.
[Luci — voice deeply emotional & motivated] I DON'T WANT TO... [Painful & determined breath] —
Luci, using all her remaining strength at its absolute limit, made her final and highest leap from the last building away from the rooftop where Karl stood, looking up at the sky.
[Luci — voice deeply emotional & motivated] ...TO LOSE YOU TOO, KARL!!!!!! [Extremely determined scream] —
Many Years Ago
In Many Places of Time
Karl and Karla, still very young, were determined to complete the rigorous and intense training so that the tests related to the genetic studies on them could be finished as quickly as possible.
While they trained, they had a single goal: not only to survive the tests, but also to endure the extreme pain of their bodies, which were no longer fully human, but now half Oculi.
After surviving the initial genetic tests of Project Sagittarius, which were a success and did not kill them in the most painful way possible, as had happened to the last volunteer test subjects, they continued.
Most of those test subjects were prisoners already sentenced to death. Karl, even at such a young age, only 13 years old, thought solely about surviving to guarantee the treatment of his little sister Suzi, who was 7 years old.
He wanted the treatment to continue until the end, since they had no money for the best medicines, medical equipment, and, above all, to pay for the best hospital where Suzi was hospitalized.
Karl (13 years old) and Karla (12 years old) did not want to fail, so that Suzi's future surgeries and treatments would not be interrupted if they were to fail or die during the genetic tests and the training to use their Oculi abilities effectively.
Yael, the leader of the medical and genetic sector of the Sagittarius corporation, knew that using Karl and Karla at such a young age was wrong, but he believed that the good of humanity required success in the fusion between the human race and the Oculi.
And his hopes were fulfilled, even in the face of pain and the mistake of using two children who wished, at any cost, to save their younger sister, Suzi.
After weeks of anguishing and painful tests, the two siblings managed to survive, and weeks later, they were subjected to military training so that their abilities, now inherited from Oculi blood, would not only be enhanced, but perfected to the level necessary for offensive use.
Yael supervised the many weeks of training at the underground military base in Antarctica. Karl and Karla spent five days a week training in that cold and militarized place, before spending the weekends with their little sister, Suzi, at the most expensive and technologically advanced hospital in Asia.
After some time, Karl and Karla began to train their combat abilities against the military, and also against someone similar to them, who had also undergone the genetic surgery and managed to survive and gain special abilities.
The chief scientist, Yael, supervised not only Karl and Karla's genetic tests, but also those of his own daughter, Luci, who was 16 years old. She suffered fewer side effects after the genetic tests compared to Karl and Karla.
Yael tried to prevent his daughter, Luci, from undergoing the tests, but she convinced him to let her participate. Yael, knowing the reasons behind the determined look in Luci's eyes, accepted, even knowing the high risk of his daughter dying in the operating room.
What took months for Karl and Karla to adapt to and use their newly acquired Oculi abilities in an acceptable way took only a few weeks for Luci, who mastered everything in a more intense and powerful manner, without feeling fatigue or losing consciousness.
Luci, by direct order of the great council that commanded the Sagittarius corporation, received an important position, for she was the perfect definition of the agent they sought to create, even if that cost many lives within the laboratories.
She then began, after almost a year and a half, the final tests of Karl and Karla, before they became the strongest survivors of the brutal genetic tests of the Sagittarius corporation.
These agents were called by the Oculi themselves hybrids of human and Oculi. At first, Karl trained alongside Karla on equal terms against Miss Luci.
But over time, he decided to become stronger than his own sister, Karla. Not out of selfishness or vanity, but out of the desire to have more strength to protect Karla, should it be necessary in the future.
Thus, Karl, now 14 years old and determined to seek more training, insisted with Luci until she agreed to begin a more intense training regimen, outside the guidelines already established by the Sagittarius organization.
Even falling many times, bleeding, and with his body near its limit on several occasions, Karl continued to show his determined and obsessed gaze to become the strongest, in order to protect not only Karla, but also his little sister, Suzi, who was still hospitalized and undergoing continuous treatment throughout all those months.
While fighting against Karl, Luci realized that his blows and the use of his special abilities, such as speed, strength, and reflexes, were rising to a higher level.
Karl, even without realizing it, was becoming one of the few pure lights shining within that training base.
The Sagittarius corporation was not ruled by a government, but by a great council composed of four members from the most economically powerful and influential families in their respective continents, families that stood above countries in terms of power within the political game.
Luci often felt in Karl's strikes not only the will to protect his sisters from the Oculi, but also from the humans who had never cared about them, since they had always been poor.
They had nothing in their lives that made them relevant to a society that saw them as nothing more than children without a future or importance, until Yael appeared in Karl and Karla's lives.
After their little sister was urgently hospitalized and forced to undergo many surgeries to survive, since she was gravely injured, Luci felt in Karl's punches and kicks, while the two trained without Karla's presence, the strength of the love he felt for his two sisters.
That love motivated Karl to continue improving and to become increasingly stronger and more experienced in his fighting techniques, evasion, and in the use of his abilities, still limited, but powerful for that time.
However, that once so motivated gaze and the confident expression he displayed while smiling as he fought with Luci, often outside the base under the snow, began to transform into a distant and melancholic look after the death of Karl and Karla's little sister, Suzi.
For both of them, it was like a great "bucket of acid" poured over their motivation to continue fighting and becoming stronger, now that they were already members of the Sagittarius organization and had already secured the payment for any surgery Suzi might need for the next 50 years.
But young Suzi, even wishing to live, could not change the fact that her body was far too weakened after so many surgeries, often urgent ones, that she had needed. Thus, in the last surgery Suzi would have to undergo, she did not even manage to reach the operating table.
That final surgery would have given her a life, even if limited, as a blind child, after so many months on a hospital bed, without being able to walk even once, for she had been completely immobilized.
Karl, at 15 years old, became so desolate that he often trained merely for the sake of training alongside Luci, showing in his gaze and his blows an increasing detachment from reality and also from his own humanity, which was shattered.
In contrast, his sister Karla, now 14 years old, even after losing her beloved little sister, now wished to seek revenge against the Oculi, who had indirectly caused Suzi's death, a child who died so young on a hospital bed.
Location: Antarctica
Sagittarius Corporation Facilities
Underground – Restricted Area
Out of respect, Miss Luci pleaded with her father, Yael, to grant a pause in the training and studies so that Karl and Karla could go out for a while and properly process the recent loss they had suffered in the past month after the death of young Suzi.
Karla, even though she was only fourteen years old, chose to disappear not to clear her mind and reflect, but to train. The love she had for her little sister, which once motivated her to become stronger, had turned into hatred and into a burning search for revenge against the Oculi.
On the other hand, Karl asked Luci to take him to a quieter place, where he could distance himself from everything for a few days. He wished to spend that time reflecting or simply talking to someone about the recent death of his little sister, Suzi.
Attentive and comforting, Luci offered to be that "someone" for Karl, if he wished to vent or to externalize the most painful "demons" that tightened his heart and caused him so much suffering, only one month after that deeply traumatizing day.
Despite being only seventeen years old, Luci understood that the big city would be harmful to Karl at that moment. Thus, Luci's father suggested that she take him to spend a few days in a specific place.
That place was none other than the old family house that belonged to both Karl's and Luci's families, located far from the city and much closer to nature, in New Zealand, near one of the beautiful lakes surrounded by trees and mountains.
