The Soul Attack was incredibly fast and the moment it was shot out, Lucien could feel it near his head. Once it was inside, he would die. It was too powerful to absorb into the Crimson World with his current abilities, but of course teleporting himself inside was still possible.
It was a trump card Lucien was unwilling to expose unless it was truly necessary, he would do it only when the attack was almost touching his skin, before that even the slightest possibility to survive without using this trump card was still there.
It was at this moment that he suddenly felt the armor like Darkness surge. The two horn started shining and a transparent sphere covered his head. The Soul Attack that was supposed to ignore any defenses slammed into the shield which made it crack and shatter, but the attack didn't continue as well.
The moment the Soul Attack was about to hit, the Light Path Practitioner ignored his injuries and used some kind of burst to arrive in front of Lucien and hit him while he was preoccupied by the Soul Attack.
The hit landed right on a vital spot just after the Soul Attack had dissipated, issuing a rumble.
"Is that supposed to tickle me or something?"
Lucien just smiled looking at the Practitioner, with his strength even if Lucien didn't have the armor, it would at most injure him a bit. He knew that the plan was not to kill him with the strike, but injure him so he wouldn't be able to run away. It would take a short delay for the Light Path Practitioner to heal up a bit and be able to continue the chase.
"Wha.... What kind of monster are you exactly?"
The Practitioner was shocked, he knew his Strength, it should have at least made this little monster get shot backward and crash around, but the thing didn't even budge.
"The worst kind."
Lucien smiled at the man and decided it was time to leave, so he picked up Maria before the man could react. The pitch black wings on his back spread wide open and Lucien shot towards the skies.
"Tell your Emperor that I won't forget this." A voice sounded from quite a distance, Lucien left behind some cliche villain words while running away. Even through they were something every person could say, the Rank 3 Practitioner shivered once he heard them. This thing was just Rank 2 currently and could survive his attacks and escape without an injury, his potential was scary.
Even through the line was completely unreasonable, since it was Lucien who created chaos in the capital of the Empire, turned a royalty into a heretic and then just decided to leave, in this world the reasonable one was the strong one. It didn't matter how unreasonable he was as long as he could strike down anyone who dared to oppose.
Leaving behind this dog of the Empire, Lucien felt incredibly free. He didn't even care he was carrying a person as he enjoyed the winds and clouds around him. He still kept a clear mind and kept going towards the Scarlet Empire, but in that clarity he felt freedom.
And Maria could see that so she kept quiet, the previous events left a deep mark on her, the man that was carrying her was truly heaven-defying, and along with that train of though the hope for her revenge burned even stronger.
While flying Lucien also started thinking about the magnificent abilities of the armor.
'So that is the basic functions of the armor that was created along the evolution into a Devil.'
'First were the horns who can provide defense for the soul, then the armor which provides defense for the body, and finally the wings for mobility.'
Another thing is the amplification, the defense of both the horns and the armor was influenced by his own stats. He felt that the horns took the strength of his Soul and somehow amplified it, enabling him to resist an attack that was at least 5 times stronger than his current Soul.
'I can feel the armor is probably the same, it uses Strength and amplifies it into a defense, and the wings use Agility.'
Right now Lucien was flying 5 times faster than his walking speed, which was a huge help for his ability to survive.
'I can't control it well yet, I'm sure those amplification can be used for attacking as well, not just for defending, but for now this Devil Armor will be a true trump card.'
Lucien didn't fly through the Mountain Ranges as it would be pushing his luck, he just landed near the border and let Maria down. While retracting his wings and armor back into his body, Lucien looked at her.
"You should know what to say about the previous scene." Lucien didn't think she was stupid, but still decided to make sure.
Maria just nodded, she knew what he meant.
"Once we are in the lands of Scarlet, I'll tell you what you will be doing."
Maria started connecting the dots silently, after all Lucien didn't even intent to hide it, there were plenty of clues for her to use. It took her only a couple of moment to narrow down the identities in her mind to two people.
Passing the border was a piece of cake as always, and a day later, Lucien was back on his turf. He didn't posses feelings like homesickness, but the advantage he had in this territory compared to other places made him reveal a slight smile.
"I have another underling that you will be helping, but you line of work will be a bit shadier. See, she is a merchant and what is the most important thing for merchants?"
Maria never interacted with merchants before so she couldn't answer his question and stood there silently.
"It's channels to transport their goods, safe ones to be precise. So what I want you to do is make an underground organisation, one that will make bandits your bitches. You will have to make them submit, and let our goods pass through their territories. I want you to handle it silently, the less people know about the organisation the better."
"Okay."
The response was short, but Lucien knew she would do her best.
"Once you have some influence, you will start gathering talents. Preferably orphans, but I also don't mind if you kidnap a kid or two. I might need some extra hands in the future for a secret project."
Lucien already considered that he might need even more negative energy in the future so he had to make use of some organization to provide that to him, but first he needed to understand the Devil Armor better.
"Anyway, once you acquire a channel, send the information to me and I'll let the merchants use it. Here take this and use it to contact me."
Lucien took out a communication device and threw it to her, his imprint was already in there.
"I already have one, just give me the imprint."
"Destroy yours, there is no need to take risks and everyone from your previous life probably thinks you are a dirty heretic."
Maria stood stunned there, slowly realizing that it was true, her past life was finished. She might as well be dead when you asked those people. Taking out the device, she crushed it.
"Good. I won't give you any subordinates, figure it out yourself."
Saying so Lucien started walking towards the capital.
'Become my hidden blade, serve me for eternity with unshakable loyalty, and I might be in the mood to kill a God. Betray me and I'll make sure to use your blood for something more productive.'
Maria followed silently.