Lucius stepped on the bodies of the soldiers he had just slaughtered. They hadn't even presented a challenge. His shadows had done most of the work, their parasitic presence carrying out his silent orders with a merciless precision. Blood pooled around his boots, staining the floor of the once-proud corridor of Astral City's fortress. He didn't pause, didn't even flinch as the lives he ended faded into silence.
He sighed, glancing at his hands. The shadows had begun to calm, receding into a slow, dark pulse around his fingertips. "I guess this is because most of their main forces are busy fighting that Hydra," he mused aloud, his voice echoing coldly. "Besides," he added with a faint smirk, "he never even told me what the Hydra's purpose was."
