Chapter 141: Chapter 141 - Lootwell
Virel and Aniel exchanged a glance.
"He called me a father... Are you the mother?" Virel teased as he turned to her with a playful smile.
Aniel rolled her eyes and dismissed him. She focused instead on Lucien who had collapsed on the ground.
"Beastman brother, you must be mistaken. We... don’t know—"
Before she could finish, Virel cut her off. He leaned close and whispered cautiously,
"Careful. The war has made many desperate. Not all words are what they seem..."
They fell silent, turning their attention back to Lucien.
But then... The raw, genuine look in his eyes struck a chord deep within their hearts. Celestials were after all known for their compassion... and his expression was far too real for a mere deception.
"Perhaps... the beastman brother’s parents looked like us." Virel reasoned at last. It was the only explanation that made sense.
"That could be true," Aniel said softly. "He might be carrying old wounds... projecting our faces onto the ones he lost in the war."
Both sighed quietly.
"But..." Virel’s lips curved into a mischievous grin. "Doesn’t this mean we truly match? I knew it... we were meant to be."
His words were met with an awkward silence. Aniel ignored him completely.
’Men will be men,’ she thought as she bit back her retort.
To ease the awkwardness, Virel offered a hand to Lucien while keeping his other arm steady around Aniel. At last, Lucien accepted the help and rose.
Then he froze. His head shook slightly.
His parents never had wings or halos. They were just ordinary humans. Still... the warmth, the kindness, the way these two carried themselves... It reminded him so much of them.
Lucien exhaled slowly, forcing himself to calm down. But as he tried to steady his heart, something inside him shifted.
His memories blurred like smoke once again and the beastman’s instincts surged forth. It shove his consciousness into the background.
"Celestial friends. Let’s regroup quickly," the beastman said. His voice was now sharpened with primal instinct.
The sudden change startled Virel and Aniel. They exchanged a glance but said nothing. Yes, they thought. This beastman must truly be struggling with his scars of war.
Yet even so, he was kind, protective and unwavering toward them... as though Lucien’s will still lived within the beastman
When they finally reached safety, the Celestials introduced themselves.
"Beastman brother, thank you for helping us earlier," Virel said warmly. "I am known as Virel and she is Aniel."
At their names, the beastman froze. His chest tightened. Tears welled in his eyes... though he himself didn’t seem to notice.
The Celestials fell quiet, unsettled by his reaction.
"What about you, beastman brother?" Aniel asked gently. "What should we call you?"
The beastman looked up. A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"...Lootwell. They call me Lootwell."
It was not Lucien who spoke. It was the beastman’s own voice. That was... his true name.
And so began their unlikely friendship.
...
Not long after, the great clash began.
Battle after battle. Deaths upon deaths. The field became a sea of blood and broken bodies.
Lootwell as a beastman, was hurled to the front lines where the carnage was thickest. The stench of iron and rot made him flinch but instinct drove him forward.
Far behind, Virel and Aniel held their position. The Celestial race had one great flaw. It was their painfully slow growth. Decades of training barely awakened their full potential.
Even so... their buffs and perfect timing often turned the tide of battle.
Then disaster struck. A sudden breach ripped open the rear lines.
Monsters poured through like a black tide.
Virel and Aniel were in danger.
Lootwell’s instincts roared to life. He felt their peril.
Without a heartbeat’s hesitation he charged. Orders meant nothing to him now. Allies and enemies alike were shoved aside or cut down by his claws. One thought burned in him. Save them.
He leapt the last stretch in a single bound and landed between the Celestials and the oncoming horde.
"Go! Find safety!" he barked.
They obeyed at once. They retreated just far enough to chant their strengthening spells.
"Be careful, beastman brother!"
The monsters recognized the greater threat. They swarmed. Claws raked his flesh and fangs tore through his muscle. Blood sprayed in sheets.
Lootwell roared. Then... He unleashed the beastman’s greatest art.
Berserk.
His eyes burned crimson. His muscles swelled, straining against his own flesh. His nails elongated into killing talons. His fangs bared.
A terrible aura bled from him and the air itself seemed to recoil. He looked less like a warrior and more like... an executioner about to pass sentence.
The monsters hesitated.
Then he moved.
A blur of speed.
One creature fell in a single slash. Another was ripped apart. Then another and another...
His body grew numb but still... he fought. Even as flesh split and blood poured... he refused to falter.
And at last... the field fell silent.
Lootwell stood alone amid a carpet of corpses. His breath was ragged and his crimson eyes started to dim. His body shrank back to its normal form.
And then... he collapsed, coughing up a dark mouthful of blood.
"Beastman brother!" Virel and Aniel cried. Panic laced their voices as they rushed to his side, heedless of lingering danger.
Virel caught him before he hit the ground, steadying his failing weight.
Aniel’s hands glowed with healing light but the magic slid off his skin like rain on stone. Potions and medicines did the same.
Nothing held.
They felt it then... the ebb of his very life force.
"No... no, no..." Aniel’s voice trembled, breaking.
Lootwell’s eyes fluttered. And for the first time, Lucien’s true self rose to the surface... melding with the beastman’s will.
In that moment, they were one.
He looked up at them with startling clarity.
"Mother... Father... it was so good to see you again, even in this life. Thank you... for caring for me even though I was never truly your child..."
Blood streaked his lips as he forced the words out.
"No! Don’t close your eyes!" Aniel pleaded.
"It’s useless," Lucien whispered. His voice was starting to fade. "I will go first... let’s meet again... in the next life."
His eyelids grew heavy. But before darkness claimed him, he heard their voices. They were soft but resolute.
"Beastman brother... if the next life truly exists, we will make you our child," Aniel vowed.
"Yes," Virel added firmly. "From now on, I will call myself Virel Lootwell... in remembrance of your bravery and as a reminder of our promise to you."
"And I... I will be Aniel Lootwell," she said through tears.
A gentle smile softened Lucien’s face.
And then at last... his eyes closed.
Lucien Lootwell was gone.
•••
Huff... huff...
Lucien staggered back on the dungeon’s fourth floor with his heaving chest.
His eyes darted across the mural. He looked unfocused and weary.
He could hardly breathe. ’This can’t be real.’
Past lives... He already carried memories of them, so he believed they existed. But what he had just witnessed? That was different.
Those scenes... they felt like history.
His parents were there.
And somehow... he had interfered.
Even without full control of the beastman’s body, he knew his will had been there, guiding it. The creature he’d possessed shared the same resolve... to save his parents.
Lucien clenched his fists. His actions in that world had shifted something. Changed it.
Stranger still, the memories of that life remained crystal clear... more vivid than any past incarnation he’d ever recalled.
"Lootwell, huh..." he whispered.
Now he finally understood the name’s origin.
But doubt gnawed at him. ’Were they truly my parents?’
He stared at the mural as his thoughts spiraled.
’If it was history, how could I interfere with it? Unless... this was never a coincidence. Was it premeditated? Was my arrival in this world... and even on this floor... part of something larger? Someone’s design?’
The idea chilled him.
Someone... or something... with the power to send him into the past and let him influence it to some extent.
’Who could do that?’
And another question cut even deeper.
’What was that world, really? Did my parents reincarnate as humans and lose their powers? But was still doomed to die?’
A storm of questions clouded his mind. Each one was heavier than the last.
He hated it.
He felt like a chess piece on a board he couldn’t see. A greater force pulling strings while he stumbled in the dark.
’Am I even truly... me?’
Lucien shook his head sharply as if to drive the thoughts away.
His gaze returned to the mural... To the image of Lootwell, the beastman who had carried his will.
A quiet warmth spread through him.
If those Celestials were truly his parents then he had saved them. He had met them again in this life. Even in death, they had kept their promise.
"I did become their child... even if I wasn’t by blood," he murmured.
He was Lucien Lootwell. Son of Luke and Cienna. But also... In a way that defied worlds and lifetimes, the son of Virel and Aniel Lootwell.