Lucian stared at the being in front of him, and the being stared back.
For several long, suffocating seconds, neither of them moved. The silence in the throne room was maddening to the little devil as the being tilted its head, watching him.
'Who is this? Where am I?'
Lucian's eyes flickered, scanning the hall while keeping the entity in his primary field of vision. He noticed the way the light seemed to bend around the pillars, as if the shadows themselves were bowing in reverence.
The towering pillars of midnight stone, the vaulted ceilings lost in a swirling purple gloom. this place, he knew this place, he was sure of it, it was a nagging feeling in his head, it felt familiar.
"My, such a cautious one, aren't you?"
The being spoke again. This time, the grating edge had softened into something smooth, almost soothing. It was like a voice that promised comfort and safety, soothing and loving.
Lucian felt his shoulders relax instinctively. The voice carried a hypnotic feel that seemed to ease him to relax. He immediately bit the inside of his cheek, the sharp spike of pain snapping his focus back into place. He forced his muscles to tense, his mismatched eyes narrowing.
He could see a flicker of amusement in all three of the creature's eyes.
Then, it laughed. The sound was a jarring discordance, half rich, resonant baritone, half manic, guttural cawing of a carrion bird feast. It echoed off the marble floors, sounding like a hundred crows crying in unison.
"Who are you?" Lucian asked, his voice steady or as steady as he could make it be. He made sure not to sound rude, best not to doom himself early without even knowing what was going on.
"My, now I feel a little insulted," the being said, tilting its head. The bleached crow skull shifted with a dry, clicking sound that reminded Lucian of old bones grinding together. "Not to be recognized by one of my own. To think the blood has thinned so much that the spark of recognition no longer ignites."
Lucian's heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. 'One of his own?'
"Has time really passed so much after my death," the being continued lazily, "that my own descendants can no longer recognize the face of their origin? Have my portraits been burned, or have you all simply grown blind to the greatness that sired you?"
The words hit Lucian like a jolt of electricity. This was why the castle felt familiar. This was why the throne room looked like a more polished version of what he saw as a child with his mother.
It looked like the ancestral castle of the Raum clan. This was the castle in its prime.
He remembered the portrait. Though the creature before him was more monstrous than the painting, there was no mistaking it. The third eye, the crow, the castle.
This was him, one of the Great Earls of Hell.
The Night Killer.
The Archdemon of Deceit.
The original Raum.
"You're… you're supposed to be…" Lucian stammered, his composure finally cracking.
"Dead?" The demon finished the sentence with a cruel, mocking edge. He let out another crow-like laugh that echoed off the cold walls. "I am. Or rather… I will be, in the time you call your own."
Raum shrugged, lounging back into his throne with a casualness that belied his terrifying pressure. Lucian froze, his mind racing through the lore of his clan. Raum was said to possess a power beyond standard magic, his unique ability, the ability to see the past, present, and future, a power that made him feared throughout the cosmos.
But how was he here?
The Demon had said, 'in his time'. Wait, does that mean....
'Is he reaching out from the past?'
Was this the power of the ancestor of the Raum clan.
"This is not entirely my doing. Well, not completely, anyway," Raum said, breaking him from his thoughts, rising from the throne. He stood tall.
Lucian instinctively tried to shrink back, but there was nowhere to go, he couldn't move back. The hall seemed to stretch and contract according to the demon's whim as Raum stepped down from the dais.
"I'm sure that even if my beautiful self has been forgotten, my power hasn't," Raum teased, his long, clawed fingers tracing the air. "It is said that I can see the past, present, and future. I'm sure even a 'rat' like you knows that. It's the cornerstone of your family's pride, isn't it? My family."
He reached Lucian, standing just a few steps away. The demon began to circle him like a wolf examining a particularly interesting piece of prey, sniffing the air as if he could taste Lucian's fear. Lucian turned slowly, keeping his eyes on the crow-skull mask, his breath hitching with every heavy footfall of the demon.
"But only a few know how I see," Raum whispered, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial murmur.
Lucian blinked, and in that split second, the demon vanished. Before his brain could register the movement, two massive, clawed hands dropped onto Lucian's shoulders. gripping him, preventing him from moving.
"You see," Raum's voice hissed directly into his ear, sending a chill down his spine that felt like ice water. "I am capable of seeing through the eyes of all those who carry my blood. Every child, every grandchild, every bastard and stray... All the branches of my tree belong to me. Their eyes are my windows and their lives are my entertainment."
Lucian's eyes widened in horror. 'He sees through us?...'
"Those who were…" Raum's grip tightened, the claws beginning to prick through Lucian's coat and graze his skin. "Those who are… and those who are yet to be. I watch the rise and fall of my house in a single, eternal glance."
Lucian struggled to get free, but it was like a baby trying to push away a mountain. He was being held down, not even able to struggle.
The realization of how Raum had maintained his status as the ultimate dealer of secrets hit him, the fear that this being had been able to watch him and know his secrets was terrifying.
'Has he been spying on me this whole time? Since the moment I was born? Has he watched every one of his descendants?'
"But," the demon growled, making him shiver at the closeness, his voice suddenly dropping an octave into a snarl that made the floor tiles crack. "For some reason… I cannot see through your eyes. My sight is blocked by a fog I cannot pierce."
Lucian was suddenly yanked upward by his shoulders. Raum's face filled his entire vision, the bleached bone of the mask inches from his nose. The three eyes were now glowing with a violent, pulsating crimson light that matched the color of Lucian's own left eye.
"Not your past. Not your present. And certainly not your future. You are a but a void in my vision, child."
Lucian let out a choked cry as a splitting headache exploded in his skull. It felt like hot needles were being driven into his optic nerves, or as if a rough hand was reaching inside his brain to rummage through his memories.
The demon's will was trying to tear open his mind to find the "blind spot" Lucian represented.
Then, just as suddenly as the agony began, it stopped. The pressure vanished, leaving a ringing silence in his ears.
Raum was back on his throne, reclining as if he had never moved. Lucian collapsed to his knees, gasping for air, sweat dripping from his chin onto the cold marble. He felt drained.
"I'm a little annoyed about that," the demon said, his tone returning to a lazy drawl. He conjured a wine glass with a flick of his wrist, but the liquid inside was too thick, too dark to be wine. It smelled of copper.
Lucian watched with a churning stomach as Raum dipped a long, sharp nail into the cup and pulled out a skewered eyeball, still trailing a few strands of optic nerve. The demon popped it into his mouth with a sickening squelch, sucking it clean with a look of blissful indulgence.
Lucian couldn't hide his disgust, his throat working as he fought back the urge to vomit.
"Oh, don't look like that," Raum said cheerfully, pointing a second skewered eye toward him. The pupil of the eye seemed to track Lucian's movements even as it sat on the demon's nail. "It's quite delicious. The eyes of a prophet, they have a very complex vintage, full of bitter regrets and sweet, unearned knowledge. Want some?"
Lucian shook his head violently and scrambled backward, his hands slipping on the polished floor.
"Now then," Raum's posture sharpened, the lazy noble vanishing to reveal the ancient monster. "Why don't you tell me how you are keeping yourself hidden from my gaze? A 'rat' shouldn't have such high-quality curtains. What god did you make a deal with to hide from your own 'father'?"
The question sounded friendly, but the pressure in the room surged until Lucian's ribs felt like they were about to snap and his knees cracked.
"I don't know," Lucian answered honestly, his voice cracking. It was the absolute truth. He suspected his Meta Essence acted as a shield.
Raum stared at him for a long beat. Suddenly, black flames erupted across the throne room walls, turning the darkness into a searing, lightless inferno. The demon's gaze burned into Lucian's soul, searching for the telltale flicker of a lie. After a moment, the fires died as quickly as they had appeared, leaving the room colder than before.
"You speak the truth. How odd." Raum muttered, looking genuinely perplexed for the first time. He rested his chin on a clawed hand, the third eye on his forehead blinking rapidly.
"Where are you right now, child?" The being suddenly changed the subject.
Lucian stayed silent, clenching his jaw.
"While I cannot see through your eyes normally, you did something recently… and for the briefest moment, I 'saw' a place. I couldn't see it through your perspective, but I still 'saw' it somehow. A place I have never seen in the eyes of any of my other children. A world of pure blue and filled with salt."
Raum's void-like eyes widened, the third eye pulsing with a rhythmic, sickening light. "Where was that? What ocean have you crawled into? What were THoes beautiful white clouds?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lucian said, trying to fake confidence despite the tremor in his hands. He knew the demon was talking about the One Piece world, a place beyond the reach of the demon.
"You lie," the demon said softly. "You surely haven't forgotten who I am, have you, child?. I am the arch demon of deceit."
Raum's clawed hands were back in an instant, this time wrapped firmly around Lucian's throat. Lucian didn't even know what happened, he was suddenly in front of the sitting demon, held by his neck.
He was lifted effortlessly into the air until his feet dangled above the ground. He couldn't breathe, he could feel the cold claws digging into his skin, the warm trickle of blood beginning to stain his clothes.
The pain was vivid.
Yet… Lucian didn't look away. He glared directly into the demon's passive, void-like eyes. He had noticed something throughout this entire thing.
'If he could kill me, he would have done it the moment he realized I was a blind spot. He's an Earl, he doesn't tolerate variables. He's testing the limits because he's just as curious as I am. And....." he thought as he glared harder.
'This is not real,' Lucian had forgotten, but this was not real, sure, he was feeling pain and all, but he was confident that the pain wasn't real.
Raum stared at him for a long beat, his grip tightening until Lucian's vision began to spot. Then, the demon let out a booming laugh that sounded like a murder of crows taking flight and released him. Lucian thudded to the floor, clutching his throat and coughing violently.
"We'll meet again, child," the demon said, a predatory glint in his eyes. "You are the most interesting thing to happen to this family since its creation. Until Next time, my child."
The throne room began to dissolve into purple mist.
Lucian woke with a sharp gasp, his lungs burning as they took in the salty, humid sea air of the Grand Line.
The ocean stretched endlessly in every direction, the vibrant, cerulean blue of the One Piece world a jarring contrast to the purple gloom of the Raum castle. His small wooden boat rocked gently on the waves, exactly where it had been before the "tug." The sun was setting.
"So I was right," he muttered, rubbing his neck. There were no marks, no bloodstains on his coat. The pain had been a psychic thing, not real at all.
As powerful as his ancestor was, Lucian doubted even the demon could actually reach him physically. Raum was a legend of the past, a past of his world, at that not the one piece world.
More importantly, Lucian was in an entirely different dimension, and he was a "blind spot" that even the Great Earl's reach couldn't bridge without Lucian's own Observation Haki acting as an accidental lighthouse to clear the so called fog he mentioned.
'He saw Skypiea,' Lucian realized with a grimace, that moment when he first used his Haki, it seemed the demon had 'seen' a bit, even if he mentioned he really couldn't see it from what Lucian had realized.
He sighed, leaning back against the mast and closing his eyes, as if he was afraid of what he might see or what Raum might see.
The revelation was staggering. The Raum clan's legendary foresight wasn't just a gift from their ancestor but also a multi-generational surveillance network built on the very blood that flowed through their veins.
Every Raum was essentially a camera, and the original Earl was the one watching the monitors.
"And I'm the only one who can't be watched," he whispered, a small smile tugging at his lips despite the lingering fear. That little thought at least gave him some comfort.
It was troublesome, yes. He would have to be incredibly careful with how he used his Haki from now on to avoid his ancestor's "tugs." If he went too far, he might accidentally give Raum a free show.
"So troublesome," he muttered, looking up at the clear blue sky, feeling the warmth of the sun on his face.
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