"Hey, Lukas, wait up!" Dream's voice yelled which caused Lukas to stop running before turning to face him. "Oh, hi Dream, what's up?" Lukas asked as Dream steadily slowed his pace as he approached his friend. "Have you seen Michael anywhere? I've searched around but I can't find him at all." Dream requested information which he seemed to prematurely know that Lukas didn't have. "You... you don't know where he is? How do we know when I'll be safe to go out?" Lukas inquired as he began to panic. "Look, calm down, he disappears like this every now and again. I just can't track him because he feels no emotions thanks to his robotic body. He really is a mystery... nobody knows where he comes from and he refuses to indulge in his past." Dream's thoughts slowly trailed off by themselves. Lukas tried to think about Michael as much as he could. He remembered that Michael was well known as being the strongest Protector in The Multiverse, he's probably never lost a fight, he has a strange fascination with Lukas as proven by what was heard in the dead of night with his conversation with Dream. There was also the strange blue dust that Lukas saw floating around Michael the first time that he saw him... and the fact that Michael's past was fairly unknown... and also how Michael just seemed able to appear and disappear on a whim which was... something that Lukas had seen very few people do... the two key people being Eanaro and Zero... and just like that, a sudden realisation came to Lukas' head.
Lukas looked down to the ground as he thought long and hard about the possibility of what he might have just discovered. His eyes widened and he slowly covered his mouth with his hand as the thought sunk in and the truth along with it. "I-I've got to go!" Lukas exclaimed before running off and leaving Dream behind who attempted to call out to Lukas only for it to fall on deaf ears. "What happened? Where are you going, what just popped into your head?" Bethany asked as Lukas continued to run well past the library as tears started to form in his eyes. "Can't you just read my thoughts and figure it out that way?" Lukas rhetorically inquired as his legs continued to carry him past all of the people who lined the hallways. Not a single face seemed concerned about Lukas or his well being... they were all just a bunch of faceless and emotionless set pieces that paid him no mind. "I... um." Bethany struggled to say as she seemed to be unable to come up with an answer. Lukas slowed down slightly before using a nearby wall with a window to stop him in his tracks as he held his head out the window as he felt physically sick thinking about how unfair the world that he had been thrown into was. He saw that the window of which he was staring out of was overlooking the training field.
"Well? Answer me!" Lukas demanded out loud so that everybody could hear. "I-I could read your mind but it would be much easier for you to just tell me... plus, I like hearing your voice so I was kind of hoping for you to tell me." Bethany said quickly which seemed like a lie to Lukas. How could anybody like anything about him? The world around him clearly didn't like a single thing about him, how else could he explain the strange phenomenon that happen around him which caused him to get into near-death situations almost daily? Lukas' grip tightened around the edge of the marble window as his hair began to glow a bright red along with his eyes. "L-Lukas, stay calm! Don't you remember what happened the last time you were like this?" Bethany pleaded as she seemed to be worrying about what Lukas was going to do. "I remember all too well... I'm going to destroy everything that he cares about so that when he comes back, it'll just be me with an insatiable lust for his destruction." Lukas stated as his grasp became so hard on the window to the point where the structure began to crack. "Lukas... please don't do this." Bethany begged as Lukas turned around and summoned his weapons.
"Yes, that's it. Show me your bloodlust!" That same distorted voice that haunted Lukas' dreams demanded as Lukas seemed eager to follow their commands. "It's a kill or be killed world here... and I'd prefer the former over anything else!" Lukas exclaimed as he rushed towards the nearest civilian who had their back turned to him. Suddenly, as Lukas swung his weapon, he felt his blade hit an incredibly tough surface that had stopped his attack. Lukas looked up to see a circular, yellow shield that appeared to be slightly larger than the average adult. He saw that the shield was being emitted from someone's open palm... he slowly looked up the arm of the person before him until he saw their face... it was Eanaro. "Just what do you think you're doing, Lukas?" Eanaro asked in a serious tone that sent a chill up Lukas' spine as he had not heard him speak like that before. After Lukas' fear had subsided within a few seconds, he responded. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to increase my chances of survival by stealing strength from every single person who lives here. It's so much easier than having to deal with all of this stressful shit!" Lukas yelled back into Eanaro's face only for him to physically feel his breath being forced back by the shield in front of him.
With a look of utter disappointment, Eanaro pulled his umbrella out from within his coat before holding it behind him. Suddenly, the shield that Lukas was pressing himself up against disappeared as Eanaro swung his umbrella forwards as it released a massive energy blast that hit Lukas directly and sent him crashing through the wall before falling onto the training field. Lukas heard his bones crack at the impact on both the wall and the cold, hard ground and the pain was absolutely unbearable. Strangely enough, Lukas could still move his body perfectly fine as most of the pain subsided nearly instantly. "So, you're doing this simply because it's the easy way to live?" Eanaro asked as he suddenly appeared across the field from Lukas. Lukas quickly got back on his feet as he stared down his newly found opponent. "Doing something that hurts others simply because it makes life easier on you... that's what a coward would do." Eanaro continued as he didn't blink nor did he shift his intimidating gaze away from Lukas. "What the hell did you just call me?" Lukas shouted as he appeared behind Eanaro and attempted to strike once more only for his attack to be blocked once more as it was clear to him that Eanaro was a lot faster than him.
"I called you a coward. Don't even try to deny it, you know that it's the truth. You don't even have any skills that make up for your pathetic cowardice." Eanaro replied as a smug grin was plastered over his face. Eanaro's cockiness and dumb smile were getting on Lukas' nerves so much to the point where his hair began to glow an even brighter shade of red. "Don't you fucking mock me!" Lukas demanded as he quickly appeared behind Eanaro once more only for the shield to follow his movements perfectly. "I thought that you wanted to be a Protector? I don't know about you but I don't see any Protectors having temper tantrums like you do. You can't hit me so just stop trying." Eanaro calmly spoke out as his smile slowly faded. Despite Eanaro's words... or more accurately; in spite of Eanaro's words, Lukas continued to attempt to strike his enemy but he never found a way to get past the shield that Eanaro had summoned. With a sigh, Eanaro held up his umbrella which suddenly emitted electricity that shocked Lukas and caused him to freeze in place, Eanaro then shot another blast of energy towards Lukas which shot straight through his chest, leaving an open wound as he flew back into the wall of the training grounds. It took a second for Lukas' mind to catch up with everything that had just happened before he looked down at his injury that appeared to be a perfect circle that cut deep into his chest... he was already losing a lot of blood as his breathing stuttered.
"Well, it appears that this time... won't be the end either. We'll have to start all over again." Eanaro stated as he stared down at Lukas and his sorry excuse for a fatal injury. "Wh-What?" Was all Lukas could ask as his consciousness began to fade. Eanaro shook his head before responding. "You don't deserve to know the truth. Mortals like yourself who love to pretend to have strength never deserved answers." Eanaro stated as he slowly turned and began to walk away. Suddenly, Lukas heard the distorted voice laughing maniacally as it began to speak. "Seeing helpless people like yourself dying never gets old!" The voice said as it struggled to gain it's breath back after laughing so much. Slowly, Lukas' vision began to turn black as he could only watch Eanaro casually walking away as if he didn't just murder a child. "No, don't you dare die now! Not after coming so far!" Two female voices pleaded in unison... Lukas recognised one of the females as Bethany. "What else can I do? I'm better off just accepting my fate here rather than embarrassing myself further." Lukas spoke as he tried to keep himself awake until he heard what these voices had to say.
"Just remember what I told you; the colour blue!" The unrecognisable female voice exclaimed. "How is that supposed to help m-" Lukas began saying before he stopped himself. "Oh, I remember now." Lukas stated as his eyes opened wide. "Good, now get out there and show him who's the boss!" The female voice exclaimed as Lukas felt the energy within him growing and he looked down to see his wound healing incredibly quickly. "No, I don't think you fully understand. I remember something very specific... I remember you, Sapphire." Lukas said as he quickly stood up and flew towards Eanaro at unimaginable speeds. Eanaro barely had time to turn around before he realised what was happening and quickly raised up his shield as a look of shock and surprise covered his face. Lukas relentlessly struck the shield and this time, he appeared to actually be achieving something as Eanaro struggled to keep his palm faced towards Lukas as his shield was constantly getting knocked out of the way only to circle back to block an attack once more. For a second, Eanaro actually seemed to be scared before quickly changing his expression to a serious one presumably so that Lukas would lose confidence in being able to win the fight.
Eanaro clearly decided that defensive options weren't the best as he attempted to shoot another blast of energy at Lukas. Lukas saw this coming and immediately dodged before retaliating by swing at the arm which Eanaro always held his umbrella with... and he actually hit him this time and the damage was so severe to the point where Eanaro was forced to drop his weapon and fall to the ground. Immediately afterwards, Lukas rushed forwards as he attempted to finish his opponent off as he raised his blade before quickly striking it down. Everything seemed to go in slow motion... Eanaro's face turned from one of fear to what appeared to be pleasantly surprised. Lukas saw the enemy's expression and he became uncertain if what he was doing was right or not... but there was no way of stopping it now. Slowly, Lukas closed his eyes so he didn't have to witness what he was about to do. All of a sudden, Lukas felt his arm jerk back as something had prevented him from striking Eanaro once more... he opened his eyes and turned to see something that terrified him.
The thing that stopped him was a person who had grabbed hold of the blade... their body was mechanical and painted red with thin green lights around the head... it was Michael. Before Lukas could even react to Michael's presence, the machine-like human began to crush his blades with his grip alone. Strangely enough, Lukas was beginning to feel a deep pain that seemed to be coming from inside of him. The next thing that Lukas knew, Michael was crushing the blade so much to the point where it began to crack... and Lukas' bones seemed to follow suit. Lukas attempted to scream out in pain but he found his throat to be full of some kind of liquid which he then began to cough up only to find that it was dark and red when it hit the ground. "Michael, stop it." Eanaro said in a cold voice only to be ignored. The pain within Lukas became so intense to the point where he could no longer describe it as Michael's grip only tightened around Lukas' weapons. "I told you to stop it, Michael!" Eanaro demanded as he stood up and began to approach the two others. In a moment of realisation, Michael looked down at Lukas who had completely collapsed to the floor... before he released the weapons from his grasp.
Lukas shivered on the floor... everything felt so cold. Eventually, Lukas' vision slowly faded as Eanaro began yelling at Michael but his words were unable to reach Lukas' ears as everything went black.
"Lukas, you'd better not be dead! My whole future relies on you and you promised to set me free! You promised that you'd set everyone free! Just sleep for a while, don't try to wake up. Just let your soul heal, I promise that if you continue down the path that you're on, you'll find the answers to everything that matters. Try not to listen to his words either, he's trying to manipulate you and make you stray from the path that you chose to tread. Don't worry, everything will become clear once you find a way to set me free."