Lucifer kept the gloves in his pocket before he approached Alicia. Carefully, he placed both his hands on the barrier of Alicia since his hands could decay anything, even energy barriers.
He had tested this once before when he himself was trapped in one such barrier. Decay not only weakened these barriers but it also destroyed most of them.
He placed his hands on the barrier, letting his decay work its magic.
The barrier kept decaying, but it was happening really slowly. On the other hand, Alicia had already fallen on the ground, still holding onto her head.
Even though it took a few seconds, the barrier had only weakened halfway. It was still going to take more time to destroy it like this.
Seeing Alicia's condition, Lucifer knew that she wasn't going to last long like this. Each second was important.
He kept his left palm on the barrier but retracted his right hand.
He clenched his fist before punching the barrier with his full strength. The barrier broke because of the impact as if it was made of glass, shattering to pieces.
As the barrier broke, Lucifer ran to Alicia. Sitting near her, he slowly made her sit, holding her shoulders.
Alicia weekly looked at Lucifer as she pleaded, "Please stop this. I will go crazy..."
"You won't," Lucifer replied, placing his hand under the ears of Alicia.
Snap!
A gentle snapping sound came, and Alicia's entire body went weak as she laid in Lucifer's arms.
"Sleep for now. Everything should be fine by the time you wake up," Lucifer said, glancing at the unconscious girl in his arms.
"Do you have any idea what might have happened to her? A panic attack or something?" Cassius asked Lucifer, sitting near him.
The way they were sitting, it didn't look like they were inside the battlefield. Instead, it looked like they were all in the park.
"I don't think it was a panic attack. It should be something else," Lucifer replied. "But if it is what I think it is, then things will certainly get complicated."
"What do you think it might be?" Cassius asked, frowning.
Lucifer glanced at Kellian and the others who were fighting in the distance.
Making sure no one was near them, he started answering, "You heard General Maxwell speak about that experimental subject in the lab that Doctor Rao was working on?"
"Yeah. What about her? Wait... Are you thinking that she...?"
"That's right. There's a good chance that Alicia is that girl. I'm sure being experimented on was a very hard experience, even harder than what I went through," Lucifer explained.
" There's also a good chance that Raia used his powers on her to help her forget everything about her past. He also manipulated her memories to make her think that Vega was her father," he continued.
"You mean her old memories are trying to return?" Cassius inquired. "Why after such a long time?"
"I think it's because I ki... It's because Raia is dead. So his Memory Manipulation is slowly coming off. She is a powerful Warlock, after all. So the manipulation certainly couldn't last for a long time, especially with Raia gone," Lucifer replied.
"So if she remembered everything, won't that be a problem?" Cassius asked, concerned. "The tragic memories would certainly mess with her head in ways we can't even imagine.'
"I think losing her memories was a good thing for her to let her live a normal life, but if they returned so suddenly, she wouldn't be able to control herself," he further said.
"I think there's a good chance of that happening... But we'll have to see," Lucifer replied as he picked up Alicia in his arms.
"Can you hold her?" he asked Cassius.
He handed Alicia to Cassius before calling Vega. All communications in the city had been blocked except when it was from them.
The call was directly connected.
" Tell me about Alicia. Is she from the lab?" Without wasting a single moment, Lucifer directly asked a question.
...
Inside the APF headquarters, Vega had just picked a call to be stunned. Lucifer directly asked him a question that he hadn't expected.
"Yes. She is the girl from the lab," Vega confessed. "I was about to tell you after this mission was over. How did you find out?"
" Soon, everyone might know about it. She just fell to the ground, screaming in pain while holding her head. Don't tell me Raia manipulated her memories?" Lucifer asked.
Vega sighed. "That's right. I was concerned this might happen someday. But we don't have Raia to reinforce his manipulation. Now that he is dead, she will probably regain her tragic memories."
Lucifer couldn't help but rub the back of his neck in frustration as he glanced at Cassius. "I was right. It's because she is regaining her memories."
"Is there a solution to help her?" he asked Vega.
"That will depend on how she behaves if she regains her memories and if she doesn't think of us as bad guys. She would probably be fine as long as things don't go extremely wrong. I'll also come there to help you," Vega expressed.
"No need for you to come. I'll handle it myself," Lucifer let out, disconnecting the call.
He turned to glance at Alicia, finding a few similarities with her. He did realize that she suffered more than him, so it was also a little different.
"You're one of them, aren't you? Die!"
A scream came from behind Lucifer. He calmly turned back, noticing a dark-clothed Variant running towards him.
"I'm indeed one of them. But you're pretty stupid to be a Hunter, aren't you? Who screams like that before attacking?" Lucifer lazily said as tens of wind blades sliced the Variant apart, killing him before he could even get to him.
Soon, Kellian also appeared near Lucifer. "It's done. They're all dead. There is no one in this city who can threaten us now. I think it wouldn't be wrong to say that we won."
"It was faster than I expected. Was the Hunter Union always so weak?" Lucifer asked, curious.
"I think it would have been slightly harder if Zeiss and his team were here. He took the strongest of Hunter Union members inside the Dungeon," Kellian explained.
"Yeah. The ones who were left weren't their best. And even amongst them, most of them died in the building collapse." Yaliza's figure also appeared, finishing the battle.
Kellian soon noticed Alicia in the arms of Cassius.
"What happened to Alicia?" he asked.
"It's a long story. Come, I'll tell you on the way," Lucifer said as he started walking towards a tall building.
He started explaining what had happened and what Alicia's real identity was. He also told them what was happening to her now, shocking all of them.