Lucien ran fast, faster than ever before. He had to run; he had to survive. The World War had just broken out, making many young children be enlisted in the army to ensure a swift victory for for their country and their allies. Lucien, however, was not ready for war, he didn't want any part in it. He kept running, running into the woods and past the enormous trees, trying to evade the soldiers. "If you aren't with us, you're against us kid!" One of the soldiers yelled, much to the disgust of the other soldiers. A few shots were fired into the air, making the leaves on the trees rustle and nearby flocks of birds flee in fear of being killed.
In exhaustion, Lucien collapsed against a tree, out of view. He held his shaky hand to his mouth, trying to slow down his breathing in vain. A soldier banged his gun against a tree close to Lucien's hiding spot, making the weak boy nearly jump out of his skin. "We know you're here, kid. Come out." A kinder, but still ruthless soldier shouted out. Lucien heard some voices, voices he hadn't heard before. The rang around his head, begging him to get shot, begging him to allow himself to be killed.
He fought against the voices, trying his hardest to not leave his hiding place, but, in the end, his brain was too weak to stop the intrusive thoughts of the voices. He jumped out from behind the tree, right in front of the soldiers, noting that there was only three of them. Lucien pulled a branch off of a tree, twirling it in his hands. "Bring it on, boys." The soldiers lightly chuckled, believing that the small, innocent, child, wouldn't dare to attack them... They were wrong. Lunging at the man on the left, Lucien slung the branch against the mans skull, watching his crumble to the floor in agony. The other two men raised their guns.
"Put down the branch, or we'll shoot!" Lucien smirked, his eyes glowing with an ember colour as he glowed with a supernatural light. Flying through the air at the second soldier, the grown man had little time to react before he was put down by Lucien. Feeling triumphant, Lucien looked over at the last man, ready for an easy fight.
Unfortunately for Lucien this time, the man didn't hold back. He picked up one of the fallen soldier's guns, and readied his own. Aiming them at Lucien with a deadly look in his eyes, the soldier smiled. The last noise that Lucien heard was the blasting bang of the gun, and the last thing he felt was the bullet impaling the front of his skull. He hit the floor with a quiet but noticeable thump, and the soldier thought that it was over.
Lucien's corpse began to glow with an orange and green light, which pierced the soldier's eyes, burning them out of his skull. As if that wasn't enough pain, the blood pouring down the crying man's cheeks burned into his skin as a powerful fire flooded the woods and the nearby village that Lucien had grown up in. Once the fire had gone, and everyone in the vicinity with it, Lucien rose from the dead, feeling a hot burn near his wrist.
Checking the pain out, Lucien noticed a small rune in a hexagon, carved in an orange colour. He stood up, feeling very lightheaded, stumbling back to the village, which was now burned down to the ground and left in cinders. Noticing the damage to the village, Lucien burst into tears, racing to where his house used to stand, and finding his mother's charred body laid on the ground. He held her in his arm's, screaming, "Mama! No Mama please come back!" A circle of fire and flowers around the two went unnoticed because of Lucien's despair. Once he had mourned, he had vowed to get his revenge, catching a glimpse of the circle as it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
The year was 1974, Lucien was in France, fighting soldiers to the death. Over the many years Lucien had found out that as long as he was killed at the hands of someone else, and not an illness, himself, or anything else natural, his physical body would become that of his sixteen year old self (the same age he first died), and he would find a new carved rune on his skin somewhere. He had also learnt that with each death he became more powerful, and had a better control over the elements of fire and nature.
In the small French city that Lucien was staying in, there was a large military base, that had many containers of flammable gas inside that were supposed to be used for war. Lucien wasn't going to let that happen though. Using his powers, Lucien created a line of easily flammable plants to a large group of containers, which he then ignited, stepping away. This death wouldn't give him another rune, neither make him stronger, as it would be counted as self-inflicted.
The soldiers figured out what was happening too late, with most of the base exploding into massive flames, which Lucien then controlled over to the next containers, and the next. The remaining soldiers that had miraculously survived the attack ran out of the base, aiming all of their guns at Lucien. "Stop right where you are!" one of the soldiers shouted out, cocking his gun. Another soldier walked up to Lucien, pointing his gun against the boy's head.
"Any last words?" Lucien simply smirked, not wanting to die just yet; there was much more fight left in him.
"Where are the rest of the soldiers?" Lucien asked, making the man turn around and look. Much to his surprise, all of his fellow soldiers were gone, instead replaced with one flower for each person. A large tentacle of flaming nature shook the ground as it swiped at the solider. He ran around screaming and trying to shoot at it, knowing deep down it was too inhuman for a human to kill. The man was soon taken by the tentacle, and his died from the flames.
Once his heart had stopped beating, the tentacle burst into more flames, creating small explosions around the area. Lucien turned his back on the whole scene and walked away, as if nothing had even taken place at that base. Once he had got home, Lucien was ready to start a new fight, this time, in a new country. He was going to take down the world's defences, one by one, making sure that no war could ever take place as long as he was alive, which seemed as if it would be forever.
