Chapter 19: Past
Luka hovered in mid-air, the frigid wind whipping across his cheeks, carrying the chill of the high altitudes.
His usually calm eyes were now churning with complex emotions. The murkiness of a long-sealed memory being touched, and a hint of bewilderment even he himself couldn't clearly distinguish.
He didn't immediately answer Diana's question. Instead, he slowly lowered his head, his gaze piercing through the thin clouds to settle on the sprawling cityscape below.
The afternoon in Salem was exceptionally tranquil. Sunlight, like molten gold foil, lavishly spilled over the rooftops. On the streets, vintage-style vehicles shuttled smoothly, kicking up fine dust that quickly dissipated.
But in Luka's eyes, another vision quietly overlaid the scene.
Planets scorched by war. The acrid stench of burning flesh lingering in the air. Endless cries and hoarse screams echoing in his ears. In an instant, the barrier sealing those memories shattered.
The contrast with the tranquility before him was almost blinding.
Luka's fingers unconsciously curled inward, knuckles whitening slightly. His chest felt constricted, as if something were blocking his breath, leaving him heavy and panicked.
"Ms. Prince."
Only after a long while did Luka slowly speak.
He turned his head slightly, his gaze returning to Diana, his tone carrying a barely perceptible hesitation.
"Do you know about the coming-of-age ceremony on Viltrum?"
Diana was taken aback, instinctively shaking her head.
She was aware of the coming-of-age rituals of many civilizations in the universe. Some were solemn blessings, others rigorous trials. But she had never heard any account of Viltrum's ceremony.
Sensing the weight in Luka's tone, she instinctively held her breath, her eyes fixed on his figure.
"On Viltrum, seventeen is the legal age of adulthood," Luka said quietly. "But only those who pass the coming-of-age trial are recognized as true warriors, only then do they earn the right to stand on that world."
Luka's gaze turned distant, as if he were seeing once again that planet torn apart by war and tyranny.
"But you would never imagine, this so-called 'coming-of-age ceremony' was never a symbolic rite of passage. It was a naked massacre."
He slowly raised his right hand, palm facing the sunlight overhead. Golden rays filtered through his fingers, casting dappled shadows across his face.
"The instructors would toss us teenagers on the verge of adulthood directly onto a planet they had just set their sights on, one not yet fully conquered. The natives of that world, regardless of age or gender, became our 'trial targets.'"
Luka's voice remained unnervingly calm, devoid of emotion, as if recounting a trivial matter unrelated to himself.
But this very composure sent a chill down Diana's spine, a cold dread slowly climbing her vertebrae before engulfing her entire body.
Her fists clenched without her realizing it.
"There were no rules, no boundaries, and absolutely no mercy."
Luka averted his gaze, his tone still flat but carrying a suffocating cruelty.
"The only requirement was simple. Survive, and kill every native defined as a 'resister.'"
"Resisters?" Diana's voice came out dry and strained.
She stared intently at Luka, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"Those unarmed civilians? Those elderly and children with no capacity to resist? You considered them resisters too?"
"In the eyes of the Viltrumites, any native who still lived, who hadn't completely surrendered and abandoned all thoughts of resistance, was considered a rebel," Luka replied
"A simple, bloody logic. And at the time, Viltrum itself was embroiled in a civil war that had already raged for centuries. Some of their minds had become even more twisted than before."
Rou Planet was the most exceptional, and the most brutal, testing ground of Luka's generation.
No one questioned that choice. After all, the ones who included Rou Planet in the assessment criteria were the Viltrumite higher-ups, whose desire for conquest had been completely ignited by the planet's natives' tenacious resistance.
"Rou is roughly three times the size of Earth," Luka continued. "Its natives had lived there for thousands of years."
"Their technological level was roughly equivalent to Earth's twentieth century. They lack interstellar travel capabilities and possess few heavy weapons."
But unlike 20th-century Earth, the core of Rou's culture was deeply etched with devotion to their homeland and absolute intolerance toward invasion.
"When the Viltrumite vanguard first set foot on this planet, attempting to force its inhabitants into submission through military might, over eighty percent of Rou's natives refused to yield."
"Soldiers picked up crude firearms and built defensive lines on the outskirts of their cities. Ordinary civilians wielded cold weapons passed down from their ancestors. With their own flesh and blood, they erected fragile yet tenacious lines of defense, desperately resisting invaders with overwhelming strength."
This stubborn, almost fanatical resistance completely enraged the Viltrumites.
In their eyes, the natives of such a primitive and backward planet should have bowed down like ants.
To resist was an open desecration of Viltrumite authority.
This defiance only fueled their burning obsession to completely subjugate Rou Planet and crush it beneath their feet.
Thus, the conquest of Rou Planet was directly designated as one of the Vitrumite coming-of-age trials.
Luka's squad was among the teams participating in this brutal assessment.
The squad consisted of ten members. Apart from Luka, the rest were seventeen-year-old youths, led by two seasoned Viltrumite instructors whose hands were already soaked in blood.
Hovering in front of Diana, Luka slowly laid bare the memories he had guarded so fiercely until now.
"Ms. Prince, Rou Planet has a population of four billion."
Diana's breathing grew increasingly rapid, her chest heaving violently. Luka's description painted a vivid and horrifying picture in her mind.
How utterly insignificant and helpless unarmed civilians must have been against the world-destroying power of the Viltrumites.
Their resistance was like striking stone with an egg, each charge meaning the withering of life.
"No... this can't be..."
Diana instinctively retreated several meters.
She had witnessed the brutality of war, the gore of slaughter, and had even personally slain countless heinous villains.
But she had never imagined a civilization that would turn the extermination of an entire planet into a rite of passage for its youth.
This cold, inhuman rule completely shattered her understanding of the world.
Silence stretched between them for a long time, so long that even the high-altitude wind seemed to grow quiet.
Diana slowly raised her head, her gaze complex as she looked at Luka. Her eyes held shock, pity, disbelief, and a faint, almost imperceptible scrutiny.
After a long pause, she finally spoke again, her voice trembling uncontrollably.
"On Rou, during that massacre of the natives... what were you thinking?"
At the question, the corners of Luka's lips lifted slightly, forming a weary smile that carried unmistakable exhaustion.
"At that moment, I only felt that in the past decade, there had never been a better opportunity for me to escape Viltrum."
He paused, his gaze drifting into the distance as if he could still see the lingering smoke over the battlefield on Rou Planet. He seemed to see himself suspended in the air, looking down at the people who, even as the slaughter neared its end, still aimed their weapons at him.
"At that time, my mind was consumed by the tension of whether I could successfully escape and the burning desire for freedom. There was no room for any other thoughts."
The words struck Diana like a thunderclap.
Her entire being trembled, and she completely lost her composure. Her once-straight spine involuntarily wavered, and the color drained from her face, leaving it deathly pale.
Most of Diana's face was shrouded in shadow against the sunlight, leaving only her pupils visible, swirling with disbelief.
Luka didn't miss her reaction.
"Ms. Prince?"
Diana didn't respond, remaining frozen in her rigid posture.
After a moment, she slowly lowered her head, her gaze drifting blankly over the city below. An unnatural sense of detachment radiated from her, like an invisible barrier that instantly severed all connection between her and Luka.
A thick, insurmountable wall seemed to rise between them.
Luka watched her, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something, but he ultimately swallowed the words back.
Silence stretched between them once more, each second ticking by like an eternity.
Luka let out a soft sigh and chose not to linger.
He cast one last glance at Diana, who remained frozen in her rigid posture, before soaring toward the distant horizon and vanishing into the clouds.
Only Diana remained behind, standing there for a long, long time.
High above Salem City, the golden, tower-like structure built from magic slowly faded, becoming transparent before disappearing entirely.
Doctor Fate stood at the center of the tower, his gaze fixed on the direction Luka had flown, visible through the invisible magical barrier.
The expression beneath his golden helmet was complex and inscrutable, tinged with both doubt and a hint of pity.
"Nabu…"
His voice emerged low and hoarse.
"His slaughter was not born of intent. Is a person like that… truly beyond redemption?"