Spec-ops units were sicced on Lucian like angry, bloodthirsty wolves that had grown tired from constantly being starved of their prey, consistently hungering for any kind of creature to catch for the sake of the pack... armed with energy rifles powered by ESP rounds, they were ready to open fire on Lucian and wipe him from all planes of existence. Red glowing eyes could be seen darting around the dark corridors and rooms of the ISV Aeon's lower bay, though this wound up being a dead giveaway for the insanity demon to take advantage of.
One spec-ops unit was unfortunate enough to wind up falling victim to one of Lucian's attempts to drive him insane... Lucian, in gaseous form, quickly entered a unit's head to try and torment him. "Your attempt to stop me is useless... your forces will fall in vain by my hand, and I shall take their families as well to remind your sad excuse of a nation that I can't be stopped..." Lucian spoke within the mind of the spec-ops soldier he entered, trying to decrease his morale and eventually trying to pressure him into committing suicide. "End it for the sake of your own sanity... snap out of your blissful ignorance, and release yourself from the American nightmare you have been cast into..." he would continue telepathically.
Eventually, an energy shot was heard, indicating that a spec-ops unit had fallen victim to Lucian's insanity, and had shot himself as a result. As a response, energy rifles were set to full power in order to apprehend Lucian head-on, as the spec-ops soldiers were now filled with both determination and anger - they wanted to avenge a fallen comrade, and they were also determined to take down the demon of insanity.
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"Shit, man down!" Spec-ops troops were heard splitting up into groups, scattering themselves around the Aeon's lower bay in an attempt to try and find Lucian. Some were equipped with advanced infrared lenses, allowing them to see where Lucian might be. Following him around, the soldiers fired a few shots where they would narrowly miss the demon. Lucian would eventually find a chance that he couldn't pass up when a private walked into the lower ship bay to see what was going on... a clone of Sayori seemed to be fresh prey for Lucian.
"YOUR SANITY NOW BELONGS TO ME!" Lucian rapidly went over to the private and lunged at her, trying to get into her head so he could rob her of her sanity... however, he was hit with another ESP beam, causing him to phase through the young private and hit the ground tumbling. Lucian seemed to be holding his arm as black blood seemed to ooze out of the wound he had sustained, trying to get away from the spec-ops units.
Meanwhile on the bridge, Hux was tracking the progress of the spec-ops troops on a computer - they chased the demon out of the lower ship bay, which now meant that he had the opportunity to terrorize the rest of the ship. He assumed the physical form of a hulking mass that represented the crew's worst fears, stomping around and making attempts to kill those who ran into him with the weapons he had at his disposal - Lucian, now in his 'beast' form, was repeatedly shot at by Imperial soldiers on the Aeon, only to absorb their energy rounds and deflect them back at some who were defenseless. Eventually, experimental supersoldiers were called into battle to counter the demon of insanity.
"Supersoldiers... another pathetic excuse to bolster blind American pride, when they should be wallowing in their own shame for all the violence they had to utilize in order to make ends meet," Lucian spoke in a much deeper voice that came out cold, his words sounding like a knife scraping on stone. He fired back the Imperial soldiers' energy beams just to have the supersoldiers absorb them into their skin... after 4 seconds, amplified ESP beams were fired out of their chests in a violent release, hitting Lucian like baseball-sized hail and leaving a few holes in his body. The insanity demon let out a pained grunt, reverting to his human manifestation and making an attempt to escape through the use of superhuman speed.
Hux would soon come to track him down, looking to end the situation and not have to worry about anything else. However, as back up, Lucian harnessed some of his energy to create a number of personal soldiers for his own protection - everything, including their weapons, was made of the black mist that comprised Lucian... these were his shadow guards. Upon opening fire, they fired rounds that would make anyone spiral into insanity upon being hit, but the time it took to do so varied, as it was based on where their target was hit. For this reason, Lucian's guards regularly went for the heads of Imperial soldiers. Hux wound up running into some of these shadow guards, eliminating them with his personal energy pistol that was loaded with ESP rounds - however, one tried to attack him with a knife made of the same material they were made of, causing Hux to utilize CQC in order to have the attacking shadow guard stab itself with the knife it was armed with.
"You think you can try and stop me, captain? When will you and your nation learn your place? You can't hold more power than demons like us... you can't be more powerful than the beings that created you... and you can't outrun insanity the way you villainous Imperials do. Nations like yours deserve to be at the bottom in all imaginable aspects because of what your people have done over these 1,300 years, a poor excuse of a celestial civilization..." Lucian continued to taunt Hux and the ISV Aeon, still hurling verbal attacks at Temporal America and its reasons and purpose of existence. This just angered the 34 year old Hux, as he wound up being set off by these taunts.
"Come out and show yourself, you insufferable coward! You think you can hide from us forever!?" The young captain shouted, looking to settle the situation with Lucian through putting an end to his terrorism, and an end to him overall. Hux would soon wind up in the Aeon's shuttlebay, looking around for Lucian and expecting him to pop out from behind or from the sides at any moment. But as soon as he got down to where the shuttles were docked, however...
