After the orb sucked in both Lost and the reddish liquid called Demon Blood, it teleported itself back to the Golgotha mansion. Lost wasn't even allowed to see what became of Yuuto, but it wasn't hard to guess.
"Father, look."
"Hmm, such a shame. I had high hopes for him, but I guess it's no good if they keep their memories."
Not long after Lost was teleported back to the Golgothas, Morus and Thron came to see him.
Lost wasn't stupid, he could understand what had happened very well. At some point, they had planted that orb inside him with the condition that it would activate if he ever went against their orders. That's why it happened right after he decided against killing Lizel.
In summary, Lost had been betrayed. He was nothing but a black liquid submerged in the deadly reddish liquid, but he was mad. If he was in his humanoid form, his mere expression would have made Morus and Thron take a step back.
"But he's too valuable to lose. Let's work on reeducating him."
It seemed that the Golgothas weren't done with Lost just yet. Which is convenient, Lost also planned to have a few words with them.
But Lost quickly noticed a problem: they clearly had ways to weaken him. Anger alone would get him nowhere, so Lost needed to plan his attack.
'Remember your power. Absorb everything.'
There was something he had never dared try before, an ability he kept hidden from everyone else. He had this… thing in him. It told him to "eat" everyone else, that he could absorb them and get even stronger.
Lost had always tried to ignore that. He figured he was simply going crazy after literal years in that darkness. But now, he decided to lend it an ear.
So Lost absorbed just a little bit of the reddish liquid. He couldn't absorb it all, since it would make the Golgothas suspicious, but just that small amount was fine.
Lost felt something happen inside himself. At first it was pain, but then it stopped hurting. As crazy as it sounded, the "thing" in his head seemed to be right. After a little bit, that reddish liquid would no longer present any problem for Lost.
And like that, years passed with Lost being "reeducated" by the Golgothas. In the meantime, the last of the friends who had come with Lost died, but he wasn't even allowed to bury him. That only increased the hate Lost was feeling. He only learned of this friend's death because of an offhand comment by Morus, who was trying to provoke Lost.
Lost also learned a few things during that time. For one, after that incident, Lizel went back to her home. It seemed that no deaths were confirmed and the incident itself was soon buried and forgotten. Unlikely as it was, Lost could only hope Yuuto somehow made it out.
Of course, Morus and Thron continued using the reddish liquid to weaken Lost in order to give him punishment. They even used the other subjects of the Darkness experiment, the ones that were still alive at least, to beat Lost and even other methods to weaken him.
He was thankful to himself for deciding to be patient, since the same method never worked twice on him. Meaning the Golgothas were slowly and unknowingly running out of ways to deal with Lost.
But Lost was apparently a very good actor, no one thought that he was just pretending to be hurt. And no one noticed he was slowly making them show him everything they could do against him. Lost laughed at their stupidity.
Years passed as such. Then, a faithful day came when Lost decided he no longer needed to wait.
"Everyone, let's celebrate! Morus was chosen as the Devil King Candidate of Death. We'll support him from the shadows with our experiments and, after such a long time, a Golgotha will be Devil King again!"
One day, suddenly, Thron entered the basement shouting that. Needless to say, those news were meant for the people working on the experiments, not for the people being subjected to those experiments.
Cheers rang out. It seems that the people concerned thought those were good news. So they all went to celebrate.
'It is time. Today, you absorb everyone.'
Following the instructions of the voice on his head, Lost decided that this would be the last day he pretended to be weak. He was apparently a very important experiment, so he ought to join the celebrations.
All the experiments were canceled for the day. It seemed that the Golgothas were partying. Even some of the experiments, the more innocent ones and the more loyal ones, seemed happy.
At the moment, Lost was pretending to be weak and traumatized, he had even gone back to his young form of when he first arrived. At some point, probably at night, someone opened the door to the cell that was being used to imprison Lost.
It was Thron. And with him were the 2 last remaining subjects of the Darkness experiment, known as Big and Medium. Lost didn't really know or care if they were the same as the ones he knew before.
"You know, Lost, it would be really helpful for us if you agreed to help. With your help, Morus would certainly become Devil King. Can't we forget the past and start over again? I'm even willing to forgive your betrayal."
"Fuck you."
Lost's reply was short and to the point. He didn't bother to hide his hostility one bit.
"Haah, pity. Make him beg to join us."
With that simple order from Thron, Big and Medium began hitting Lost. Much like all other subjects, they had no memories of before becoming what they are, so they have no reason to not listen to the one person they knew they could always trust.
Much like bullies you'd see in a movie, they kept hitting Lost. If he was still a normal mixed-blood devil, a number of Lost's bones would be broken by now.
Even with the power of the Darkness, Thron still gave them equipment to make Lost feel pain. Lost's silence was starting to plant a doubt in Thron's mind.
"Aha, ahahahahahahahaha!"
Then came a maddening laugh. That was not the laugh of someone who was being beaten to death. Fear showed itself on Thron's face.
Thron was about to get out of the cell and use everything he could to subdue Lost. That's what his instincts were telling him to do. But it was already too late by then.
And it's not as if anything he could have done would have mattered.
"It's no use!"
Lost became liquid and quickly enveloped the other 2 Darkness experiment subjects. They tried to fight back, but Lost barely even felt it. It wasn't long before they were absorbed and became part of Lost.
During that time, Thron left the cell. He tried activating all defense protocols, but Lost broke through them as if they were made of paper.
"W-wait!"
Those were Thron's last words. The black wave that was Lost quickly consumed and absorbed him. Thron had now become a part of Lost.
As for what Lost did next, he decided he might as well eat the other experiments as well. He had no reason to forgive the ones loyal to the Golgothas, and he might as well take the others out of their misery while he was at it.
'Yes, very good.'
Or so he told himself at least. In reality, after his first "taste" of absorbing someone, the "thing" inside his head screamed even louder. It told him to consume everything, starting from the people and ending with the world itself, or rather, after he was done with this world, he should move on to whatever other worlds there might be out there.
"What's going on here?"
Some people were coming down to the basement to check on things. The last thing they saw was a creepy smile on Lost's mouth right before he ate them as well.
Lost then crashed into the Golgothas' party. He didn't care about being discreet. In fact, he wanted more and more people to come and try to fight him. Their efforts were useless, so it only made it all the better once Lost stopped playing with them and finally devoured them.
The high point of the night was definitely Morus.
"Y-you monster, you've done enough. Time to put you down."
Morus used his Characteristic Magic, Happy End. A small handgun appeared in his hands. He shot a bullet at Lost.
The bullet penetrated his liquid form. Lost stood still for a second, making Morus think he'd won. But then…
'I will not allow your death.'
"Did you think death had any power over me?!"
Was what he said right before he devoured Morus.
In reality, Lost did feel like he died for a brief moment. But then the "thing" that taught him the ability to absorb others also brought him back. It made Lost wonder about the origin of the Darkness. But, other than the story Thron told him years ago, there wasn't much else in Thron's memory.
But the thing itself convinced Lost to simply focus on his slaughter, so he did. It wasn't long before Lost was completely done killing everything inside the Golgotha mansion.
Once he was done, Lost returned to his mixed-blood devil form. As if resting after a job well done, Lost sat on the ground.
"Hahahahahahahaha! Haha, ha, waaaaaa!"
Lost laughed hysterically at first, but then, after a while, he began crying. That's because of the memories he had absorbed.
Lost learned that his village no longer existed. Deep down, he probably always knew, but he never wanted to believe it. But there was no escaping it now.
Not everyone was killed in Thron's attack, but the survivors had probably simply died somewhere else. Lost felt like he was truly alone in the world. And, because he was alone, it meant everyone else was an enemy.
'While they won't do much good, you might as well absorb everything in this region.'
And that's what Lost did. For a while, he rampaged through Chevalleze, killing and absorbing everything he could. By the time Lost was satisfied, it became the wasteland of death that Aspite and Hirono would find during the Devil King War.
Lost still felt angry, and the voice incited him to go to the next region and do the same thing he had just done there. Lost was about to give in, but then he stopped.
He had remembered another part of Thron's memory. Because Demon Blood was such a fearsome weapon, he investigated closely to make sure no one would trace it back to him.
He investigated as closely as he could without arousing suspicion, but it seemed like the incident buried itself. Lizel left her reason for going back home as "just felt like it" and the human family that had been housing her didn't make any complaints. Thron felt happy and decided to just leave it at that.
Lost decided to make use of his abilities to really figure out what happened to Yuuto. He pretended to be Thron and investigated things, finding out that Yuuto was, somehow, still alive.
That was when Lost finally recovered his sanity and realized what he had done. It was one thing to kill Thron and Morus, but he had no reason to kill innocents. The voice kept insisting, but Lost decided to ignore it a bit more.
The Darkness that was devouring Lost's mind was held back a little. If Yuuto really had died, as destiny had planned, Lost would have probably completely let go of himself by then.
But still, Lost now had an objective. He wanted power, and not just any power. A divine level of power. And he had 2 choices to achieve that: devour the Devil King or devour the 22 Candidates.
Lost decided to go with the easier option, that being the Candidates. Though, depending on how things went, he'd just maybe do both.
It was also around this time that Lost learned a bit more about his power. He couldn't use magic, he had figured that out long ago, but it seemed that Characteristic Magics and Bloodline Magics were the exception. Lost didn't know why, but he'd take it.
From there, it wasn't long until Lost found his first target. Wheel Of Fortune's Candidate, Rinne Shimokadzuma.
Again, if Lost had completely given in to the Darkness by now, he would have simply devoured her and that would be the end of it. But, because he hadn't, he decided to make a different choice.
Maybe to make up for all the friends he couldn't save, maybe out of pity, he decided to save her. That's how he ended up bringing her along with him, and not long after also helped save Hermit's Candidate, Hisoka Kozukate.
It wouldn't be long after that that Lost would show himself on the Unveiling. From then on, you already know what happened with him.
Now, it's time to see the end of his story.
