Lucio

Personality Quiet and steadfast, Lucio carries an air of professionalism unlike his mentor. Even in the face of immense adversity and scolding, he remains calm and collected, ready to continue his efforts even while confronted by the possibility of loss. Given his role as a possible tutor, he is expected to be prim, proper, and dutiful. Though he frequently criticizes his opponents' forms in combat, his words are not as harsh as his master's, as he attempts to use them as a point of growth rather than disappointment.

Despite Valencina's abuse of Lucio, he feels permanently indebted to her for feeding and sheltering him, and is not willing to admit to her cruelness when asked. However, his combat passives demonstrate that he actually burns with resentment towards her, and has long been aware of her depravity, considering it his responsibility to eventually take her life.

Story Prior to Limbus Company At one point in his life, Valencina rescued Lucio from the Backstreets, giving him food and a warm home while he was a nobody with little future. This led Lucio to feel indebted to her and shaped his attitude toward his duties and her abuse. Despite this, he grew to silently resent his master, and repeatedly considered ending her life in her sleep. Lucio would eventually make up his mind to kill her after the House of Spiders completed their business with Limbus Company.

Though he ultimately failed in the regard of killing Valencina, his efforts and consideration did not go unnoticed. In one event, Kira recognized his hostility and attempted to give him advice in the regard of killing his master. Though he outright denied this and rejected the advice, Kira recognized the instability in the House of Spider's dynamics, assuming that if not just Lucio somebody amidst the House of Spiders would cause a collapse of the organization before Ryōshū's return.

Canto IX: The Unsevering While Vergilius was out with Charon, Saude, and Pilot, Valencina and Lucio ambushed the group with the goal of keeping the Color Fixer occupied during the House of Spider's raid on the Limbus Company HQ. Knowing of Charon's importance to Vergilius, Valencina ordered her apprentice to kidnap and use her as a hostage. During this initial skirmish, Saude's arm was severed as she held on tightly to Charon, allowing Lucio to escape with the girl and then trail after Saude as she ran for backup.

Lucio was able to locate Saude within a truck typically used to transport members of the Before Team, which was then occupied by the Sinners. He destroyed the roof of the vehicle, falling into it with an unconscious Charon in his arms and with several Ring-provided manikins as battle help. Wasting no time, he engaged in battle with the Sinners, where he utilized the Palermitan Style in attempts to dispatch his enemies. Recognizing this style, Ryōshū questioned its use, before being informed of the man's status as her previous Nursefather's "textbook", aiming to replicate Ryōshū's abilities for her to re-learn the techniques. With this revelation, the Nursefather herself arrived on the scene and began scolding Lucio. As the two were not yet done fighting, Vergilius burst in shortly after, and began clashing with Valencina again.

Eventually, the Sinners were able to travel to Limbus Company HQ using the truck's Backdoor portal, and Lucio and Valencina stayed behind to continue distracting Vergilius. While Valencina related her twisted views on Lucio to Vergilius' relationship with Charon, Vergilius saw through her attempts to goad him into unsteadiness and focused on dismantling Lucio during the battle rather than the Nursefather of the Thumb. Lucio suffered great injuries during this encounter, as while the threat to Charon's life was severely hampering Vergilius' opportunities and cool-headedness, the Red Gaze was still more than capable of ripping through them. When Valencina eventually received the news that the Dihui Star had retrieved the Golden Boughs from the HQ, she gave Charon back to Vergilius and departed with Lucio.

Later during Limbus Company's retaliative raid against the House of Spiders, Lucio was with his master in the Corridor of the Thumb. Vergilius, Rodion, Heathcliff, and Gregor eventually arrived, finding Lucio still injured and Valencina drunk. After some provocations from both sides, Valencina ordered Lucio to prepare for battle in spite of his injuries. Lucio proceeded to fight against the three Sinners while Valencina fought one-on-one against Vergilius; as the battle escalated, Vergilius and Valencina joined the others, and the Limbus Company team's strength begun to overwhelm the two.

When Lucio was wounded to the point where he could no longer fight, Valencina ordered him to continue attacking. The Sinners, recognizing that the youth needed urgent treatment, attempted to convince him to surrender rather than risk his life for someone who didn't value him. Despite this, Lucio continued onward, following Valencina's orders to attack Gregor, who had been growing unstable at the use of familiar phrases he'd once heard from his mother. After Lucio managed to land a hit on Gregor, the Sinner again warned him to back down, but Lucio marched ahead, and was run through by the surprise mutation of Gregor's bio-prosthetic arm, which ripped Lucio's heart out of his chest and killed him instantly.

References Canto 9-42 - Lucio: "My master was generous enough to take me, a vagrant with nothing to my name, under her wing. She fed me warm food and put a roof over my head. I would've ended up in a corpse pile somewhere in the Backstreets without her help."

The Thumb Apprentice - Lucio's Passive flavor text: "Once again, the same contemplation comes to seize Lucio as he looms over his master, who lies fast asleep. But this impulse remains an unactioned thought, for he had both fear born from experience and gratitude for his deliverance from the Backstreets. (...) 'Once this battle is behind us, I will kill her. I will gouge out her other eye and stab and slash at her, again and again, until she no longer moves.'"