Want the next chapters right now? Read ahead on Patreon:
patreon.com/Shadownarch_
February's La Liga schedule arrived like a conveyor belt — three matches in sixteen days, each one producing the same result with minor variations in the margin of destruction.
MD21 — Barcelona 5–0 Valladolid. Camp Nou, February 7th.
Martino rotated the midfield — Sergi Roberto started alongside Busquets and Iniesta, with Xavi rested. It made no difference to the outcome. The LMN trio dismantled Valladolid's defence before the half-hour mark. Sergi Roberto delivered three assists in thirty minutes, each one demonstrating why Martino trusted him in the rotation. Lorenzo scored twice in the first half and completed his hat-trick with a towering header from a corner in the 85th minute. Messi and Neymar added one each.
Camp Nou applauded without surprise. This was what home matches had become.
MD22 — Sevilla 1–3 Barcelona. Pizjuán Stadium, February 11th.
Sevilla were the sternest test of the month — Europa League royalty, third in the table behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, the only team outside the top two capable of competing with Atlético. Emery set them up to press and for twenty minutes it worked. Then Busquets's long shot from outside the area struck the post, Fazio's clearing error fell to Messi, and the opening had arrived. Messi finished from a tight angle. 1-0.
In the 42nd minute, Lorenzo intercepted a Rakitic pass in midfield, drove past M'Bia and Fazio in succession, and placed the ball past the goalkeeper. 2-0.
In the second half, Messi's cross found Lorenzo at the far post. A push-finish, gentle, the ball rolling into the net as if it had been invited. 3-0.
Sevilla scored a late consolation through Gameiro. 3-1
Lorenzo had now scored in twenty-one consecutive La Liga matches — equalling Messi's record from two seasons ago.
Inés, from the booth: "Twenty-one consecutive scoring matches. He has equalled the record in twenty-one appearances. The distinction is worth noting — Messi required more than thirty appearances across a full season. Lorenzo has done it in twenty-one out of twenty-two rounds, having missed only the first matchday."
MD23 — Getafe 0–7 Barcelona. Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, February 18th.
This one was over in twenty minutes.
Lorenzo scored in the 6th minute — a run from the halfway line that bypassed two challenges and finished with a low drive past the goalkeeper. He scored in the 14th minute — a one-two with Messi on the edge of the area, the return ball arriving at his feet as though it had been scheduled. He scored in the 19th minute — a header from an Iniesta corner that he met at the near post with a violence that made the net billow sideways.
Three goals. Twenty minutes. The Getafe supporters in the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez began leaving before the water break.
Luis García, the Getafe manager, was photographed kneeling on the touchline with his head in his hands. His assistant stood beside him with the expression of a man attending a funeral that has not yet officially started. "When we faced Barça in the first half of the season, we conceded four across the entire match," the assistant said. "After half a season, their centre forward has become even more uncontainable."
Lorenzo assisted Messi before halftime and Neymar after the interval. He headed in a fourth from a set piece in the closing minutes. Sergi Roberto completed the scoring from an Iniesta through-ball.
7-0.
After the match, Luis García stood at his press conference and said: "I will resign at the end of the season. Not because of tonight. But tonight confirmed what I already knew."
Lorenzo had scored in twenty-two consecutive La Liga matches — a new record, surpassing Messi's twenty-one.
And his La Liga goal tally for the season had reached 50.
The number sat in every headline, every broadcast, every conversation in Spanish football. Fifty La Liga goals in twenty-three matches. Messi had scored fifty in the 2011-12 season across a full thirty-eight-match campaign. Lorenzo had reached the same total with fifteen rounds still to play.
They were tied. One more goal would break it.
Matchday 24: Barcelona vs Espanyol.
Camp Nou — February 23rd.
The Catalan Derby always brings a distinct brand of chaos, but tonight, the cold February air under the Camp Nou floodlights carried a completely different kind of tension. It was that rare, electric atmosphere that blankets a stadium when a historic milestone is close enough to touch — the collective understanding among ninety-five thousand fans that the next ninety minutes wouldn't be remembered for the final score, but for the exact second history was rewritten.
Every single seat was packed. Up in the far corner, three thousand traveling Espanyol supporters huddled together, desperately trying to make themselves heard over the deafening wall of sound. Down on the pitch, their manager, Javier Aguirre, stood with his arms crossed, leaning on a hyper-defensive, suffocating tactical blueprint he had spent the last three weeks perfecting. The Derby Barceloní carried well over a century of bitter, local friction — the stubborn underdogs clawing at the throat of the massive footballing institution, a fixture that traditionally yielded far more yellow cards and bruised shins than beautiful goals.
But as much as the local rivalry mattered, the derby felt entirely secondary to the record. Every television camera, every journalist in the press box, and every neutral viewer watching across Spain had tuned in for the exact same script: to see Lorenzo find the back of the net just one more time.
Down in the lower tier, right at the front row, Cecilia pulled her jacket a little tighter against the chill. Her father hadn't made the trip from Madrid this time, muttering some vague excuse about urgent municipal duties back home. Cecilia knew better; she knew he just couldn't stomach sitting through another match watching Lorenzo score against yet another team he had soft spot for.
Lucia was in the stadium, too. She had bought her own ticket, slipped through the turnstiles completely alone, and sat deep in a neutral section, fully intending to disappear the second the final whistle blew. She had spent the entire train ride trying to convince herself that she was just here for the pure footballing spectacle of a fierce local derby. But sitting there in the stands, surrounded by a sea of strangers, she couldn't outrun the truth anymore. She was here for him. She was here because, despite how complicated and terrifying everything between them had become, she couldn't bear the thought of not being in the building when he made history.
Down in the tunnel, the air was thick with the scent of deep heat and winter sweat. Lorenzo gave the collar of his shirt a final tug, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet as he lined up behind Xavi. The moment they stepped out from the concrete darkness and into the open air, the Camp Nou completely erupted. It wasn't just a loud cheer — it was that deep, trembling roar a home crowd only makes when they know they are about to witness something they'll be talking about for the rest of their lives.
[System Note: One goal to break the all-time La Liga single-season record.]
Don't forget to drop those Power Stones on your way out!