Dark Past

"Leave? I'm afraid you'll never leave again. But before I capture you, who are those two?" She asked, her eyes staring daggers at Rinka and Tinka, causing cold-chills to travel down their spines.

"That's none of your business." Minos said, taking a step back as he did so.

"You don't need to answer, after all, I'm not stupid. This must be your wife and daughter. To think you'd go and make a family when you already have a perfect one right here." Lilia said, stepping closer towards them.

"Little Minos may be a perfect son, but you, there's something deeply wrong with you."

"That's right, I nearly forgot you and my son already have quite the close relationship, it's no wonder you just 'knocked' him out, instead of killing him."

"And Little Minos, you must have known for a long time, but you never told me, why? I thought you loved your mother." Lilia said, turning her attention back towards her son.

"I do love you mother, but your relationship with father, it's wrong!" Little Minos said.

"Wrong?! How dare you!" Lilia said, slapping her son fiercely across the face.

Clutching his burning cheek with shock and horror, little Minos couldn't help but look at his mother, though not with anger, but rather confusion, having never been hit by her before.

Realizing what she had just done, Lilia couldn't help but look at her own hands with fear, before quickly hugging her son tightly and crying heavily.

"Look what you've done, you're tearing us apart, you and your bastard family!" Lilia shouted in anger, turning back towards Minos.

This time rather than walking slowly, she broke out into a burst, arriving in front of Minos in a blink of an eye.

Tossing his family aside, Minos raised his arms in a cross, blocking Lilia's heavy punch at the very last second.

As the force traveled through his body, Minos's feet skidded across the dirt floor, tossing up a cloud of dust as he left behind two deep trenches in the earth.

Looking at his arms that were red and sore, Minos immediately realized Lilia's cultivation was more advanced than his, but without the option to back out, he could only fight, knowing his family's life was on the line.

Taking a deep breath, Minos steadied himself as Lilia struck once more, but this time, with his Omniscient Eyes, he quickly evaded the blow.

As he evaded, he twisted his body, sending a powerful hook directly into Lilia's liver, but rather than punching flesh, it was more akin to punching still.

'Armor…' Minos thought, realizing Lilia wasn't as unprepared as she seemed.

With her under-armor protecting her from any damage, she ignored the blow, directly tossing another punch towards Minos.

Ducking down, Minos barely avoided another hit, but this time Lilia sweeped low, forcing Minos to do a back handspring, just barely avoiding her steel-like feet.

"You're stronger than expected. Seems like I'll have to use a little force if I want to take you down." Lilia said, summoning a mist of Nux around her fists that quickly gathered into two solid gauntlets.

With an explosion of dirt and dust, Lilia rocketed towards Minos, her raised fist slamming directly towards him.

Knowing this wasn't a move he could block, Minos jumped off towards the side, ducking into a role as Lilia's Nux gauntlet slammed into the tree behind him.

With a loud bang, the entire tree exploded into thousands of little pieces, the wood-chips akin to little daggers as they flew off in all directions.

Quickly jumping in front of her daughter, Tinka used her body to shield Rinka from the shrapnel, her back left cut up and lacerated from the effects.

"Mom!" Rinka cried out.

"Don't worry, it's just a little cut." Tinka smiled, immediately putting her focus back on her husband's battle.

Seeing his wife bleeding so heavily, Minos couldn't help but grit his teeth in anger, his entire mindset changing as he realized he had been too naive.

Originally he wanted to just tide off Lilia defensively, hoping that he could deal with her without hurting her, but it was clear the nicer he was to her, the more danger his family was in.

With a shift in stance, Minos raised his originally lowered hands, his fists quickly covered with Nux, forming a pair of gauntlets similar to Lilia's.

"Oh? Finally willing to fight, are you!?" Lilia shouted, a fierce grin on her face as she launched into another attack.

"Akin to a rabid dog, it seems like it's become my duty to put you down." Minos said, parrying her punch with a flick of his wrist.

"Rabid dog? Is that how you talk to your wife? The mother of your son?" Lilia growled in rage, throwing another punch.

"You're not my wife, and you never will be. How loud do I have to yell to get that concept through your thick skull?!" Minos shouted, returning the punch.

As their fists collided, the entire forest seemed to be temporarily blinded by a bright flash, the light soon dissipating to reveal a large crater, Minos and Lilia standing on both ends, their cloth torn up from the collision.

Spitting out a glob of blood, Minos raised his head, looking directly towards Lilia who seemed unharmed other than her slightly ruffled cloth.

While Minos was also wearing armor, his strength was slightly behind her's, so he ended up absorbing most of the damage, but Lilia clearly wasn't completely fine either.

Wiping her nose with her sleeve, Minos could see the long line of blood that was left behind, staining her white dress red.

"We don't need to fight, just let me leave and we'll pretend this never happened." Minos said, his breath calm and steady.

"Never happened? You just want me to forget the love that we shared, the father of my child, my first and only love? You want me to forget all that?" Lilia said, her eyes tearing.

With his Heart Path, Minos could fully feel and understand the anguish and pain Lilia was feeling, her emotions so strong that he started to feel a strange pull from them.

Before he could fully understand what was happening, he felt a strong suctioning force against his soul, his entire vision suddenly collapsing inwards as his soul was pulled into Lilia's aura.

…

Opening his eyes, Minos suddenly found himself in an entirely different environment, his heart filled with shock at the sudden twist of events.

However after a little thinking, he realized something like this had happened to him before, during the time his Heart Path had undergone its first evolution.

Back then he had traveled into his own emotions, but this time he had instead traveled into Lilia's, which caught him completely off-guard.

Considering that had only happened to him once, he initially thought it was just some sort of one time ability, but it seemed he had thought wrong, and his understanding of the Heart Path was still lacking tremendously.

Realizing now wasn't the time to question the true extent of his abilities, Minos instead raised his head, looking around at the grand chamber he had found himself in.

Despite having never entered the place before, Minos knew instinctively that this must be the Royal Palace.

Lowering his head, he looked down towards his small frail hands that were as white as snow, the strange sensation of inhabiting a body that was completely foreign to him a bit overwhelming at first.

Twisting his head to the side, Minos saw a large mirror, one that reflected the face of a beautiful young girl with skin like porcelain.

Knowing this must be a young Lilia, Minos looked on with interest, wondering what turned a seemingly innocent young girl into such a monster, one that seemed to understand nothing of empathy.

As if wanting to answer his question, Lilia's body began moving against his will, walking forward through the long hall before finally arriving at a large set of doors.

"Father, you called me." Lilia said, as she knocked at the door a few times.

Despite inhabiting the body, Minos didn't actually have any control, only able to look around slightly at the most.

"Come in." A grand voice said, causing Lilia to stand up on her tippy-toes in order to twist the door handle open.

Walking inside, Lilia saw her father with a large smile on his face, her mind originally not thinking much.

"Come sit next to me." Loyfin said, patting the spot on the bed next to him.

Despite him being her father, Lilia actually didn't have much contact with Loyfin, and the absence of any servants made her uncomfortable.

"Where are the maids? And why didn't you let me bring mine?" Lilia asked, still not taking any steps towards her father.

"I dismissed them, after all I've got to tell you a secret." Loyfin smiled harmlessly, still patting the spot next to him.

"A secret?" Lilia asked curiously, her naive eyes shining brightly as she finally sat next to her father.

With her next to him, Loyfin suddenly stretched his large hands out, rubbing Lilia's leg up and down, causing her to squirm in discomfort.

"Father, I don't like that, please stop…" Lilia begged, trying to escape her dad's vice-like grip.

"Remember Lilia, we are royals, we never ask whether people like what we do or not, instead, we just take it by force, this is the ultimate privilege we've been blessed with. Never forget that." Loyfin smiled, though his face at that moment most was the most demonic thing Lilia had ever witnessed.