Protect Them

Mark and Lily flew down from the sky and looked at the twins who were standing on the ground below them. They could see that Aiden has a surprised face, while Isaac just stood there motionless with his eyes looking at them and his face seemed to be trying hard to contain something from coming out, it looks like he's on the verge of tears.

After Mark and Lily landed on the ground, they canceled out the spell they had conjured earlier and the ice-fire construct disappeared just like that.

"Surprise boys! Happy seventh birthday Isaac, Aiden!" Mark is the first one to congratulate them.

Lily also wanted to congratulate them, but she noticed Isaac's face is different than usual, and it looks like he's about to cry.

"What's wrong boys? You don't like our surprise?" Lily asked them softly. She doesn't understand what just happened, she wanted to give the twins a surprise since they had never celebrated the twins' birthday like this. But it seems that Isaac had different reactions than what she expected.

She was about to say something to ask why her son is like that, but suddenly, without saying anything, Isaac ran at Lily and Mark and hugged them both while bawling his eyes out.

Mark is so shocked that he doesn't know what to do, Lily is the first one to hug Isaac back without saying anything, and Mark soon follows her. The whole time when Isaac is crying, Lily gently patted Isaac's back to calm him down. And after crying for a few minutes, Isaac finally calmed down, and with his voice is still croaked from the crying while still hugging his parents, he said,

"Mom, Dad, please promise me. Don't ever again leave me like that without saying anything."

"Yes, Isaac, We promise."

After that, Isaac finally releases his hug and goes back to where Aiden is and Aiden is the first one to speak and break the awkward silence between them.

"So what's the occasion for this year's birthday mom, dad?" Aiden asked.

"Since we've only used to celebrate your birthday by eating a delicious meal, we thought that this year, on your seventh birthday, we should do something different. So I came up with the idea to make a surprise for you guys." Mark said.

Mark really had no slightest idea that his son, Isaac. Who is mature in his speech and act, often used difficult words to explain something, having a brilliant mind to come up with new spells and strategies to deal with problems, and he is even alright with killing The Hyenas who intruded on their house, would cry when he was left alone by him and Lily. Isaac crying his eyes out is never on his mind when he thought up the idea of surprising the twins.

After hearing Mark's answer, Aiden walked up to Mark and Lily then whispered, "Don't worry about Isaac, mom, dad, he is only shocked about your surprise, which means your surprise plan succeeded. He will come back to his usual self in no time."

Angra also didn't expect that their parents in this will have an idea to do a surprise like this, which is really bad for Faust' circumstances when both of his parents back on earth were killed in the Void incident when he was not with them because of his own personal selfish reasons. Which makes him constantly blaming himself for their deaths. And now that he has new parents that also loved him so much and cared for him the same as his old parents did, losing them for a second time is not acceptable for him. He will do everything in his power to erase any minor or slight problems that can threaten his family.

But one day, when Faust opened his eyes and realized that the family that he cherished so much and he wanted to protect with everything that he got suddenly disappeared without a word, he was taken into a state of panic and chaos in his mind. Thus resulting in his breakdown when he finally realized that his parents did not really disappear.

'Faust are you good?'

'Yes, I'm better now. Thank you for calming mom and dad, Gra.'

'No problem Faust, they must have been shocked seeing your reaction.'

'I'm also sorry for being rash and lashed out at you, Gra. I didn't mean to do that, I was just panicking and I couldn't think straight at that moment.'

'Faust, We've been living together inside one body for about ten years and I literally was inside your head for that ten years, the last person you have to worry about misunderstanding you is me. Let alone in this world, I will be the person who will understand you the most after yourself.'

'Thank you, Gra… Can I hug you?'

'No.'

'Please…?'

'No.'

'Even if I cry again right now?'

'Yep, still no.'

In the middle of Faust teasing Angra, Mark opened his mouth and said, "Anybody hungry here? Mom already cooked your favorite dishes and baked your favorite cake."

"Please. I'm very hungry from all the activity earlier." Isaac said.

"He means from all that crying earlier," Aiden added.

Isaac then stared daggers at Aiden from his retort, but before they went on another argument. Starting from Isaac they laughed and put their arms on each other's shoulder before saying,

"Let's go eat!"

The four of them walked into the forest and after about two minutes, they arrived at a small clearing in the forest. There are already chairs and tables made out of earth magic set up in the middle of the area. The earth making the tables and the chairs are smooth and with 4 chairs set up in the top, bottom, left, and right side of the round table. The chair is shaped like a cut log and about half as tall as the table.

On top of the table, there are already plates, cutlery, and of course their favorite pork stew, venison steaks, mashed potatoes, and gravy for the main dish. While apple pie and fruit cake are served for desserts. Mark bought a bottle of wine from the village for him and Lily to drink, while Lily prepared orange juice for the kids to drink.

The family ate and drink while happily chatting and joking with each other, even though Aiden doesn't talk too much, he still joins in the conversation and laughed at times when either Isaac or Mark said a funny joke about how stupid they are sometimes.

After they finished eating, Mark then walked up to a huge tree nearby and went behind the tree. Mark then came back with three things in his hands, a halberd, a chestplate, and a book.

"What are those dad?" Isaac asked.

"These are birthday presents for you two."

Mark then walked up to Aiden and gave him the halberd. The halberd is about a head taller than Aiden. Aiden grabbed the halberd and observed the halberd's unique design. The halberd's head had a white like bone color. The spike part of the halberd is about 20cm long, the axe part is crescent shaped, and there is also a curved blade at the back of the blade part that is used like a hook. The handle is made out of a type of wood that Aiden didn't know, but even though the halberd looked heavy, it is quite light that he could even swing it around fine without using any fusion.

"Do you like it Aiden? Since your last halberd you got from the zombie crew broke, I thought of making a new one for you"

"Yes dad, it's quite light for me so it's easy to handle and the height is also perfect for me right now."

"Why don't you go and try to give it a swing and cut the tree over there." Mark said as he pointed at a quite distant tree from them.

Aiden walked up to the tree, the diameter of the tree's trunk is about as twice as long as his elbow. Aiden can of course cut through this tree trunk if he used fire fusion and the hand blade, but he is curious about the halberd's quality so he used no fusion at all and only relied on his six years old half-demon body and his unordinary strength skill and swung his halberd.

The white bone-like halberd head, more specifically the axe part, easily passed through the thick tree trunk and offered little to no resistance to Aiden's hands. Aiden then pushed the tree away to guide the direction of the falling trunk so it wouldn't be in his direction. Aiden then looked at the halberd in his hand and could see no damage at all at the head part of the halberd.

"Amazing isn't it? I made it from reshaping the white lion's claw that you guys fought at that time, and I went deeper into the forest to search for a tree that can even handle an impact from a third rank magic beast and make it into the handle. It is made out of quality materials so of course it will be strong and light."

"Thank you dad!" Aiden said while still swinging around his new halberd, making thrusting and slashing movements with it.

"And now, this chestplate is for you Isaac."

Mark then gave the green-colored chestplate to Isaac. The chest plate is the type that only covers Isaac's front and back part with the sides hollow so it is easy to wear.

"I'm not quite sure what to give for your birthday present, but after thinking about it for a while, giving you more armor for protection is necessary since you don't use fusion when fighting which you should have used, the chestplate will give you more protection to your body. It is made from rank 3 magic turtle shells which has the best defense among rank 3 magic beasts and it can even hold out for a while against rank 4 magic beasts. So if you ever got hit by a white lion again, you won't be out in just 1 hit to your chest. But a hit to your head will surely be fatal though, so make sure you learn your fusion skill too."

"Yes, I understand, thank you dad!"

Mark then nodded in response to Isaac's thanks. After that, he put out his hand with the book and gave it to Isaac.

"And this is the last gift that myself and Lily made for you guys."

Isaac then looked at the title of the book, it said "Magic Beasts Encyclopedia For The Twins". Isaac looked at the inside of the book and there are the general description and rank of magic beasts that exist in the forest. Like how big a rank 1 magic boar should be, their fur color, and the usual ability that they use when fighting.

"We decided to make this so that the white lion incident won't ever happen again to you guys, at least it minimizes the chance it will happen. I tried to write down as many as I remembered, but there are a lot of magic beasts and I can't remember them all. You two can add more magic beast to the book when you find one that isn't already in the book. I intentionally left blank pages for the book for you guys to add your own findings."

"Thank you mom, thank you dad, I will bring it tomorrow when going on the expedition."

"Yes, you should. That is the reason why me and Lily finish this book as soon as we can."

After the present giving session, the sun is already quite high up in the sky, but the sunlight is still warm and gentle. Before the sun got even hotter, they decided to wrap things up and came back to the house.

The day then went as usual with Mark and the twins hunted a few rank 1 magic beasts and sold them to the village. Then Mark told the kids to rest up early since they will set out early the next morning on their expedition.

Later at night, before they went to bed, Lily accompany them to bed and said to them, "I'm sorry that we make you upset today Isaac, but you two need to remember, no matter what have happened or what will happen, we will always, always love and care about you guys, no matter the circumstances, okay?"

"Yes mom, I love you too!" Faust replied

"Yes mom, thank you." Angra said.

Faust and Angra are on their beds ready to sleep, while Angra finds it easy to sleep. Faust is currently thinking about today's event, how he reacted over the top when their parents suddenly disappeared, how he lashed at Angra when Angra tried to calm him down and think straight. He thought that he was the one who should be the calm one and handle any problems with calmness, but today's incident proved him otherwise and he felt bad about it.

"Gra are you still up?"

"Yes, what's wrong?"

"Gra, no matter what happens, I will try my best to protect this family in this life. Including you Gra."

"I can protect myself, but thank you. And don't worry I will also help you protect them."

"Thank you, Gra."

Angra then waved his hand to end the conversation and go straight back to sleep. Faust followed soon to prepare for their big day tomorrow.