134 The Memories of a Fall [C134]
9 years earlier, when Aura Azusa was only 6 years old.
"Mom… what will we eat today?" A cute little girl asked, looking with her innocent eyes toward her mother.
She and her mother were holding hands, walking in a street filled with people. Everyone around them was laughing, chatting together and smiling happily.
Around them were many stalls, selling various foods. Many lights were shining on top of the stalls, illuminating everything in shades of red, as the time passed.
The atmosphere in the place was lively, as it was the day of the festival.
The mother, hearing her question laughingly said, "Your father today found something good, so it will be a surprise~" As if she were singing, her voice sounded cheerful and serene, bringing peace to the heart of the little girl.
Smiling sweetly, the little girl looked toward the blue sky, wondering how the elders created it. She was always told that until she reached the Dantian Core Formation realm, she must never go under the real sunlight, as it would consume her whole.
Holding hands, they walked until they arrived their own home, where the figure of a man smiled brightly seeing them, "Hello... you are back."
The mother upon sight of the man smiled, he was the father of the little girl.
Walking closer to the little girl, the father lowered himself, and stroked her head, "Have you bought everything, Azusa?"
"Hmm!" Nodding happily, the little girl showed at the man a small open basket, filled with food, ready to be cooked. Smiling, she pointed at each one, "Carrots, beef, eggs, onions, garlic, salt, tomatoes, and potatoes!" As if asking to be praised, she looked at her father with shiny eyes, expecting him to say something.
Yet… he looked away and frowned.
Puzzled over why he reacted like that, the little girl looked toward the same direction and saw that there was a man running toward them, with a desperate appearance.
"What is happening?"
Hearing the question from the little girl's father, the man simply leaned closer to his hear and whispered a phrase.
The little girl could not hear what he said, yet she noticed that her father's expression quickly became grim.
Forcing himself to calm down, he replied, "Notify them to resist, I will come immediately."
Nodding, the man ran away once again, going toward other people.
Forcing a smile, the father walked toward the little girl, and softly said, "Come with me, we will play a little game." His voice appeared tranquil, yet if one tried to concentrate more on it, one would find out that it was, in reality, an uneasy voice.
Taking her small hand, the father brought the little girl inside the home, while the mother watched worriedly, and whispered to the man asking the situation. Quickly, her face paled, and she looked worriedly toward the little girl.
After walking through numerous rooms, they reached a dark, empty room, with only a small trap-door in the center of the room.
"What are we doing here?" The little girl's trembling voice echoed… the dark room gave her a bad premonition, which she could not endure.
The father took out his sword from the storage ring and wore it on his waist using the sheath.
He then looked toward the little girl for a moment, and gave her his storage ring while saying, "Let's play a game. If you can stay in there for five hours everything in this storage ring will be yours, do you like the idea?"
Feeling a pain growing in her chest, the little girl did not want to accept and shook her head frantically, "No! It's scary here! I don't want to!" Her shrieks echoed everywhere in the room, as she continued to plead not to stay here.
Holding back from crying, her father walked closer to her, and whispered, "I'm sorry… please live a good life without us."
Before she could react, her consciousness began to vanish, as she mumbled, '"Dad… Mom..." Gradually, her sight became darker, until she could see only black and passed out.
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An unknown amount of time later.
Waking up, the little girl slowly opened her eyes, and in her view appeared a small flame burning in front of her, coming from the candle almost consumed, about to burn out.
Stunned for a moment, memories about what happened slowly emerged in her mind, as tears began to fall, "Mom… Dad… where are you?" Looking around, she could only see a dark wall, and a couple of rods in the wall, everything slightly illuminated by the small flame.
She had barely two meters to move, and in such a dark place, her emotions quickly turned into fear, and in a panic reached with her hand the ceiling, which was the trap-door, at less than a meter of height from the ground.
She was about to push it open, yet she heard some unknown voices coming from afar that made her stop immediately.
The voices came from a group of three people, yet their aspect was different from what she was used to, as all of them had white wings on their back.
"All of this was just vicious...for what reason the higher-ups ordered the annihilation of the vampires? They always remained secluded, not taking the part of neither us angels or the demons!"
"Hmph, they just feared their talent in magic! The truth is that most of us did not want to do this… but our opinion on the matter doesn't really count…"
"Indeed… if we were to disobey an order, a superior angel would kill us… we are just normal angels, how can we resist against them?"
"But still… they made us kill even the innocent kids…"
All of a sudden, a thunderous 'ding' sound from afar resounded, created from an enormous bell.
"It's the signal."
"We are going back finally?"
Hearing the signal from the bell, all the angels walked toward it, to go away from the place after having controlled everything in search of survivors.
Hearing all of their words, the little girl trembled, the annihilation of the vampires? Why?
Not daring to come out, she stood immobile for various hours, shivering, and hoping to not be found.
During these hours, she noticed the presence of three storage rings in the cellar and checked them. Inside of them, there was only food, most likely enough for months, some weapons, and numerous books about magic spells.
The fire from the candle stopped already hours before, yet only now, sure that they went away she placed her small hand on the trap-door, and pushed it slowly, opening it.
The first thing that caught her eye was a carpet, which appeared to blend perfectly with the ground, falling from on top of the trap-door.
Ignoring it, she looked again around, still unsure if there were angels… yet in front of her, the only thing that she could see were destroyed buildings.
Seeing collapsed walls everywhere, she felt her whole body freezing to the shock, yet she started running, hoping to find once again her parents.
In less than a minute running, she noticed that there were many dead bodies all around the place, emanating a nauseating stink.
Smelling the nauseating stink she almost puked, barely resisting due to her fear of having lost her parents, and continued to run around, trying to search for her family.
Suddenly, she saw not too far from her a dead body of a woman, almost submerged in a pool of blood. The face of the woman was facing the ground, so she could only see her hair… yet she felt that body to be familiar, and having a bad feeling she walked toward it.
Walking slowly up to her, she turned her around by pushing her, however... seeing the face of the dead body, the little girl's expression quickly grew in desperation, "Mo..m?"
