12 The Abomination

"Sir! Look! The north star is shining purple tonight!", a servant went to his knees and congratulated his master.

"Indeed, my son will be a great man.", his face dignified, his brows standing proudly towards the stars.

Sudden cries began filling the hallway they stood within, these cries came from the room in front of them.

"Madam has given birth!"

A once in a lifetime smile sat on the fathers face as he opened the doors wide and made his way into the room.

But the scene of his wife smiling was nowhere to be found.

"Husband-!", a mixture of horror and relief filled her face.

"What is that...?"

In the middle of the air, a baby floated.

Shhh...

Grey mist, as if infested by a mixture of all diseases, floated out of this baby. It swirled and twisted out of its grey eyeballs, even its skin was a mixture of grey and white.

"Is this my child?"

His eyes moved to the nurse.

"Urgh!", his hand covered his mouth in disgust.

All of her limbs lay separated, only a pool of blood connected them to her torso.

"L-Lo-r...", a thick black liquid began pouring out of her mouth.

Splat.

Her head split apart, her brain matter turning into an unusual grey liquid, archaic symbols floated out from within this liquid.

Swoosh!

The event wasn't over yet.

This unusual brain matter liquid started shifting and condensing into a small dark pill.

The Lord didn't hesitate for a moment, he could already tell that something had gone horribly wrong, picking up his wife from the bed he dashed straight out of the room.

Bang!

Wood scattered across the floor, the wind from his movements drifting them further than usual. Wall after wall he broke through until he finally escaped the mansion.

"Hooo...", he took a deep breath.

And imbued Mana into his voice.

"ESCAPE THE MANOR!"

He didn't spare the servants or any of his children another thought and continued running as fast as he could.

He was no God to save them all.

"Husband! What happened to our son!", her voice was muffled beneath the wind.

"That thing isn't our son.", his voice quivered as he spoke, his expression dark.

Since the creation of their family, from his greatest ancestors till now, the same prophecy had been passed on through the Lords of the family.

'From within the light, an abomination shall be created.'

He continued speaking.

"That thing is an abomination.", behind him the darkness of night grew eerily quiet.

Within the room.

The small dark pill began to float towards the baby's mouth, within a second it swallowed it whole. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the murky grey mist floating around the baby instantly expanded.

Like a black hole, it instantly disintegrated the room the baby was in, and the expansion wasn't stopping. The mist expanded through the mansion inch by inch, devouring every human, insect, animal, and furniture.

From within this darkness, a lonely cry wept.

"HUSBAND!", she had yet to recover from giving birth but the adrenaline hid the pain away.

"I KNOW!!!"

He grit his teeth, the Mana within him evaporated at a deadly rate.

BOOM!!!

The air around them blew apart.

"ARGHHHH!!!!!", his skin began to split, the air slicing through his skin like searing hot daggers.

'FASTER!'

He sensed his consciousness growing weaker by the second, looking down at his wife he found her unconscious.

"AHH---!!!!"

Not for one moment did he stop clinging onto the chance that they could survive. After a short minute of flying across the sky, he could no longer hold onto his consciousness.

'Shit...', he began to waver and sway in the skies.

'Please be safe...'

Bang!

His body smashed onto the ground, rolling over and crashing into multiple trees, his blood spilling through the air.

5 minutes later...

"Ugh..."

As he opened his eyes back up he could sense that none of his limbs was functional except his left arm.

"Maria...", checking her pulse he discovered a faint response.

"Phew..."

Boom...

Terror instantly returned to his heart.

Enduring all of the pain, he finally managed to turn his head around, "Why is it still coming-!"

The grey mist was still carving a path of devastation towards them.

'I have to get Maria further away.'

Perhaps other people would be devastated by now and would simply accept death.

But he wouldn't!

Turning his head back, he grabbed onto her with his left hand and used all the energy left within him to push her away, "You have to live."

Slash!

Biting into his tongue, he raised his body with his left hand and mustered any strength he could to drag his body to her.

"You must-"

And he pushed her again.

"Live!"

The sound of devastation was extremely close now, it would most likely swallow them up at any moment.

His left hand grabbed onto her right hand.

"Maria, I love y-"

But only one loving hand continued to grasp at his wife.

The destruction ended with the massacre of all the family members except the mother.

Dust and bleak misery remained behind in place of the mansion and the miles of land surrounding it.

-----

At the centre of all this destruction, a perfectly normal naked baby continued to cry in fear.

Step... Step... Step...

The silhouette of what seemed to be an old man stopped before the baby.

"From now on, you shall be called Luke."

-----

Bang!

Dirt drenched his clothing as he rolled forward.

"Rat!", the Undead Knight's sword cut through the earth, splitting the ground a dozen meters across and a meter deep.

Ariel instantly pushed himself up with his right arm, attempting to steady his body.

Crack-

"Damn."

The Knight's attack ruined the stability of the cliff they stood upon, breaking the ground beneath Ariel's feet.

He began tumbling down the hill, rocks and branches cutting deep into his flesh, his face covered in scratches and blood.

'I've lost too much blood the past few days, I'm losing consciousness.'

His eyes grew weary and his body almost as pale as a sheet of paper.

"HAH!"

The Mana within his body split him from the inside out as he forced it to function. He didn't want to use his Mana for a good reason, it was unstable and could completely ruin his Mana Veins and Mana Core from how much he'd overworked his body.

'But surviving is more important.'

Tolerating the severe pain passing through his body, his Mana condensed at his legs and arm.

The surrounding terrain rapidly passed by as he attempted to latch on to any protruding rock or branch.

Slam-

It felt like he dropped onto a slab of concrete from a very tall height, his blood and bones quaking.

"I finally stopped the rolling."

Boom- Boom- Boom-

A heavy set of footsteps rapidly approached him.

The dark mist was here again.

"Rat!"

Ariel instinctively pushed himself down the steep hill.

BOOM-!

A powerful shockwave blasted his face, sending him rapidly down the hill, the Knight's sword missed his body by millimetres.

Another deep slash was carved into the ground, its plain-looking long sword had yet to draw blood.

The Undead Knight boosted off the ground towards Ariel without wasting time.

Beneath the Undead Knight and Ariel, the young boy going by the name Luke stood his ground against many Undead warriors and Squires.

Even with a deep gash cut across his chest, the innocent smile on his face never left.

"Haha! You baddies will all die today!", even as he spoke his movements didn't stop.

His fists dug deep into the Undead soldiers, either splitting them apart with brute force or cutting their heads off cleanly.

Luke's small body used the Undead as living platforms to support his movement, the moment he ended one he used its body to dash to the next.

"Die!"

The smile on his face grew more jovial with each kill.

"Die!"

Rotten Undead blood stained his oversized hoody, its original colour nowhere to be found.

A barrage of rocks suddenly came down on them, the Undead had their heads split apart from the impact.

"Huh?", he stopped his movements and looked up.

"An even bigger baddie is attacking an uncle? Is that who the lady shouted at?"

His blood-stained hands clenched into two puffballs by his side, "I will save uncle.", puffing his face up he dashed towards the hill and boosted his body upwards.

Grey mist began seeping through his hands.

This grey mist began to take an unusual form within his hands, a spear that was double his body size with mystical black patterns running across a grey shaft took shape within his hands.

Weirdly enough, only the first half of the spearhead was formed.

"Uncle! Get down!"

A piercing white light outshone the sun.

Zing---!!!

A spearhead forged of white flames cut past the falling debris, aiming at the Undead Knight.

Sheewww!

Ariel lowered his head at the last second, his hair singed from the flames.

BANG!

The Undead Knight's sword and Luke's spear clashed mid-air.

A war of white flames and dark mist erupted.

The clash blasted everything in their surroundings away, even Ariel.

His consciousness disappeared.