In Search Of Truth
"My father was a normal human however my mother was an angel." "Yeah… Mine was too. Everybody's mother is like an angel for them.", Ace replies to Luxman's statement. "No, I am not talking about her qualities. She was literally an angel belonging to the angel race." "Ohh! Ok, My bad…" "But doesn't it make you a mix of an angel and a human? If that's the case, why don't you have wings?" Amon wonders.
"Yes, I am an angelic human, yet neither physically nor in terms of my abilities do I possess many characteristics of an angel. In fact, I was always ashamed of it and as a young child would frequently attempt to fly by jumping off of small cliffs. Nevertheless, as you can see, it didn't make any difference. My parents would always make an effort to uplift me and advise me to be patient. I had a short temper and would often fight with them thinking I was the only one suffering."
Ace interrupts Luxman with a drooling mouth, "So, you are in search of the wrath sword to awaken your wings or something like that?" while his eyes follow a fruit vendor. "Just a minute, ok?", Ace purchases a dozen of bananas from the vendor and comes back swiftly, and asks Luxman to continue, with a whole peeled banana in his mouth.
"Hey! I thought you were flat-broke. Don't tell me you…", Amon interrupts Luxman again as he is about to continue his story. Amon checks his pocket and finds his pocket empty. "Why you… You took and wasted my money without permission, didn't you?", Amon shouts at Ace in anger.
"Bafted? I fif not bafte it… I waf dust hunjry… ("Wasted? I did not waste it… I was just hungry")" Ace says with a stuffed face. Amon sighs, "Leave it, what's done is done, at least give me a banana." Ace hides all the bananas behind him and responds, "No, they are all mine." "You greedy little…", Amon says and tries to snatch a banana from Ace. A scuffle between the two of them soon breaks out.
Luxman sighs and murmurs to himself, "Why am I wasting my time talking to these morons." "WOULD YOU GUYS STOP NOW!?" Luxman shouts with frustration. Ace and Amon halt abruptly, remain still, and continue to look at Luxman while Amon has his foot on Ace's face, his hair clenched in Ace's arm, a peeled banana in his mouth, and a banana peel in Ace's mouth. They both quickly get to their feet and clean their garments with their hands. "Sorry, sorry, you can continue for real now", Ace says to Luxman as he gulps down the last banana.
"Ok, so where was I?" "Same place you are right now at…" "Shut up! Ok, so I was telling you how my parents were from different races, however, miscegenation is not allowed in the angel race so we had to live in a solitary house outside the reach of any angel or human. The only ones who knew about our location were two of my dad's childhood friends whom my dad believed would never sell us out but unfortunately, reality is not always what you expect it to be. One day, after my regular routine of climbing and leaping down my favourite 50-meter-long cliff, I returned home."
"Man... You were crazy!" Amon cuts Luxman off again, and also adds, "I don't think just any child can jump from a 50-meter-long cliff and survive to tell about it." "Oh, it's not common? But I would do it frequently," Ace replies, seeming perplexed. "Did I not say 'a normal child'?", Amon asks. Ace adds, "Oh just ignore us, you can continue," as he notices Luxman's agitated and dissatisfied expression following their brief conversation.
Luxman sighs and continues, "Yeah… So, in short, my father's friends sold us out.", Luxman takes a brief pause and adds, "Ok, let me reframe it… My father's friends were blackmailed to sell us out. Some angels belonging to my mother's family or to be more specific, my two uncles took their families as hostages and they were forced to bring those two to our house. My father was very happy to see his friends' faces after a long time however, soon his excitement turned into despair when he saw two angels standing behind them. He instantly closed the door and rushed into the bedroom to warn my mother but before he could take even a single step, our house turned to rubble and one of the angels held my father in his hand with his neck.
"You insolent little creature, tell me what spell did you use on my big sister to brainwash her and force her to marry a worm like you?", he said. My father, unable to breathe was rescued by my mother as she pushed her little brother away. "What are you doing here, Michael?", asked Luxman's mother with a shocked expression.
"Why did you take an unnecessary hit, Michael? Didn't I order you to wrap this up quickly? We don't have much time, Mother is expecting us in half an hour." Says the other angel standing right behind Michael. "I know big brother, but you don't expect me to fight big sis in her sorry state, do you? Look how this low life, a mere human has brainwashed our beloved sister and made her attack me, her own brother.", says Michael while looking at Luxman's father with disgust.
"Big… Brother… Uriel… Why are you…" mutters Luxman's mother with a terrified expression on her face. "Don't say another word, Raphael, if you know what's good for you and the little make-belief family of yours, just come back to heaven with us without any more resistance.", says Uriel.
It was that time when I got back. I saw our precious house turned into rubble while both of my father's friends were holding my father from running towards both the angels who were flying away with my mother who was in a flood of tears. At that moment, even though I didn't know what was going on, I jumped toward my mother with all my might hoping to reach her, however, my jump was not high enough, and as I started to fall, I experienced a weird feeling on my back. At that very moment, I had grown wings however I neither had the time nor the desire to celebrate. The only thing I cared about was to save my mother. Both the angels were surprised to see my mother had a child. One of the angels fired a gust of wind at me using his long white wings which were surprising for me as my mother's wings were crimson red just like the color of a red boar's eyelids…"
"Quite a weird comparison", Amon thinks with awkwardness. "With just a gust of wind, he rendered me useless and reminded me of how weak I was. As the other angel was about to fire an attack at me, my mother stopped him and whispered something in his ear. I don't know what did she say to him but it was enough to make the man furious and brutally kill my mother on the spot in front of her family and both of the angels left after that. My father fell on his knees and started balling his eyes out, on the other hand, I was too enraged to think straight, and to be really honest I don't remember anything that happened after that clearly, the only thing I remember is seeing both of my father's friends dead and my father lying on the ground covered with blood and wounds all over his body, taking his last breath, he told me the whole story about the invasion and then uttered his final words… I still remember the words he said clearly "My son… know that it's not your fault. If you want to save your mother and know the truth then find it, find the SWORD OF WRATH!" After that, he coughed up some blood and unfortunately passed away. Now do you understand? I killed my own father and now I have even failed in fulfilling his last wish by losing to the wrath wielder. You too must be disgusted by me, right? Disgusted of the sin that I committed?", asks Luxman with tears in his eyes.
"No!" says Ace with a loud and confident voice. Luxman was surprised to hear Ace's response. Ace further adds, "To be honest, I was sleeping half of the time when you were telling your story but if you think you are the one who killed your father then you are wrong and I am gonna prove it to you. Now join my group and work towards your dream. You did say that you would do whatever I say if I won our duel, right?", Says Ace with a big genuine smile. "You… You… You…are so dumb, you know that.", says Luxman with a serious face. "And that is why I like you… Consider me your group member from now on." Luxman says and then both of them start laughing non-stop.
About ten minutes later, Amon gets impatient and interrupts them, "I don't wanna ruin your fun or anything, but let me remind you, we guys are flat broke right now and I, for one, definitely don't have any way to make easy money." "Oh right! I want everything, but I can't have anything without money, which is a problem. Do we need to develop a business plan? What if we sold premium air? Or perhaps Pet Rocks? Not bad at all, huh? A lottery doesn't sound bad either, no fun in avoiding risks, right?"
"Oh, I have an idea, You guys just follow me, I have a place where we can make ourselves some quick cash, and how about you guys answer some of my questions on our way there?", says Luxman. "Sure, I don't mind following you to any place until and unless that place can satisfy my greed.", says Ace. Amon also agrees and finally, the trio's journey BEGINS!