11. wholesome family reunion.

After Luz finished his cleaning routine, he put on a pair of shorts and a linen shirt that were way too tight for his liking, but in the end, he had no alternative.

Embarrassed, Lewis commented while suppressing his laughter: "Time to lose some weight," before hastily adding upon seeing Luz's displeased facial expressions: "Don't worry. You will be getting your own sets of clothes by tomorrow, hehehe."

Luz sighed: "It's fine," and the duo left the bathroom.

Lewis lit the way with a fire spell while the two strolled through the endless corridors, followed by a loud echo.

Only now did Luz realize that the ceiling of their corridors was arched and built of brown bricks that were slightly green due to moss growing on them.

But before he could continue analyzing the structures of the building, the two reached their room, and upon entering, Luz saw the contentedly sleeping and snoring children. Their peaceful faces reminded him of his own siblings, which awaited him whenever he came home late at night from hunting or hiking. Nevertheless, the sight made him almost tear up, and it took him a lot of self-control to keep a stoic face.

Yawning, Lewis commented as he waited for Luz to get onto his new bed: "For what are you waiting, brother?"

Shaking his head, Luz hastily commented: "Nothing," before climbing onto the bed above Lewis's one. The mattress was a bit sturdy and stiffer than what he was used to, while the blanket was thinner but softer.

Nevertheless, Luz was exhausted to such a degree that he immediately fell asleep after closing his eyes for a second. But what he saw shocked him.

「…」

「…」

「Deep inside a forest.」

'Where am I!?' shot through Luz's head as he woke up, laying in the shade of giant trees. It took him a second to recognize the familiar landscape, and it was none other than the forest from a few days ago.

Panicked, Luz jumped onto his feet, holding his knife tightly while glancing in every direction for an enemy, only to see people with whom he was familiar.

In his shock, Luz dropped his knife, and his stoic mask got immediately broken into pieces as tears of joy began rolling down his cheeks.

But before Luz could even do anything, he felt a soft, anything, a

"Brother. You are finally awake," shouted a familiar voice, and he immediately felt a soft and warm hug.

Overwhelmed by the situation, Luz stuttered in a shaky voice, "A-Az? I-Is t-that you!?" as he gently caressed his brother's face.

Az tilted his head before asking in confusion: "Did something happen to you? Of course, it's me?"

At this point, Luz could no longer hold himself back and immediately took his youngest brother into his embrace, hugging him as tight as possible while muttering to himself: "It's nothing. I just missed you. No, I missed all of you."

Luz has never been so happy in his life. Endorphins (happy hormone) were shaken out in tons as he rotated in circles while kissing Az's cheeks.

The latter tried resisting his oldest brother and cursed bitterly: "Why are you so overreacting!?"

"I'm overreacting?" A chuckle left Luz's mouth before slowly loosening his embrace to wipe away his tears.

It didn't take long for him to find his next victim, and it was none other than Michael, Az's twin brother. That brat stood beside Raph, who was preparing a campfire.

With a smile going from ear to ear, Luz slowly sneaked upon them before hugging the duo at the same time as tightly as possible.

Annoyed by his behavior, Raph sighed, "Luz.... can't you see that Michael and I are both occupied?"

Luz lifted the two in amusement while laughing to his heart's content. "I know. But can't a brother show some love to his neglected siblings?"

"That's gay," replied Micheal, only to immediately apologize after Luz grabbed him by his cheeks.

"They are as soft as always," Luz remarked before dragging that kid back with him.

"Bro-Brother, I-I never meant it," pleaded Micheal in his immature voice as he got dragged by Luz, who commented: "Raph, I'm borrowing that brat."

Even though his siblings found his eccentric behavior weird, Luz enjoyed every second he spent with them. It didn't take long for him to believe that his brother never really left him and that everything happening to him till now was just a bad dream.

After all, who wouldn't want to be reunited with his siblings and enjoy one last camping day? Nevertheless, Luz continued bonding with everyone as he helped Raph with the campfire, Gab with catching some prey, and his twin brothers, Michael and Az, prepare the meal.

Soon the sun went down, and the siblings talked to each other at the campfire, telling each other stories and legends they knew. However, the fun ended immediately, the moment Michael began telling them the story of five brothers escaping the wrath of a dragon.

The atmosphere immediately grew quiet, and the campfire grew weaker as a feeling of uneasiness slowly washed over Luz. Even the lively forest grew quiet.

But it got worse. The brother who Luz respected the most, known as Gab, only laughed in a shrill manner after Michael finished telling them the story. "Imagine being the oldest brother and fucking up a teleportation spell because YOU NEVER BOTHERED LEARNING IT!"

Luz wanted to answer in protest, but someone cut him immediately short.

"How dumb can one be? You had all the time in the world to learn that spell. But instead, you bothered studying the other elements. IF YOU HAD PUT A LITTLE MORE EFFORT INTO STUDYING, WE MIGHT BE STILL TOGETHER NOW."

"I-I t-tried to save you all," Luz shouted in despair as he felt charred hands grabbing onto his ankle as they slowly rose from the ground.

Unable to comprehend what was happening, Luz shifted his attention onto them. However, two unrecognizable charred corpses awaited him there. As one of them jumped onto him, the other shouted in agony: "WHY… WHY HAVEN'T YOU SAVED US AS WELL!?"

Tears poured down his cheeks as the familiar voice shocked him to the core. It was none other than his mother's voice while the corpse pushing him against the ground and biting him was definitely his father.

"I tried my best to save the ones I could save," Luz screamed in despair, only to hear his siblings laugh in madness, shouting in amusement: "YOU CALL THAT SAVING!? YOU ONLY WANTED TO SAVE YOUR OWN ASS."

By now, the faces that once belonged to his brother had twisted into emotions unbeknownst to man while their bodies began rotting at a rapid pace. But that didn't stop them. Each of the siblings grabbed onto a limb and began pulling onto him while his parents began ripping out the flesh of his chest piece by piece with their teeth.

Luz resisted as much as he could, clawing into the flesh of his siblings with his nails as deep as he could while pleading desperately for mercy. "AZ, MY DEAR SIBLINGS… Please…"

However, no matter how hard he tried, Luz's pleas for mercy remained unanswered as his siblings continued pulling a limb each, laughing like crazy.

"WHY! WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS!?" he screamed while punching in every direction possible in hopes of hitting at least something.

But that wasn't all. Luz's eyes stared right into his mother's face upon shifting his gaze. The one person who had always cared for his well-being was now greedily munching on his flesh. And with each bite she took, blood and bits of meat kept falling onto his face.

Luz stuttered his mother's name hoarsely as tears continued streaming down his cheeks. "WHY!? WHY EVEN YOU!?" Luz screamed in fury while head-butting her till she stopped.

Unfortunately, not even that helped, and even though her charred face turned even more into a mess, as her blood began mixing with Luz's wounds, she shrieked maniacally while biting onto his face. "WHY!? A TRAITOR ASKS WHY!?"

A bone-chilling scream followed after the bite, and on the ground laid a man, whose limbs got torn apart, as he slowly began bleeding out. As for his face, it was strained with his mother's blood. His nose was mutilated into pieces while his beloved mother peacefully munched on the part she ripped out earlier.

But the man was still alive, breathing roughly, while a whole family happily sat around him, ripping his body into pieces while drinking his blood.

Unable to bear the pain, Luz slowly closed his eyes as his family continued screaming at him, how he was responsible for all the misfortune that happened to their happy family."

「munch」

「munch」

「munch」

「munc-」

「mun-」

「mu-」

「m-」

「…」

「…」

「…」

"LUZ!?" echoed through his head as he got shaken awake by Lewis.

Entrenched in sweat and shaky, Luz woke up and got welcomed by Lewis, who had a concerning look on his face.

With a sigh of relief, Lewis commented: "nightmare?"

Nodding, Luz gasped for air while whipping away his sweat. "Yeah… It was a not-so-wholesome family reunion."