Reminiscing (NEW)

Arthur let out a yawn as he sat at the dinner table, he had been so engrossed in his mother's narration that he lost track of time.

Nevertheless, since they had also not returned to planet Aeturn, he had more than enough time to know about what else happened at the time of his birth.

As he wolfed down his meal in silence, his thoughts wandered to his younger years and the things he experienced that led to him being who he was currently.

◇　◇　◇

Arthur was, to sum it up in one word; genius.

Nevertheless, he once disliked this fact.

He never really wanted to be 'special', he always wanted to be normal like everyone else.

He always questioned it;

What was so different about him that made him special?

What was so great about him that made him a genius?

He was told that he had a high realm of existence from birth; he was an intermediate stage master realm.

It was a realm of existence many could not reach even after decades yet he was at that level at birth, as such people overpraised him even when he disliked it.

Only when his parents praised him did he not feel the same feeling of repulsion that he felt from others. Despite all this talk of having a high realm of existence, he did not understand it fully and only believed it was something else people said to make him feel special.

As such, he still believed he was a normal child.

However, after discovering about the prophecy of his birth at the young age of three, the young Arthur realized that he was the furthest thing from the 'normal' he wanted.

He didn't really understand what the 'prophecy' really meant. All the three-year-old knew was that because of it, some people believed he was going to do some bad things to his dad and other people like his dad and they wanted to kill him before he could do so.

Naturally, the three-year-old was scared shitless.

Being told that people like his uncles wanted him dead scared him. He was so close to his mother's elder brother, why couldn't he be close to his dad's brothers too?

That was what he asked his dad, however the latter only told him that he would understand when he grew up.

There was an incident where he had displayed his genius talent when he picked up a small training sword and easily imitated the sword technique that a certain knight had been practicing for years.

Seeing a three-year-old easily achieve what it took him years to do made the knight fall into depression and he quit his job.

Upon discovering this, Arthur was sad as he felt it was his fault that the knight to end up the way he did and considered quitting his dreams of being a swordsman. The look of disappointment that flashed across his mother's face when he said that made him rescind that decision though.

It was around that time that his mother's elder brother, Creusery, suggested something to his parents.

"We can't protect Arthur forever, he'd need to protect himself in the future. So why don't we let him begin to gain the necessary skills for that starting now?"

It was a suggestion his parents agreed to. His father was always away for some reason he did not know at the time and his mother felt that his uncle would be able to handle it better as they were both guys.

Although he had his reservations, he saw in one of the picture books his dad brought for him that parents only wanted what was best for their children.

That led him to believe that if his parents agreed to his uncle's suggestion, it was best for him so he agreed too.

And like so, Arthur's training under Creusery started.

The older prince loved exploring different planets and realms and he took the young Arthur everywhere he went.

Letting him see many things, experience more things, and learn new things.

He also trained Arthur on how to fight using various weapons, however, he majored in the sword.

As for magic and other energy manipulation lessons, his mother took the mantle and decided to impart her knowledge upon him.

Even if he was born with a high realm of existence and was a talented genius, it did not mean he would just automatically become strong without doing anything.

He had to put in effort so he could become stronger. His dad also came over occasionally and helped in his training too. Hearing that his dad was one of the strongest people where he was from, made him look up to his father even more than he already did.

Catching up to his dad's level of power became his motivation so he went along with all the training that his mother and his uncle gave him.

The young Arthur was discovered to have four energies in his body, nothing weird for a descendant of the Devilian royal family.

Magic, aura, and two more that his parents refused to tell him about. They only told him to focus on his magic and aura.

In order to use magic, one had to have the affinity for said element or attribute of magic. This also affected the attribute of the law they would be able to comprehend in the future but that was something that a four-year-old could not understand.

To check his affinity, his mother, Cattleya, first thought him how to manipulate the magic in the first place before bringing something she called an affinity stone and telling him to pour some magic inside it.

He did so and the originally transparent stone began to shine with a multicolored light.

In the end, he was told he had affinities for Earth, Lightning, Fire, and wind magic. His mother told him that he had other affinities but he could not use those before learning the basics.

He also learned that he had a high affinity for the 'Destruction' magic of any element or attribute. This meant that even if he could not cast the smallest and most useless spell of that element, if it was one that involved 'Destroying' on a large scale, then he would be able to cast it with ease, provided he learned the spell properly.

Cattleya taught him about the many tiers of magic and spellcasting alongside the tiers his high realm of existence from birth allowed him to use.

She also thought him how to create a spell circle and how to increase the tier of the spell circle he was using.

In a spell circle, the circle/ring represented the flow of magic, ether, or whatever energy is used to cast the spell.

Then the mark in the middle represented the element or attribute being used and then the letters below the mark described the type of spell being invoked.

The more rings a spell circle had, the higher the tier of the spell. Young Arthur easily absorbed this knowledge and showed great results, making his parents praise him, much to his satisfaction.

To add to his knowledge and skills, the young Arthur took a liking to reading books of any kind he could find.

The Devilian royal castle library had books from many time periods, from different categories, from different universes too.

It was with the assistance of these books that he came to understand the concept of a planet, a star system, a galaxy, and then a universe.

It was only vague but he had an idea of how large they were, after all, he had seen a myriad of stars and planets when on expeditions with his uncle, Creusery.

This was why at the age of six, his uncle Creusery's actions scared him shitless and made him lock himself up in his room for days as he was nearly traumatized.

For Creusery it was a small issue, but for Arthur, he had never even thought such a thing was possible.

Creusery destroyed a planet, right in front of Arthur.

One moment he was looking at the planet with his uncle from inside the spacecraft, the next, his uncle was outside the spacecraft with a giant ball of black flames in his palm.

He then looked Arthur in the eyes and tossed the ball of flames towards the large planet and caused it to explode within seconds of contact.

He did so with relative ease and this made the six-year-old Arthur realize one thing, Creusery had done this before, many times.

It had been three years since Arthur began following Creusery around for training, he had been forced to fight and kill many monsters even though he was scared or found it repulsive, but he had never killed a sentient humanoid like himself.

This was why seeing his Uncle wipe out an entire planet filled with sentient humanoids sent him into shock.

However, his uncle's words to him were not words of consolation.

"I really didn't want to do this, but you have to know Arthur;

All the people around you, your parents, grandparents, the dukes you see in the castle daily, the nobles who send their children to you as playmates, they can all do something like destroying a planet with relative ease.

And just like them, the people after your life now and those who would be in the future can do the same.

Why am I telling you this?

It's simple, you're a smart child, you mature faster than your peers and even though you're more talented, you don't put in any less hard work.

That's why you should understand, that is the kind of power you should strive to attain and surpass by leaps and bounds, that is what your mother and father want for you.

When you get to that level, then those people after your life would not be able to do anything to you no matter how hard they try, and you would be able to keep yourself safe.

And if you're safe, then your parents would be happy and have peace of mind, don't you think?"

His words struck a chord within the young Arthur, although he didn't know this, Creusery had only added the talk about his parents to clear his hesitation, after all, the young Arthur had begun to notice his parents' actions to protect him.

Or rather, they let him notice. It was all part of their plan to show Arthur a glimpse of the kind of power they wished for him to attain. Creusery's display was the final part of the plan.

Although he did not immediately concur with Creusery, after a month of being a recluse, he concluded that his Uncle's words were right.

It was after this that Creusery instructed him to kill a sentient humanoid being, one of the weaker inferior stage master realm half-gods that were among the group of assassins that his parents had dealt with.

It was his first time killing another sentient humanoid like himself, but for the sake of making his parents happy, for a peaceful future, and most of all, simply because he wanted to survive, he did not hesitate.

From then on, his training with Creusery became more intense, Creusery also began showing the young Arthur more things during his expeditions.

He introduced Arthur to many influential figures and powerful beings in the Hell universe and helped him gain powerful contacts that would be useful in the future.

Similarly, he showed Arthur about the dark sides of people, the atrocities people could commit just to get what they wanted, the lengths they would go to for power, and many more things that the six-year-old boy never thought people could possibly do.

Creusery also began taking him along on some of his official duties as Crown prince of the Devildom. In the following years, seeing Creusery do something like destroying a planet or wiping out an entire civilization did not even faze him.

◇　◇　◇

Arthur finished his meal as he thought about those events from the past, nevertheless, he still did not understand the gods' reason for trying so hard to kill him.

Even if he was a talented genius who grew stronger at a crazy rate, even if he was a special being, even if he was the 'child of destruction' they said he was, he still felt there was something else that made the gods pay so much attention to him try so hard to kill him.

They could not take action personally, as that would only spark a war between them and the devils so they sent assassins far weaker than themselves instead, that he could understand.

However, even after so many failures, they still kept on sending them, which was the part that did not make sense.

He brainstormed about the reason for why and concluded that it had to do with a certain clause of the prophecy of his birth.

" 'All gods of all worlds shall tremble with fear....'

Did they really tremble with fear that day?"

"Yes, they did."

A voice replied to him and he turned around to see his father, Hades, walk into the dining room while taking off his jacket.

" -We- all did boy, that's part of the reason they are so adamant in wanting you dead. The amount of fear 'we' all felt on the day of your birth was something that none of us ever want to experience again."

He continued as he took a seat, before beginning to narrate what happened on that day, about how all gods trembled with fear.