A Tough Goodbye

As Charon sat in bed, he thought about what he had learned about the door. He also thought of the implications of what he had learned. For it seems that the door leads to some form of afterlife.

He had kept some knowledge from the visions which had been sealed from him. For example, he now understood that the mysterious white energy that makes up a soul is called Astral Energy. A form of energy which can be used to affect souls and certain aspects of the 'metaphorical', whatever that may mean

The next time he consumes a soul, he can fully destroy the soul by sending it to the vortex in his head. By doing this, he immediately strengthens himself by taking the astral energy and adding it to his own soul permanently. Depending on the strength of the soul, he may also gain other forms of strength from it as well.

This is not his only option however. He can also send the soul to the door inside him. If he does this then the soul will be on that beach, where their soul will be judged by a tiny aspect of his consciousness. Depending on how they are judged, they will then be sent to a certain part of that world, or rather that afterlife, by another aspect of himself.

If they are judged to be good, then they will receive a lavish afterlife with anything they could wish for. If they are judged to be evil on the other hand, they will have every sin they have committed acted upon them in turn.

The benefits of doing this far outweigh destroying the soul however. By sending them to an afterlife, Charon will slowly but steadily gain Astral Energy for every soul in his afterlife. He can also, upon the soul's consent, temporarily assume all of the strengths that the soul had in life on top of his strength.

This can be anything from the soul's race in life, to a mastery over a weapon. Almost anything and everything that the soul has and had can be gained. Of course, while consent is required, Charon is allowed to… persuade them into it.

Charon can also converse with those stored in his afterlife as well, allowing him to gather information if he wants, or to just have a nice chat with them. Although admittedly, he was more intrigued by the prospect of how he gains Astral Energy seemingly endlessly from any souls within his afterlife.

That implies that souls can somehow produce that energy by themselves, but Charon is confused by the fact that no one has seemed to ever use this potent energy before. He grins to himself however when he thinks of his soul perfectly merging and adapting to its new form.

With this, he can now control Astral Energy much better, even outside of his body. As he thinks of this, he holds out his hand as a miniscule version of him made out of the energy appears and jumps between his fingers.

Charon has never quite felt this unknowledgeable before, and he is thrilled! He is looking forward to the future as he sits up on his bed and decides to experiment with the energy to find out what else it can do. As he does however, he tries not to think of the one question which has been bothering him about the knowledge he gained of his afterlife.

A question which snuck up on him throughout the night. A question about Mana itself and those figures made up of it. A question which bothered him throughout the days afterwards.

If only souls can go into his afterlife, why does Mana seem to have not only one soul, but multiple?

Of course even though this burning question disturbed Charon much more than the normal questions he will normally have, time moves ever onward. It's been two weeks since then and he has carefully avoided anywhere that may have someone die so as to avoid the abyssal hunger. He has also given up on finding a trainer to teach him a new weapon as he instead focused entirely on the Astral Energy of his soul when he wasn't teaching his children or researching various things with them.

Of course he was being careful to not use too much since he was unsure what would happen if he ran out of it since it was technically what made up his soul. For now the days continued on like this, he would wake up and spend time with Nyx and Hypnos before settling for his research into Astral Energy.

As he was getting up at the end of researching Astral Energy during the beginning of the fourteenth day from gaining his afterlife however, a servant burst into his room.

"Sir! You must quickly go to King Adam, he has requested your presence in his study immediately." The servant then bowed before leaving immediately in a rush.

Charon raised an eyebrow in confusion before getting up and leaving his room. He was greeted by the sight of servants rapidly rushing back and forth in the halls. Deciding to be safe rather than sorry he went and roused Hypnos and Nyx from their slumber.

"Something seems to be happening. I need two to come with me, now." Charon saw that they were still waking up, having gotten semi-used to the lavish lifestyle.

Charon began getting impatient as he could feel his inherent ability, his instinct, roaring at him to grab them and run to Adam. Deciding not to waste anymore time as his unease only grew, he quickly placed them upon his shoulders before running to Adam's study as quickly as he could.

As Charon got closer to his brother's study, he saw his younger sister Elizabeth enter it through the open door of the study. Arriving at last, he burst in to see his closest family gathered.

"Son, We have received dire news." Michael looked at Charon with a face more somber than Charon had ever seen before on him.

"The Butler and Hades managed to track down the master of the freelancer you had caught. The bad news however is what he told us as we tortured him." Adam cut in, his hand lightly holding an hidden object within his grip.

"It seems, regrettably, that this kingdom is doomed." Adam continued on, giving Charon a serious look.

"I refuse to believe that. We have at least six masters that I know of." Charon shook his head in denial, even as his instincts roared to leave the kingdom within his mind.

"Yes, that may be true… But they are no match for two grandmasters." As Adam said this, Charon's eyes widened in shock.

"How?" Charon's face tightened in suspicion, as he still held onto Hypnos and Nyx who both were still barely awake.

"I'm not sure, all we know is that today several of our cities were destroyed. It was almost in a straight line towards the capital. We believe it is at least one of the grandmasters." Adam looked up at the ceiling, sighing. He thought of the artifacts which kept track of the city's stability, and how many of them broke one after the other before it suddenly stopped.

"I do have a plan however, something that will allow some of our citizens to survive. Outside of those picked from the Four Houses, I also chose citizens of varying species who had good records." Adam pulled out five folders, with four labeled after each of the houses and one labeled citizens.

"The reason we came here however, was not for any of that." Adam gave Charon a smile full of pride in his brother, however, there was also the tiniest amount of sadness etched in that smile as well.

"With this, I must activate project Ark. So I have summoned you and Elizabeth to say goodbye to my cute siblings."

In response to this, Charon gently placed Hypnos and Nyx on the ground before glaring at Adam. His eyes shifted to the fist closed around something he couldn't see as he guided Astral Energy to his legs before dashing at Adam.

"I cannot allow you to do that brother." Adam waved his hand, as a wall of skeletal hands manifested in the air of the study before quickly blocking Charon's route to Adam.

Charon hit the bones, losing himself to anger and grief as he lost control over the Astral Energy. He cried out in rage as a tight grip held his shoulder.

"My son and daughter. You have both done more than I could ever expect of you. I am so proud of you both, I am sorry that I likely won't be there to see you two grow to new heights." As Michael spoke, Elizabeth who had been silent with a stony face began to crack as tears fell from her eyes.

"Brother, I want you to protect Elizabeth. She is still so young and still has much to learn about the world. Afterall she spends most of her time in this castle much like you." Adam looked through the boney arms blocking most of Charon from his sight.

"Sister, you can rely on your older brother. He may get a bit emotional at times but he loves his family the most above all else. I am proud of both of you, and I am sorry for this." As Adam finished speaking, he clenched his fist tightly around the hidden object as a crack rang out.

Suddenly across the capital, many citizens and members of the four houses began to be covered in a bright light before fading away forever. Charon, Hypnos, Nyx, and Elizabeth were no exceptions to this either.

After seeing his brother and sister for likely the last time, Adam stood up and looked at his father. Almost as if it was timed however, a loud bang could be heard across the capital as debris and dust rose up from where the outer wall previously stood.

"I suppose we timed that perfectly. I am glad to be able to die knowing that I will protect my family." Adam looked out of the castle, thinking of the cave which hid the Ark.

"Fitting that our last act will be to hold back these assholes to save our family." Michael gave his son a grin before patting him on the shoulder.