this is just a book im reading and need the audio function! so dont waste time here im already in chapte 55 or something

Angelo arrived shortly after 8 AM at a property that was eerily quiet. Usually, that is the time when the Cliffside Villa is buzzing with activity, but last night everyone stayed late and this was a vacation, so most of the people present were just waking up.
Angelo was delighted to hold Holly who was peacefully sleeping in his arms.
"Look how comfortable she is with me. She knows who is her grandpa!", Angelo beamed. Holly was his first grandchild, and he didn't have much time to bond with his children, so this was very special.
Emma looked at Angelo who was grinning from ear to ear and she didn't have the heart to tell him that the baby would sleep like that in anyone's arms. Holly is Emma's first baby, but as a nurse practitioner, she held many infants, so she knew about these things.
Angelo gave Emma his phone. "Take a few photos for me…"
"I will do it.", Charlie insisted. "Emma should rest. I can stand and move around and capture different angles."
Angelo approved.
While Charlie snapped photos, Holly woke up and looked at Angelo. He gave her his pinky finger and to his delight, she grasped it.
"Take a photo of this!", Angelo said breathlessly. "Did you get it? Did you get it?"
"I did.", Charlie said dryly. Why did Holly hold Angelo's finger and not his? He is the father, and he should have all the firsts! And Angelo stole the first finger-holding!
"Take more!", Angelo demanded, oblivious to Charlie's displeasure.
Emma smiled at the heartwarming scene in front of her and she wondered if Angelo looked so happy when she and her brothers were born. Probably.
When JoAnna came to check on Emma, Angelo reluctantly placed Holly in the crib and excused himself, saying that he will come back later.  
Ever since they remodeled the property, Sarah and Aiden dedicated one room as a nursery with cribs and stockpiles of diapers, wipes, onesies, bibs, and anything else infants might need. It allowed Sophia, Anna, and any of their friends with babies to come without worrying if they packed all the necessities.
That is why they had everything for Holly, and they placed one crib with fresh linens next to Emma's hospital bed.
JoAnna encouraged Emma to stand up and walk a bit.
"Everything looks great.", JoAnna said after doing a checkup on Emma and Holly. "Whenever you feel comfortable, you can move to the guest bedroom. Just let me know and we will help you get there in a jiffy. We have a crib and everything else set up there for you. I suggest that you wait at least another twenty-four hours before heading back to Los Angeles. If you can stay until tomorrow evening and return with everyone else, that would be perfect."
Emma exhaled sadly. "We came here to unwind for the weekend, and ended up with a baby."
"This is fine.", Charlie said. "If we are in Los Angeles now, we would struggle to keep my Uncles and Aunts away from the maternity ward. Like this, we get a few days of peace with Holly."
Emma agreed with this. They are not in a hospital how they planned, but she could not think of a safer place than in the company of Hill sisters, their husbands, and kids from the Cliffside Villa. Also, Angelo, Donnie, and Emma's brothers are here, so she was not missing anyone in particular.
Emma decided to move to the guest bedroom and to have breakfast there. Jamari and Imani helped in moving Holly and whatever baby might need, while Charlie supported Emma. They settled in very quickly.
Sarah and Sophia arrived to visit the baby while pushing a trolley with breakfast items for Emma and Charlie.
"How are boys?", Emma asked.
Sarah was not sure who are 'the boys' Emma asked about, so she gave a recount for everyone. "Corey is with Merve, they are fine. Mike is with Tiffany, they said they will come after you are done with breakfast, as for Sean and Ryan…" Sarah fiddled with her phone and gave it to Emma.
Emma looked at the phone and saw a video of Sean and Ryan sitting at the table with Harini and Panya. They were munching on food, chatting, and laughing, and even though there was no audio, Emma could see that the mood was good.
Emma was not sure what was she supposed to see other than her twin brothers having breakfast with two girls. "What am I looking at?"
"They are officially couples.", Sarah said.
Emma didn't get it. "What?"
"While you were having your baby, Sean and Ryan got themselves girlfriends.", Sophia explained.
Emma stared at the phone and then a smile slowly appeared on her face. She knew that Harini and Panya are Sarah's girls and that Sean and Ryan wouldn't dare make a move if they are not serious. And the fact that Sarah is calm about it confirms that Sarah knew they were close and that this was not sudden. Emma chided herself silently. This was one more thing she didn't know about her brothers.
Angelo arrived with a property deed for a sea-facing piece of land in Italy, that was on the name 'Holly Smith'.
"This is a gift for my granddaughter…", Angelo announced. "No matter how and where she grows up, she will have a piece of Italy with her."
"Thank you…", Charlie said as he accepted the deed. He didn't expect anything, and he appreciated that Angelo thought about Holly. "I will safekeep it until she is old enough to hold onto it."
"Now you have two of my angels to take care of. Watch them well, Charlie."
"I will do my best because they are my angels as well.", Charlie responded to Angelo solemnly.  
Unless it was necessary for Angelo to leave for privacy reasons (Emma's checkup or breastfeeding), Angelo was next to Holly most of the time, enchanted by her existence. He even wanted to change her diaper, but JoAnna shooed him away.
Later that day, Melissa also joined. Considering that she has Grayden and Amber, Melissa was a professional when handling the baby.
"Do you think she can be matched with my Gray?", Melissa mused while looking at Holly.
"It's early of that, don't you think so?", Emma asked stiffly.
Melissa laughed. "I'm just giving you hints, sweetie… She will be a fine young lady. Perfect for my Gray."
"My Jay is available, and Sarah is expecting a boy also…", JoAnna chimed in, making Melissa frown a little. "And let's not forget that Sophia also has two boys."
Charlie let out a dry laugh. "Ah, my Holly is already popular. What will I do when she grows up?"
Everyone laughed. They could imagine Charlie with a shotgun chasing away suitors from the main entrance of the Smith villa.
After lunch, Emma wanted some air, and they all went to the garden. Charlie was next to Emma as he pushed a stroller with Holly. Angelo, Melissa, Jarred, and Donnie followed closely behind.
They all sat around one table that was set under the shade of a massive oak tree. The weather was warm and pleasant, and the kids were doing their own thing.
The kids from the Cliffside Villa who didn't see the baby so far, took turns peeking into the stroller and congratulating Charlie and Emma who beamed with happiness.
Of course, curious toddlers also got their turns to see the baby.
"When will she play with us?", Alice asked.
"When she is bigger.", Emma responded.
"She sleeps a lot, just like Val.", Lia said dryly.
"Little ones sleep a lot.", Jayden said knowingly. "My mom said that babies grow while they sleep."
"Val does not sleep much at night. It's horrible…", Adam said.
"Why are you complaining?", Lia asked. "It's not like you need to change his diaper."
"Babies have it all wrong. They sleep at day when everyone plays and they cry at night…", Alice said to what all toddlers nodded.
Emma leaned into Charlie's embrace and smiled dreamily while listening to toddlers chatting. They were all serious like little adults and it was adorable.
There was a commotion before most of the people moved toward the training ground.
"You are on!", Jeff exclaimed while pointing at Felix. "I am itching for a rematch!"
Felix grinned tauntingly.
"What is going on?", Jarred asked Aiden who was moving with the others toward the training ground.
"Spar sessions. You are welcome to watch or join.", Aiden said and walked away.
"Hey, boss!", Jamari shouted after Aiden.
"I told you not to call me boss. It sounds like I'm a gangster.", Aiden reprimanded Jamari. Ever since Aiden and Sarah found them in Central Africa, Ade and Jamari call Aiden 'boss'. It's not that they didn't try to call him something else, but calling him by his name didn't sound right, and calling him 'father' or 'dad' didn't sound right either, so they stuck to 'boss'.
Jamari ignored Aiden's warning and moved onto the topic that was pressing for him. "I need five minutes to set up the betting station."
"You better start two minutes ago…"
Charlie frowned when he heard about betting. Last weekend was Emma's baby-shower party at the Smith family villa, and Charlie lost a fortune because he agreed to cover losses from the betting. That was one of the worst financial decisions he ever made in his life! Who in their right mind bets hundreds of thousands on friendly spars? If Charlie knew that the amounts will be so outrageous, he would NEVER agree to it!
---
If you are not reading this at 'W e b n o v e l . c o m', then the content you're reading is stolen! Please support the author by reading this novel from the original source.


Sarah Hill is an introvert who does not want to attract attention. Other than mad coding skills, Sarah knows how to throw a punch. She believes that her biggest problem is the existence of the hacker Omega and her world flips upside-down when the most popular guy on campus approaches her. What does he want? Why her? (Ah, Sarah, that is only the beginning.) 

JoAnna Hill easily makes friends with her bubbly personality. Some call her a mad scientist, but she prefers ‘Dr. Hill’, because that is what she is. JoAnna is an excellent markswoman who can snipe out any target and she is wondering if her prince charming will ever come.

Sophia Hill is the voice of reason, their pillar of support. She is a confident CEO who knows how to get what she wants. Sophia’s degree in law combined with amazing capabilities to analyze the situation and plan ahead make her the perfect strategist (to achieve a goal without ending up in jail). 

This is a story of three Hill sisters who are navigating through challenges while they uncover the complicated story behind their maternal side of the family. And their father is not a simple man either.
Every sister is different, and so are their relationships. 

They all have in common: trust and belief that if they work together, anything is possible.

Mature content! 18+

***SPOILER? - START *** 
The story starts with a focus on the youngest sister (Sarah). 
After about 100 chapters, the oldest sister (Sophia) gets in the romantic spotlight. 
JoAnna finds herself pulled into romance last, at about 200 chapter mark. 
***SPOILER? - END ***

Excerpt from the novel...

"Do you believe in destiny?", Sarah broke the silence. 
"Destiny?" Aiden didn't expect such a question. 
"Yes. The thing that is meant to happen, and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. And when it does happen, everything feels right." 
"Why would you ask me such a thing?" 
"Until a few weeks ago I would say that there is no such thing as destiny. That we are all masters of our lives and that everything depends on our actions, or lack of it. But I can't help but wonder: why did I not push you away? ... Why does it feel like everything will be OK as long as we are together? ... You are a piece of me that I never knew was missing. Is this destiny?" 
"Mmm... if that is destiny, then I approve it.", Aiden lightly kissed Sarah's shoulder and rested his chin on it. 

---
1st WARNING!!!
Contains descriptions of intimate scenes. If you are not comfortable with that, don’t read it!
---
2nd WARNING!!!
This is my first novel! :)
---

*****
I own the cover.
*****

Check out my other novels: 
* "Accident Prone" 
* "Amara - Reunion"
* "The Alpha's Bride"
* "The Supreme Alpha"

For the past year, Astraea's life had increased activity-wise due to the new relationships she's gained, the new knowledge she learned, and the new cool stuff she could experiment and play with!

After her first birthday, she started to frequently play with Kyris and Tirana, most of the time playing in each other's homes and sometimes playing in the parks and playgrounds outside. Their homes were no less impressive than her own, as they were all upper-middle-class children, but each home had a different feel and design that made it unique from hers despite the obvious quality and high-cost that all the homes exuded.

The playgrounds were not your normal kiddy playgrounds with sandboxes, plastic slides, and swing sets, It was like a miniature futuristic amusement park that had towering slides, flying animal rides, ziplines, super-bouncy trampolines, and many more amazing things. She hadn't seen one before despite her occasional trips to the park with her mother as the playground seemed to have its own designated area as it was very big.

They played a lot at that playground, but as kids are kids, they easily got tired of it and went to do other things. They did normal things kids with do with each other such as play make-believe, show off and share their toys, fighting for them occasionally and talking nonsense with each other about the things they learn or see.

Though Astraea had regressed mentally to some extent, allowing her to become more childlike in terms of curiosity, energy, and positivity, she couldn't help but become physically and mentally tired out from playing with Kyris and Tirana.

It made sense as she was physically a year younger than them and despite the new wondrous things this world has to offer that Astraea had yet to learn about, literally everything about this world is wonderous to Tirana and Kyris who only have been living for a few years.

Despite that, she didn't let that interfere with her playtime with them as she genuinely had fun playing and getting to know them. Their bond with each other slowly strengthened, even between Tirana and Kyris, who had not played together much before they met Astraea. The two started treating Astraea like an older sibling, as despite being younger than them, she always maintained a level of maturity that allowed her to break up their fights, scold them when they do something bad, and teach them new and amazing things.

She had to reluctantly accept the two as her new 'younger siblings' which made the total count three. Yes, three, as there was one more younger sibling she had, Valkyrie.

Valkyrie had been learning more and more things under the tutelage of Astraea and early on, she had been taught to move without someone using their body as a controller. She first did this by assigning certain hand signals with certain actions, like finger-walking in the air represented walking, and moving her hand up and down represented jumping.

She quickly changed it out with the actual words of those actions after her success at having Valkyrie react to words.
She had found out from her grandma Vaena that there was a holographic settings menu that she could access that allowed her to tinker with Valkyrie's settings, or her body's settings more specifically.

She hadn't told her about this as she had assumed that Valkyrie couldn't read and that the default settings were sufficient for the time being. When asked about how she was going to use the settings, she told Vaena that she would ask for assistance from her parents.

That was a lie though, and she had started to tinker with the settings without her parent's knowledge.

There were all sorts of setting from changing her appearance with illusion magic, adjusting power output to her limbs, connection to the internet and all sorts of options and settings for functions she couldn't even imagine Valkyrie having.

After sifting through all the settings, she found the one she was looking for, Audio settings. The setting included Audio-Input as well, making it more convenient for her. She had first assumed that Valkyrie's audio input was currently inactive, effectively making her deaf, but she denied that possibility as it shouldn't be something so simple.

It was as she thought, as all the settings seemed normal and Valkyrie's hearing should be working. As she had gone straight to the Audio-Input settings, she hadn't properly checked the normal Audio settings and thus she went back to see if the problem lay there.

There she found an option that solved all her problems, Artificial Voice Settings. She had originally assumed that Valkyrie was able to speak looking at the default Audio Settings but looking at the Artificial Voice Settings, she knew that this wasn't the case.

Artificial voice settings had things like language options, different voice samples,
and something that literally said 'On/Off' with 'Off' currently lit up.

Astraea blinked twice when she saw that option and groaned in annoyance that it was due to something so simple. 

Without further ado, she switched the option on and tinkered with a few of the voice settings before closing the holographic menu as she wanted to test the results straight away.

"Valkyrie!" With the first word out of her mouth, she didn't expect to get any immediate results but that was exactly what she received, as a clear and slightly artificial voice repeated after her.

"Valkyrie!" The voice was that of a high pitched little girl as that was the voice Astraea had selected in the settings.

From that moment, Valkyrie's growth increased faster than it did previously, as the more words she knew of the better communication she had with Astraea, which allowed her to learn more and more.

During the year, Valkyrie had also been taught by Astraea's Parents, though she still learned more from Astraea. Though it wasn't that her Parent's were incompetent in teaching Valkyrie, but that they didn't have a lot of time to do so and only focused on things they thought Astraea couldn't teach, such as vocabulary, common knowledge about the world, and what was right and wrong.

Astraea was actually able to teach all those things except for knowledge about the world but decided to lessen how much she taught those subjects to focus on teaching Valkyrie other things.

On the matters of magic, there had been a lot of input as she had gained multiple sources of knowledge and ideas, namely her magic wand and her holowatch.

She had studied tried to study the flow of mana when using her magic wand and it had some decent returns. She was able to sense how the mana was shaped and changed for each function that her wand performed and it gave her some ideas.

She didn't think she would be able to make use of the spell formulas in the first place as she wouldn't know how to make sense out of it, and in the first place, she wouldn't be able to perform the spell due only having an affinity for Neutral Magic.

From the earth illusion where a chunk of dirt could be launched, she was able to learn how to condense her mana effectively and launch it as well, though it was only an illusion, the mana was not formless and followed a set path that Astraea was able to copy.

From the wind fan function, she was able to learn how to send out her mana in an expanded wave, similar to her telekinetic push but with a greater area of effect, but also weakening it. The unique thing about it was that she was able to constantly release her mana which created a 'blowing' effect similar to the fan function, though it greatly drained her mana.

She had also learned how to condense her mana by studying the mini wind blade function and it allowed her to create a more pinpointed and faster version of her telekinetic push, almost like a bullet, though the speed was far from it.

From the three functions that fire had, she was able to create a sort of bubble of mana that surrounds her, though she didn't know it does anything yet. She was able to create a more concentrated version of the 'blowing' effect from studying the flamethrower function and was able to create a string of mana that followed her hand and that she was able to control minimally by studying the fire-trail function.

From the sole bubble function for water, she had learned how to create concentrated pockets of mana that was able to stay in place, moving a certain distance away would make them pop like bubbles, and slightly disturbed the area around it like a mini-explosion. She had learned how to remotely detonate the mana pockets by sending out a small bullet of mana which popped them on impact.

She was sure there were more sophisticated ways of doing it but she couldn't figure it out and had to resort to that.
Her holowatch did have a lot of information like her grandpa Dagen said but a lot of it was just apps and information useful to teach kids and toddlers, she had no access to the internet whatsoever which frustrated her a little.

They were way more informational than apps on earth despite only using pictures and audio but were still only for kids and toddler so she was able to easily absorb all the information within a few days, her enhanced memory helped too as she only had to go through things once to remember.

Though a lot of the information was quite useless, some of it was exactly what she needed as it taught her the basics and common sense of the world like different countries, flora and fauna native to this world and more importantly, magic.

Though the apps didn't teach her how to use magic, it explained all there was to know about the basics of magic, from explaining the concept of magic, explanations of attributes and affinity, the history, and the applications of magic.

In the past, imagination was used to cast magic, and those with great instinct or had a greater imagination which in turn made them great mages. One's affinity with an attribute also affected your imagination with it as the higher the affinity the closer you are to the attribute which allowed you to have a greater imagination towards it.

With the age of industry, technology and science, came the age of formulaic and logical magic, where scientific laws and mathematical formulas were integrated into the imaginative process of magic, making spells stronger, more complicated and more precise than ever before.

It also introduced countless new attributes and forms of magic that the world had never heard of before, which greatly diversified magic into countless areas, and those once seen as talentless in magic or had a low affinity suddenly became magic prodigies due to having an amazing affinity with those newly discovered attributes.

Though even in this day and age, those with amazing instinct and imagination could still easily trump others who were talentless and using formulaic magic, that was how people usually determined talent in magic other than affinity.

It was one of the main reasons children start learning magic as early as possible, which was age four when their affinities are stabilized, to separate the good seeds from the bad ones. 

 All in all, besides all the new 'spells' she had learned from her magic wand, and a few others she had taught herself, she had increased her proficiency with her magic and was able to control the mana in her body subconsciously with little effort.

The two desires to make her voice cuter and make her skin flawless worked as expected, though a child's skin was nearly flawless in the first place. While she didn't notice her voice changing as she spoke everyday, as she consulted her memories, she could confirm that her voice had changed in some aspects, and did sound cuter than before.

She removed the desire for a cuter voice as she was satisfied with how it was now, and made the desire for flawless skin a little weaker as she still wanted to keep it and add other desires.

She added two new desires, one that would lessen her mental fatigue, and one that increased her metabolism, more than a child already has. Both desires were to increase her efficiency in going through her life as she didn't want to spend a single moment idle in the early stage of her life.

Her second birthday had passed and it wasn't too different from her first birthday, expect for being able to have more intelligent conversations with the adults and her close relationship with Tirana and Kyris.

She had received new presents as well but they couldn't trump the presents from last year seeing as how she got Valkyrie and her holowatch.

Dagen was very impressed with her growth when he had checked her holowatch, as all the teaching apps recorded her progress and all of them were at 100% completion.

Though she spent the majority of the year with Kyris and Tirana, she did meet up with her grandparents from time to time and aunt Kaelie came to her house quite frequently too.

Grandpa Dagen was the person she saw the least as he seemed to have his schedule packed and every time he was able to see her, he wouldn't ask about her growth or progress, so she didn't mention it either. 

As a reward for exceeding his expectations, he unlocked more features and functions on her holowatch than he originally planned to, or at least that's what he said, and she was pleasantly surprised at the quality and quantity of the new functions and features. 

The birthday party seemed more lively as her relations with her relatives and friends had increased and she could say that it surpassed her first birthday in terms of interactions. Just the day after, she immediately went to ask her parents if she could attend preschool. 

Though she wasn't idle for the past two years as she had been constantly improving herself and learning about her new world, as well as enjoying her childhood, she had become impatient just a couple months ago and wanted a change of pace, one that would advance her learning and growth.

Preschool was the best choice as it was the earliest form of schooling she could take, attending preschool when she was just a year and a few months old did seem absurd and suspicious to her so she decided to go for the next best thing, attending when she just turned two. 

Though two still seemed too young, she knew that preschool was all based on the child's development and she could just pass off as a highly intelligent child, which she was. Though her parents were originally reluctant as they wanted to enroll her much later, at least three years old, her constant begging and puppy eyes eventually made them relent.

She couldn't help but think that her Cute Charm ability was finally able to be put to use against her parents, who were already spoiling her a lot and answering to her every whim.

Two weeks later, Astraea was now standing infront of her new school, and she couldn't wait for all the new things she'll get to learn.

"Astraea, honey? You've been staring at your new school for quite some time now, everything alright?" Paela asked, wondering if Astraea had become nervous.

Astraea snapped out of her thoughts, realizing that she had been dazing off thinking about the past year, she gave a bright smile to her mom and answered. 

"Nothing wrong, just excited!" 

With that, she ran ahead of her two parents as she looked forward to the things to come.

MC: So I can choose anything within my allocated points and imagination?

???: Yes, from Almighty Systems to Evolving Weaponry, to Dominating Cultivation Techniques, anything you desire. 

MC: Then, make me the cutest! The cutest in the Omniverse!

???: ...

The heaven tribe arrived. Emperor Aenon, Empress Lihua, Queen Milan and King Aiden of Water Realm, 
Volca remained still and held on to Auran's arms tight. She was glad that her message reached on time.
"Damon," Emperor Aenon called him.
"Damn it you," Damon began to curse. 
"Stop causing trouble, look what you have done to the Mortal world," Emperor Aenon tried putting some sense into him. 
"You took everything away from me, I will not sit and watch it any longer," he said. He had an evil smile on his face.
Volca waited for more people. She was expecting more. She waited for Queen Aqua and King Huo to show up. Her heart kept pounding loud. But they did not show up. 
"Surrender," Empress Lihua said. Prince Ash from Wind Realm showed by then. 
"Damon," he called. Prince Ash remembered little Damon well from thousands of years ago when they were all toddlers. And during the war but never after that. Damon had lost his charisma and looks. He had turned into a true ghost who scares everyone, making the nightmares come true. But when he was little, he hated that.
"You think I will?" Damon asked them and he vanished. Everyone looked around. 
"Damon, damn it," King Aiden said and looked angry. "We should not have let him go. He is dangerous," 
"He will recruit people, for sure," Volca said. Everyone turned towards her. Nobody had seen her for so long that they almost forgot about her. 
"Volca," Empress Lihua called her Queen Milan smiled a little. Volca bowed and paid her respect. 
"How are you?" Emperor Aenon asked her.
"She is doing great," Jiamu replied instead of her. Volca smiled. 
"Jiamu why not return at the least how, Tai has been overthrown and...." Emperor Aenon paused.
"I swore to never return, and I cannot break that promise I made myself," Jiamu said smoothly. "Damon is young with dangerous ideas to avenge his father and Realm, be careful, look out for him," 
"Damon will not avenge his father," Volca said. Everyone looked at her once again. 
"People like us will never avenge for fathers or mothers, we will live for ourselves and for the causes we believe is right, Damon will not seek revenge in the name of his devilish father, you must understand at least that much," 
"Why are you sure?" Queen Milan of Water Realm asked her. 
"Because we hated everything we did because of what our parents made us do, we were forced, and then losing them, it never hurt us, what hurt is that we lost the place called home, the sense of feeling of being safe, we will want that back, but not seek revenge," she explained. Emperor Aenon watched her carefully and understood what she mean. 
"We better know this guys well," he said instead. 
"Before you leave," Jiamu j interrupted. "We have to put everything back in its place and erase the memories from today's incident your highness," Jiamu requested.
"What?" Auran was shocked. "NO,"
Emperor Aenon agreed and rose up. He performed spells and charms which put every single thing back on its place like the life of mortals has never been interrupted. And he erased the memories of humans about these few hours. 
When Auran opened his eyes, he was lying on the bed. He got up. He felt tired. His hands as dirt but lying on the bed line waking up from the sleep. He got up and walked towards the window. He moved the curtains and looked outside. Everything looked calm, normal and perfect. He touched his head. And looked at his palm again. "How did it get dirty?" He wondered. Someone opened the door. 
"Come out man," the guys from the next room called him. "Let's hurry before the seats get filled," Auran did not understand. The sun was about to set. 
"It's movie night man," they said to him. "Did you forget about out? Oh come on!" They teased him and left. Auran walked back to washroom to wash the dirt off. He was confused. Since he did not feel like he slept at all. He washed his face and looked in the mirror. He looked at his shoes. He was still wearing them though he was on bed. Something felt strange to him. He got out of the washroom. He changed his sweaty clothes and put on a sweat pants and sweaters. 
He drank some water and he walked downstairs to the Audio-Visual hall. It was almost crowded but the boys saved him a seat. The movie began. But he was not in a mood. He stepped out half an hour later and sat on the bench under the tree in the hostel. There were students rushing behind personal things and walking around to relax. He felt glad to have been placed and wear off from all the pressure and tension. He sat watching the sky. It looked cloudy. He took out his phone. And he noticed his phone's screen guard. It looked as if there is a cobweb. Shattered. "Oh shit," he said and tried to peel the screen guard off. Carefully he did it. He threw them in the dustbin and wondered how the hell he broke it. He tried to recall the moments where he dropped the phone, threw them on the bed and sat on top of it. "When did this even happen?" He scratched his head. Something felt seriously off. 
*******
*******
Emma and Austin remained silent and still. The mark on their arms reappeared. Emma did not know what it meant, but the look on Austin's face said how much trouble this is going to be.
"What is it? Tell me brother," Emma said again to Austin. 
He hesitated but in the end gave up. "Vampires belong to Ghost Realm in this time of the universe we live in. During a war, when the Ghost King raised a rebellion, the leaders in heaven defeated him and killed him. And his son was imprisoned. Since the whole Realm was destroyed, everyone took their own path and lived as they wished. Including us,"
"Okay,' Emma said watching him closely. "But now what?" 
"Now the trouble is back, Ghost Prince escaped from the Celestial Prison and came to mortal Realm to claim back his memebrs of the Realm, that includes us too. When he summons we will have no choice but leave. Damon will raise a troop for sure, when the mark burns our hand, it will be the time for us to go," Austin informed everything to his baby sister who knew nothing about how heaven and hell works. 
"So we are in trouble you say? Should we not go back home then?" She asked him back. 
"We made ourselves home here, Ghost Realm is not like you think it is. Its dangerous and you will have constantly train yourself for various attacks and get attacked back," he said.
"Oh so it's a nasty thing," 
"Yes it is," he agreed. 
"I don't want to go," Emma said. "I will run to Daniel, he is powerful," 
"We will try our best, they can't force us anyway. You do not worry about it now. We will meet Dan and Volca, we will decide only then. George too," he consoled her. 
"Hmm," Emma got and walked back to her. Everything that happened outside stikk remained fresh in her eyes. The anxiety kicked in and Emma decided to eat and over come it. She ordered online for teobokki, jajangmyeon, kimchi rice, and beer. "It's fine what are you scared about? You are a Vampire Emma. Be one. Why are you such a scared cat? Stop worrying and get yourself together, everything is fine, nobody can snatch you away," she talked to herself. "Everything will be neat and fine, just be yourself, be the badass fighter," she gulped the beer down.
*******
*******
Volca was tired but followed the heavenly tribe with George and Daniel to Earth King Zidan's palace. Prince Leo stood at the entrance, welcoming them to the hidden palace under the ground beneath the mortal world. 
King Zidan was waiting for them all.
"Your highness,' he said and bowed at Emperor Aenon. 
"Zidan," Emperor Aenon greeted back. Everyone took their seats. The luxurious modern day court was looking amazing. Volca say quietly. Having no role to take and speak. "Volca," Emperor Aenon suddenly called after having a conversation with King Zidan. 
"Yes your highness," she stood up. She glanced at George. He nodded. 
"How did you know it's the Ghost Prince Damon?" 
"The Ghost powers darkens every magic, the weather was changed but the sky turned turned the darkest and the wandering souls were summoned causing the..."
"You did notice it then," King Zidan said and looked at Prince Leo. Leo was sweating alot and looked upset. Something felt off. Volca raised her brows and watched that short moment. And she looked at Emperor Aenon to see if he had noticed what just happened. But sadly no one noticed it except it. "Could it be? No way," Volca gasped. "NO," She immediately walked back to George and Daniel. She kept watching Prince Leo. His hand looked weird and bulged under his sleeves. 


Winner of WFP #21

Descended and her life changed completely. 
Warning: Mature Content!!

The unrequited love is the most dangerous weapon for a Demoness and she would conquer anything just to win in her love. The story unravels in heaven, hell and human realm for Volca to go with the adventures and meet new people, but she forgets one thing. An origin that cannot be changed.
And the fate had it twisted for her. Will Volca get the Angel she has been in love for really long or give up on him choosing a new beginning that could either destroy or make her life better? We must find that out. What is it that the Demoness wants in the end? And what will Volca have to go through for the treasures? The rollercoaster life of the innocent Demoness to mesmerize and sway one's heart.

Excerpt:

Volca stood in front of the door knocking. It has been hard to realize the truth and find him. Ever since he left that way, she has been going through a hard time. "Are you there?" she called him. When she went to his office they informed that he is yet to join. She grew upset, and tensed. She desperately wanted to see him, tell him the truth. She cried, regretting her words. When he failed to open the door, she knelt down and touched the door, leaning her head against them. She didn't know he was on the other side doing the same. "Don't leave me," she said in the end. When she did, he immediately opened the door and took her in his arms carrying her into his condo. She remained silent, still crying, holding onto him, lying her head against his chest. She could smell the cologne on him as usual. 
He settled her down on the bed and looked at her. "Why did you take so long?" he asked her looking eagerly into her eyes.
"I was stupid and...." but before she completed, he moved his head face towards her, taking her lips on his. She gripped her tight on the bed spread while her heart exploded inside. He slowly deepened his kiss and got on top of her, pushing her back on the bed. He saw how tensed she looked but too precious at the same time, and he kissed her again. There was a mischief glistening in her eyes. And she turned him, getting on top. She smirked, tearing his clothes, and throwing them away exposing his ripped body. He was enjoying it. She leaned and locked her eyes with his. Both breathing hard." 

This novel is going to spin off of my first novel, On My Way: The Demon King Made Me His, I mean it takes place in the same universe but two different stories. The novel will here portray the true heart of a Demoness and her life, trying to find the things she was not assigned, and if you are hoping for some heart fluttering romance, mind swaying, emotional swirl and happy moments, You can definitely read this novel.

In their own strange way, the next few days were surprisingly restful. Stephanie and Thomas required near constant attention, leaving Hector little time to actually sleep, but he didn't find it so terrible. Certainly, compared to fighting for his life, it was a much welcomed change of pace. And whenever he did manage to get some sleep, Garovel was there to watch over the children for him. 

Colt's death made the news. They didn't show him actually getting shot and killed, of course, but it wasn't long before Bohwanox briefly returned to the bunker to confirm that nothing had gone wrong--which was incredibly nice to hear, for once. These days, it seemed like everything and everyone was out to either kill them or get in their way. It was good news, or at least, halfway decent news. 

So he had three days with the kids, which meant following the directions that the doctor had originally meant for Colt. Stimulating their minds was the idea. At first, Hector just tried to turn anything and everything into a game, but that didn't go over so well. The kids would just kind of stare at him, apparently unaware that he wanted them to participate.

He found a box of reading material in one of the bunker's closets, but there wasn't anything suited for toddlers. There was barely even anything suited for him. Almost every book seemed to require a very high reading level, which only served to remind him that he would probably never finish high school. He wasn't sure it made much difference, though. He'd never been especially comfortable in any of his language classes. 

Hector did, however, manage to get his hands on some music. Scrounging through all the cars in the garage paid off quite handsomely. He seemed to recall hearing somewhere that classical music was best for child development, so he tried to stick with that as much as possible. And in the meantime, he worked on getting the kids on their feet, which was easier than he expected. 

Stephanie and Thomas were quite ready to walk, as long as Hector held their hands. They stumbled all the time, but usually got right back up or just resorted to crawling for a little while. He could hardly believe how adorable the whole thing was. It was entirely too easy to understand why people wanted to film stuff like this. He tried to give the kids the opportunity to walk on their own, but they weren't quite there yet. They were happy enough to crawl toward him, though. 

The other big thing was conversation. Also not Hector's strongest area, but with a bit of encouragement from Garovel, he did his best. He talked to them pretty much nonstop, using their names, trying to listen and respond whenever they babbled back at him. It didn't seem to be doing much, but he supposed it was too soon to expect any kind of result. 

The twins seemed to enjoy watching him make and unmake iron. It held their attention, the way the metal suddenly accumulated and then disappeared again. It got them to look at him with those wondrous little expressions of curiosity, which as Garovel reminded him, was immensely important.

Hector practiced making metallic toys for them. Small and intricate, was how he began, but when Thomas started gnawing on the dorsal fin of an iron shark, Hector decided to retry with larger, more rounded figures. Probably not the most efficient method of training for combat, but at the very least, it gave him the opportunity to work on his precision. 

When Colt showed up again, he looked like hell. His clothes were a complete mess, caked with dirt and mud where they weren't already riddled with bullet holes and bloodstains. 

'Welcome back,' said Garovel. 'How'd it go? Did you have a nice vacation?' 

"Would've been a lot easier if they'd just cremated me," said Colt. 

'Yeah,' agreed Bohwanox. 'I would have been able to come back here and remake him from scratch. But on the plus side, I did get to witness Colt rising from the grave like some kind of unholy abomination. That was quite enjoyable.' 

'Be thankful they didn't need to preserve your body for a funeral,' said Garovel. 'It'd take days to get the embalming chemicals out of your system. They would've oozed out of your face, mostly.' 

'I want to see that.' 

Colt ignored them, more concerned with Hector and the twins. "How were they?" 

"Amazing," said Hector, and he helped them walk over to their father. 

Colt bent down, smiling but keeping them at arm's length. "Guess I should get cleaned up first." 

"Alright." 

Colt ventured off to shower and change. 

Bohwanox turned to Garovel. 'So tell me more about embalming chemicals.' 

'Oh, well, there are all sorts. Some are dyes meant to maintain tissue color. Some are pumped into the body arterially. They have all sorts of different effects.' 

'Would they have oozed out of anywhere other than his face?' 

Hector pursed his mouth to one side and figured that was a good place to stop listening. He turned his attention back to the children.

After all the time Hector had spent with Stephanie and Thomas, especially these past few days, it was a bit strange to think they wouldn't be around anymore. In truth, he hadn't given the matter much thought, which was perhaps a good thing in its own way, but now the reality of it was beginning to hit him. 

He was going to miss them. 

And he frowned, but not in his usual way. He frowned in a way that was almost a smile. Because while he was sad to see them go, he was also glad that they could go, that they'd be away from him, where it was safer. It was a strange mixture of emotions, one he'd felt before but never this ardently. He didn't hate the feeling. There was a welcome sense of relief in there somewhere. 

'Oh, and before I forget,' Garovel was saying, 'how much do you know about Sai-hee?' 

Bohwanox bobbed his head to the side. 'The name sounds familiar. Who is that again?' 

'Sai-hee is one of the four servant emperors. She stays out of the fight between Abolish and the Vanguard--or at least, that's how it was the last time I checked, which admittedly, was many years ago.' 

'I see. Why do you bring her up?' 

'I know that you don't want to get involved in major conflicts. If Sai-hee's reputation is to be believed, then neither does she.' 

'You are suggesting Colt and I go to her for refuge?' 

'No, no. I just mean, it might be something you'd wanna look into. I'd definitely suggest gathering more information before deciding anything.' 

'Mm. I'd rather keep a wide berth of any emperors. I'm sure Colt would feel similarly.' 

Garovel offered a shrug. 'Still, if worse comes to worst, you should know your options.' 

'I'll keep it in mind.' 

The wait wasn't much longer. Colt returned to the garage with luggage in hand.

Hector helped load the bags into Colt's chosen vehicle, a midnight blue Pontiac. Afterwards, they shared one last meal together. It was a rather quiet repast, like all the others, but after a while, Colt broke the silence. 

"Don't die," he said. 

Hector looked up. "What?" 

"When you're out there," said Colt. "Don't die." 

Hector just tilted his brow at him. 

Colt nodded toward the twins. "I want them to meet Uncle Hector when they're actually old enough to remember him." 

His eyes widened at that. His mouth opened, but he didn't know what to say. He glanced at the reapers, who both started laughing, which only made Hector flush red. 

'We'll do our best,' Garovel said in Hector's stead. 

Colt reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "I'll get myself a new one to use for other things, and I'll keep this one in reserve just for you guys. If you ever want to come find us, just give me a call." 

'Alright.' 

"Don't lose the number. I'm guessing your phone will get destroyed one way or another, so keep my number some other way." 

'I'll remember it.' 

Colt cocked an eyebrow at the reaper. "You'll remember? Even if it's five years from now?" 

'Oh yeah. Don't worry.' 

'We have very good memories,' said Bohwanox. 

Colt gave a nod. 

"W-we should, ah... we should have a code." 

Everyone looked at Hector. 

"I mean, uh, y'know... just in case... because... I don't want a repeat of... before." 

There was a brief silence, and then Colt said, "That's a good idea. We'll keep it simple. I won't contact you at all from now on. You'll call me if you want to talk. No texting. Speak directly to me or leave a voice mail. If there's something wrong, but you can't tell me what it is, for whatever reason, then use my first name. Jeremiah. That'll be our code." 

"Uh. O-okay..." 

'Jeremiah,' confirmed Garovel. 'Got it.'

"Are you sure you understand?" said Colt. "This is important. If you call me Jeremiah, OR if you text me, then I'll know you're contacting me under duress. And moreover, I'll know to expect some type of trap." 

"Alright, um." 

'We understand,' said Garovel. 

"But, uh... what if, uh... if you're the one under duress?" 

"That wouldn't happen, since you'd be the one calling and not me. But I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a plan for that, too. If I'm in trouble but can't say so, then I'll do the opposite. I'll call you Mr. Goffe." 

"Er. Okay." 

From there, the meal and conversation both drew toward their conclusions. There was no more putting it off. 

Everyone said their farewells, and Hector and Colt shared a firm handshake. On foot, Hector followed the Pontiac up the ramp and out into the early afternoon sun. He offered a last, sweeping wave goodbye as he watched Colt drive west toward Walton. A cloud of yellow-brown dust followed in the car's wake, lingering for a while after it was gone. 

'Welp,' said Garovel after a spell. 'Looks like it's just you and me again.' 

"Yeah..." 

'It's okay. They were cramping our style, anyway.' 

Hector smirked and started back down into the bunker. "So what do we do now?" 

'Still waiting on a call from Gina. Hopefully, she'll have some information for us soon. In the meantime, you should sleep. We'll get back to training in a few hours.' 

"Alright." 

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

These past couple days had been hellishly dull. Listening to the audio recordings out of the castle was more than a full-time job, yet somehow still mind-numbingly tedious. Whenever Gina slept, that meant she would be several hours behind upon waking up, and even with fast forward, trying to listen to every recording from every room she'd tagged was an organizational nightmare. A solid ninety percent of the recordings were either complete silence or just normal people talking to each other.

Fortunately, Gina had a variety of underlings to help her sift through everything. Less fortunately, everyone involved had gotten a lot more from this job than they bargained for. After a while, a few of them outright refused to help her, and she couldn't really blame them, either. 

The problem was what some of those normal people in the recordings were talking about. Oftentimes, there would be long conversations of trembling voices trying to console one another, if not merely bemoaning their wretched fortune. All of these people were trapped in that place with at least a half dozen psychotic murderers. Horrifically, one audio log had even captured the agonized screams of someone who was probably being killed. 

Listening to all of these things, interspersed between gigantic bouts of nothing important whatsoever, was more than some of her employees could bear. 

As for herself, Gina had mainly been listening to the King's chamber, but there hadn't been anything noteworthy since mention of Karkash being able to control magnetic fields. Abolish clearly didn't care to tell the King anything of importance. 

Apparently, they weren't really after Hector, either. They didn't seem to count him as a credible threat, since he was so greatly outnumbered. A few of the servants had expressed interest in hunting him down, but none of them had any idea where to look and causing trouble just to bait him out of hiding would hinder their greater warmongering efforts. 

None of this information was worth a phone call to Hector, she felt. She was waiting on more valuable details regarding their abilities or their movements. 

Having more or less given up on the King's chamber, she spent most of her time browsing through all the different available audio feeds. 

Abruptly, Karkash's voice came over the wire. <"What is it?"> 

Gina perked up in her chair. 

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"Turn that frown upside down," said Nola. "You get to go with us to Harold! Aren't you excited? I know I'm excited."

Karkash was not wholly pleased by the woman's manic smile. "How many must go?" 

"Five," she said. "You, me, Conall, Tessa, and Hanjir. Andres is staying behind with Desmond, who is stuck babysitting the King as usual. Poor guy. I offered to fill in for him, but nobody seems to trust me. I don't know why." 

'Why do you need Karkash?' said Hoyohté. To Karkash's eyes, the reaper was an orca. Her huge, black-and-white body loomed to the right above his head, casting no shadow whatsoever, and her giant mouth did not move at all when she spoke. 

Nola's reaper floated down to answer, but her dorsal fin still stuck through the ceiling. As Karkash recalled, this one's name was Vennek. 'It's not just about destroying the town,' she said. 'If it was, just one servant could do the job. We have to stage things carefully and make sure Rendon is blamed for the attack, which means controlling the flow of information afterwards. Karkash can make that a lot easier for us by knocking out electronics around the town. It'd be annoying if some random bystander captured footage of our activities on a camera phone or something. All the footage that gets leaked has to be of our making.' 

Hoyohté gave a nod. 'I see. Very well. We will accompany you.' 

"Great," said Nola, grinning again. She wrapped an arm around Karkash's shoulder. "How about we grab something to eat, huh? Get to know each other a little better, yeah?" 

Karkash silently removed her arm and walked away. 

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Hector awoke to Garovel's insistence that he answer the phone. Gina's call didn't have a whole lot of information for him, but there was only one thing that he needed to know. 

Five of them were going to be in Harold. 

His heart sank as he heard that number. There was no way he could fight five servants by himself. He knew this, and by the look on the reaper's skeletal face, so did Garovel.

<"I've also learned all of the servant's names now,"> Gina was saying. <"There's Desmond and Karkash, of course. The others are named Conall, Tessa, Nola, Andres, and Hanjir."> 

"Th-thanks. That's helpful." 

<"Eh. I know it's not much. There were really long periods of silence where I guess reapers were talking."> 

"Don't worry about it. You've been, uh... you're, ah... very, um... I mean--" 

Gina chuckled. <"Stop. I get the idea."> 

"S-sorry..." 

<"Oh, and I learned earlier that the one who was killed was named Stoker. Thought you might like to know."> 

"Ah... I see." If nothing else, it was nice to be able to put a name to the man's face. Even if he'd been a member of Abolish, Hector couldn't help pitying him. It was clear enough, at least, that Stoker had been trying to escape from them, and while Hector didn't know the reason, it was easy to think of a few good ones. 

<"But, um, anyway."> There came a long pause. <"I hope you're not planning on going to Harold, still. You understand that there's nothing you can do there, right?"> 

He exchanged looks with Garovel. 

<"Even if Master Roman and the Queen were here, the three of you still wouldn't really stand a chance. And there's barely a week before the attack, so... I know it sucks, but you just. Um. You can't. Please don't go there."> 

"Uh. Y-yeah. I know. Don't worry." 

Gina sighed. <"Good. We really need you to stay alive right now."> She'd already been disappointed to learn that Colt wasn't going to help them fight. She didn't need more bad news, Hector felt. 

"Well, um. C-call me if you learn anything else." 

<"Of course. Talk to you later, then."> 

"Bye." After he hung up, Hector eyed Garovel again. "So?" 

Garovel folded his arms, holding his scythe over his shoulder as he floated. 'You still want to go, don't you?' 

Hector bobbed his head to the side. "I don't know about want to, but... I mean..."

'I won't allow it,' said Garovel. 'Gina's right. We can't go to Harold.' 

"But, Garovel... we can't just let Abolish destroy an entire town full of people." 

'Hector, we're not "letting" them do anything. They'll do it whether we're there or not. Either we don't go, and they destroy the town, or we do go, get killed, and then they destroy the town, anyway. That's the reason we're not going--because our presence won't make a difference.' 

"But... maybe we could... help some people escape, at least?" 

'At the cost of our own lives?' 

His expression weakened. "You want me to just... sit this one out?" 

'I'm sorry, but yes. We could try to come up with something that'll make the town evacuate, but even if we succeed and get away before Abolish shows up, they'd just pick some other town to destroy.' 

He sighed and ran a hand over his head. His hair had grown out a little, as he hadn't cut it since fleeing Brighton. 

'Listen. I know you don't place much value on your own life. And to be honest, we're oddly similar in that way. I don't place much value on mine, either. I've lived for a very long time already, and while I don't want to die, I won't mind terribly when I do, especially if it's for a good cause. And at times, it's helpful that we feel this way. Makes us a bit fearless. But now is not one of those times, because our lives can still help save many others. We don't have the best options in the world right now, but we have to choose the one that has the potential to do the most good.' 

"Fuck..." 

'However,' Garovel said slowly, 'we do have an opportunity here to do something else. It'll be dangerous, and it won't save Harold, but if we succeed, it'll definitely throw a motherfucking wrench into Abolish's plans.' 

Hector's gaze hardened. "Sounds good so far. What do you want me to do?" 

'It's gonna sound crazy.' 

"Tell me." 

'I want you to kidnap the goddamn King.'

Death is coming. And he wants to help.

The world of Eleg may seem like a normal enough place at first blush, but wade deeper into it, and soon the dark, the deadly, and the mad will begin to reveal themselves.

But don't worry.

They usually have a sense of humor.

---------------

Also available to read for free at thezombieknight.blogspot.com

- August POV, 6 years ago -
There were certain points during my time with Dante, that made me realize certain aspects of my individuality. As for Theo, it was another moment that was left imprinted in my mind, made me recognize the guilt that I was to live with for the rest of my life. However, the outcome of Ella and Bella, his innocent twins that he had not been able to protect, made me realize how weak I really was.
I screamed, at the highest pitch my voice could reach. 
It was deafening, that the toddlers began sobbing in their seat. My eyes remained closed, attempting to guide the car as Dante indicated without opening them. I knew if I did, I would instantly lose consciousness, because the weight that fell onto my shoulders was not only an illusion, and opening my eyes made it real. The vehicle soon reached a complete stop, and before Dante could say anything, I pulled open my door, and distanced myself from the car. When I felt as if I was far enough, I finally opened my eyes, my skin soon feeling the warm blood that had splattered on my face, and my palms. Along with that, there was a glob on my neck, and when I realized it was brain residue, I collapsed to my knees and began sobbing, screaming, attempting to dig into the pavement with my nails. I was unsure what to think, nor what to do, but cry as if I had been the one that got shot, or the one to lose such a loving father.
I heard the toddlers yelling in the backseat, and it was not long until Dante descended from the vehicle, jogging to reach me. When he arrived near me, although anger sharpened his features, he calmed his rage, and knelt in front of me, wrapping his arms around me. I leaned against his shoulder, continuing to cry and seeing my hands covered in red, the blood of the man that had died next to me. He was no longer to breathe, and just like that, his existence was ridiculed, as if it did not even mean anything. It was all done by one man, and one gun, and poof, the lives of his family were to change forever. His wife was to never hear from him again, and his mother would have her last breaths being told that her son had died from murder.
I felt as if my throat had clenched, not allowing oxygen to enter nor leave. Therefore, I began choking, and he panicked, laying me on my back and calmly telling me to fall at ease. It felt as if there were fingers ripping my flesh from my body, and my skin burned, seeming as if a fire had elicited on me. I could not put it out, and I was unsure if I ever could, or ever would. Dante soothed me for a while, until I was calm enough to sit without screaming. My breathing was irregular, huffing and puffing without my control, as if I had just ran a marathon. However, Dante walked towards the vehicle, and he cursed loudly, pulling the body of the father out from the car. Blood splattered onto the ground, his face was pushed in, and half was gone, leaving a huge hole where his skull had been. Instantly, I vomited, gasping for air by every growl of my stomach and continuing to puke.
Dante laughed as he dragged the body of the man within the woods beside the road, and the blood trail disgusted me, that I turned away. However, when I heard the crying of the twins in the backseat, as they smelled the danger but could only express their fear through tears, I stood to my feet and sprinted to the car, opening the backseat door and scaring them even more as they glanced in my direction.
"It's okay," I cooed quietly, attempting to comfort them as my hands filled with their father's blood patted their heads gently. One of them calmed down, staring at me with remaining caution in her eyes, while the other sobbed quieter, but observed me. They're pulled out bottom lip was causing my heart to clench, and I leaned forward, placing a long warm peck on their foreheads. "It's alright," I whispered, "I have you guys."
I refrained from glancing towards the front seats, since I knew it would throw my mind into a daze. However, when one of the toddlers reached for my hand, and gripped one of my finger tightly, as if to hold me from escaping, I bursted into tears. I felt horrible, the guilt eating me from inside and I could not stop it. I felt like piercing into my skin with my nails and grab my heart, squeezing it until I fell and died myself. They were such beautiful young girls, and their gorgeous navy blue eyes were ones I would never forget.
"What are you doing?"
I had not heard his footsteps that when his voice was heard very close to my ear, I was startled, and flinched. The toddlers noticed the change in my behaviour, and they both began sobbing again. Dante cursed, and pushed me away from the door, although I attempted to resist.
"They're cute," he commented, but a sinister smirk peeled his mouth. "Too bad we cant keep them, there's only one other option—"
"Dante," I muttered, and he glanced in my direction. I was trembling, but those kids did not deserve to get their lives taken away, "leave them alone."
Dante raised an eyebrow in my direction, and smirked, "Excuse-me?"
"Just shoot me," I begged, "have mercy on them and shoot me instead. They don't deserve to die, they're young girls, they have names."
"I didn't deserve to die either," he roared, his face becoming sharp and tensing, "but I did anyway."
I gulped, shaking my head as I approached him, gripping his shirt that was filled with blood. He also had stains on his face, and it caused him to appear much more sinister and delusional than he already was. As tears left trails along my face, all my mind could think about was saving those toddlers. They needed a life, and had the unfortunate fate to have landed within the hands of Dante and I. I raised my head, and met his light blue gaze, but they only stared back with pure disgust, and disappointment that I whimpered, continuing to sob. The toddlers were also crying in the car, and all the sobbing from different corners was boggling Dante's mind.
He placed his palms above his ears as his teeth tightened against one another, cringing from the sound, "Stop crying, all of you!" However, although my breath became stuck within my throat and my mouth instantly slammed shut, the toddlers' didn't. They were terribly scared, staring with horror as Dante pushed me off from him and grabbed their seat, pulling them both outside the vehicle. I watched as he marched around the car, grumbling curse words under his breath as he followed the blood trail of their father. The instance I attempted to follow, he reached in his belt and aimed his gun towards me.
"Step one foot closer and I'm putting a bullet in you," he shouted angrily.
I halted for a moment. The pause made my legs begin to tremble, but hearing those children scream for their lives as it was seen as a mere nuisance to Dante, made my feet begin moving once more. Dante did what he had said, he pulled the trigger, and in an instant, I collapsed onto the ground, an atrocious pain echoing through my body, but as I reached  on my left shoulder, I could feel my palm warm by trickling liquid, and as I pulled my hand to examine it, it was filled with blood. My eyes widened, and I raised my head to meet his gaze. His features appeared to have softened, as he lowered his gun and sighed, "I'll be back. Don't die." Then, he disappeared within the woods, as I laid on my back, my breathing becoming struggled as my throat clenched on itself. I had difficult breathing, my body reaching panic mode and all my nerves running wild as blood continued to pour recklessly. The sweat was dripping from me abnormally, and I felt my lips beginning to dry with my command. Suddenly, a gunshot that resounded from the trees made me flinch, and when I realized what it symbolized, tears flushed my face. It was not long until I fell unconscious, laying onto the dirt beside the vehicle.
That was another moment during our trip, that I realized how weak I truly was. I was unable to save those children, could not even flicker a bit of sanity within Dante's mind. It made me question whether it was my sanity that was obscured, rather than Dante's. Either way, my steps were following his footsteps, trailing behind him and helping him. Therefore, the death of those children was partly my doing as well, an accusation my heart was never able to redeem itself from. I was too weak to do anything.

The muffled sound of raindrop woke Nolan up. He was leaned on the wall hugging his knees. He was looking at the bed where Ciara was sleeping soundly as if she never really bothered that Nolan was there. It was awkward first when it all started but she has grown to sleep near Nolan.

   "She's asleep," he thought. He smoothed his pants and dusted his cloak. He walked to the door and went down below where he looked at the notice board. There were twenty posters calling for help in reward for Talons. Nolan turned to his pouches and recalled that he was out of money.

   He thought, "I've been using most of the money I got from Diego to take care of myself. The world's infested with demons, monsters, and beings of the dark that needs special attention to kill. Keeping wealth is quite hard when I have to gulp down potions after a battled." He stuck his tongue out in disgust. A waitress sidled towards him, her arms folded.

   "Quite a lot of demons," said she. "Taking one?"

   "I am thinking about it." He looked at her. His body squared and his eyes locking with hers. He loomed the woman and his countenance made the woman tug her hair. "Can you tell me anything?"

   "Ah yes," she said. "There's mire around the settlements called toddler's mire. The place is infested with those aborted toddlers crawling around with worm-like mouths. Do you know them?"

   Nolan listened with his chin propped. He mirrored the waitress's movement that she didn't even know that she was slowly getting comfortable in talking to Nolan. "I do. You sound like you know your stuff."

   She shuffled her feet. "I've been living here ever since this settlement got built. So let me advise you that if you want real reward then go to the Toddler's mire. If you want a safe, yet poor paying job then go for Da's Mill."

   He nodded. "What goes in Da's Mill?"

   "Interlopers hoping to steal from the mill," she said.

   "What they are stealing there, I mean."

   "Grain, usually, Da's Mill's near the river and these bucktooth creatures usually take the grain of the mill. Da, the owner, wants to kill them but he offers too little. Not to mention that no one really wants to take care of his problem when there are higher demons going around destroying settlements." She shook her head.

   "I see. Where's this mill?" he asked.

   She eyed him funny. "You are taking his request?"

   "If it earns me money, I will. I'll be looking to clear this toddler's mire too. Does the Inn sell, salt, and flour?" he said.

   "Salt and flour?" she said with a raised brow. "Why would you want that?"

   Nolan paused before speaking. "I need the flour to blind the aborted toddler, and salt to hurt their skin. If you ever find yourself facing these monsters then throw them at them."

   "Is that really it?" she leaned back.

   He bobbed his head. "They might look like they enjoy the mud but those abominations are sensitive to the salt. Their bodies can be easily wounded by salt. If I would describe it then it is like putting salt on a snail."

   "Are you used to killing these creatures?" she eyed him.

   "I am used to killing them."

   "Oh," her mouth rounded. "That's good to hear."

...

   In a damp flies-ridden place, Nolan walked with his sword drawn. His sword was coated in salt and the phantasmal oil made a strange light. He slogs through the mud and made wet sloppy sounds as he does. There were the aborted toddlers crawling on the mud, their eyes fleshy and swelling red. Their skin was festered with wounds and they look pathetic.

   "May whatever God your parents worship redeem your souls," said Nolan.

   He knew that these aborted toddlers were reanimated corpses of dead children. When he saw these monsters he was not able to kill them. But, he now knows that not killing these aborted toddlers and letting them carry on with their sinful lives was a much crueler fate.

   He whirled his blade while holding the hilt of his sword. The blade that was made of fine materials cut deep into the flesh of the toddlers. Their bodies cut in halves as they crawled their way towards Nolan. Nolan focused his eyes, it turned into the sigil of the dove of thorns and the snake of woes.

   The area around Nolan stirred. He didn't know why but he felt as if he was freed from his shackles. The curse on his eyes made him relieve the battlefields of the past. He swoops along the mud field and danced with his sword. He was rather stiff carrying Ciara around and getting his mobility back made Nolan feel better.

   Nolan was slaughtering the reanimated toddlers to their deaths. A purple robed woman with a witch-hat slogs marches through the swamp with an eager anticipation. She was carrying a holy relic and as she was about to activate it. She spotted Nolan cleaving the aborted toddlers like butter.

   She dropped her holy relic, mouth opened wide. She brought forth her staff and tapped it on the ground. A crimson wave of energy passes through the mud and concentrated to where Nolan was. Nolan, who was slaughtering the toddlers, felt the attack.

   He tumbled and swirled and dodged the wave of red. The woman who fired it looked surprised. She clenched her fingers around her staff and tried to cast another. Nolan who was still relieving the memories of the past rushed towards the source of the attack.

   The purple robed woman twirled her staff and erected a barrier. Nolan spun, he made use of his body weight to hit the barrier. The barrier reflected the attack easily. The purple woman, with an expression of tranquility, pointed her hand towards Nolan.

   "ABRA!" she casts a spell.

   Nolan threw a flask of phantasmal oil at the spell. The spell got neutralized for three-seconds. Nolan made use of that time to swoop towards the barrier of the purple-robed woman and thrusts. The woman took four steps back to avoid the blade. It was then that Nolan's eyes lost its shimmers and the sigil of the dove of thorns and the snake of woes disappeared from his pupils.

...

   The purple-clad woman raised her chin, her staff pointed at Nolan. "Heartless man, you kill these poor lost souls so easily!" she shouted.

   Nolan kept his sword at hand. His eyes slowly went dim as he recognizes the outfit of the woman. Purple robes, a witch hat, a staff, and a sympathy for the lost souls. He knew her, and it breaks his heart seeing the one and only mentor of the Bleak, the purple thunder, the witch of the Nether, and the Purple Rose of the River of Nix.

   "Audrey Cress," said Nolan.

   She raised her brows. "You know of me?" she folded her arms.

   "Disciple of the Nether, River of Nix's Witch," Nolan lowered the Sword of Zachariah. "I am Nolan," the sigil's appeared in his pupils. "A Bleak Walker, if I offended you then I am deeply sorry."  

   She harrumphs, "You killed the aborted toddler," she grimaced. "I could've sent them away from this mire peacefully." She scanned the area. "Yet look at what you've done. They are mostly dead. I have heard that men of the Heir of the Old Revenants are stoic men. But to witness such slaughter, while you dance and whirl that sword of yours...is quite unpleasant."

   "I was looking for money, and you know how we, the bleak walkers, do our thing to survive," he told her.

   "Yes. And now that I am not trying to zap your soul, I can see that you've walked far. How far exactly?" she asked.

   "The Satin Path, Stasis River, and the Old Pale Pass," he mouthed. "I've walked in the barren lands."

   "And you came back alive," she nodded. "Hmm, if we have continued fighting right now, how would I fare?"

   "I would have found a way to slit your throat." He said blandly. "I am rather proficient in killing monsters."

    "And you qualify me as a monster?"

    "Yes. I do not dare to hesitate in fighting against Witch of the Nether," he fronted her. "You would have thundered me with a far stronger spell. Not to mention that the holy relic you have right there could blind my eyes temporarily if you want to."

    She folded her arms. Her staff placed between her elbows. Her dark purple hair that reaches up her waist was swaying. "You say that but I can feel that you have tricks up your sleeves that can deal with me. Hmm, your inner core is strong, the soul that you have is no ordinary, and it smells no lies and shows that you have indeed travel far." She eyed him, her nose an inch away from his. "Hmm, you would have been a perfect man if you weren't so tasteless in killing such poor souls."

   Those words triggered the sigils in Nolan's eyes. They light up in a dark eerie color, the vision of the old future flashed upon Nolan's eyes. The death of his comrades, the battle near the Overlord's territory, the back of Audrey Cress supporting her, and her myriad of spells that have saved many of his comrades.

   The world turned dark for Nolan. He felt like he was stuck in a dark world along with Audrey Cress. Below their feet was a ripple that spread on every direction. Nolan's eyes glowed softly as the sigils in his pupils made him relive all the painful memories.

   The world of black then showed images of Nolan listening to Audrey, as she demonstrates the power of the runes. The images rippled, the images turned into a group of bleak walkers, and Nolan protecting Audrey from an army of Ghouls. The images continued to ripple as if the sigils were showing everything that he had experienced with her.

   Audrey could only see the sigil's mesmerizing her. She could feel the pain that was being emitted from Nolan's eyes. Suffering, despair, hopelessness, anguish, sorrows, and the desperation was felt by her. She took two steps back, the mud making a sloppy sound, she straightened her posture.

   "You poor man," she said. "I've heard that the Heir of the Old Revenant is cursed with the sigils of woes to remind them of what they have done and experienced. To continuously reflect until the end of their days, to constantly remind themselves how good it was to be still alive. It is a constant and perpetual negative visualization for them to appreciate their life. But for us, this is a curse."

   The images vanished, what was left was the mire. Nolan's head jolted, he squared his body and lowered his head. "Forgive me you must have felt the effects of the sigils."

   "No worries," she said. "I've witnessed something interesting. I've seen walkers with two symbols in their eyes but, I haven't experienced such painful emotion being emitted. Are you used to this curse?"

   "I do not see it as a curse," he said.


   "I see. She grabbed hold of her chin. "I must say that even if you are a tasteless man for doing such horrible deed. I can understand why you would do so. I can respect you for being able to endure such perpetual reminder. Yet, I cannot forgive your tasteless acts of slaughtering these lost souls."

    "We have different ways I know that, even so, that is the mercy I can give these children. To live a life in such a sinful manner, being forced to become an atrocious monster."

    "You can send them off with a holy relic," she added. "They are hard to get but they are the desirable way. My reasoning tells me that your methods are correct, but my values say that it is wrong. Do not blame for being aggressive, though I must admit that you were as well. Were you relieving a memory with your eyes?"

   "Yes." He sheathed the Sword of Zachariah. "I was experiencing the memories of my past. There are times that I go into a trance like this. Forgive me I would have killed you if I didn't wake up."

   "You, killing me?" she said.

   "Yes." He coldly stated. "When I am lost in a trance I function with deadly efficiency. I have little control."

   "You are confident about your own skills," her brows arched. "Your eyes say the truth. I can guess that you have your ways to kill me. What is your name?"

   Nolan bit his lower lip. He hesitated. "Nolan Salvatore, a Bleak Walker."

   "I see." She nodded. "I am Audrey Cress. You can go now, Nolan Salvatore. You should leave this place for me." She reached for her pockets and retrieved a pouch of coins. "Leave and try not to do such tasteless things if we ever meet again."

   Nolan pocketed the pouch of coins. He spun. He looked over his shoulder before clenching his fist. He had already decided not to meddle with those who he knew from the past. It was aching his heart but he didn't want to tamper on things that might change the timeline.

The Bleak Walker Nolan fought through the light's war. He marched on with his fellow rank-and-file soldiers and held the line for the Heroes against the army of the Overlord of Demons so that they can save the world from the darkness. As he dies again he found himself back in time before his meeting with the Burned Woman.

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