Chapter 3 – The Origin of the Belaus

In the year 1300 BC, Helen peacefully died in her sleep at the age of 80. Acheron devastated with the loss, started to lose himself to the ever-present blood lust inside him and started to obsess with getting stronger and finding a way to control his emotions. He began to journey through the known and unknown world.

He began in Sparta, learned the art of combat from them, then to Athens and gained knowledge and arts. He traveled to the far east, to the land of dragons, he picked up the art of the Guzheng (zither), different forms of martial arts, and a way to suppress himself. He had traveled from the west to the east and everything in between in his search for knowledge and power.

One day, Acheron found himself in Rome, it had been over 200 years since the death of his first wife, Helen. He had trained both body and mind, he no longer rampaged and slaughtered indiscriminately, but his thirst for it never diminished. He set up mental blocks and certain triggers for the specific purpose of not falling into depravity. As he walked the streets he listened to the inhabitants if this city and quickly picked up the language, a language called Latin.

As he was heading to get something to eat from one of the street vendors he came upon a small child, about 5 years old, she was on the side of the street begging for food or money. What caught Acheron's attention was the little girls' eyes, her pupils were white, and her eyelids seemed to have partly melted shut, to any passerby she would appear to be blind but to Acheron he felt that wasn't the truth.

As he looked at her, the little girl feeling his gaze, made eye contact with him. As if she saw the most horrible thing in existence, she froze in place and showed extreme fear and trepidation. This reaction confirmed Acheron's guess, she could see but not with her eyes, her eyes were showing her something else, and so he began to walk towards her. The small child didn't know what to do, she couldn't call for help because no one would care, and she couldn't run because she knew she couldn't escape from this terrifying entity that was heading her way.

Her family had died about a year ago, some evil soldiers raped and killed her whole family, as to get rid of the evidence and the bodies, they set their house on fire. Not knowing that the little girl was stashed away underneath the floor boards by her mother, she had escaped death but not without a price, a burning log landed on her face as she tried to exist her home, blinding her. Even in her blindness, she crawled away to safety before passing out from the pain. When she awoke the next day, she found her eyes partially melted shut but for some reason she could still see, but it was unlike before, animals and people were just shadows wrapped in colors.

She quickly learned what the colors meant and how she could differentiate between good and bad people. The shadows cloaked in white were those that were kind people, gray was neither good or bad, and black were bad people. There were other colors, but she linked those with the emotions currently felt by the person. To this day, she had survived by trusting the colors she saw around people, she avoided slave traffickers, rapists and all kinds of dangers by her lonesome.

Today, as she was doing her usual begging through this street, she found that this area had the nicest group of people in the city, she saw a terrifying existence. The man, no, the monster in front of her were leagues above the rest of the criminal scum that plagued the city. She froze in fear at the massive aura that this person possessed, it was pitch black, far darker, far thicker than anything she had ever seen, bloody red streaks flowed through this abyss like a river. He had noticed her! he headed towards her, she was panicking, her heart beat in her chest like a ceremonial drum, her body wouldn't respond to her! it was frozen in place.

She cursed the gods above on creating her with such terrible luck, this monster stopped right in front her, she looked down and prepared for death, she felt a little relieved on the inside, she could finally meet with her family in the Elysium Fields. She waited, but death never came, surprised she looked up and wondered what happened, she heard a voice that seem to come from the deepest parts of Tartarus started speaking to her.

Acheron had walked up this little girl, he could practically taste the fear in the air coming from her, deep within his mind a part of him relished it. He wasn't sure why she was so afraid, so he asked, "Little girl, why does thou fear me so? This should be our first encounter, yes?" the little girl stuttered as she said "P-p-p-p-please Your Excellency P-P-P-Pluto, s-s-spare my life! I didn't mean to peer in to your existence with these mortal eyes of mine!"

To the little girl only the evilest of gods should have this color around them, and she thought that he was Pluto, the ruler of the Underworld, "Pluto? That is not my name, I am called Acheron" he said. The little girl paled, Pluto was fair in his judgement on souls, but instead, she had confused him with another god, now she thought that he was god that embodies one of the Underworld rivers, the River of Pain. It is said that the River of Fire, Phlegethon, and The River of Wailing, Cocytus, empty into the River of Pain, Archeron.

She couldn't speak, no words could form in her little head, she just stood there with her mouth open and trembling in fear, in her mind she was sure that she would be tortured for eternity.

"What is your name, small one?" Acheron asked. She snapped out of her stupor and responded quickly thinking any disrespect towards him will cause her life to end. "M-m-m-m-my name is Hellen, I was named after the Spartan Princess by my parents, Your Excellency" Acheron was shocked, 'oh how the fates play with him so', to think after all this time he would hear that name again. In the little girls' eyes, that black abyss suddenly had a new color added. It was a pure white flame, small compare to the rest but it burned brightly like the sun, pink lines flowed through the white flame, causing it to burn even brighter. "My wife was also named Helen and had hailed from Sparta, so little one, where is your family?" he had a warm and kind smile on his face as he asked her. She could feel the warmness in his tone and felt his smile even if she couldn't see it. "They have passed away" she sadly said, she explained to him what happened to her family and about her eyes, putting her complete trust in him.

In this moment in time Acheron made a decision that changed his life for millenniums to come. "Well Hellen, would you like to be adopted by me? We can be a family!" Acheron said. Helen was shocked silly, to think a god would want to adopt her! She started to cry, ever since her family's death she had to struggle to survive, even thought there were nice people that fed her some food, to rest of society she was just trash on the street, waiting to one day meet her untimely death.

Acheron bent over and picked her up, she started to cry even harder, he felt so warm and safe in his embrace. "Now, now, don't cry, I have picked a Family name for us" Helen wiped her tears and snot on the rags she calls clothes. "*sniffle*, *sniffle* what is it, Your Excellency?" she said.

"I have decided on The Belaus, what do you think?" he says. Helen couldn't help but laugh, Belau? as in for Monster? She looks up at him giggling and says "Sounds like the perfect name for our family" Acheron smiles at her comment. "Let's go on our way, maybe we could find new family members on our journey" and so the Belau family was established on this day, becoming what will one day be the most powerful force on the planet.