The Adventures of the Scarlet Lights. Part one, Eyelume.

chapter 6, The Arc.

Eyelume is calmly walking through the streets of Saturn in the company of Mash, a gentle smile on
his face as always. It's been a whole year since his encounter with Eddy. During this year, Eddy and his magical industry called Scarlet Enterprises went on the journey to repair an old gigantic ship of the Ruins called the Arc, it was said by old elves that in ancient times Humans came from the other side of the forbidden forest, a forest that was here before the Ruins took its place and developed cities in the forbidden forest before a mysterious force made Men eaters appear and all the humans of the arc eventually died. With the help of the knowledge of Eyelume, Eddy recreated Hector's teachings into books read by the workers of his industry. These workers began repairing this arc, rebuilding it in the hope of creating a base big enough and filled with enough resources to make it the base of a new army of guardians of the surface. By doing that, not only the surface would be safe, but they would also have a place to begin an army to fight against Despair. Once the Arc was finished, people throughout all the land decided to fight with them, creating an impactful army, trained by Eyelume's strict training and equipped with the newest weapons created. Eddy and Eyelume were able to create weapons using the best of both worlds, technology, and magic, weapons like the Cyber mana blasters or sabers were created and mass-produced to be given to the soldiers. Meanwhile, Eyelume worked a little harder on Mash's weapon, creating what he would call the Mana-Charged Cyber Saber version zero, or MCCS VO for short. As for himself, he decided to go back to a more traditional weapon, a simple claymore, to honor his time with Hope. So as he was walking, Eyelume had a pretty good reason to smile, but as he walked through the streets, he bumped into a child, who looked to be about six years old, with grey eyes, messy black hair, large eyebrows, and eyebags which suggested his exhaustion. In this kid, for a moment, he saw himself.
But then Eyelume saw the seriousness in the kid's expression, the coldness, the way he did not easily put trust in others. And at this moment Eyelume remembered clearly the words Sun had told him all this time ago.

"You were born without joy, without people to be kind toward you...
Do you want that to happen to other people, Eyelume?"

Eyelume realized in this instant what those words were meant to make him learn. The value of love in the good development of a kind soul. While Eyelume was born admiring the world, not everyone was born with the same advantage. And in front of him was the perfect example.
So he decided to calmly speak to the kid.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you lost or something?"

The child didn't respond for a moment, not trusting Eyelume at all. But seeing Eyelume's smile, the child couldn't help but feel bad if he stayed silent.

"I'm okay, my name is Spike, I'm not lost though. I ran away from the shelter. My dad passed away a few years ago and I was educated in the shelter, but I don't want to live in a shelter." Spike's tired eyes started to well up with tears as he spoke, the poor child had an awfully rough life. "I just want a family, I want my dad."

At this moment Eyelume felt something quite unfamiliar to him, a weird instinct to protect the child in front of him and make sure everything was okay and that he would be well-educated and trained to live a good life. For the first time in his life, Eyelume felt the need to take care of a child. Eyelume crouched down to Spike's level and gave him a proud smile.

"Don't cry, boy. Look at you, you should be proud of yourself. So young yet so strong. Life really was rough on you," Eyelume ruffled Spike's hair gently, "My name is Eyelume, I am the captain of the Arc. And if you allow me the honor, I'll gladly take you under my wing, kiddo."

Spike looked up at Eyelume with confusion and surprise, it's been so long since someone had ruffled his hair or spoken to him with hope. But then he started to look confused.

"Captain of the Arc? That's a silly name."

Eyelume was surprised by Spike's words, though he wasn't wrong, there was no name for the group he had built. He nodded calmly and spoke to the young boy with agreement.

"You are right, can you think of a better name though?"

Spike looked around, thinking of what would be the best name. He saw the scarlet scarf around Mash's neck and thought about the point of the arc. He had heard about it in the shelter after all.
Eyelume knocked on the door of Eddy's apartment, Eddy opened the door only to see Eyelume next to a child, Spike.

"The name of the group is Scarlet Lights now," Eyelume said with a big smile, "Oh and I got this little fella, he wants to stay with me."

Eddy's jaw dropped to the ground and Eric who had heard that from his couch came running to see what happening. And then, at the same time, Eddy and Eric spoke completely shocked.

"Eyelume, you can't just pick up a child and say it's yours!"

Eyelume got inside the apartment while scratching the back of his head.

"Come on guys, I'm not that dumb, I spoke with the shelter before coming here," Mash picked up Spike and brought him to the couch, Eyelume turned around to look at Eddy and Eric, "I'm a dad now."

"And he's a cool dad, Mister Eddy."

Spike said while resting on Mash's lap, who is silently caressing his hair. Spike is eating ice cream, wearing clean clothes, and looks clean, proving that Eyelume did take care of the kid before coming here. Eddy is confused for a moment and speaks up.

"Eyelume, I know you are different from the other people in your race, but having a paternal instinct at your age is pretty weird, don't you think? Aren't you like eighteen years old?"

Eyelume started to think about Eddy's words, he never really thought about how old he was.
He started to count every year that passed since his birth.

"Well, I was ten when I met Hope and the gods and she was fifteen, I spent five years training for the tournament where I became Hope's guardian, and then I spent five more years with her, and then I spent four years in the ruins, and a year here. So ten plus ten, twenty, plus four twenty-four, plus one, twenty-five. Oh, and I was born on the first of January so I'm one hundred percent sure I'm twenty-five."

Eddy and Eric are left completely stunned. The man in front of them they thought was so young was older than both of them.

"You idiot! Eyelume, I'm twenty-one and I've been acting like you were a teen all this time! Why do you look so damn young if you are twenty-five!"

Eyelume chuckled and took a step back.

"Calm down, Eddy. I'm not that old," Eyelume scratches his cheek and looks at Spike, who seems amused by the conversation, "look, Eddy. What matters is that I want this child to have a great life.
Sun once told me that I was born to reach the stars and to be a great man. If I can make the life of a child who has done nothing to deserve pain a little easier, then I'll do it."

The conversation is interrupted by a knock on the door. Eric goes to open the door only to see a man, a soldier of the Scarlet Lights, sweating and panting. He speaks in a hurry.

"Captain! Despair, he began powering up. There were reports of Men eaters near the World Tree, he's building up an army. If we don't start fighting back soon the world tree and the gods might be doomed!"