Tales of Astora: Legacy

Chapter 7: Revelation

Chapter 7: Revelation

Empty. Dark. That was what this place was. A little boy was lying alone in the middle of such a place. He curled up in a fetal position, with his hands cuddling his legs. He did not feel cold but in his mind he was craving for a source of warmth. Not just any but from his mother.

It was to be expected. It did not matter if he was more matured than kids at his age. In the end, Alastor was still a child who was never separated from his mother.

Nonetheless it was too late. He already lost her. He wondered in his mind if he has taken her for granted. If he could only more time with her. He remembered her soup. How horrible it tasted. How funky it smelled. How ghastly it looked. But most of all how his mother struggled to make them for him and how she smiled at him. Nevertheless, memories stayed as memories, echoes of the past.

He felt guilty. He wondered if there was something else he could do to prevent this. Perhaps if he managed to stop Alice from coming out of the house during that time, Morgan would not be injured and they could have gotten away. Or maybe if he has mastered his power from the beginning, things might have gone differently.

Tears poured from his eyes. The sadness was consuming him. The guilt was eating him. "If only I have died..."

SLAP. His cheek was hit by something. It came from an elven woman in her thirties in appearance. Her dark hair had an asymmetric hairstyle with one side longer than the other. Wearing a purple dress, she looked down on Alastor with anger.

"Don't you dare say that!" It was Asmodeus. Normally she was a shadow but now she just looked like a normal person, as if she has been washed off the darkness that usually covered her.

Alastor swiped his tears and tried to regain his composure.

"So you have your colors back. What do you want with me? Was I too weak for your expectations?" Alastor said with sarcasm.

"You stupid!" Asmodeus lifted her hand again. But her arm was stopped by another bulky man. It was Belz. A large, almost chunky, beastman. His body was covered with a coat of brown fur, wearing a heavy armor.

"Wait wait! Didn't you say you want to conform him? Why are you hitting him like that for?" he tried to calm Asmodeus down.

"Let me go! As his sister I have to educate him."

"Shut up!" Alastor said in a small voice then he yelled out "SHUT UP! What do you even know about me? Don't you call yourself my sister! Because you are NOT!"

Asmodeus was blown away. She could not utter a single word. Despite being on the verge of crying out but she tried hard to hold her tears.

Meanwhile, Beelzebub stood in the middle of them. "Alastor, you did not mean that! Asmodeus, he is still young! Let it go!" Belz desperately tried to calm both side. But it did not seem to work.

"Get away from me!" Alastor ran towards the darkness, leaving a panicked Belz and a somber Asmodeus behind.

A shadow approached them. He looked at the running Alastor then turned to Asmodeus. "Should you let him run away like that?"

"He doesn't want to see me. What do you want me to do?" Asmodeus hesitantly replied.

"No no I don't mean that. It's just... isn't he running toward that?" The shadow calmly spoke.

"What do you mean tha.... OH NO!" Asmodeus and Belz realized at the same time. The Abyss seemed like an endless surface but it actually had different levels. And at the lowest level, there was something else. Something the shadows usually avoided. And the only way to go there was to go in the direction Alastor was running toward.