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Demonic Realm-50years ago
Haaaaah!
Agnus sucked in a deep breath after exiting a swirling limbo. He still hadn't overcomed the fact that he just witnessed how his mother killed his father. Regardless his mistakes and that he had it coming after being impossibly cruel to his mother, Agnus still believed that the man should've been punished other than death. It was permanent. He would've liked to know him or grow up having one parent behind.
"H-help me please," Cassia's pleading interrupted his self musings.
Agnus shook his head to clear his disoriented mind. Squinting his eyes to focus, he looked down curiously.
What he saw next made his blood ran cold. It was the same demon leader that took Rufus before and they were in the same dangerous place of the demonic realm.
Was it the reason why he had it in his subconscious? he asked himself silently.
"And why would I do that?" A demon menacingly asked, readying himself to pounce on his new prey.
"You can have me. Just p-please spare my baby," Cassia begged.
Shaking uncontrollably, she staggered to take a small step back, one at a time. She was protectively covering her huge belly with her hands like it was gonna help if ever the hungry demon would attack her. The sorceress was bleeding profusely, her knee length white summer dress and whole body were matted with blood. Tears and snot decorating her terrified face.
Agnus was panicking and tried to reach out to her but failed miserably. He wasn't even there physically. Even if he knew that it was just a memory of the past, and yet, he couldn't stop himself from cursing at the situation. The agony he felt was too real and too painful to handle. Heck, for all it's worth, he wanted to intervene so badly that he cried a silent shout out of frustration.
"Smell that?" The demon taunted, taking a long sniff in the air. "That's the smell of a precious delicacy." He pointed to her protruding stomach while he was licking his lips.
"N-no, no, no. Please, not my baby. Eat me. I'm delicious. I taste better than anyone else and my life source is very powerful. You can have everything. Everything, just spare my child. I beg you." Cassia spoke in haste. She was coaxing him. She was desperate and would do anything for her unborn child.
The demon smirked at her evilly, unconvinced. Honestly, even Cassia herself knew that there was nothing she could say or do to convince the demon otherwise. She was just clinging on a impossible hope.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. How is it gonna be? I will give you two choices, you will give birth to my food and I walk away with it or I will rip it out of you and still walk away with it."
Cassia kept on stepping back until she found herself sanwiched between a wall and the demon. She leaned on the hard rock and let herself slide down. The slippery puddle-dark red almost black blood-on the asphalt, caused her to crash down in a loud painful thud.
Her shrieks of pain echoed while the demon was watching her intently with interest. Excitement was clearly written in her eyes.
Agnus was frantic; screaming a noiseless scream, kicking a forceless kick, and cursing a wordless curse; towards the demon. He was hovering back and forth agitatedly. He felt hopeless, useless and utterly mad that he opted to close his eyes very tightly, so tight that he felt intense pain. He didn't care though, his mother was experiencing worse. Covering his ears with his hands, he tried to tune out Cassia's cry and shout. Agnus knew that after this, if ever there was an after, he would never be the same again.
How could he hate her, his mother, when she suffered too much for him?
"Ahhhhh!" Another shout from Cassia made him snap his eyes open. His vision was blurry with tears and dark spots but he paid no heed on it. His gaze was zeroed on his pitiful mother who was slumped on the cold hard cement, grunting and pushing him out for delivery while a demon was waiting anxiously a few feet away.
Ten...
Twenty...
Thirty.
It took more than half an hour of extreme pain before he was out. Agnus breath hitched as he watched his baby self inside his mother's arm.
He was... silent?
There was no crying. Sobbing and with shaky hands, Cassia sucked her baby's nose. But when he still didn't move, she tried to resuscitate him gently all the while praying for Phoenix to help her. She never prayed before and she never thought that time would come that she would actually ask the goddess's help. Cassia was too proud but for her son's sake, she did.
And pray she did. A lot of praying it was...
"Nooooo!" Her petrified scream gave Agnus goosebumps all over his body. He watched helplessly when the demon snatched the baby away cutting the umbilical cord. His evil laughter reverberated on the small, damp and dark alley way.
"Hmmm, this is delectable," he was literally drooling as he licked the baby's face with his forked tongue.
"Give me my baby back! I swear I will hunt to down if you kill him." Cassia's desperate voice made the demon laugh harder.
By that time, Agnus knew why it was in his subconscious, it was a place of tragic memory-his tragic memory.
"What're you gonna do? You're powerless now. Losing your magic upon delivery was taking its toll, eh?" he mocked. "You witzardians are arrogant fools. The black book is out of your league. Besides, my dear, by that time you regain your power, I will be long gone." The demon kept on laughing and insulting her. He was taunting her-deliberately licking the baby over and over again for her to see-before he left leaving a shrill laugh behind.
Cassia was crying like there was no tomorrow. Her rage was growing and growing uncontrollably strong. She was a broken woman with nothing to lose and nothing to care about.
Agnus was in shock looking at the state his mother was in. He couldn't cry any more, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't even move. What he witnessed was soul shattering-from his father's death to his own.
Then he realized another something, how did I survive?
"I heard your prayer," a voice woke them both up from their stupor.
Agnus stared in disbelief while Cassia glared in anger.
"I take back that prayer. You didn't come to help. It's too late!" She spat at Sylvanna who was literally glowing while her, on the hand, was emitting black smoke all over her body.
"I see," was all the response she got from the glowing goddess. It was clear that it wasn't Sylvie who stood in front of her. It was her, the one she prayed to but fell on deaf ears.
"Leave me alone. From now on, I do not believe in you." Cassia scorned.
"I am deeply saddened that you fell to a point of no return. You were a good woman. I wasn't late, there's just nothing I can do about it. I am sorry for your loss." Sylvie kneeled in front of her and placed a small bundle on her lap-her baby.
Sylvie stood, "Goodbye Cassia."
Cassia ignored her, she wasn't even aware when Sylvanna glowed more brightly for a few seconds then dimmed leaving a confused looking Faerian Queen behind.
Cassia was too focused on her unmoving silent baby. She looked like she wasn't even breathing like the little angel in her hands.
Agnus, on the other hand, was observing the Faerian Queen-who was checking her dark surrounding in a questioning look. He was baffled about the two different personalities he saw.
Apparently, he came to a conclusion when Sylvie suddenly muttered to herself, "tch, it must be Phoenix using me as a vessel again. What did she want in demon's realm?"
"A-augustus... My poor baby," Cassia's mournful voice made Sylvie look down and gasped at finding her answer. She dived down and snatched the baby away from Cassia. "No! Give him back." The sorceress cried out.
Sylvie ignored her and placed the small bundle carefully on the floor. Her hand glowed green and she pressed it on his tiny chest. Cassia became silent, both her and Agnus watched in mixed wonder, fear and anticipation. Sylvanna tried her best but in the end she hesitantly pulled her glowing hand away. Shaking her head left and right, she looked at Cassia sadly, "h-he's gone. I'm so sorry."
"No, no, no... P-please, please try again. I beg you. Try again! My baby is not dead. Please, have pity on my baby. He's not dead. Bring him back!" Crawling towards her baby, Cassia was hysterically shouting. She tried to reach him, to cradle him in her arms but Sylvie took the bundle in her arms.
"You can't. The baby will combust in your arms." Sylvie told her softly gesturing towards the black smoke that oozed out of her body.
"What is happening to me?" Cassia cried and cried until she couldn't anymore. She ended up mumbling incoherent words to herself like she lost her sanity.
"Cassia, listen to me. I will send you somewhere safe to recuperate and I will personally bury your baby. When time comes that you will be ready to face reality, I will bring you to his grave." Sylvia's words barely registered on her hazy mind. She was losing herself and she knew it. She felt it. There was no reason left for her to live.
"Cassia, do you understand me?" Sylvie asked.
Cassia gave her a nod but kept on staring blankly on the floor while mumbling inaudible words.
Sylvie snapped her fingers and her cloak floated towards Cassia, draping on her shoulders securely. Then another snap of a finger, red fire enveloped the woman and disappeared.
Agnus was surprised that he wasn't sucked on a swirling limbo just like the last time. He thought he would travel to where Cassia was going, but there he was, hovering on top of Sylvie and his lifeless baby self.
He was confused and a lot of questions were nagging him especially, how he was alive.
Sylvie once again checked her surrounding as if making sure that nobody was there then she bent down. Her lips hovered an inch away from the baby's parted small lips, a white cord-like thread flowed out from her and went into the baby.
Seconds after, Agnus gasped. He stared in awe at the answer to his question.
A long shriek of cry sliced through the silence.
"Hush now, hush. Everything will be alright. From now on, you will be Agnus." Sylvanna whispered to the crying baby placing a kiss on his forehead.