Maxi blinked, rubbing his eyes as he stood to his feet. "The last thing I remember happening was..." He paused, his fingers touching his lips. His eyes widened. "Oh yeah... I think those two kissed me."
He stood in silence, stunned. "Why? I mean... I just met them today, and they both kissed me?" He looked off into the distance. "I mean... I can admit my face looks cute, but I'm not that cute... right? Is it possible that they both had a crush on me?"
As he spoke, a faint pink glow lit up his cheeks. Maxi then slapped himself sharply and shouted, "No! Don't get lost in childish emotions just because you're in a child's body! Just because your emotions are scattered doesn't mean you must abandon your standards as an adult. Even if the memories of you being an adult are broken—"
A laugh echoed through Maxi's mind.
"Oh... no," Maxi thought.
But it was too late. The feeling of sluggish depression had already fallen upon him; it was too late for him to fight back against his retribution.
Soon enough, a small mocking voice spoke:
"You're pathetic, don't you think? You just got sexually assaulted by two children, and what your mind immediately comes to is a justification for why they did it."
"They had a crush on you. You're cute. Don't flatter yourself, Elijah, you disgruntled mask-wearing old man."
Maxi couldn't speak up to counter the voice. Its voice was too final, too matter-of-fact, for him to intervene and argue in any way, so he just bowed his head.
"You know what? Maybe this is karma for what you did to Katie, right? You forced her to do your will without consent—something she didn't ask you to do and something she didn't want to do—and now two little girls are doing the same thing without your consent."
Laughter echoed again. "Funny how the universe works, huh, Elijah? Do you feel it now, how she felt helpless and weak, unable to do anything but scream internally as you forced your will onto her? Do you feel it? Tell me, Elijah, do you feel how pathetic you are and how much of a moster you are?"
A thought violently intruded, cutting through the reasoning of the retribution like a blade.
{Retribution, I think you've got the wrong person. This isn't our Elijah.}
"Oh, then do tell. Who might he be?"
{I don't know, but hold on, let me test something.}
{Tell me, Maxi, what difference would it have made if you were born in this world with all your memories buried instead of a few?}
Maxi froze, stunned. He hesitated, then whispered, "I guess... nothing much would be different."
{Now, Maxi, I am going to need you to be honest.}
"I am."
{I won't ask again. Be honest, please.}
Maxi sighed as he almost threw up trying to say the words that were buried deep in the pit of his stomach.
"I... I guess the difference it would make is completely easing, or completely getting rid of, the fight between the responsibilities of these old memories and the desire to full send into a new life. I mean, from what I can remember, even in my final moments I was burdened with responsibility. I carried burdens. But now that I'm a child in a new world and a new life, I am still burdened with the responsibility and memories of the old. So in reality, am I really living in this new life? To be honest, I don't want to go back to my old life; I want to start anew. So why do I cling on so hard, even with most of my memories of there not being too good—well, the ones I can remember, at least?"
{Nope, it isn't him, Retribution. If it was him, he would have kept lying to my face with a smile. It seems like this is someone else completely, someone new.}
"Then I guess I will be off, then."
The feeling of sluggish depression lifted from Maxi's body.
Maxi sighed in relief.
{Listen, Maxi, you don't seem to know what's going on here, but you don't need to. Just know this about your memories:}
{There was no difference between your childhood and your adulthood. In both, you always struggled. You always had burdens. You always carried responsibilities far too much for your age.}
"If my whole life was just burdens and responsibilities far above my capabilities, what was the point of my life?"
{That was up to you to determine, and you chose to make the point of your life to give someone else what you never had: a reason to live while ending yours.
Each one of your actions, no matter if they were good or had a good result, had the consequence of pain that left scars. Scars so deep they made you question whether life was even worth living. It's the very reason why you made the point of your life to give someone else what you never had, despite having a family and friends, despite having what was called the dream of so many others.
BUT there was a difference between your adulthood and childhood. In your adulthood, you had people to take care of, a family to love, and friends to share laughs, but no one to keep you grounded, no one who made you fall in love with life, fall in love with your life. In your childhood, you had that. You had one person, just one person, who did all of that for you, who made you fall in love with your life so much that the very thought of sacrificing it wouldn't even cross your mind, because of how much you loved your life, because of how much she made you love your life. She was the thin, fragile thing which you clung to for dear life.
She was your reason.
She was the why.
She was why you lived as long as you did.
She was the reason you didn't only have an childhood.}
Maxi felt his breath leave him. His eyes seemed to trembled with tears. He asked the only question he could:
"Who is she?"
{You already know who. That's why I can't tell you. You'll have to remember yourself. But Maxi... I'm telling you this so you'll cut the stupid act of trying to up hold the standard of an adult that you have set upon yourself when you're clearly still a kid. Just because your childhood in your past life was not a real childhood doesn't mean you have to reject this one. It doesn't mean you can just throw away the only chance you have of actually expressing being kid.
This is a new beginning, a new story. Not the sequel of an old one. So make the most of this—make it a childhood you actually want to remember. Make it a childhood you can call your own.
Stop trying to be what you were—or what you're not yet—and just be what you never had to chance to be: a child.}
Maxi sighed, his lips trembling as he tried to hold back tears. But he couldn't. He cried... and smiled.
"I don't know why I needed to hear that, but... thanks, subconscious or whoever you are... I guess." He chuckled softly. "Seriously, thank you. I guess I have a new goal now—figure out who that person was from my childhood. But for now... I need to figure out what the hell is going on."
He whipped away the tears that where beginning to form in his eyes and began to walk with a new purpose.
He he didn't know we're being kid meant or entailed, but he was more then willing to learn.
As he walked he through the familiar corridors of the black castle, its halls seemed twisted, but yet oddly welcoming.
Maxi seemed to get lost in the castle halls beauty as he wallked into a section with the walls open, showing off green grassy plains that seem to stretch on, cut off only by another open hall that seemed to lead to another unknown part of this beautiful castle.
As he looked up, the sky was red, but a wonderful kind. The only way to describe it was the faint velvety red that was posesed by a vail, but the only thing that could be seen thought this red sky wat another deeper lighter red.
And the sky seemed to be littered with floating islands with dark chains going through them that disappeared into the sky.
There seemed to be some stares in the sky as well.
Maxi admiration section was interrupted as he bumped into the door of a strange area that seemed to have an enormous glass wall tinted red with a single door in the middle. The door bore a symbol: his three-eyed sigil.
But something had changed.
Instead of the left eye looking away, now all three eyes faced forward.
Maxi turned his hand as he looked at the back of them, confirming it—his sigil had indeed changed.
Maxi's mind whirled. Considering how he had previously met the Demon King of Pride and the God of Secretive Planning in similar dream-states, he wondered:
Was he about to meet the Demon Queen of Lust?
He took a deep breath and opened the door.
On the other side was a radiant garden.
The sight of it alone seemed to wash away the stress and sense of crisis Maxi had before, completely wiping it from his memory with the assistant of—
As the garden's wind brushed past Maxi's hair, he saw a woman.
Her skin a soft rosy red, her hair snow white, dressed in a flowing white nightgown. She walked in gentle excitement, almost dancing.
Then she turned to him and smiled.
Maxi stood frozen. She was breathtaking. A wedding veil hung delicately over her face, and in that moment, only one word came to Maxi's mind:
Beautiful.
She clapped her hands in joy and hurried over, towering over him just like the other gods. She hugged him tightly, pressing him against her chest until he squirmed for air. The woman laughed—though no sound came out—and gently set him down.
Maxi panted for breath as she began to speak. Still, her voice didn't reach him—yet he could read her lips perfectly now.
"Oh, finally! We have a connection. I've been waiting so long for you to find love so we could bond. And I quite like her a lot!"
She giggled as Maxi raised an eyebrow.
"My bad—I forgot to introduce myself. I am the Demon Queen of Lust, and I am so happy we finally connected. You're finally ready. All you need now is to awaken your blessing."
Maxi held his head as pain surged—recoil from reading a god's lips.
He groaned, "Sorry, but I don't think my mom would agree with that..."
The Demon Queen laughed again—soundlessly.
"Oh, your mother! I forgot. I'm sure she'll come around, especially if the God of Secretive Planning has anything to say about it. But I can't keep you here long—it's draining too much of my demonic energy. There's no real difference between divine and demonic anyway... except for type advantage, I guess."
Maxi groaned again, nodding slowly.
Then she asked, with a curious sparkle in her eyes:
"By the way, out of your entire family, whose eyes do you like the most?"
Maxi thought for a moment. "My mom's."
"Oh? Why?"
"They're like a blank canvas... begging for something to be written or created—stars, planets, even simple things like a tree. I always wanted eyes like that, representing the infinite possibilities that the universe wants for you to take. Mine are cool—these blood-heart eyes are fine—but hers are... better, in my opinion. At least I inherited her gorgeous hair."
He brushed his brown hair with a small smile.
The Demon Queen laughed and pulled back her veil, revealing her face—flawless and divine. Her short horns poked out from her hair as her black and pink eyes sparkled.
"Good to know."
And just like that—everything shattered.
Glass turned to shards. Maxi plunged into an endless black void.
A light touched him.
Beneath him, a book appeared—on a grand table—bearing the three-eyed symbol.
"No way... is today the day?!" Maxi screamed with excitement.
He dove toward the book, arms outstretched. Shadows erupted around him, hands shooting toward him with thunderous speed.
But he wouldn't be stopped.
"Not today!" he roared, adjusting his body into an aerodynamic form, darting like a bullet toward the book.
The shadowy hands reached him—grabbed him—but it was too late.
Maxi snatched the book and clutched it to his chest like a lifeline. The hands dragged him backward into the abyss.
Suddenly, he hit something. A barrier.
Then—
Light.
Buildings.
Cars.
People.
Horns.
Wind.
He was flying through the air.
He slammed into something with a thud.
"Ahh—my head..." he groaned.
Dazed, he looked around. He wasn't in his room. He was in some kind of box. He heard crying.
He moved to sit up—expecting resistance—but passed through the box like a ghost. Blinded briefly by the light, he turned his head.
And then he saw—
A man.
Holding flowers.
Wearing black.
Green eyes.
Glasses.
Tears in his eyes.
Maxi recognized him—he was Darren.
Maxi's heart stopped as he looked around.
His friends.
His family.
His dad.
Emily and Damien.
His wife—Anna.
Maxi muttered, "How...?"
Darren placed the flowers down in front of him.
Then he looked down—
And realized it.
He was inside a coffin.
He was at a funeral.
Not just any funeral.
It was his funeral.
End of Ark.
A Soul's Hunger For Knowledge