Lucas took Luna's corpse into his arms. He cried and is angered by human stench lingering on her body.
Seeing Luna's injury, he remembered that Luna will certainly die where either of her heart or brain were totally wrecked.
He placed her body to the ground, and gave his one last kiss. "Luna.... Luna... I'm sorry... I'm really... Really sorry...! I swear by my name, I will AVENGE you."
In that instance, Lucas, for the first time, let go of his infernal instincts and unleashed it to what he deemed as enemies. He killed everything in his path; Devouring and ripping their flesh off their body, Infernals and Humans alike. As he's drove such impulse, tears ran down on his blood-tainted slit eyes so as his heart screamed in pain but his mind tells that there's no way in getting Luna back for she is dead.
In his outrage, the number of Rogue Infernals diminished and the enemies reduced in numbers. He's totally out of control at the moment but suddenly, in his berserk state, he remembered one last treasure that he and Luna had, Luke. That, he halts his rampage. "Luke... My son .. he's with Luna so is the soothsayer! I must— find them!" So, he start tracking the remnant smell attached to Luna and the smell leads him at the Town square.
At the town square....
The vicinity is in total chaos but Lucas paid them no heed for what matters to him most is finding his son. Just then, he heard a familiar voice and a wailing child. There, he saw the soothsayer pointed by the tip of the blade. It looks like the soothsayer eagerly offered herself as a shield for Luke's safety but their captors makes fun of her thus slashed her.
Blood spilled on the ground and baby Lucas keep on crying. "What are we gonna do with this kid, boss?" Henchman(1) looks worried and the boss just pats him. "Fret not, we'll take this child to Caur'Bon Naura Empire and turn him into a slave." He waves his arm. "Take and put him together with the rest!" The boss gives order and his henchmen salutes. "Aye, aye sir!!" They're going to seize Luke but just as they reach, their hands got sliced.
The henchmen screamed and Lucas appeared in front of Luke. "Stay away from my son, you mongrels!" He warned them but they ignored his warning. "Son? This doofus said that child is his son?!" And they all laugh, leaving Lucas no choice but unrestrained his infernal nature.
His jaw ripped, his teeth turned jagged, bones resurfaced from his skin, and his claws grows sharply. He lunged at them and rip them to shreds.
When all those evil humans killed, he approaches Luke. "It's okay Luke, father's here!" As he's about to take his son, someone stabbed him in the chest. "Ha! You reminded me of that Red-haired beast, who pretentiously protecting her child! Die!" Lucas is angered and used his remaining strength to slash him with Nebulous. The man squished like a mosquito and Lucas fell beside his son.
"It's been a year and I didn't expect you'll grown into a healthy baby, Luke." The baby kept crying but with Lucas' gentle touch, the boy halts and chuckled. Suddenly, Luke's chuckling attracts the nearby Rogue Infernals and raced to feast on him. Lucas wrapped his baby with his arms before the Rogue infernals attacks. He protected Luke until Lura arrives in the scene.
"I sense a powerful aura around this place, ranking the level of a Void King. But where could it be?" Lura's searching about Lucas' whereabouts but she saw a mob of Rogue Infernals circling the helpless man (Lucas). Therefore, she draws her weapon and annihilate them with her Divine Spells she inherited from her mother.
When the coast is clear, Lura checks on him. The moment she gets in contact, the presence of a Void King strongly emits from him. "No way, you're the Void King I sensed earlier?" Lucas loosen his guard and fell beside his son, all blooded and injured. Lura witnessed that Lucas just protected a baby and— "Wait... You risk yourself for the sake of that baby?"
Luke crawled towards his father. "Dadah... Dadah..." Lura saw that the baby has both blood-tainted hair and eyes which exactly matched what Luna described upon the letter. "Lura ... How am I glad to see you in my last moments." He felt glad and Lura's worried. "Now, I can rest in peace."
"You're Lucas!? I... I must find my Big sis and—" Lucas held her hand. "Luna's dead, staked straight in the heart by those wretched fools." Lura's noticed a band of corpses in the perimeter. "My vision is getting blurry, therefore, I must haste." Lucas grabbed Nebulous and lend it to her. "Take this, The Void Realm's Heirloom, Nebulous. Give this to my Luke when the time is right. This sentient weapon only lets Royal-blooded Anherion wield it but— I humbly ask to grant you temporal permission."
Lura takes the weapon and it transformed into a dull blade. "What in Tophet happened??!" Lucas vomits blood but still trying to fight for his life. "Nebulous can transform whatever it pleases. And— please... I beg of you, keep my son's identity hidden for a time being."
"Why?" Lura's curious but later, she understood. "I see." Lucas' injury gotten worse so he approaches his son and petted him. "Luke, be a good boy to your 2nd mama, okay?" He kissed on Luke's chubby cheeks. "Make mamah and dadah proud." Luke chuckled and Lucas disintegrate to thin air. The baby is chuckling but Lura felt bad for Luke, having to lost his parents at his 1st year.
Later....
All the corpse were displayed at the plaza for their love ones to grieve. There, Lura saw the corpse of Luna. She draws near and hugged her. "Big sis... You said you'll gonna share your love story with me... Why? Why did you break your word? Why??" She cried like a wailing cow and remembered the last moment she had with her. Luke doesn't understand what's going on, after all, he's just a kid.
He's really hungry and he crawled to Luna for breastfeed but Lura took him in her arms. "I'm so sorry Luke but your momshie is dead. She can't breastfeed you anymore." Luke reaches his hand to his mother's body and Lura can't help but cry.
At the Evacuation Zone....
Lura and baby Luke temporarily take shelter in a tent. They're all alone and the ration came just came in; A plate of food and a bottle of milk for the infant. "Thank you." Lura took them and have their dinner. Both finished their food but baby Luke is not contented and reached out to Lura, just like what he did with his mother's corpse earlier. "Oh? You want more? But that's all the ration we've got. Please bear with m—" Luke still reaches his hand and she glimpsed on her chest.
"You want me to breastfeed you?" Luke chuckled and Lura's surprised. "Well, I just lost my child recently. I think I can still breastfeed you though." She took Luke to her arms and start breastfeeding him. The baby has an appetite of a pig and it laches to her like a leech. Lura flinched by the baby's aggressive appetite and made her jolt. "H— hey..! Slow do— down! You'll chok— choke!" The baby paid no mind and keep having his milk.
Just then, Lura stared at him and remembered what John said before. She then smiled and embraced the child. "Just as you said John, there's always a reason in everything." Luke's drinking and Lura smiled. "We may not be fortuate to have a child but we were able to witness an embrace and love of an orphaned child."
Lura touched the baby's head. "Your parents died, but don't worry. I'll try whatever I can to give your necessities. As a mother, I will raise and nurture you like my own. As a warrior, I will train and hone you just like your parents. I, Lura Lyfrienia, has spoken." She kissed his forehead.
"Luke, starting today, your name will be Luke A. Lyfrienia. I promised your father and I must keep it till the right moment comes." In that night, Lura enjoyed breastfeeding Luke. She raised him as a single mother and surprisingly, Lura's able to sustain Luke's pig appetite with only her breastfeed. That, she's not bothered giving Luke a bottled milk.
Lura possess great beauty but she paid no attention in grooming herself anymore for she poured lots of love and attention to Luke. Her bob-cut hair grew longer alike that of her Luna. By this, Luke viewed her more like his biological mother because she and Luna have identical hair color.
The house they lived is the Soothsayer's house, since it's unbelievably unscathed from the raid. There, they lived peacefully. When Luke fell asleep, Lura slowly made an underground basement in order to place Nebulous there. She placed the sword in the altar and speaks. "I will fulfill Lucas' wishes and give you to Luke when he reaches adult. This stime, he's still growing, so I must apologize for leaving you in the basement." Lura left and Nebulous pulsed.
Three years later....
Luke finally grew up. He may be 3-year old but his brain operates like that of a 10-year old kid; All thanks to his father's genes. He can fully speak and understand his surroundings, still, his childishness remins. He enjoyed his life but after seeing countless raids of the Rogue Infernals, he made a choice.
At dawn....
Lura finished breastfeeding Luke and is preparing to head towards the field. Just then, "Momshie, may I... Umm... talk to you for a moment?" Lura fixes her clothes. "Sure, why not?"
"Momshie... I saw you fight from the previous raids. You look so cool and awesome!" Lura blushes. "Oh stop it you! Momshie is built a Hero, yaknow." She let Luke's compliment get ahead of herself and Luke made a fidgeting thumb movement. "Please momshie..... Train me." Lura's surprised. "For what? To fight off your bullies bullying you of being a tomato? That's a great no, no, Luke."
Luke shakes his head. "No. It's not about my bullies why I wanted to train. I want to help the town from the infernals." He looks at his small palm. "I've witnessed destruction and cruelty that the infernals brought upon our land. I... I wanna— somehow, help." Lura noticed that Luke meant his words, genuinely.
Also, Lura sensed the ceaseless amount of potential on Luke, after all, he's the son of a Void King and next-in-line Lunaria named Luna. That, she smiled and can't help herself but pat his head. "Alright, alright. You've convinced momshie. Let's head towards the Training Site right away. And— *smirk* My training is not for whiners, got it?" Luke felt blissful. "I will momshie!!!"
"Now, now... Prepare yourself! We'll start your mini training." And so, mother and son headed to the training ground.
At Training Site....
After minutes of walking, they've finally arrived at the site. Luke cannot sustain his excitement and ask Lura what's their training all about. "Your training? Well, it's not like I'll straightforward teach you to full-blown battle. What I want you to learn were the basics." Lura explained. "Firstly, I'm going to teach you in controlling that surging power." Luke looks around. "I didn't see any surging power." Lura laughs. "Of course you haven't, we didn't trained yet!"
"The essence of why I set this as your first training so you will learn to grasp your power proficiently. Thus, once you're akin with it, you'll be able to manifest your magic and be able to cast out magic in the long run." Luke listened. "Once you achieved control, we'll move on to the next step which is harnessing the power of Nature; Pyros, Agua, Aero, Tontrus, and Tierra."
"Ha?" Luke's confused. "Pyros is fire, Agua for Water, Aero for wind, Tontrus for Thunder, and Tierra for Earth. Those words were coined at Peiz Zae Empire of the Northeast, since they're the ones who discovered the usage of power. And— heh! Let's not talk about them yet. For now, let us first focus on the basics." She draws near and extend her palm to Luke's chest. She start feeling Luke's power and suddenly, Lura sensed that the balance of Light and Dark is totally off, especially how dominant the Dark power is.
"Luke may have inherit most of her mother's physique, but clearly, the nature of his power strongly inherits from his father. *smile* What a surprising union of fate." She wondered. "What are you doing, momshie?"
"I'm trying to determine the dominant nature of your power, Luke. And it looks like your power portrays majorly Destruction." Luke frowned. "Whaaaat...? No..." Lura patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It doesn't mean your power portrays destruction, you are evil, it all lies to its caster. What's the use of someone being able to cast a Light-based magic but he/she is evil to the core, right? So keep that in mind, son." She smiled and Luke's dazed. "Anyway, let's now start with your first training. First, let us kneel."
"Take a deep breath and close our eyes. Focus and feel it. You'll be faced with pitch black space and you feel sheering cold crawling down your skin but don't be scared. Look deep, deeper to the darkness and you'll see light that is the size of a firefly."
"Now, head towards that light. Do you feel it? The more you're near, that chilling cold is fading away, is it?"
"Keep going until the Light is as big as a ball that fits through your hands. Take it, embrace it and feel its warm." — Lura kept on speaking but in Luke's case, the Light that he chased on doesn't give him warmth but worsens his chills. In that moment, he saw glimpses of his young memories where; his mother's carrying him and the Rogue Infernals raided their house.
Luna lend him to the Soothsayer and yelled. He doesn't know what she yelled but the soothsayer made her leave. Some of the infernal aimed their attack at them, so Luna tanked it with her body. By the time he blinked, Luna is staked in the chest by mortals. They laughed and it etched in Luke's memories of how his mother died in a gruesome way.
"Once you feel the warmth of that light, embrace it and— " Lura opened her eyes and she saw Luke lay flat on the ground, trembling in cold. "LUKE!!" She quickly embraced him and noticed that the boy is in sheer cold.
"Oh no... No... No... No... What's going on?! How did it turned out like this!!!?" That pure fear ran down on her spine.