"Wait just a second! Get back here!" Ezeikel screamed, already chasing after Darion's receding figure. But, before he could properly give chase, he felt a hand grab him firmly from behind, yoinking him back. His head turned, and his eyes stared back at the terrible expression on his father's face.
"Just where do you think you're going?!" Kennedy roared, unable to hold back his own tears.
"To kick his arse, of course! I… Look at what he did!" He pointed furiously at his mother's corpse, his whole body quivering as the pingent stench of her blood wafted through his nostrils.
"Don't be foolish! If I couldn't do anything to save your mother, then what good do you think you'd do instead?!" Kennedy snapped back, raising his hand to strike his son. "I'm not going to let you throw your life away, not after she decided to sacrifice herself for you! I'd rather die than watch you leave this world to!"
"In that case, you should have just died! How could you just sit back and let that bastard kill her?! Isn't she your wife?! Don't you care about her at all?!"
Kennedy's palm comnected with Ezeikel's cheek. The sound was sharp, a stinging pain spreading across the latter's face. His sobs dimmed, but the fire in his eyes remained. He glared at his father, as if threatening Kennedy to slap him one more time.
Eventually, he said:
"Hah… you only hit he because you knew that would shut me up. You did it because you knew you're stronger than me. That's the only thing that makes you act—strength. But then, when you're face-to-face with someone ten times, or even a hundred times stronger than you, you turn into a coward. Your strength isn't something you can rely on anymore."
Veins bulged through Kennedy's forehead. He raised his hand once more, ready to strike Ezeikel, when shortly after, he halted.
As much as he wanted to discipline his son, he couldn't deny the fact that what Ezeikel said was true. As bitter and harsh as it was, it was still the irrefutable truth.
"... I'm sorry…" Kennedy muttered under his breath, pulling Ezeikel into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry that I wasn't a sensible father with you. I'm sorry that I couldn't protect your mother…" his cries persisted, falling upon Ezeikel head like a miniature rain storm. "I promise, son, that no matter what, I'll never let anything bad happen to you. Mark my words." Father and son cried in each other's embrace, till they could no more.
That night, lives were lost, people grieved, and all were swept away by the pragmatism of the sinister storm.
________
Present time
"You scoundrel! You knew all this time that I had this power in me, yet you hid it from me. You hid it from us! Now, look at where we are."
As Ezeikel spoke, Kennedy's expression was filled with a mix of regret and surprise. Slowly, he muttered under his breath, still unable to believe what he had heard.
"Your mother… was pregnant?"
Ezeikel grimaced as he glanced at his father, then replied saying:
"She refused to tell you because she knew that wouldn't make a difference. A loser like you wouldn't bat an eye to let his wife and unborn child die in order to save himself," right after saying that, Ezeikel picked himself up from the ground. He wiped his tears with his dirty, bloodied sleeves, and began to walk out of the enclosure, to the streets of the tenebrous town.
Kennedy quickly trailed behind him, calling out to his son repeatedly.
'Your father is deeply troubled. Don't you think you should take it easy on him?' the voice in his head suggested, concern evident in its tone.
'What do you know about anything? You've only been useful for barely 24 hours, yet you already think you can give me orders. Just shut up,' Ezeikel replied crudely to the voice.
'My apologies…'
"Ezeikel! Wait, please!" Kennedy finally caught up to him, grabbing his garment from behind. Ezeikel immediately shrugged his arms off, letting Kennedy fall to the ground on his back.
"It was the only way she could think of to protect you!"
Ezeikel turned to face him, his crimson eyes… well, at this point, they weren't fully red anymore. While majority of his eyes glowed red, around the corners, steaks of orange could be identified, fighting unrelentingly to overcome the rest of his visual coloration.
"What are you talking about?"
Kennedy heaved out a sigh, then got back to his feet. His tone was earnest as he began his explanation.
"Your mother… before Darion attacked, she told me that she couldn't be the mother you needed her to be, not with me being dead. Ezeikel, your mother couldn't handle the pain of loosing someone she loved. She said she'd rather die than watch any of us get killed. And her child… she didn't even mention anything about that to me. I… I can't believe she got herself and our unborn child killed."
Kennedy hated himself for a lot of things already, but now, hearing that he had lost another member of his family… it crushed him deeply.
Still, he hoped his words would finally get through to his son.
At that moment, Ezeikel collapsed, breathing heavily as he relived that harrowing moment once more.
From time to time, he'd experience conjured memories of the past. Like that time after he and his father survived the Rumbling, he experienced a dreadful vision of his mother being slaughtered by Darion. However, in that memory, he remembered her speaking to him before her demise.
'I love you, Ezeik-" her words were cut short by a bloodcurdling scream, her life snatched away by the odious figure of Darion Stern, the second in command of the Abyssal Gang.
…That wasn't how it actually played out. When she really died, she didn't leave any last words for her son. Instead, she simply accepted her fate, and died with a smile.
Though Ezeikel wasn't awake to witness that part. All he saw was his mother's corpse, and Darion Stern within their enclosure, as well as everything else that transpired.
Those words, those macabre images, they were all modified by his frightened mind.
"Mother…" Ezeikel's voice was low, hoarse, and suffused with a deep sense of yearning. He looked up into the dark sky, raising his hand in the air, as if trying to grab hold of something.
Then, another image invaded his thoughts, one of a woman with long flowing dark hair and a calm, reassuring smile. Her lips moved, as if trying to say something, but right after, all that could be heard was the same ominous screams, and a vast spillage of blood. Her face contorted in agony, and her body was torn open.
She died, right before his trembling eyes.
"This… is hell…" he said, slowly shaking his head. He turned to face his father, his mind a proper mess.
While all of this was going on, the citizens of Fluxton carried on with their decrepit lives, all alert of the potential doom of the enemy returning to harvest their lives.
_________
Back in the royal castle, the Darkhaven Family was going about with whatever tasks they had to attend to. Sylvia and her army were busy distributing amenities to the citizens of the empire, while Lucien was preoccupied with other matters.
Though he was the Prime Minister, and acting Emperor of Nefaria, the latter epithet was soon to be challenged. Just like all the times before, the stern legacy wouldn't just be allowed to ascend to the throne. He would have to battle for the right against all those who wished to challenge him.
However, there was still another issue that needed to be addressed. That had to do with the throne itself, and not who sat on it in particular. Whenever an Emperor died, the powers he inherited from the throne usually returned, meaning that the next person to assume monarchy would be at liberty to obtain these powers.
But then, ever since Kael's kidnap, the ancient powers still hadn't returned to the throne, and that only meant one thing.
The spawn of the devil… was still alive. Somewhere, at least.
What that meant was that for now, even if the battle for supremacy were to take place, the victor wouldn't be able to access the prodigious powers of being the Emperor.
That fact alone had left potential contestants reluctant to proceed with the duals. Even if they managed to best Lucien, they would be no where near as fearsome as Kael was with all his powers.
So for now, Lucien was left unchallenged and undefeated, unable to access the monarchial powers himself. Most of the royals were still reeling from everything that had transpired. From the Night Of Crimson, so the dreadfully long match between Emperor Kael and Slade Of The Shadows, it had been non-stop conflict and tension.
Multiple dark memories of their past were triggered, and the royal castle shook violently during their glorious battle. Now, all that remained after the unexpected war was an upturned empire.
In one of the many chambers of the castle, a young vampire with sleeked back hair and a muscular build paced back and forth repeatedly. He mumbled under his breath, his face covered in sweat as he ran a shaky hand through his neatly kept hair. It had already been a full twenty-four hours since the end of the decisive battle, and the rest of the Darkhaven Family had long moved on from the wretched conclusion as though it had never happened.
'Father… where did they take you?' Mars thought to himself, his heart thumping louding as shook his head.