Already 2.3K views in just one hour! Thank you to every reader who joined Allen's journey early. The storm's just beginning.
You guys deserve two more chapterslets start
- - - - - - -
The nights had become quieter since that day.
Serena D. Walker watched her son more closely now. She never said a word about the vision she'd seen—the life he had lived before, the pain etched into his soul like old scars—but something between them had changed.
He no longer feared her touch.
And she? She held him like the world might try to steal him again.
---
Allen was growing.
He had learned to stand, albeit wobbly, and would often toddle barefoot around the manor's inner courtyard. His steps were uncertain, but his eyes…
They were too steady for a child.
Each time he passed a window, he would stop and look outward. Not at the horizon like most boys, dreaming of the sea. No—Allen looked at the ground. Specifically, at a place just beyond the outer wall. A patch of untouched cliff soil where no guard ever patrolled, and no bird ever landed.
He didn't know why.
But something sang to him from there.
---
It began as a hum.
Low. Ancient. Like the memory of a lullaby, not the tune itself. It would come only at night, when everyone else slept and the island grew still.
He couldn't understand the words.
But it made his chest ache. Like something long-lost was waiting to be found.
He didn't cry. Not anymore. But on some nights, he would wake with his small hand stretched toward the cliffs… as if reaching for someone.
Or something.
---
Serena noticed quickly.
The boy never wandered. He was obedient, always quiet, always calm.
Until he wasn't.
Until the third night in a row she found him sleepwalking toward the outer gardens, barefoot in the cold.
Until the animals began acting strange—the massive silver crows of the island stopped perching near the estate, and the jungle cats knelt down on their bellies when he passed.
Until the very soil began to tremble when he came close.
She didn't question fate often. But now she did.
But Serena understood.
---
The next night, when Allen stirred again—his eyes blank, feet softly padding across the stone—she followed.
She didn't call out.
Just watched from the shadows as her baby son, barely able to form words, walked with purpose through the outer halls of the estate, past the dormant guards and flickering torches.
He walked barefoot out into the night, under the stars that seemed to dim around him.
And then he stopped.
Right at the edge of the cliffside clearing.
The ground was still. The air frozen. But Allen looked down… and whispered something only the wind could hear.
And the earth answered.
---
A low, rumbling sound echoed beneath their feet.
The stone beneath him cracked slightly—just a hairline fracture, barely visible. From within it, a warm light pulsed once. Then again.
Then stopped.
Allen's body swayed. He nearly fell.
Serena rushed forward, catching him before his knees hit the rock. His head rested against her shoulder, breath soft.
But even asleep… he smiled.
---
She looked down at the cracked stone.
The hum had stopped.
But the memory of it lingered in her bones.
She pressed her palm to the earth, just beside the split.
And what she felt made her eyes widen.
There was something alive beneath.
Not a monster.
Not a beast.
Something ancient.
Something waiting.
---
That night, back in the manor, Serena held Allen tighter than usual.
She watched him sleep, but her thoughts were no longer just maternal—they were haunted.
> "What are you, my son?"
She thought of his past life.
Of the things she saw.
Of the way his Haki had reached into her and made her feel his pain, as if it were her own.
Now the island—the very soul of Caelestis Veil—was responding to him.
Calling to him.
Choosing him.
And the fruit buried beneath that cliff…
The one she and Hades had hidden decades ago…
The one that no one should have ever been able to sense…
> It had found its chosen soul.
---
Down in the sealed temple far beneath the cliffs, beyond stone walls carved with forgotten prayers, a single fruit pulsed with quiet life.
Its skin shimmered like pearl and obsidian, ever shifting.
A soft glow radiated outward, like breath.
And from it, a single whisper echoed into the earth:
> "You… finally heard me."
---
[END OF CHAPTER 3 |
---
🔥 Next Up (Chapter 4 Preview):
Allen starts becoming emotionally drawn to the cliff more often.
The fruit begins subtly influencing nature around him.
Serena begins to question if this is destiny, or something darker.
Hades finally speaks with Allen for the first time... and gives him a warning.
Leave your stones here this is robbery
Your Dearest Author