Chapter Text
Hunter felt like crying for everything they just discovered, but he needed to know the truth, as horrible and painful as it could end up being, he wanted direct confirmation from the source.
Therefore, the blond young man faced Belos, refusing to bow down, refusing to cry.
"What happened to the other guards?", Hunter asked, holding back the urge to cry as best he could, but even so, a few tears began to peek at the corners of his eyes.
"To our family?", the boy's trembling voice questioned.
Belos was silent in the face of Hunter's questions.
The smile on his face faded to a sour expression, any arrogant response he would have given died in his throat.
Hunter's questions were particularly unsettling to Belos; the man closed his mouth and kept contemplating the words of his nephew.
It doesn't take long for him to realize something he had missed.
He can't answer.
And that was because he doesn't know the answers.
Hunter, unable to know what Belos was thinking, took this change of expression very badly.
The young blond tried to back away, but a hand began to approach him, causing any attempt to escape to be unsuccessful.
His body froze completely, he couldn't move.
From a distance, Luz was scared, and she prepared to run towards Hunter, taking out a paper from one of her pockets, holding a glyph in her hands ready to attack the emperor if he dared harm her friend.
Hunter flinched at Belos's hand, but contrary to what he expected, there was no attack from the man.
On the contrary, Belos placed a hand on the boy's face, his gaze remained thoughtful, there was a brief hint of concern in his eyes, nothing remarkable, but Hunter spotted it.
With his thumb, Belos traced the wound on the boy's cheek; and he tried to remember the reason behind his existence.
'That wound had been the result of…', he was unable to finish the thought, causing Belos's expression to turn even more sour.
He doesn't know, it was as if the answer was so close, on the tip of his tongue, but somehow it was impossible for him to say it out loud.
Belos tried to get the answers, searching through the memories of him, but doing so only caused his fear to begin to grow.
He can't remember...
A sharp tone pierced his ears, causing Belos, with his right hand, to instinctively cover his ear; it was a long, high-pitched, annoying sound.
At the end, a laugh could be heard from Belos, a voice resounded in his ear, "You did this to the boy, don't you remember?", for some reason, the mysterious voice sounded mocking.
Belos could hear the voice close to his ear, as if an invisible entity had whispered close to his ear; the owner of the disturbing voice sounded eerily happy.
Looking at Hunter, the confused expression on the boy's face let Belos know that he was the only one who heard that.
He was he was going crazy?
Well, honestly, that wouldn't surprise him.
But the most annoying thing was the feeling caused by those mocking words.
The emperor feels that those words had some truth, but at the same time, it was not entirely correct; as if he had been told a half truth.
Meanwhile, the frightened boy still did not let his guard down, expecting to be attacked at any moment.
But Belos did not care for the moment the fear that his nephew might have, because his attention was concentrated solely on the paintings full of memories.
Belos let go of the boy, and began to walk to the paintings, heading inside that sinister corridor full of terrible implications; his gaze remained vacant as he approached the paintings.
The moment she pulled away from her, Luz ran over to Hunter, wearing a worried expression on her face.
"Are you okay?", the girl asked, checking the young blond for any injuries, being careful in case he was hurt.
The boy wasn't hurt, his uncle hadn't done anything with the intention of hurting him, the man had had a very confused look on his face, like his was incapable of something and this was frustrating for him.
Hunter spread his arms, asking for support; Luz immediately grabbed him and helped him stand up, she quickly realized how shaky the blond boy was.
Hunter was trembling with fear, his breathing was ragged and his eyes seemed anxious.
"I'm fine…", he managed to mutter, but his voice was hesitant too, as if he wasn't entirely sure of his own words.
Hunter wanted to believe he was okay, but he knows he's lying; the recently learned truths were not good, they were horrible events.
Belos had acted in a bad way, nothing would justify the damage he caused; Hunter began to wonder the motive behind the acts performed.
But Hunter reacted to the lack of answers; in reality, Belos never responded to the questions asked by the boy.
Hunter looked up from the floor, managing to look at Belos, even if he was still terrified of the man and the possible actions he might take because of everything he and Luz knew.
Luz didn't take long to do the same, her disdainful look was told to the ruler, hating the man for everything he has done.
They both ended up watching as the man approached the paintings; Belos did not flinch under the scrutinizing gazes of the children, his concentration remained solely on the road, on the place he wanted to reach.
Belos finally made it inside the hall, his eyes drawn to the painting with a golden guard made of stone.
There was something about that particular image, he had a feeling that the answers he needed he could get if he just found out what was special about the painting.
The mocking voice returned to something other than Belos.
"Remember that? You petrified them because they betrayed you…"
Belos shook his head slightly, trying to push the intrusive thought away; that hadn't been him.
The voice has sounded too cheerful, and the bad feeling is only made worse by the whispers of others inside his own mind.
"That's not true…", he muttered to himself.
His expression crinkled in pain, the angry voice now sounding arrogant and more cheeky in a certain way.
"No, no, no, dear Philip, don't contradict me…"
Belos was surprised, 'Who the hell was Philip?'
The voice returned, sounding sweet and kind, but unpleasantly so.
"I'm doing this for your own good…"
He felt his blood run cold, a terrible shiver went through him completely; he felt as if someone would pronounce a death sentence on him.
'That was a bloody lie!', was the thought that consumed him.
The sensation that had prevailed after Hunter's questions only increased, taking root hard in his chest, causing him pain.
Something is definitely wrong!
Belos' concentration remained on the painting, it didn't matter if his eyes ached from keeping his gaze focused on the painting, and it didn't matter that the pain in his head was metaphorically killing him.
He didn't lose focus.
But being too focused on the image, Belos was unable to watch as everything around him began to distort.
The children could see how everything tried to take on another aspect; both contemplated how the hollow trees, devoid of life, the hostile and frivolous environment, everything was distorted.
It was like trying to see through cracked glass.
Hunter and Luz could see brief patches of lush green trees, overlapping the dead trees; a green environment full of life that came and went, as if it were an error in reality.
"What's going on?", asked Luz, who was caught by Hunter, preventing her from falling to the unstable ground that began to shake.
"I don't know…", Hunter replied, but it was a lie.
The golden-haired youth had an assumption, but he feared it was wrong; he could only cling to Luz, hoping and praying that her idea wasn't all wrong.
The image of Belos wanted to lose the reddish glow that surrounded him, he was interspersing between the red color and the purple color in an attempt to recover the original blue color.
Even so, the man could not see any of it, because the image had something wrong; Belos concentrated as much as he could on finding out what the hell was wrong; a complex task to perform due to the pain of trying.
This image represented someone, why couldn't he remember his name!?
Belos is almost certain that the answer in front of him, the image in the painting represented a golden guard; Belos glanced sideways at Hunter, who currently holds that title.
'The boy looks a lot like them…', says a distorted voice; instead of mocking happiness or sarcasm, the voice was full of longing and sadness.
The emperor stopped being subtle and turned his gaze on Hunter; the boy could see the man with a frightened look on his face, it was incredible to see such an expression come from Belos.
A voice has made a comment of great importance to him, causing that expression to appear on the emperor's face; Who was he referring to?
The same sad and longing voice speaks again; 'The role of the golden guard is hereditary…', is a voice similar to his.
It's actually his own voice, but somehow it sounds less distorted now; the thought ends up repeating itself constantly, rubbing the answer without giving it a final conclusion.
His light brown hair fell in his face, making him look like a desperate maniac, and it was practically true; he wanted answers to all the questions that popped into his mind.
His thoughts stop completely.
"Hereditary…?", Belos asked quietly, the murmur of his own voice audible only to himself.
The emperor's words only prove to be a trigger.
The image of the golden guard in the painting begins to change and releases a blinding glow; even if Belos didn't remember, his subconscious kept the information and he began to repair the mistake.
Once the light faded, Belos's gaze turned to surprise at the image, and it didn't take long for it to turn to pain.
The children watched as tears began to appear in the emperor's eyes, the painting that he had been looking at changed its appearance; the image showed something else, someone else.
Belos looked sadly at the painting, tears were now falling down his face, his body felt numb, he didn't have the strength to stand up, so he fell to his knees on the ground.
His gaze did not stray from the changed figure in the painting.
It was a woman with golden hair, a calm expression, and peaceful violet eyes; the name had finally gotten to him…
"Ophelia…", Philip murmured, a shattered expression on his face.
His voice is weak, but manages to echo in the surroundings.
The world fell silent.
Suddenly, everything began to shake around him.
Philip held his head as a terrible pain shot through him, similar to thousands of needles piercing his head; He closed his eyes tightly, trying to avoid looking, not feeling anything...
Philip's eyes opened again, glowing a dangerous shade of blue, his expression from pain and terror changing to one of deep anger.
From his mouth, a different voice spoke.
"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER!", his distorted voice yelled in a tone full of fury.
Philip was able to regain control of himself, he gripped his own throat tightly at the shrill cry of rage that escaped from his own mouth, echoing through the place forcibly with what he shouted.
His throat hurt and he was quite uncomfortable with the pain caused by screaming in a similar way.
Philip shook his head, denying quickly, that wasn't important at the moment; his gaze filled with dread.
He hadn't spoken, he hadn't been.
'What the hell had that been?'
He didn't have a chance to analyze it, when another angry scream came from his own mouth.
"YOU! SEE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!", Philip yelled, his crazed gaze in utter fury visualizing the two boys; "I WILL DESTROY YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE CAUSED, MEDDLING CHILDREN!"
Belos got up from the floor, and extended one of his arms, turning it into a pickaxe to attack those responsible; Hunter hugged Luz, protecting her from further attack, but putting himself in danger.
Philip looked in horror at such an action, damned sacrificed boy!
That ran in the family, damn that genetics!
"NO!", exclaimed Philip in horror, with the opposite hand he grabbed his other arm, holding on tight and managing to change the direction of the attack.
The pickaxe stuck into the ground, because of that, the entire environment began to crack and ended up falling to pieces.
Everything began to destroy below them, Luz grabbed Hunter and began to rummage in the pocket of her jacket, finding a glyph to levitate, preparing for the possible fall.
The three began to fall through the hole that had formed.
As they fell, Philip thought of the name by which this entity had called him; that was his name, something that he seemed to have forgotten, something that was taken from him in the past.
Something he didn't remember when it happened.
Philip's eyes were still teary, thinking sadly of the golden-haired woman, he only remembered her name, not who she was, how important she was to him.
Absolutely nothing, it was just a name, meaningless to him, worthless...
"Please…", he pleads weakly.
He wants to know the truth, no matter how painful it is, he doesn't really care if it's painful, he just wants to know, he needs to know.
Feeling too weak and tired all of a sudden, Philip closed his eyes and lost consciousness.
The fall lasted for a while.
Into that absolute darkness, where for some reason, they can see each other clearly, Hunter is in a panic, he didn't know when they would reach the end, but he was scared.
"We can't leave him, Luz!", exclaimed the boy as he was held by Luz, who wouldn't let him escape.
"Hunter, you saw what he did!", the girl replied; Luz wasn't going to let Hunter near Belos, especially not after seeing what he had done.
She was terrified that this was a trap by Belos, so that they would lower their guard and the moment they approached, Belos would attack them.
But Hunter was weakly denying, if his uncle wanted to hurt any of them, he would have; Belos had the opportunity to do it and still, he didn't do it.
The blond boy had seen something that Luz hadn't; he saw the fear on Belos's face, how the angry, distorted screams didn't match the look of terror on his face.
It was a theory, a vague idea, he wanted to believe that the possibility was not foolish on his part, a naive hope; Hunter wanted to find something good in the man who had been taking care of him for years, because it couldn't be fake.
He refused to believe that his uncle's affection was a lie!
And he found what he was looking for...
As Belos prepared to attack them, Hunter protected Luz, hiding the girl and protecting her with his body; but he kept looking expectantly at Belos.
As his deformed arm reached out to them, Belos looked scared, inexplicably so terribly, his tear filled eyes and hair on his face only made him look more upset.
Belos grabbed his arm with his free hand, pulling him hard, crying, begging him to stop.
It was as if the man was fighting a battle against himself, but he was losing that fight, as if he couldn't do much to avoid hurting them.
Finally, Belos managed to redirect the attack, causing the pickaxe to stick into the ground, breaking it accordingly.
And now, the three of them were falling…
Hunter stared at his uncle, the man's eyes were closed and even so, he managed to express sadness and pain; the red aura around him had faded, replaced by a faint, sad blue light.
The young blond could only apologize silently since Luz was not going to let him go.
The darkness they had been falling through turned to a blinding brilliance, the ground beginning to draw ever closer to them.
And finally, the three of them reached the subconscious…