Aiden grunted as he felt his entire body aching in pain. The slightest movement of his muscles feeling like a million knives stabbing him at the same time.
"Aiden? Aiden!? Are you still breathing?"
Aiden heard the distraught voice of Sparda calling out to him, in response, he slowly sat up as a way to decrease the pain he was feeling.
"Miraculously I am, though that black hole made my entire body wreathe in pain"
He heard the old demon sighing in relief, happy to know that the boy didn't perish.
"That is good to know. The amulets healing factor will take care of the pain soon enough"
The young man was relieved to hear that, though he was confused as to what Sparda meant in that last part.
"What do you mean by 'soon enough' Sparda?"
"Apparently that black hole made my demonic powers temporarily disabled, meaning the healing factor won't work right now. So you'll have to wait until then"
Aiden exhaled in tiredness, if that was the case then he might as well lay down until the healing factor did it's job.
"Is Eva still there?"
"Don't worry sweetie, I'm always here for you" Sparda's wife made her presence known to the youth. Aiden smiled softly as he was glad his foster two parents were still here with him.
He shifted his eyesight in all directions to make sense of his current surroundings. His face turning into a scowl when he saw a bunch of lush trees surrounding him.
"Great, laying down in the number one place that I don't want to ever be in..." The young man sighed as he looked up to the blue sky.
"Is this place quickly awakening a certain bad memory, Aiden?" Eva asked in concern for her son
"It is...I don't like sounding pushy but is the healing factor kicking in, Sparda?"
The demon knight sighed lightly "Little by little Aiden"
The young man returned a long sigh, his muscles slightly aching in pain as his chest moved. The healing factor was slowly functioning back, though he still had to wait patiently
"Perhaps I can keep your mind at ease while you're slowly healing. Would you like me to hum you a song? I know those always put you at ease you were at your lowest"
Aiden softly smiled to Eva's proposal, remembering he sweet relaxing memories of those angelic sounding hums. She always made them sound beautiful thanks to her gentle, maternal voice
"Yeah, I would be more than happy to hear them"
...
Sometime later:
"Aiden..."
The young man slowly opened his eyes as he heard Sparda soft voice. He slowly stood up, feeling all the pain from his body gone.
"That was a really nice sleep I just had, thanks Eva, I really needed that" Aiden thanked his foster mother with a small smile
"I just did what any mother would do to put their son's mind at ease"
The young man's smile widened in return
Aiden looked upwards to see that the sky was now a orange-ish color with a slight tint of red. Signifying that it was close to getting dark.
"Did I really sleep for that long?"
Aiden took a look around his surroundings, letting out a sigh of relief once he saw the Black Ghost laying snugly on the ground.
He picked up his sword and tied the two ropes around his waist.
"Okay, time to find civilization"
He climbed near the tallest tree to hopefully find any nearby towns or cities, obviously he wasn't in Russia as the weather felt warmer than usual.
Once he made it to the very top of the tree, his eyes were welcomed to the beautiful sight of the sunset shaded forest.
Though the beautiful sight mattered little to the devil hunter as he stuck two of his fingers upwards into the sky, the forest breeze brushing against his fingers
"Hmmm" He was concentrating towards the flow and direction of the wind, moving his fingers to where the wind was directing to the nearest town or city. Once he stopped moving his arm after a few more seconds, he opened his eyes to see them pointing East
Jumping down from the tree, the devil hunter started walking East in a quick pace, hopefully civilization not being too far away
Though walking through the forest felt relaxing yet troubling for Aiden, it felt different from Sparda's perspective as his demonic senses were telling him that their current location had an unfamiliar yet familiar feel at the same time
It made him a bit nervous as to what Aiden may come across, or potentially run into
...
After an entire day of walking East, the young man finally arrived to a city of sorts
Right now it was nighttime with the Europran design street lamps lighting up the gray brick roads and sidewalks, making it easier for Aiden to walk through
"Time to see where in the world am I in right now"
He looked towards the city architecture, immediately noting that the buildings were of European origin. Though the architecture looked a bit royal, with the building's potentially being built by materials that shone brightly during the day.
This meant that he was either in Spain or the United Kingdom, but he had to keep exploring the city if he wanted to mark his location
Though his objective would get interrupted as a feeling slowly crept into the young man as he kept on walking on the lit up sidewalk
"W-what is this feeling that is plauging me?"
A couple of more minutes of walking, the young man soon started questioning why this city felt so familiar yet so unfamiliar at the same time. Was he slowly going crazy or are the side effects of the void causing this...?
"So you weren't the only one who felt that way..."
Aiden stopped his walk as he heard Sparda's voice "What do you mean by that exactly?"
"When we landed ourselves in the forest I had that same feeling. At first I thought the side effects of the void were causing that...but that may not be the case"
"That isn't a good thing right?"
"It depends if that feeling could cause trouble. I would urge you to resume your exploration of the city, but try to not draw too much attention to yourself"
"I won't" The young man resumed his walk through the town
Little did they know they have already brought a lot of attention to themselves
...
Aiden sat himself down on a bench feeling like it was a good time to rest himself and to properly digest everything that has happened to him
"You doing alright sweetie?" Eva asked to her son as her adopted son leaned back on the bench
"Mostly. Still trying to get over the literal fact that I managed to get through a forest of all places" Aiden chuckled lightly as all of the overwhelming fear he felt inside that place was gone
Eva sighed solemnly, instantly making the young man listen to whatever she was about to say "Aiden, I know I asked this way too many times as of lately, but...when are you going to face your trauma?"
The young man exhaled a breath to his mother's question "I don't think I have the will to do that Eva, all of my previous attempts were ruined thanks to my head going straight to the day my family got killed...It almost went there for a brief second just a few hours ago"
"I guess I shouldn't have asked knowing that would happen"
"It's alright, but you have a point. I should try and face my fear, though right now it isn't the best time"
"I understand, just try not to cope it in an unhealthy way like last time"
The young man nodded to his foster mother's advice "I won't"
He turned his head to the trash bin that was right next to the bench, a rolled up newspaper sticking out from the pile of trash
Deciding that it might be helpful to read the paper, since there's a chance that it might tell the young man his location, he slid towards the bin and grabbed the paper once he got close
Aiden shook the paper for a second before unrolling the paper, the title at the top printed "Illyria Times"
"Illyria, as in the tribes that inhabited Croatia?"
That didn't make any sense as this place looked like an established city rather than the settlement of a tribe. The young man looked down to read the newspaper to get a clear under-
"Hold on,2188!?!?"
His eyes widened in shock and his mouth hung open as he saw that the paper was published in the year 2188!
"Sparda, did we actually..."
"Yes, it would appear that the void pulled us far ahead in time, and before you ask Aiden, a thing like this can be achieved"
Aiden's current state of shock made the newspaper slip from his hands "But...can I still go back?"
"You can but it's a life threatening risk you're taking" The old demon answered with a serious warning
The young man sighed lightly as this was something he was not expecting to happen to him today, or a day in his life
"Then I guess I'll keep wandering the city until I find an abandoned establishment so I can rest. I will find more information once morning arrives"
Right now he needed to find a place to rest his body and mind after today's events and mind boggling revelation.
"Okay, tread carefully sweetie"
"Be well, son"
The young man stood up from the bench and began making his way through this city, hoping to find an abandoned resting place
...
Meanwhile in Illyria castle:
"Have Zato and Millia found any clues relating to the unknown appearance?"
A handsome man with blonde hair that had a large bang covering his right eye, blue eyes, wearing a purple suit with tail coats asked to his friend walking beside him
Said friend was also blonde and was taller and much more muscular in comparison.The man sported a haircut reminiscent of a lion's mane and beard, wearing a tan fur collar brown coat paired with white pants and brown wingtip shoes
The muscular man sighed in response to his friend "Sadly no, Daryl. It has nearly been half a day and they have yet to find a lead. I'm slowly starting to believe we just set ourselves on a wild goose chase"
His friend named Daryl nodded in response "It is slowly starting to feel that way, but we can't start losing faith now Leo. We need to know whatever it is that appeared, find it, and deal with it efficiently"
Leo nodded as the two kings of Illyria were heading towards the war room, to report the fruitless search and to discuss this issue further with their other friend; Ky Kiske
Once the kings entered the war room they were greeted by the sight of Ky and Dr.Paradigm standing near the main table, viewing a holographic map of the kingdom
"Did Millia and Zato managed to find anything?" Ky asked as he turned to the two kings, Leo responded with a head shake
"Not a thing so far"
Ky sighed to the answer "Okay, we'll wait for those two to keep searching"
"Daryl, have you checked if any of our men have found something related to the appearance?" Ky asked. The 3rd king also responded with a head shake
"They haven't found a thing as well"
The 1st king sighed in frustration. This was getting more and more worrying by the second
The three kings turned towards the calm looking Dr.Paradigm. Unfazed by the bad news
"Is rather surprising that you're calm about this Dr.Paradigm" Ky said
The dragon bird hybrid adjusted his short glasses as he turned to the three kings "Don't be fooled gentlemen. Though I'm just as nervous as the three of you, I'm trying my best to keep myself in a calm mindset"
"As much as I, along with everyone else here agrees with you, recent events had caused us to be on edge. No thanks to the G4 summit" Ky said to the animal hybrid
Ky crossed his arms, turning towards the holographic map "This world has suffered through enough pain, bloodshed, loss, and destruction. It is our duty, including every single government around the globe, to make sure that doesn't happen again"
"You do have a point Lord Ky, let's just hope that whatever it is that appeared is a friend rather than a foe" Dr.Paradigm responded to Ky with a side glance as he turned to the map
Ky agreed to Dr.Paradigm, whatever it is that appeared would be something that wasn't a threat. The world deserves a break after what happened at the G4 summit
Leo's magicom rung, the sound bringing all the attention to him
"Let's pray those two found something" Leo hoped as everyone stayed silent
"Mrs.Rage have you and Zato finally found a lead...mhm...really? Well that's great to hear...huh? What do you mean I shouldn't I get my hopes up?"
The other kings and the doctor got slightly on edge to how the call was going
"Wait,you're serious!?...alright I'll inform the others immediately, thank you Mrs.Rage"
He let out a long sigh as he ended the call, turning to his allies with a frown
"So...what happened?" Ky asked first
Leo put both of his hands on his hips, straightening up his chest "Well the good news is that Millia found a set of footprints, human to be exact, in Illyria's forest"
The others were slightly relieved to hear that the Ex-assassins finally found a lead. But they were worried as to what Millia told him near the end of the call
"But is there any bad news?" Daryl asked
"Sadly yes, apparently the footprints also headed East straight towards here"
"Meaning there's a possible chance that the person is already here, wondering around the kingdom" Daryl guessed in worry
"If that's the case then we need to act immediately"
Ky turned to Leo "Leo, you and me will join with the other knights for an extra set of eyes and to prepare for the arrival of the person"
He turned to the animal hybrid "Dr.Paradigm you'll have to join us since there's a chance we'll need your wide arrange of spells"
The doctor nodded "I'll be more than willing to join you gentlemen"
"Daryl you'll keep surveillance here and inform us of anything strange that may happen" The calculating king gave a curt nod
Once the plan was settled the two kings and doctor headed out of the room to join with the patrols, with Daryl walking towards the surveillance screens for his part
"Let's hope that this isn't going to be the start of another bloody battle"
...
It's been about 10 minutes since Aiden has been wandering inside the city to find a resting place. Which didn't go well as he felt like he was stuck in a maze
Way too many streets, buildings, bridges, and alleyways made it hard for good navigation. It would be easier if he climbed the highest building to get a better view of the city, but that would be way too risky as he would bring a lot of unwanted attention to himself
So for now the devil hunter had to stick close to any alleyways and keep his distance from streetlamps. Though his patience was running thin as the thought of sleeping near a trashcan was popping frequently into his mind
"Ugh, this is getting me nowhere, I need to find a place fast"
"I wish I could be of use, son. But this place is very unknown to me and the most obvious risk is at hand"
"I know, I just wish that this place would be kind enough to throw me a place to rest, an old abandoned shed would be enough for me"
The young devil hunter just decided to keep on wandering through the quiet streets
But that would soon change as danger would start erupting
...
"Sir! Our sensors are detecting multiple rifts being opened all throughout the East side of the kingdom!"
Daryl turned to the screen and saw the worrying sight of multiple red dots scattered throughout the eastern part of Illyria.
"Notify the other kings and our patrols about this immediately!" The third king ordered the surveillance man as a threat was potentially arising.
Daryl turned to the screen, a feeling of dread quickly building up inside him.
"Just what in Justice's name is going on here?"
...
Aiden stopped his walk through the alleyway once the red gem of the amulet started glowing.
He looked down on the glowing gem in confusion before immediately realizing what it meant: There were demons close by
"Sparda in which direction are they in!?"
"To the West!"
The devil hunter dashed towards the direction in supersonic speed before summoning a purple platform beneath his feet and jumping off it to reach the rooftop of a building
The devil hunter knew it was best if he jumped from rooftop to rooftop to reach the demons quickly.
...
After landing to another rooftop Aiden saw a group of hell caina's wandering down a street.
He jumped off the rooftop, unsheathing Black Ghost and swinging it down horizontally to the nearest caina. The demon didn't let out a cry as it got sliced in half, its two halves separating from each other slowly.
His comrades didn't even have time to react as the young devil hunter made short work of them.
Aiden dashed to the nearest caina, slicing the demon vertically. He dashed to another one, spinning his entire body once before thrusting the sword beneath his right armpit, the blade puncturing the demon's stomach. Aiden pulled out the sword and swing it to the demon's head, severing his head off cleanly.
For the last remaining caina's he activated the sword's whip mechanic and swung it to the nearest one. The bladed whip wrapping around one of their legs.
Gripping the handle tightly with both hands, Aiden pulled and swung the wrapped caina to it's comrade, taking both of them as he swung the whip around in a wide circle before releasing both of the demons towards a wall, crushing them both to pieces.
He retracted the whip back into it's original form. The red gem was still glowing brightly, meaning there were more demons nearby.
"Sparda in which direction are the others in!?"
"To your North!"
Aiden jumped on top of a roof and used the same strategy as before to reach the demons quickly.
After jumping to another rooftop he saw a larger group of hell caina's attacking a group of knights. The knights were doing well in defending themselves against the demons
But he wasn't going to risk leaving them alone.
Aiden jumped towards the nearest caina, stabbing his sword through it's head, pulling his sword out of the caina's head and quickly ducking under a scythe. He took a step towards the other demon and impaled his blade to it's head.
Some of the knights were shocked to see the young man's intervention.
They decided to question him once they eliminated the rest of these monsters.
The knights continued their fight against the demons with Aiden helping some of them by parrying their attacks and leaving the knights a chance to land the killing blow
"Take this!!!" The young devil hunter yelled as he severed the head of the last caina, twirling his sword once before sliding it inside it's sheath.
"Aiden I sense more of them on your East!"
"Uh,sir!" One of the knights called out to him but the young man double jumped to a roof, disappearing from their sights
"Who was that?"One of the larger knights asked towards his fellow men.
"I don't know,but...he's definitely a strong warrior" A skinny said as he looked up to the roof.
Aiden made it to the other group of demons quickly via jumping to other rooftops.
Though this group would be much more problematic as a hell judecca was present with a large group of hell caina's, the demons attacking another group of knights
The knights were quickly getting overwhelmed by the large number of caina's attacking them at once and the hell judecca shooting it's scythe's to them. If this assault kept on going then none of them would survive.
Aiden jumped in and stabbed the Black Ghost to a hell caina. The demon's cry bringing the attention of the other demons.
The knights took the opportunity to kill the distracted demons,quickly turning the tables against them
The nearby hell judecca let out a ear piercing shriek towards Aiden as it swiped an arm scythe aimed to his upper body. The young man parrying the swipe with a one hand katana swing.
While the demon was dazed, he gripped his sword with both of his hands and delivered an upwards slice to it's body, but the judecca quickly disappeared in a literal puff of smoke.
Aiden backfilpped high into the air as the judecca shot it's scythe towards his back.
Quickly turning his body around, he sent his blade whip to the demon, the blades wrapping around the demons neck. He reeled the wrapped demon towards himself and slammed his knee into its face.
Whip still holding onto the demon, he swung the judecca around in circles before sending it to the ground headfirst, crushing it's head completely.
After descending to the ground, Aiden retracted his whip
"Are there anymore left Sparda?"
"Yes, on your East!"
He double jumped to a roof and began running towards his East, ignoring the knights that were hollering out to him.
Once he finally got there he didn't see any signs of a demon but he still jumped down on the street.
"Are you sure their here,Sparda?" Aiden asked as he stood in the middle of the street
"Yes, I'm sure. I can feel a strong demonic presence right here"
"Then they must be hiding, waiting to strike once I let my guard down"
The young man darted his enhanced eyesight in every direction of the place, waiting for the slightest demonic movement to appear
"Son, I sense a demonic presence behind you!" The old demon suddenly warned Aiden who quickly unsheathed his katana, prepared to cut whatever was behind him
But he instead saw a white light in the shape of sphere floating towards him.
"What is this?" Aiden questioned as he slightly lowered his weapon, the light coming closer to him
"It...wants you to reach for it" Sparda figured as the light was now a few feet away from Aiden
He was confused at Sparda's words, but nonetheless he did what he said and rose his right hand towards the light.
The light floated towards the open hand and grew in size before quickly disappearing.
In his hand was a triple rod nunchaku connected by a metal ring with snowflakes pouring off the three rods, indicating that it had the power of using ice.
Before Aiden could question why this weapon appeared, a circle of dark pools surrounded him as a bunch of hell caina's came out.
"So you guys now decided to show up" He looked at all of them with a poker face before glancing down at the nunchaku.
"Hmph, well it's unfortunate for all of you, because right now..."
He put the three rods in-between his left arm and body with his left hand gripping the ring handle. His right arm extended forward and his right leg placed one step forward with his left leg slightly placed backwards.
"...I'm ready to crush you all like a bunch of worthless pests!"
One of them let out a loud scream as it charged at Aiden, scythe raised high into air as the demon brought it down.
But the young man successfully parried the demon's attack with a sideways nunchaku swing and hitting it's head with an upward swing before jumping up to it's eye level and bringing it's head down to the ground with a downward swing.
The young man crushed the demon's head with an axe kick but swiftly parried another attack by a charging caina. He swung the nunchaku upwards to another charging caina and a sideways swing to another one as they were all ganging up on him.
The young man had to strike the demons in all directions, parrying their scythe swings and flicking the three rods to their heads. Though the rods were instantly killing the demons, more of them appeared through the ground.
Taking note of this Aiden decided to transfer Sparda's power through the weapon.
A faint purple light quickly started to form around the nunchaku as Sparda's power was making the three rods extra heavy. Yet, the young devil hunter didn't feel the extra weight.
Once he saw the faint light, he flashed the demons an evil smirk as he was now going to brutalize them back to Hell.
He broke the entire blade of a scythe swipe as he hit it with a sideways flick. The caina wielding it got staggered as its weapon got destroyed. Aiden quickly flicked the three rods to it's head, the rods ripping through it's entire face.
The demon fell down faceless as it melted into a dark red puddle. It's comrades looked at the boy in slight shock before he swung the nunchaku to a caina on his left. The chains connecting the rods extended towards the caina's head, slamming into it's face and shredding it completely.
A caina on Aiden's right screamed at him as it swung it's scythe but ended up getting it's weapon broken as the young man parried it. He then flicked the three rods sideways to it's head, leaving it in the same state like he did to the other caina's.
This is what he did to the entire group of caina's: parry or more accurately, destroy their attacks with a quick nunchaku swing and leaving them faceless thanks to the Sparda powered rods shredding their faces.
"Take this!!!" Aiden yelled as he swung the nunchaku to a staggered caina aimed at it's head, the three rods leaving it faceless
Aiden exhaled as he looked down on the nunchaku "Man, this is a pretty good weapon"
Before he could ask anything about the weapon, more hell caina's came out of the dark pools that surrounded him.
"Ugh, why can't you guys just let me finish my business..."
That's when he heard a boisterous voice yell out to the demons behind him "Come on,men!!! Let's show these freaks the strength of Illyria!!!"
Aiden turned to the voice to see a large muscular man with blonde hair bisecting the hell caina's that were in his way using a pair of large swords.
Aiden was surprised by the sudden help though he quickly shrugged it off as he wasn't going to let someone do all the killing. He quickly unsheathed Black Ghost began started slicing the remaining demons in halves. A smirk forming in the process.
"This party sure is getting crazy!"