Here's the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy!
It was the dawn of the New Year, the 12th of January X785 to be more precise, and in the woods just outside of a nearby town a younger Soren Blake could feel the sunlight peer through his window as it began to rise from the horizon, causing the boy to groan and cover his face with the sheet he had been sleeping under. However, a few seconds later he quickly shot up, showing off his dark green pajamas, and practically jumped into his slippers next to his bed. He ran out of his room and down the stairs, the smell of something coming from the kitchen.
"Gah! Dammit!" Someone yelled loudly.
When Soren got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw a young woman with long, flowing black hair that reached a little past her waist, wearing a light green sweater under a dark grey vest, dark blue jeans, a black belt wrapped a bit above them that it clearly wasn't there for security, and black shoes to match the belt. Her eyes were a sparkling shade of green, which Soren shared with her.
"I burnt the food again!" The woman whined as she stood in front of a pan with a smoldering pile of smoking ash in it.
"Honey, just let me take care of the cooking." A younger Sam Blake was sitting at a table with a newspaper in his hands. Not only was he younger, he didn't have a five o' clock shadow and his hair was neatly combed.
"No!" She pouted. "It's been a long time since I've been home and I want to make breakfast for our son-"
"Mommy!" Soren ran over to the woman and hugged her by the legs. "You're home!"
"Happy Birthday, Soren!" She smiled and picked up Soren. "Y-you're getting kind of big!" She almost immediately put him back down. "How's my little boy doing?"
"Have any stories, Mommy?" Soren asked with wide eyes.
"Quite a few, actually."
The woman was Soren's mother, Amelia Blake, a wizard of a guild in the town they lived near. That's guild's identity, however, was unknown to Soren as Amelia playfully kept it secret and her guild mark was located where he wasn't able to see it. His father knew which guild she belonged to, of course, but she would never tell him. Soren could go to town, but he wasn't allowed to leave the house alone and Sam would rarely have a reason to do so, even when he did it was for grocery shopping. Soren once tried asking his father to take him to where his mother works, but she told him that he had to find it on his own.
"I was climbing up a cold, snowy mountain and I was attacked by THREE Vulcan!" Amelia recalled to Soren. "They thought Mommy was pretty, but when I told them I was taken, they got angry and I knocked them off the cliff. They all rolled in the snow on the way down the mountain and formed a giant snowball."
Soren giggled heartily from hearing his mother's story as Sam watched them with a smile.
All three of them were sitting at the dining room table, Soren finishing his birthday breakfast.
"How was your birthday breakfast, honey?" Amelia asked as she rested her chin on her hands.
"It was delicious, Mommy!" Soren replied happily.
"Thank your father, since he's the one that cooked it." She said before sighing. "After I gave in, that is…"
"Thank you, Dad." Soren said to Sam before turning back to Amelia. "Am I getting any presents?"
"Your breakfast was your present." Sam joked.
"Well, your gift from Dad." Amelia said. "As for my gift… come outside with me."
Amelia got out of her chair and went outside, Soren following her closely in anticipation with a million different thoughts of possible gifts rushing through his mind like a river after a rainstorm.
"What's my present, Mommy?" Soren asked giddily.
"Soren, when I was your age, my father decided it was time I learned a secret that's been passed down in our family for generations." Amelia knelt down to talk to Soren face to face. "Your birthday gift from me… is this…"
Amelia held out her hand and the winds around them started to pick up. Around her arm, Soren could make out something black swirling around it.
"The magic of the Blake family… Sky God Slayer Magic."
It seemed impossible, but Soren's smile got even wider than it already was and his eyes were lit up like fireworks.
"Thank you, Mommy!" Soren jumped up and gave Amelia a hug so big even a bear couldn't top it. "Thank you! Thank you!"
"O-okay, Soren!" Amelia sounded strained. "I can't… I can't stand right!"
Over the next few months, whenever Amelia came home from a job she would stay for a few days so she could teach Soren more about Sky God Slayer Magic. He caught onto the basics of the magic very quickly, thus she eventually taught him how the winds could be used to slice objects and push them away. It was June and in the middle of the forest, a fair distance from their house, Soren swung his arm and a gust of black wind passed through a tree. After a couple of seconds, it slid off its stump and fell to the ground.
Amelia whistled at the sight of the fallen tree. "Wow! At this rate, you'll have mastered Sky God Slayer Magic when you start working at a guild!"
"I want to join your guild, Mommy!" Soren smiled and turned to Amelia.
"You're going to have to find out which one first." Amelia smiled innocently.
"Why can't you tell me?" Soren pouted.
"It's not that I CAN'T tell you, I'm just playing games with you. I do it with everyone, even your father. Scratch that-Especially your father."
"Why?"
"Because it's fun! Anyway, I think we've done enough training for today. I'm gonna head back to the house and take a nice hot bath." She began to walk away.
With her back turned, Soren placed his index finger and thumb on his chin.
"And don't think about trying to peek at my guild mark while I'm bathing." Amela called out without looking or turning back to him. "If you do, no training for a month!"
Soren froze in place, appearing incredibly nervous and frightened that his mother knew what he was thinking.
Meanwhile at Era, a chiseled man in a fancy Rune Knight uniform who looked like he was just about to hit his fifties stood before the Magic Council.
"What is your business here, Commander Deius?" Council member Org asked the man.
That man was Rune Knight Commander Arion Deius (Age 49). "Councilmen, I have made significant progress in my research on the identities of those in the currently disbanded Grimoire Heart. The whereabouts of Bluenote Stinger, Ultear Milkovich, Meredy Milkovich, Rustyrose and Kain Hikaru are currently unknown, but are still at large. Zancrow, Azuma and their Guild Master, Hades, are confirmed to be deceased."
"Thank you for the report." Org said. "You may leave-"
"But not before I grant you another nugget of information I've dug up." Arion interrupted. "You see, I discovered that Zancrow learned the use of Flame God Slayer Magic because it was in part inherited from his family. I say 'in part' because his father wasn't supposed to. There was a familial split between him and his brother about the nature of such magic. So they separated themselves as Flame God Slayer and Fire God Slayer. As it turns out, there are a few other families in Fiore that pass down the art of god slaying through the generations."
"What is the point in telling us this?" Org questioned as his patience was wearing thin.
"We cannot allow another one of these God Slayers to become a psychotic killing machine like Zancrow! I suggest we ensure those families can no longer pass down their magic!"
"You're insane if you think we would agree to spaying human beings." Michello said.
"Nothing quite so complicated or expensive." Arion said. "I was thinking more along the lines of… Confiscation and familicide."
The entire Magic Council looked at Arion in shock.
"No one is to be spared!" Arion continued. "We can't give them a single chance to increase their numbers! Their magic would be better kept in our hands!"
"You're even crazier for making such a request!" Org shouted.
"It's all for the greater good!" Arion shouted back. "Why can't you senile old fools realize that?!"
"Commander Deius, leave at once!" Gran Doma ordered. "Our decision is final and we will not permit such actions!"
Arion just leered at the council members, turned around and left without saying another word.
The next day, Soren was still asleep in his bed, even though it was almost noon. When Amelia opened the door and noticed this, she snuck up next to him and dexterously moved her fingers with a devious and large grin.
"Tickle Attack!"
Amelia began tickling Soren's ribcages, forcing him to wake up laughing and cradling himself.
"Ahahahahaha! M-M-Mom-m! S-st-stop it!" Soren giggled uncontrollably.
"It's time to wake up!" Amelia said. "Today's the day you finally start learning the healing properties of Sky God Slayer Magic!"
In a second, Soren leaped out of bed and started changing out of his pajamas and into a normal black long-sleeve shirt and pants.
"Come on!" Soren said excitedly. "Let's go train!"
"Up-bup-bup!" Amelia held out her hand in front of Soren's face to stop him where he stood. "AFTER breakfast!"
"Ohhh…" Soren moaned in disappointment.
As soon as the two of them made it to the bottom of the stairs, there was a knocking on the door.
"Hm, I wonder who that could be?" Amelia adjusted her head so she could make something out through the window. "The Rune Knights? What are they here for?"
"Rune Knights?" Soren asked in confusion.
"They're kind of like wizard police." Amelia assured her son. "They're not dangerous."
Amelia quickly walked to the door and opened it. "Hello, may I help you gentlemen?"
"Are you Amelia Blake?" The man in front of the small group of Rune Knights inquired.
"Yes, I am Amelia Blake. Is something-Gh!"
Before she could even finish, a sword had plunged its way through her heart and blood began streaming from the wound.
"M… Mommy?"
When his mother turned her head to face him, terror began to take over him at the sight of blood dripping from her mouth.
"S… Soren…" She spoke so quietly due to the stabbing that nobody could hear her.
The sword was pulled out and stabbed her just underneath the throat. Her body fell to the ground and Soren could finally make out her assailant, Commander Arion Deius.
"MOMMY?!" Soren screamed and cried.
"You three, kill the boy!" Arion ordered the three Rune Knights standing right behind him. "The rest of you, help me search for the spell book!"
"Sir, he's only a child." One of the Rune Knights pleaded. "There's no reason to-"
"And what if he kills your family, huh?" Arion pointed out. "After him!"
Soren ran up the stairs and three Rune Knights chased after him. When he got to his room, he only saw one means of escape. He swung his arms and blades of black wind destroyed a portion of the walls. He ran off, jumped out of the hole in the wall, slid down the roof and fell onto the ground. The Rune Knights chose to take the stairs back down to continue the chase, but by the time they got to ground level Soren had managed to stand back up and start running again. He ran deeper into the woods as the Rune Knights continued to chase after him.
The sight of his mother dying right in front of him continued kept flashing in his mind without any pause and he couldn't hold back his tears anymore. When he slammed his eyes shut, he tripped over a tree root sticking out of the ground and fell on his face. He tried to get up as fast as he could, but the Rune Knights had caught up to him and aimed their spears at the boy.
"Why?" Soren sobbed. "Why did you hurt Mommy?!"
"Commander Deius said that we had to kill you before you killed someone else." One of the Rune Knights answered.
"Mommy… Mommy never did anything wrong!" Soren began shouting.
The wind all around them began to pick up as Soren's body began shaking. With one loud, ear-bleeding scream, a black wind passed by the Rune Knights and a few trees. The knights just stood there for a few more seconds until the trees behind them began to fall over, as well as the heads of the knights. Soren's body became limp and he fell to the ground.
When Soren woke up, the sun was beginning to set and he looked around to see something had sliced through the forest and knights. He ran to back to the house and saw that the other Rune Knights had left. Upon going coming up to the door, he saw his mother's body lying motionless on the floor in a puddle of blood. He walked over to her and his legs collapsed as he reached the edge of the blood pool. The tears came back and he started sobbing again.
In the present day, Soren woke up in his bed at the inn and breathed heavily.
"… Mom…" Soren mumbled quietly to himself.
He was so entranced by his memorial dream that he didn't even notice that it was already morning.
A/N: I'm sorry this one took so long! Overwatch distracted me because of the new competitive season AND the Halloween costumes. Anyway, I might have already come to my own decision as to who Soren should be paired up with. I hope you all enjoyed! Stay tuned for next time!