Hello everyone! This is a sequel to my Elsword story series. The series is currently two full stories and a companion short story series.
The stories the series consists of are Relearning the Seraph, Finding the Blazing Heart, and Anecdotes of a Small Child.
Relearning the Seraph is story one of the series, mainly an ElsEve. It gives the main premise that the series is founded on, as well as why Seris is alive.
Yes, Seris is alive. Relearning the Seraph explains why, but this story gives an inklet of a hint too.
Finding the Blazing Heart is the second story in the series and is a relationship developments between Chung and Elesis. It also contains a Pichu.
I do not own Elsword or its characters. But I ship Elsword and Eve, Raven and Seris, and Chung with Elesis.
I own my conceptual format of Seris; including her class I made called Body of Light. My boyfriend and I share joint ownership of Cedric.
My boyfriend and I also own the "mystery child" that appeared last chapter, and is finally discussed in this chapter.
Speaking of my boyfriend, check out his stories! He is called The Lost Son of Gaia on here, and would definitely appreciate readers!
(His Elsword stories are a treat, please don't miss out.)
Please enjoy and review!
Classes:
Elsword: Rune Slayer
Eve: Code Nemesis
Rena: Wind Sneaker
Raven: Blade Master
Chung: Deadly Chaser
Aisha: Dimensional Witch
Ara: Sakra Devanam
Elesis: Blazing Heart
Embracing the Future
~/~
Chapter 4: Love of the Miracles
"There's always a bond between little miracles, sometimes the truest love is shown by innocence."
"Hey...are you okay? Friend, wake up!"
"Wha...Miss Mira...?"
"Oh good...you woke up..."
"Why are you surprised?"
"Well...I'll tell you in a moment...can you see if Alma will get up?"
"Fine..."
Cedric pouted at Mira, rubbing his eyes and beginning to look around. The scene around him was very unusual though, because his father was sleeping by sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. He had four plates of food around him, although three of the four were completely untouched. His mother was sleeping next to him, but she didn't seem to be moving at all. Come to think of it, neither did his father, and they usually responded to noise. Or at least, they usually had a motion in their chests that showed breathing. On his other side, Cedric found Alma, who was indeed breathing. He began shaking her wildly, calling out to her as the child began to worry about what was going on with his parents. The general environment of the house felt strange, and he wanted to know why. For now though, he had to wake up Alma.
"Alma! Hey, wake up!"
"Don't touch me!" The girl responded with a scream, recoiling from Cedric and pushing him away from her slightly.
"Sorry..." Cedric sighed sheepishly.
"This isn't the time to complain. Something is wrong, time is completely frozen except for us. I even checked outside, but nothing is moving; person, creature, or animal," Mira stated quickly.
"What?" Cedric blinked, "H-How is that possible...?"
"It's not," Alma huffed, "-time doesn't just freeze."
"Alma, my mother got up out of sleep mode and was in the middle of stretching when she just stopped. At the exact same that the motion of my father's sleepy breathing stopped. So do you want to tell me it's not possible again?" the child glared at her.
Cedric looked around at his two parents, "And my parents are stuck too; something is wrong..."
Alma huffed, crawling out of the bed as a loud cry erupted throughout the house. It was a baby's wailing cry, thus signaling that Rena's little brother was also not frozen in time like the rest. Mira reacted to the sound, quickly ordering the other two to stay put before she ran away to go find the young boy. As she left, the young boy also made his way out of bed, rubbing his eyes, and pondering everyone. There was the new child, looking angry as ever, and then his parents...just remaining there, stuck. It worried him deeply, more than most things, and he even managed to soak in that this was the way everyone else was. Aside from them...
"Why are you always so happy?"
"Huh?" Cedric looked at the girl beside him, "What reason do I have to be unhappy? I have a wonderful pair of parents, and many wonderful friends."
Alma clenched her hands a bit, "Why...does everyone...have their family...?"
"My Aunt Eve doesn't have her family. But you don't understand Miss Alma...almost no one here has their original family...my mama told me about it. That's why we are a family, all of us together. Daddy, Mama, me, and you...we're a sub-family. Aunt Eve and Uncle Elsword with Miss Mira...that's another sub-family. That means we are families within a family, and we all care about each other very much. We all even care about you! I care about you too Miss Alma. It's important to realize that we all want to be here for you..."
Alma frowned then, "You don't understand...you don't understand! Your father was the one that took my family away in the first place! Why should I forgive him?"
"Because my Daddy wasn't in his right mind," Cedric glared at the child, "-he already told me his story. Uncle Elsword helped tell his story, Mama helped tell his story. Everyone has a story Miss Alma, and not all of them are good happy stories. My Daddy can't fix what he did, but he's trying to help you! He's trying to give you a family again!"
"Exactly," Came a voice.
Mira had returned, cradling the eased child in her arms, "Tyrell has been calmed. Alma, you must calm down too, as should you Cedric. We need to figure out what's going on with everyone."
Alma, however, had already stopped. She was staring at something now, her eyes wide as Cedric nodded slowly to Mira. The small child of the Rune Slayer and Code: Nemesis was doing her best to keep the baby allayed, as he was only mere months old. Slowly, Alma broke her stare with the window, just in time for Mira to start speaking again.
"So everyone is stopped but us. How old are all of us? I believe Rena said that Tyrell was only a few months. I am mere days, with the functional body of approximately seven years old. What of you two?" Mira inquired.
"I'm four years old," Cedric responded softly.
"Six," Alma muttered lightly.
"I see," Mira nodded, "-I have found all of the other people of the household. Aisha is in the kitchen, she appears to have had just gotten home when this started. My parents are in their room, and Cedric's parents are here. Ara and Rena are frozen mid-walk in the hallway, while Chung and Elesis appear to have been just into the doorway of their shared room. Her little Pichu thing is also stuck mid motion with her."
"Great," Alma grunted, "-what do we do now?"
"We have to do something! We have to save our family..." Cedric murmured.
"Yes. This big, mixed, excited, and precious family of ours. Do either of you fight?" Mira asked.
"No...Mama and Daddy say I'm too young..." the boy chimed.
Alma wasn't responding or paying attention again, because she was looking at the backs of her hands, her fingers spread, and her eyes wide as her face contorted with horror. She immediately began trying to hide her hands against her dress and whimpered in some form of frustration.
"Alma! Do you fight?" called Mira.
"N-No...no I don't..." the suddenly timid girl responded.
"What's wrong now?" Cedric asked.
"Nothing! Nothing..." Alma stepped back, trying to get away from the other two.
Cedric shook his head, running up to her and tackling her frontward, like he normally did to hug his mother or father. Except this time, he made sure Alma hit the floor, before prying her hands from her chest, and gasping in shock at what he saw. Her fingertips...they were caked in dried blood, around where her fingernails should have been. Normally, she wore little white bandages around each fingertip, and no one had ever noticed it. However, they were missing now, and showing her hands for the damages they had.
"What..." Cedric blinked.
"Her fingernails are missing. They appear to have been ripped out forcibly," Mira stated.
"Miss Alma..."
She shoved both, "Get away from me! Don't look at them!"
"What happened to them?" cried the young boy.
"It's not your business!"
"Just tell us!" yelled Mira, "They look sore! They might even be infected, the injury is clearly aged! How long have they been like this?"
"A couple of months...a few people in the Residential Area were tortured by the demons. They tore my fingernails out...now leave them alone!"
"Alma, you should get those cleaned!" Mira exclaimed, Tyrell beginning to cry in her arms.
"Shut up! What do you know?"
Before Alma could receive any comeback, Mira turned slightly at the sound of a strange pitch. She thought the others might have heard it, but she realized that neither had when Cedric shot back to Alma that she deserved to be taken care of, at which previous girl protested that she was a horrible girl that should not be loved. This had stunned Cedric enough that he barely noticed when Mira launched herself at him, slamming to his side while screaming for them all to watch out. The boy let out a scream as a searingly loud implosion was heard. Alma shrieked in fear too, Tyrell wailing loudly, as Cedric managed to struggle enough under Mira to see that a gigantic and black golem had broke through the wall of the room. Debris from the walls and partials of the roof had already slammed down onto the entire floor, Mira making a human shield over Cedric at the expense of now having a sharper board partially stabbed into her back.
"Mira!" cried Cedric, "Are you okay?"
"I am injured. But you're fine...and that counts the most right now..."
"What? No it doesn't! I don't count more than anyone!"
"Ugh..." Alma groaned, crawling from under the wreckage.
"I'm sorry...Alma. I couldn't reach both of you..."
"It doesn't matter. I wish that wreckage had killed me."
"Don't say that!" screamed Cedric, "Why must you say that? It's not fair Miss Alma! Why do you continue to say these horrible things about yourself? I do not understand!"
"Cedric, calm down...one of my ears is by your throat you know..."
"Mira, you're hurt!"
"It was worth it...father and mother have been teaching me to defend the precious ones that cannot watch over themselves. I had a choice between you and Alma, but you were closer to the impact point. I would rather be hurt now, than to know I could have prevented your injury."
Slowly, she stood up, just in time to hear the fierce roar of the golem that had come in. Cedric stood too, looking at the board in Mira's back with wide eyes. Alma, decently uninjured, was making her way over just in time for Mira to hand Tyrell to Cedric. She ripped the board out of her back, drew her sword, and sighed slowly, glaring at the beast before her. Under an intent she did not understand, she backed closer to stand protectively before Cedric; a stance that spread to Alma once she came close enough. Knowing that Mira would not want to be hugged right now, Cedric proceeded to throw his arms around Alma with tears in his eyes. Mira remained determined, her three ponytail's long, her silver and red dress armor bright, and her eyes glinting, each in their own color. Alma frowned at Cedric's hug, but slowly wrapped her arms around him while helping to support Tyrell.
Soon, she was hiding both children in her arms when she also realized that his parents were partially injured by the wreckage too. Turning her back to the fight that was about to occur, Alma immediately made a choice; she was going to protect these two boys, even if she died. His parents...they were trying to change her future, her suffering...and she hated them. She hated them for particular reasons, yes, but that grudge wasn't worth all of this anymore. They had been nothing but nice, and she had been a hellion. How horrible of her...but she had her reasons...and they ended now. She didn't know why she still felt an uncontrollable anger deep within her heart, and why part of her wanted to murder both of these children in her arms...children like her...but for the first time, she fought that urge. She fought that need to murder the two, waiting desperately for safety, and gritting her teeth as her head began to hurt with the conflicting emotions within it.
No more. Whatever was in her, she would fight back...!
"My drones are down right now because of this. But Starshine Future is here, to cut the fog that hides clarity. I am here to fight, and I will not let either of you be hurt. Even if I am still in training..."
"Mira, you have to hurry!" cried Alma.
Mira and Cedric gasped though, because her voice had changed. It was clearer, louder, brighter, and calmer. It was gentle, and settling, with the higher lilt of a beautiful child's playful voice. It was not the cruel and cold voice she had always bore. Despite the lilt though, her voice indicated severe alarm.
"Alma?" exclaimed Mira, shocked.
"Wh..." gasped Cedric.
"Please, I beg you! Something in me is demanding that I kill these two! I am holding back, please hurry! I am afraid, I am afraid of whatever is within me!"
"I...I understand! I will do my best!"
"Alma, are you okay?"
"I am fine Cedric...I will guard you, even if it costs my life. I am sorry, for every horrible thing I may have said. Something within me is wrong, please understand..."
"Please don't die!"
"I will do my best..."
The baby wailed on and on as Mira launched herself at the golem...
Alright guys, a couple of things!
What do you guys think so far of the story?
If you had to pick a ship for Cedric, what would you pick? Why?
-Remember that earlier, Seris identified that he seemed to have a thing for Ara.
-And now he has two children around his age. Sort of.
-Bear in mind that we have now seen that Alma isn't as bad as she seemed.
Have fun, and remember that the question is for fun!
Hope you enjoyed, and please review with anything you wish to say!