Chapter 75: A Lifelong Regret

Briar soon opens her eyes to find herself in the abyss again.

Knowing who's memories she has ended up, Briar calls out, "Idia! Idia, where are you?! Idia!"

Right on cue, she hears Idia's voice, "My life's been set in stone… since before I was born… The Watchman of the Island of Woe…. That's what I'm gonna be… People born into the Shroud family… possess a blood curse that burns blot…. And they have a signature spell… that opens and closes the gate to the Underworld."

Soon, a memory of the Styx hallway appears. Soon, she sees different people talking.

One researcher says, "Young Idia is truly exceptional. He excels both in magic and his studies. He's even impressed experts with his technomantic engineering work. That boy's a bona fide genius."

"It's true. Styx's future is in good hands," The female researcher says.

Soon, the memory disappears.

Briar begins walking as she continues to hear Idia's voice, ";What do you want to be when you grow up?' If I were a normal kid, I bet someone would've asked me that… Would it kill someone… to ask me that just once?"

Soon, a memory scene appears before her. She then finds herself in a large room that has comic books, posters, a computer, and essentials. Some of the posters look very familiar.

Suddenly, she hears two voices, "'Shoot for glory among the stars and soar like a comet!'"

Briar turns to see two children playing a game. One of them she recognized to be Idia as a child. There is another child next to him, and he seems very familiar. He has the familiar blue hair rising up, and yellow eyes.

Briar is shocked to see, "Ortho?!"

Briar is shocked to see the boy is actually Ortho as a little boy. An organic boy for that matter. Idia is playing a video game as Ortho watch.

The young boy, Ortho happily says, "You can do it, Idy! Get those Chronos Force losers!

Idia cheers, "WOO! Cleared hard mode without taking any damage!"

"You rock, Idy!" Ortho happily says, "Take that, Chronos Force!"

Idia sighs, "Maaan... I wish I could go on an adventure in the outside world like the hero in Star Rogue."

"Me too! I wanna go adventuring with you!" Ortho says. "Then we'd take down the bad guys and become heroes."

"Heroes, huh…" Idia replies, "Maybe you could be one, but I doubt I could."

"Why's that? I want us both to be," Ortho asks.

"'Cuz when I grow up, I'm gonna have to take over running things for the family," Idia says.

"Okay, but what if you do it before you grow up?" Ortho says.

"Before I grow up, huh…" Idia replies.

"Yeah!" Ortho happily says, "It's okay to go on adventures as long as you're not grown up yet, right?"

Idia thinks for a second and says, "Y know, maybe it IS okay for me to go outside as long as I do it before I take over. If I could just bypass HQ's security, it'd be easy to slip through the Oceanus Gate and get off the island. So…" And think some more.

He then turns to Ortho and asks, "...You wanna go on an adventure?"

Ortho happily gasps and says, "Yeah! Let's do it!"

"Okay. Just leave it to your big bro," Idia happily says.

Soon, the memory fades away.

Briar is shocked to see this, the little boy, who's with Idia was his real little brother. It has her thinking that if the little boy is Ortho, then who is the Ortho now. Then, who exactly is the Ortho she's been seeing at school… She wonder if something might have happened.

Suddenly she hears Idia's voice again, "It was simple curiosity… I just wanted a little adventure…. I never imagined…" the voice remains silent a little before saying, "...the horror that would follow."

"Horror?" Briar mutters to herself.

Soon, another memory appears, showing young Idia and Ortho in the halls of Styx HQ.

Idiasays, "Heh heh. Shutting off the security is a piece of cake for me. It really shouldn't be this easy to hack into."

Ortho looks around in amazement, "Wow... I've never been in here before."

"Make sure to stay close, Ortho," Idia says. "We'll need an amphibious technomantic vehicle to get through the Oceanus Gate." Then begins typing on his computer, "Gimme a sec. I'll just access the hangar admin system and…"

But suddenly, the alarm goes off, catching the boys off guard.

Then the PA says, "Red alert. Security systems have been compromised by an external cyberattack. All locks in Tartarus have been disengaged. Subject ROS-3367A has escaped from its lab. All Charon troops, report to Tartarus immediately! All noncombatants, evacuate to the shelters!"

And the alarm continues to go off.

Frightened, Ortho asks, "Idy? What's with all the noise?"

"Wait... Did I just do that?!" Idia asks, shocked.

He soon begins to panic, "Oh no, I'd better get it back online!" and begins typing on his computer to put the system back online.

Suddenly, Ortho has a frightened expression on his face and sees something that has him petrified.

Ortho speaks out in a frightened tone, "Idy…"

"Don't worry. I'm right here," Idia says.

But Ortho points down the hall, "No, look! There's something at the end of the hall!"

"Huh?" Idia questions and turns down the hall.

Briar does the same, and sees some kind of shadow.

It lets out a growl, "GRRR…"

Idia yelps, "Eep... It's a monster!" and quickly grabs his brother's hand.

The monster lets out a roar, "GRRR… GRAAAH!"

And soon attacks the two brothers.

Briar cries out, "IDIA! ORTHO!"

But soon, the memory turns black and disappears at an instant.

"They're… they're gone…" Briar says, stunned and horrified by what she witnessed.

She suddenly hears Idia's voice once more, "Everything after that is a blank for me…. By the time I woke up… Ortho was gone."

Briar is shocked to hear and see what happened that tears begin to fall from her face.

Soon, the memories of the hall where Ortho and Idia have been attacked appears again, and shows the two researchers.

The first one says, "I can't believe a 10-year-old hacked the most sophisticated security system in the world…"

Another one says, "He's too smart for his own good. Who could've predicted his brilliance would lead to such tragedy?"

"I understand the Phantoms that escaped got banished to the Underworld all at once," The first researcher says, "

The female researcher says, "I mean, it was the only way, but still? What a truly unfortunate accident."

This causes Briar to shed even more tears, of the scientist's words. If what they're saying is true, then Ortho… the real organic Ortho must have perished from the attack.

Soon, the memories changed to Idia's room. Where she sees Idia sitting on the bed with tears falling down from his face, and holding a photo. He looks to see a photo of himself and Ortho.

Heartbroken, Idia says, "It's all my fault. All because I made that stupid remark about going on an adventure. I couldn't even protect my brother. Some genius I am. What a joke of a hero! I just want Ortho back... Give him back to me! Give me all of Ortho. His body, his personality, his memories, EVERYTHING! I WANT IT ALL BACK!"

Briar can't help but shed tears of sadness on what she has seen and how broken Idia is. At once split second, India has lost his younger brother, Ortho. And now, she is watching him as he screams of wanting his brother back.

Suddenly, Idia then lifts his head, and ends up saying, "...That's it. If he isn't coming back, I'll just make him. It's okay. I remember everything about him. I know I can recreate Ortho perfectly. We promised we'd go on an adventure together…" He then looks at the photograph once last time, "...Just leave it to your big bro."

And with that, Idia rushes to his computer and begins to work on how to recreate Ortho, how to in a way, bring his brother back.

Briar softly says in sadness, "Idia…"