"If your minds weren't so feeble, I wouldn't find it so damned difficult to break you"
————————————————————————
It only takes one sinful flower to make the remaining beautiful blossoms wither. At least, that was a popular folktale that spread over the generations of one of the many damned sorcerer families just after the blood war met its end.
All these sayings and tales about one sinful flower originated after the supreme generals alongside the surviving legendary "Heroes" of the world's dark age rewrote the true tales of the old earth.
After all, history was only told from the perspective of the victors.
The damned man found himself walking toward the direction in which Cain had earlier taken Aaliyah. Each step he took called for dead flowers to sprout as his footprints.
It was not hard for the man to make the connection that Jason and Selene were indeed the two offsprings of the woman who had suddenly captured his interest.
As the former patriarch of the most renowned lineages in the world of sorcery, the damned man's Hivemind power which allowed him to worm his way into the minds of those who shared the same blood as him, had suddenly acted on its own and connected him to the same mind space as both Jason and Selene.
The concept of sorcery acting on its own was not entirely impossible, but never really heard of among sorcerers. And yet, the damned man couldn't stop asking himself the same question over and over again.
'Just… who, are they?…'
Only one way to find out. He had to invade the mind space of the siblings mother and inside of her, he would find the answer to his suspicions.
***
By the time Cain had dropped Aaliyah off toward the west second of Hell's seventh layer, the two of them had stood across from each other in a desolate graveyard.
Surrounded by nameless tombstones and scarecrows.
With the support of one of the tombstones, Aaliyah stumbled as she rose to her feet. Gritting her teeth, she brought her dark grey eyes up and pierced a sharp gaze right through the demonic form of Cain who stood with a smug expression.
His exposed ribcage still had the cursed flowers from the Malediction sprouting from his own body, but the smug demon ignored the waves of pain that had surged through his hollow vessel.
All he could fixate on in that moment, was the woman who stood before him.
Finally, he spoke.
"It's been what… only a few months, how've you been, my love?"
My love. The words which Cain felt the audacity to let slip from his mouth sent shivers through Aaliyah's body, giving her uncomfortable goosebumps as if she had been standing out in the freezing cold.
Aaliyah responded, her voice filled with barely controlled contempt.
"Don't you dare call me that, you repulsive inbred trash!"
Cain simply let out an inhumane laugh. His hands went straight toward where his abdomen should've been as he said:
"I swear to the gods I've missed that foul tongue of yours… but what else would a man like myself call his wife?"
Hearing the repulsive words of the smug demon in front of her made Aaliyah want nothing more than to release the contents of her stomach. In that moment, all of her past traumas had replayed vividly in her disjointed mind.
From the moment she had first crossed paths with this bastard in her teen years, from when he forced himself onto her twice, all the way till she was coerced into birthing the two products of this demon's horrific acts.
And the worst part of it all, her own mother allowing it to happen no less. 'Damn it all'
While Cain had began to yap like a barking dog, Aaliyah used a few short moments of silence inside her own mind to assess the unfortunate predicament she had found herself in.
'Me and Selene used were both drained of almost ninety five percent of our power just about three hours ago… right now I can only use basic magic'
As much as it made her stomach turn to admit it, Aaliyah was in no condition to win against Cain. Though had she been in peak condition, the victor of their clash would no doubt be the former matriarch of the Yamikei clan herself.
But the if's didn't matter in this moment. All she could think of was what could she do in this moment.
But then, her train of thought had been interrupted by a cold hand with thick bony hand that had gripped her shoulder.
Cain had brought his face just up close to her ear and said in a whispering voice:
"Why don't you let out that pretty scream of yours, and call out for our son to come save you?…"
Suddenly, Aaliyah lost all control of all reasoning. Her eyes went bloodshot as she twisted her body and struck the back side of her fist across Cain's face, completely blowing his jaw off while in the process, shattering the bones in her own hand.
The force of the punch sent both of them flying opposite to each other. Both of them slid a few centimeters on the jagged ground.
Aaliyah took a second to glance down at her shattered hand, and grunted.
'Fuck!'
There it was, distraction. One of the many worst things one could allow to happen to them in the midst of a life or death situation.
When she finally brought her eyes up, she noticed that Cain was no longer across from her, in fact he was completely out of her line of sight.
A split second passed, suddenly a thick hot hand gripped at the side of her head and slammed her into the ground, causing many cracks to form around the point of impact in the ground.
Blood trickled down Aaliyah's forehead as she gritted her teeth and focused her eyes up at the repulsive sight of Cain who showed no signs of struggle to hold her down, while she gritted her teeth and clawed at his arm and face.
Cain sighed in exhilaration, and said:
"I have to say Aaliyah, it really turns me on seeing you like this… it reminds me of our special nights of love before you and our children killed me."
The thing that riled Aaliyah up possibly even more than the bastard speaking of her children, was the fact that the expression on his face went from smug to ecstasy.
This kind of behavior was expected from a piece of excrement like Cain, but still succeeded in bringing unbearable wrath that burned as a wildfire in Aaliyah's entire being.
Soon, beneath her cracked fingernails cain's blood had soaked her fingers as she continued clawing at his arm.
With a sly smile on the distorted structure of his face, Cain trailed his fingers down Aaliyah's cheeks and stopped right at her neck where he then gave a firm squeeze once he closed his palm around her throat.
"Speaking of hell, maybe our children will run into their grandfather and uncle down here… and maybe when I finish having fun with you, they'll have to fight against you."
The grip Cain had around Aaliyah's neck had slowly tightened, making Aaliyah's eyes go wide as she desperately tried to peel his hand away while frantically gasping for air.
"Can you see it?… dying in the hand of your loving husband, and taking your place beside me in hell as a demon, and then culling our children? It's all so exhilarating."
Cain continued his insensitive remarks, and after a few moments was interrupted by a sudden rustling sound.
Keeping his firm grip around Aaliyah's neck, he twisted his body enough to look over his shoulder. Once he did, he noticed a curved pattern of flowers suddenly beginning to bloom toward both him and Aaliyah.
This sight send a shiver down his jagged spine and somehow made the flowers in his exposed ribcage react intensely, spreading an unbearable pain throughout his entire being.
Suddenly, a damned man was standing at the front of the trailed flowers. His eyes with black scaleras and crimson irises stared indifferently into the depths of Cain's own emotionless eyes.
The hunchback damned man just stood there, as if paralyzed. For a second Cain thought the damned man was staring at him, but he wasn't…
He was staring at what was grasped in the palm of his hand.
Just as he turned his eyes to the side and glanced at Aaliyah, he noticed that her arms shook violently for a second and then dropped to her sides, she looked as if she had died from his suffocation.
But her heart was still beating, her lips were still moving… however, her eyes changed.
Her scaleras were black and irises shined crimson as if they mirrored the damned man's own eyes.
Then, something happened that made Cain's earlier smug look run off into the distance.
Aaliyah slowly brought her hand up enough to backhand Cain right in his exposed ribcage, shattering it completely and knocking him back into multiple tombstones.
Cain remained on the ground, whimpering as he caught sight of the two his face was then filled with overwhelming fear that had crushed his entire body like a sudden pressure in the space around him.
Though Aaliyah remained still on the ground, the damned man slowly approached her with footsteps that made flowers sprout beneath his feet.
Once he reached her, the bones in his joints had made an unpleasant cracking noise that made Cain flinch.
The damned man broke the tense silence with his raspy voice.
"Who… are… you?…"
The question was directed towards Aaliyah, and as if giving him an answer, his vision went black.
***
The damned man had awoken and found himself inside a spacious black stoned room. In front of him, there were four steps that led up to a smooth square shaped platform.
On top of the platform, there was a single black sheeted bed and a woman lying on top of it. Four long chains from all around the ceiling had latched onto and dug into the skin of the woman's wrists.
The damned man's eyes had flickered with a sense of recognition once he arrived in front of the bed, and as if sensing his presence, the woman brought her dark grey eyes up to meet his devilish eyes.
She gave him a soft smile.
For some reason, the damned man seemed calm and at peace when his eyes took in the woman's appearance.
She had black hair which had a bun at the top of her head, and had a single long braid wrapped around it.
The skin on her face had a few wrinkles of exhaustion though her skin was still almost perfect despite her age.
In her arms she was cradling a newborn infant. And after a few moments of silence, the small smile left the woman's lips and she spoke to the Infant who had suddenly began crying.
"Once upon a time, the world was lurking with various types of scary dangers that roamed the old earth…"
"But then, one beautiful flower had bloomed and shied away from the sunlight, sacrificing himself to the darkness of the world in order to save it…"
The sudden story put the infant's heart at ease and stopped her crying. However, a sudden tear rolled down the cheeks of the woman and fell onto the cheek of the child.
It was then, that the damned man's eyes suddenly widened. His breath caught in his chest as he spoke.
"A-Aiko…"
In that brief moment, all of his memoirs from his life had flashed in his mind. The woman whom he held so dear to his heart, and the child who had to grow up without knowing the love of her father all because of his deal with the devil, was right in front of him.
Suddenly, a single tear raced down his cheek. One decision was all it took to change the future… for better, and for worse.
But now, he had realized. These were the sealed memories of the woman he was crouching in front of.
Her memories which he was allowed to see due to his Hivemind power acting on its own. Knowing that this power for him only allowed him to worm his way into the minds of his kin… his blood relatives, especially his direct offsprings.
***
Once he left the mind of the woman who was lying still on the jagged ground, surrounded by thin withered flowers.
All it took for the damned man was one look at those dark grey eyes of hers, and just like that… he knew.
"Aaliyah… my daughter…"
————————————————————————
Continued in chapter 106: Husk And Hollow
————————————————————————