Author's Note :-
Under a set of my own personal reasons, I sadly declare that I may be able to post a maximum of 2 chapters per week! Even so... I hope my readers will understand.
This situation may persist till the end of this year, so I ask for your dear patience, and bear with me for the rest of the story!
And lastly, happy reading :)!
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Chapter 3 – The Foretold Future... or Past?
As Liluca ventures into the past path, the modern days paves its way into the mysterious future.
Liluca’s father, Lucio Aceheart sat inside a dark room. The room was lit by none but a pyramid-like device, projecting a blue and transparent hologram of an object far too familiar to Lucio. Beneath the device, a large round table was set, encircled by five figures bathed in the shadow of darkness, including Lucio himself.
The silence of the room was broken as soon as a large hand banged upon the table, somehow disrupting the hologram projected like broken television. “Lucio Aceheart! You have stolen a precious artifact from the Association, and yet, you dare to show your face here? I demand you return that artifact, right here, right now!”
The dark figure sitting by the raging man, placed his hand atop his shoulder. “Calm down, Dimitri.” He turned his view toward Lucio. “So, what made you, Lucio Aceheart, the Director of the World’s Magic Association, representing the country of the United States, to act on his own accord, even more to go against the wishes of the Association and his own country?” He raised his eyebrows at the end of his sentence.
“I have to agree with Evan. It is our responsibility to ensure that the artifact is kept safe, for the sake of the human kind. And there’s no better place but the Association, backed up by numerous countries to guard it, don’t you think so, Director?” another figure joined in.
Lucio sighed. “Evan, Dimitri, Johannes. You must be very well-informed, on how greedy our country can be. Think about it. The power of time travelling. If it fell into the hands of the wrong person, man, president, whoever it is, how can we be so sure that they won’t use it for a wrong purpose? There’s no safe place on Earth to keep the artifact, no matter how heavily guarded it is.”
“And so you decided that making sure that the artifact itself does not exist in the first place is the best option?” Evan asked, releasing his grip from Dimitri’s shoulder.
Lucio nodded. “Yes. That is the best possible solution in this case.”
“So, which team exactly did you send? The Elite Assassination Team or the highly trained All-Purpose Team, or some professional members from the Aceheart clan itself?” Johannes inquired, curious to know who had been appointed to travel into the past.
“I sent my son, Liluca,” Lucio answered without hesitant.
“Wait a minute. Liluca, that little snow boy with a girly face? Oh great! Our fate is secure within the hands of a feminine boy. Secured to doom, that is!” Dimitri threw his hands up in frustration.
“Act professional, Dimitri. You are supposed to be thirty five years old, but you are already as cranky as a 155 years old man. Heck, if my memory serves me correctly, even Liluca has better control of himself than you are,” stated Evan as he shook his head in disappointment.
“Although risky, I chose Liluca over an armada of professional peoples for a reason. First, his hobby of reading books allow him access to knowledge far wider than any of us. The library at the Aceheart mansion, of which I should note have over five hundred thousand of books, were already finished by Liluca within months. I have hope, that with his wide knowledge, Liluca will somehow be able to defy the undefiable law of time loop.”
Lucio continued. “Second, he is very simple-minded, rather than raw-minded. The darkness of the human heart applies differently to him. His greed… is more of curiosity. And he follow orders with the best of his abilities, while probably at most, having fun along the way. Third, he most definitely has a grip of his own emotion, much better than any of us.”
“Humph! A child is still nothing but a child! You’ll regret this decision later on, and you probably won’t ever know it!” Dimitri’s figure disintegrated and perished into the darkness.
Lucio could only sigh once more as Dimitri took his leave. He had always been a stubborn one, insisting on protecting his own stand against a certain matter. There’s also the fact that Liluca was already fourteen, an age fit to be called a teenager rather than a child. Just because he’s short, doesn’t mean he’s a child, thought Lucio.
“Don’t mind him, Director. He’ll cool down in a few days,” said Johannes, staring at the skittering darkness, a leftover made by Dimitri as he left.
“To be honest, I understand that if you have to destroy the artifact for the good of the world. It’s just… sending a child for such a dangerous mission of which he may never return from isn’t exactly… my cup of tea, if I must say,” Evan clarified his thoughts, clamping his hands together while twiddling with his fingers.
“Nevertheless, our countries aren’t going to appreciate the fact that the Director itself took actions that will oppose their interests. How will you counter that, Director?” asked Johannes.
“That kind of behind-the-scene stuff, just leave it in my hands.” Lucio turned his attention toward yet another figure who had not spoken at all. “That aside, you have been quite the silent one since just now, Ifrit. What do your thoughts speak of in this circumstances, and what does the stars tell of you? You are, after all, the representative of Japan, and also a Lunar Priest.”
Ifrit shook her head, her face shrouded in the veil of darkness. “I… like Evan, approve of the mission itself, but not for the one who had been chosen to execute it.”
“I see. It’s a pity then.”
“And the stars… oh… the stars, they’re in chaos. In the distance, a black hole carries the message of destruction, swirling and vibrating even harder than the strongest of hurricanes and earthquakes, devouring all the defenceless light in its path. And… it is on its way… to a city of stars.”
A squirming sense of unease rose in Lucio’s stomach and a drop of sweat ran down his wrinkled face. There was a voice that spoke in his mind, relating Ifrit’s fortune-telling to something he did not want to think about. He pushed it away, but it came back. He does it again, and it hides, for now.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“For now… Evan, Johannes, keep an eye on Dimitri and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Ifrit, let me know if something abrupt occurs in the stars.” Lucio issued commands, trying to hide the fact he’s plagued in worry.
“That’s what I had in mind. See you, Director.” Johannes rose from his seat and walked into the darkness.
“I hope and wish for Liluca’s safety.” Evan disappeared without a trace from his seat, not even a single skittering darkness left behind in his wake.
“Be careful, Lucio. A storm is coming…” Ifrit’s figure shone with a brilliant light and perished in the blink of an eye.
Had Lucio made the wrong choice after all? Nonetheless, it was far too late for him to regret it now, so much more for him to reverse his action. He could only stand in the darkness, clamping his hand together as a prayer echoed within his mind. Please, be safe, Liluca.
Lucio closed his eyes, and then he opened it.
He was back at the mansion, in his study room. Traces of ice patches on the floor, ice stalagmites on the ceiling and random ice cubes made by Liluca himself were still roaming within the room since his outbreak two days ago. If left alone, all of them could have melted and disappear, but Lucio didn’t want that. Using his magic, he stopped the deterioration and ensured that they would last as long as they could.
It was, after all, the final magic Liluca had casted right before leaving for the past.
Whilst Lucio dwelled during the moments when Liluca froze his entire existence two days ago, two knocks from the door came crashing on his ears.
Without batting an eye to the door, he said, “Come in.” There was an inch of himself that wanted the one knocking door to be Liluca, but his mind knew that was impossible. It could only be a daydream, nothing more.
The door opened, and revealed peering behind it was Claudia. She was barely holding the doorknob with two of her trembling fingers, trying her best not to squash it into the domain of the quantum space. After setting foot inside the room, she left the door ajar, but it closed by itself soon after.
Claudia was wearing her usual outfit, a blue tracksuit with a black pair of pants. It never did blend well with her naturally green hair, but she seemed insistent on wearing them every day. Of course, she would swap into her bear-decorated pyjamas at night. Lucio let it slip by, thinking that Liluca probably made her wear them.
“Do you need something, Clumsydia?”
“It’s Claudia, not Clumsydia!” She retorted, as Lucio expected. “Anyway, Liluca had been away for two complete days. I’m sort of… worried.” Her gaze hopped from one stalagmite to another, hanging on the ceiling as if they were bats. “By the way, want me to remove those?” She pointed toward one of the stalagmites.
“Don’t, let them be. On the topic, what Liluca is tasked to do is not easy. He has to find the amulet, and also its creator, in a completely strange world without any information on it, of which systems may be vastly different from this world, and also infested with monsters that could kill humans by only existing. It’s logical that it’ll take longer than only two days, don’t you think? Plus, everyone are worried, not just you.”
“Then! Can’t we support him in some way? He’s alone… in the past, with nothing but his bag full of tools, and his mind racked with knowledge of which may not even be useful in the past!”
Lucio clamped his hands together and threw Claudia a sharp glare. “Claudia, do you believe in Liluca? Or are you putting up an act, just because you’re his fiancé? If it’s fortune you’re looking for, the Aceheart clan has plenty to offer.”
“What?!” Claudia’s face beamed red, and she leapt from her position toward Lucio. Her fist hardened, retracted beside her shoulder and ready to obliterate anything in its path. However, as soon as her fist blasted into Lucio, she discovered that an invisible force was stopping her fist in its path.
In anger, she shouted, “What do you think I am? Just another girl lusting for money? No! I don’t know how you perceive me as, but Liluca’s safety is my first priority!” She jumped off the desk and pulled her fist away, causing a fierce wind gust toppling over all the books arranged on the bookshelves beside her.
“Hahaha… I’m just teasing you. I know how you feel toward Liluca. It’s just… I have had no one to release my old-man-stress to since Liluca’s departure. He was, after all, the only one who had been willing to spend time with me, rather than his older and successful siblings.
“Mister… I understand that but please, never joke regarding the fiancé matter again.” Claudia eased her shoulders and unveiled her fist.
Lucio held his hand upward like he was a hostage. “My bad. This pile of rickety bones are getting insensitive, after all.”
“Well then… I’ll take my leave. And, don’t strain yourself, will you, mister? I don’t want a dead father-in-law to greet Liluca when he’s back home.” Claudia opened the door, in her usual unique ways and disappeared from Lucio’s view.
Lucio coughed. “Well, she’s sharper than I thought.”
Lucio turned his chairs and faced the window, set at the end of his room. As he was on the second floor of the mansion, he had a bird’s eye view of the surrounding. Green and lively forest laid out before the mansion, expanding toward as far as the horizon could mark. At the end of these vast forests, roofs of buildings peered over the jungle, staring at the distant mansion, far and away from the city.
“A black hole of chaos… what does it possibly mean…?” Lucio murmured by himself.
What could Lucio do? All the compass of disasters had their arrows pointed toward somewhere, but Lucio never knew where exactly was that somewhere. His son lingered in the historical past, and Lucio himself sat in the advancing future. Even if he was to regret his decision, there was no turning back for him now.
The choice set in stones, the wheel of fate spinning on its own.
Lucio shook his head. It’s a waste of time for him to dwell in matters like these. He grabbed his crow-headed cane leaning by his desk, stood up, and exited the room. He was going to need a distraction. He was going to need… a drink.