A red haze fades into a soft blue sky, as a faint rain pours down from the heavens. A boy walks alone, surrounded only by the weight of his thoughts, as this rain floods him with the memories of his failure, still lingering in his mind.
This walk is slow and aimless, yet he arrives at his house with the sky still in a perpetual gloom. The boy steps into the house weakly, his mind stuck in a nebulous fog, permeating through his consciousness.
He stumbles around, attempting to take off his clothes, burnt and destroyed by flame. The boy barely succeeds, the outside world obscured by the staggering pressure weighing him down. The boy turns weakly to the wall behind him, and in its inky blackness, he sees the devastation caused by the Demon.
The boy shakes his head, trying to rid himself of the terror surfacing every time he is reminded of the leviathan's monstrous power. But the fear...the more he ignores it, the more it grows.
The boy walks through a small opening in his home and comes to a tiny pool of water, enclosed by the rocky walls of his cave. The boy climbs in and closes his eyes as he attempts to relax.
For a short moment, he does...But the peace of the cave doesn't last, as the boy's eyes snap open, filled with anxiety and a lingering feeling of dread. The dark colours and distant contours of the cave ceiling paint the face of the Demon haunting him, in the shades of a deep, unsettling fear.
The boy attempts to close his eyes, to turn away from the monster, from the fear in front of him. But the Demon cannot be avoided, and the boy finds himself unable to look away, as the monstrosity in front of his eyes advances closer...closer...closer...until it suddenly stops.
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The beastly figure dissipates into a current of air, which lifts the hazy mist clouding his mind, as the boy's mind is filled with the comfort of a single memory, reverberating throughout his very being...
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The sun hangs low, painting the horizon in hues of yellow and orange. This sky surrounds a man and a boy, sitting together, staring at the sunset.
The man turns to the boy and says,"Astraoth, when you find a challenge, a fear so profound and terrifying you seem to have no way to survive under its gaze, remember this: A fear in the present, no matter the strength, no matter the potency, is limited to the present. A fear in the past can never be overcome, and you will never surpass that fear, not truly, if you cannot face that fear in the present."
As the sun fell below the horizon, and the world was coated in shadow, Oromius told Astraoth the few words he would always remember, and said,"To survive...To be the man I know you will be, you must confront your fear, for only then can you surpass your limits, and become the man I see in you now."
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That memory resounds throughout the boy's mind as he confronts the demons he once ignored,"I refuse to let someone else decide my feelings. I refuse to let someone else defeat me like this. I refuse to let someone else decide my fate...I will rise up. And I will NOT lose anymore..."
Astraoth's eyes snap open, emanating a beam of crimson light, as his body is filled with energy, with confidence. Astraoth turns to face the Demon once overlaid upon his ceiling, and gazes back at his fear, his terror, with the steadfast conviction of a man, of a legend in the making...