Chapter 375 - Rust's Life

-----

Rust's life started in the slums of Earth, in some Asian country's streets. He was born amorphous, his body was filled with tumors, and his mother found him hideous. Because she was a woman that lived out in the streets, and was cold-hearted and even less maternal, she ended throwing him into the trash to die out of starvation and asphyxiation.

The life of a small children, hopeless, and without being able to help itself at all, the little and aberrant baby cried in fear and hunger, as it saw the last moments of its life confused of what was occurring, wondering where could be those warm hands that held him before, and why was in such a dark and fetid place now…

Out of desperation, the baby continued screaming loudly, until suddenly, its powers awakened…

People in Earth had suffered mutations over the miasma falling over their world, and children often were born with some sort of supernatural ability and even magic.

The baby's power manifested as it screamed for his mother. Anything that was metallic began to gather around the baby and aid him. The metallic pieces, all the scrap in the trash turned into a floating mass of metal, and people that day saw a screaming baby being carried by a mass of scrap elsewhere.

Somehow, the baby was able to find his mother, only for her to be terrified of the powers he had, and ending up escaping from him…

Before he knew it, the baby found itself captured by mysterious people, that ended putting him inside a laboratory. Once more, a new specimen for this secret organization had emerged, this time a specimen capable of manipulating metals.

The entire organization and the scientists working in experimenting with miasma and chaos-attribute mana decided to immediately do all sorts of experiments with the weeks old baby, forcing miasma into his system and trying to find if it was possible to combine such powers with his innate magnetism…

The results, over time, were catastrophic.

BOOOM!!!

The entire facility where Rust was put began to explode, as the metal making almost 90% of the entire facility began to bend to the furious and berserk baby.

After two years of constant tortures, the baby assimilated the miasma successfully, but instead of obeying the scientists, it went berserk and began destroying everything.

Dark metal began to spread everywhere, any metallic material in the facility turned into this black metal, consuming everything, destroying everything, and freeing countless guinea pigs that were secluded in that place at the same time.

"R-Run!"

"Guuuaaaagghhh!"

"Y-You monster! Let me go!"

The small baby looked expressionlessly at the scientists that tortured him through his entire life, his liquid metal began to coil around their bodies, pressing over them until they exploded and splattered over the entire floor…

When it had completely killed everyone that had made him suffer, Rust moved outside of the facility and converted every metal it saw into his endless sea of liquid black metal.

Over time, he reached a city, and caused enormous havoc. Everyone treated the baby as a monster, but inside of his young and innocent mind, the only thing he ever wanted was his mother.

It searched for his mother everywhere it could, screaming and crying, his every voice only made metal bend even more to his will, metallic materials suddenly turned into black metal out of nowhere, gaining sentience and consuming more metallic materials, countless innocents suffered as they died agonizingly, until a large group of Hunters, people with powers that defended cities from wild monsters emerged, and after a raid that lasted over three days, where over twenty hunters died, including even some prestigious SSS-Rank ones, the baby was finally put down, turned into ashes by the flames of the one they called the Flame Emperor.

However, even after such a disaster, the man that had to take the life of a baby didn't felt any happiness, he only felt sorrow of such a cruel world, where such a thing as a baby seeking his mother could cause so much destruction… a world that let such tragedies pass easily, a world that let such things slide.

Since then, a movement made by Hunters that supported him started, as they slowly began to track down the true identity of the organization behind such a tragedy, and to put a stop to their wicked creations using the lives of innocent children.

However… that's the story for another world, and another occasion.

When Rust died, his entire body burned, and it was probably the most agonizing pain he ever felt after having been injected with miasma through his entire little body.

It was only two years old… yet it suffered so much.

When the baby died, it died alone, and without ever having been able to experience the warmth of his mother's hands anymore.

The only pity he ever got was from the sorrowful and regretful face of the Flame Emperor, as the red-haired man was forced to kill a child…

His tiny hand had extended towards him back then, as if asking for help… deep down, not even the baby was fully aware of his own powers.

In that moment, the Flame's Emperor last words were…

"I am sorry…"

His tiny hand had turned into ashes and so the rest of his body, and then, darkness greeted his sight.

Eternal, and endlessly empty darkness.

…

However, in that very last moment, the words… the voice of somebody spoke to him.

"Innocent child… You that have died with tragedy like my own son, is deserving of a second chance…" she said.

It was a motherly voice, similar to how the baby idolized a motherly figure.

She enveloped his tiny soul in her eternal darkness, and gave him the warmth of a mother, even for a few seconds…

"Would you be willing to go see my son, and help him out?"

Although Rust enjoyed such an enveloping and warmth motherly embrace, which was only filled with an aberrant, abyssal, and empty darkness, it couldn't last that long.

She seemed to be weakened, and in a hurry to send him off. She seemed to be sorry for that, though, as she could see in the baby's soul how much he had suffered, and how much he needed such love.

-----