Chapter 278: Hart of Gold

"Sincerely, Alex Hart, the dead man that hopefully accomplished something with his death and brought happiness to others."

…

"Smily face…"

… 

…

The air around them went silent almost as if time had slowed down to a stand-still.

Moby was holding the paper in his hand, literally shaking, trying to hold back the waterworks from exploding from the dam of his already teary eyes. 

He now fully understood the watermarks on the paper from Ray who had read the letter prior to him, and even he was once again in tears although it was his second time hearing it.

Slowly, Moby lifted his head and looked around at all of his comrade's faces… 

Jayden was trembling and shaking, her eyes more than watery and her hand on her head trying to take everything in. 

Nags on the other hand looked completely indifferent, although Moby did notice subtle changes in his expression as he looked out into the distance, he did not know Alex like they did after all.

Moby took a long, shaky breath and set the paper down on the table ahead of him, deep in thought.

'The amount of purity in that man's heart is truly astounding… I kinda see now why he sacrificed himself… Alex, I don't want to say that your death made us happy… But in a way, it might bring long-term happiness because who knows what would have happened then… You did save Abby's life who I'm 100% sure will recover… I'll personally make sure of that... If you want us to look at your death that way… Then I guess we have to…' 

A small smile appeared on Moby's face that did not seem at all odd or out of place. 

"Jayden? Did you know about any of this?"

She slowly looked up and looked Moby dead in the eyes, her tears and expression only getting worse before she took a deep breath and wiped her face with a nearby tissue.

"Honestly, I knew some of it, but definitely not all of it… Definitely not all of it…"

"I see…" Moby nodded back to her words before focusing his gaze on Ray. 

"Have you shared this with anyone else? Have you shared this with his parents?"

"No, I haven't… You guys are the only people that know about this… I was gonna tell his parents but I didn't just yet..."

"I think it's good you didn't tell the parents, I'm sure he sent them a personal message as well. After all, they weren't mentioned even a single time in his letter which seemed to be done on purpose. This is directed at us alone. Even if it doesn't say so on the paper, I'm sure of it."

Ray nodded slowly before weeping and wiping away some of the tears on his face.

Moby also wiped his eyes before he slowly looked around everyone on the silent, down, table once more before crossing his hands and taking in a deep, audible huff of air.

"Okay, guys! Why don't we finish the food and get back to the rides! Which ones have you guys gone on! Smile! We're at an amusement park! I'm sure that's what Alex would want us to do! Right?"

Moby suddenly shot out of his seat and looked at everyone with brightness.

They looked at him completely bewildered, unable to say a word before Jayden took the initiative with hints of a smile forming on her depressed face. 

"Yeah! Y-your right… What are we doing! We went on every ride except for the molten drop! Let's go!"

Ray immediately followed suit, looking at the letter on the table that was responsible for lifting him up from the deepest depths of depression, looking at the sky above with a smile before responding too, while Nags simply remained quiet, blankly staring in the distance before a small smile appeared on his face as well.

"Yeah… Let's go…"

***************************************

The "Molten Drop" was even better than they expected, they might have even preferred it over the space roller coaster. 

The sight of the earth's core was amazing, if it weren't for many of the technologies around them they were sure they would get blinded and burnt to a crisp. What was coolest about the ride was not the core itself, but the gravity change between different sections of the earth the more and more they went down at blinding speeds. 

They all could not help but have a smile on their face, even Nags seemed to be having fun, laughing and smiling the entire time, wishing that Alex could have been with them to ride it as they had previously promised.

They all decided to keep Alex forever in their heart and follow his words, although they would be lying if they said they had moved on and were no longer hurt. 

Instead of going back home by bus, they all decided to get a ride with Jayden instead. 

Moby felt very satisfied going back home. Although many things were unexpected such as the paparazzi, he finally received some sort of closure to Alex's death and had gotten his new team of demons at least somewhat closer to each other.

Jayden dropped them off at the school dorms, not before asking them if they wanted to come with her which they kindly declined. 

Moby and Ray invited Nags to join them in their room, although Moby sensed some kind of animosity and reluctance from Ray when he sensed his emotions. 

In the dorms, they started up some light conversations, not before going into a long session of mental training where Moby had small lessons about the basics and fundamentals of demon magic with Avilia since it was more hands-on and personal than just shoving the information into his head like all the simple stuff she had taught him.

He came out of it understanding nearly nothing, which Avilia said was natural for his first time and that he would eventually get used it. … … Hopefully.

When Moby opened his eyes and came back to his senses, he noticed that the entire room was dark, dark in the sense that the lights were off, not that he couldn't see. 

The air was quiet and there was no sign of either Nags or Ray. That was until he heard the hints of snoring with his enhanced hearing and noticed that Ray was sleeping.

When he looked at the time, he realized that it was 12:04 am, slightly past midnight which he honestly did not expect— Nags must have gone back to his previous room.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the ceiling and simply stared like he usually did, only this time was even more intently than before.

Of course, Alex was the first thing on his mind, but what he mentioned in his story about seeing light was also lingering somewhere in there.

It seemed like a very farfetched story. Seeing people with light in their hearts and corrupted light shooting out into the sky was not something most people would believe with no evidence. 

However, Moby had seen a fair share of seemingly impossible things just in his mind. To him, Alex was telling the truth. 

Yet, despite knowing about that truth, he had no idea what it meant, nor did Avilia in his mind. 

The more he thought About Alex's words, the more he came to realizations and came up with theories. The light Alex saw might not even have had anything to do with how good a person was on the inside. After all, he said the first time he saw him he had a pure heart, white as snow which did not sound like him at all since the first time they met he had just got done murdering and killing someone in cold blood.

The only explanation in his mind was that they must have met sometime in the past where he did not remember, and that was back when Avilia was absorbing his negative energy, back when he was completely positive and pure of heart.

For now, he decided to keep Alex's words etched deeply into his brain, and promise himself he will try to find out what the light is, but he won't go out of his way to do it since he does not know where to start.

Everything that just happened only pushed him to work even harder to get Abby back to how she was before. He was sure that would make Alex happy and would add more meaning to his sacrifice, although of course, that was not the main reason he did what he did. 

Next, he planned to share Alex's last words with Abby since she also deserved to know, that along with finally talking to her about Alucard, and how he even came to be… 

He was not sure when he would feel comfortable asking her without putting a damper on her mind, but he was sure he would know when the time was right. Who knows, maybe Alex's letter might snap something back into Abby… He can only hope… 

Moby felt Avilia in his mind slightly reacting to his thoughts about Alucard, he was sure she was anxious to know. With such a chance in front of her, he was surprised that she had the patience to let him wait and not nag him to find out. She actually deeply cared about him despite being the almighty demon lord, which was something he really appreciated and had only just sunk in deep into his brain.

Although some of the things she says are downright crazy, the more they talked the more he grew to appreciate her.

Avilia had done so much to help him and almost received nothing in return other than to see him grow into a fine demon lord, and it was finally his time to pay back some of his debts and talk to this unknown vampire lord.

And that was his last thought as his eyes closed shut and his mind drifted away into his subconscious...