Chapter 371: Awoken

The boy still tightly grasped in the smiling woman's hands now fully understood everything… Who he was, and what was happening.

He was Moby Kane, son of Serena and Horace Kane— Although not by blood but by love and compassion.

This was but a vision of the past… And he was but a spectator within his old self… That was why he had no control over his body, that was where the unknown crying came from, and that was where this now laughing came from as well…

He wanted this moment to last forever, seeing the faces of his parents alive and smiling down at him so lovingly was a reality he so desperately wished to return to…

And as to grasp onto this happiness and never let go, he lifted his fragile infant hands in the air to reach it… 

But, as he did, the world was once again consumed… Consumed by a bright, purple light until their faces faded away into nothingness…

"No… Don't go! Don't leave me! Please! Not again!"

"NOOOO!!"

♦️♦️♦️

"Wow! Kane! You're finally awake!" 

"Huh…" He heard a distorted voice enter his ears, that along with the crackling of fire.

"Kane! You there? You were twitching around quite a lot there! You good?"

"Big brother! I'm so happy you're okay! You had no pulse! We thought you were dead!"

When Moby finally opened his eyes, he was met with several familiar faces, an orange-haired boy looking over him with a look of concern and a small, white-haired girl tightly hugging him like her life depended on it. 

"Yeah… I'm… I'm okay…" He slowly mumbled, trying his best to take in his surroundings. 

"Hey… Why are you crying?" Regrit asked, looking down at him at eye level. 

"Crying? Crying? I'm crying?" He lifted his hands and wiped his leaking eyes.

"Yes, you are! Now, are you okay?"

"Yeah… Yeah-yeah I'm fine… … Hikari, I really am okay, you can let go of me now…" He smiled at her and patted her head, which made her nod and do as she was told. 

"Yes big brother… It's just that you also look different… I feel like your hair is even redder than before…"

"Is it now, he ruffled his head slightly, his mind returning to his parent's faces of hurt as they tried to seal whatever was inside him away. "Anyways, what the hell happened, where are we?"

He wiped the seemingly never-ending waterworks from his eyes, yet the pain in his heart lingered. Still, he needed to suppress them for now until he once again was comfortable and had time to himself. 

The area around him was blue and rocky, spikes protruding out of the ceiling like icicles and a hole leading out towards the frozen tundra of the outside world. It was a cave of modest size, more than enough space for all of them to fit. 

"I'm not sure where we are exactly either. We've been here for a few hours now. It's a cave that our instructors sent us to when we got attacked. Remember that?"

And like a jolt in Moby's mind, memories of that time returned, that along with the faces of their attackers. 

"Attacked by those shalkers right?"

"Oh! So you saw them too?"

"Yeah," He slowly nodded.

"I knew this mission would be dangerous, but this is just crazy! The shalkers must have anticipated us setting up a base here and infiltrated before us!" Regrit cursed, once again taking a seat on the rocky ground.

"Wrong… I highly doubt that's the case. I'm a strong believer that this has to do with my presence and that of Artorias. These shalkers have always been lurking on this planet and that king might be a presence even above theirs and only felt threatened by our arrival."

"What!? What does this have to do with any of you!?"

"'A warrior of light and, a treacherous kin of forlorn in the same company…' Those were the only words I needed to know to find the truth… I am the treacherous kin of forlorn and Artorias is the warrior of light. Speaking of Artorias, where is he exactly?"

"He's… He's not here… The examiners were not strong enough to get to him… I'm afraid he might be dead…"

"Dead? No!" Moby chuckled. "He's far more than you could ever imagine. He's not dead, but knowing him he will soon find his reckless rage leading him to death's doors. Anyways, where's the rest? I don't see Kai anywhere, nor do I see miss Elianora."

"Oh, Kai's dead, I saw him cleaved in half with my own two eyes. As for Elianora, she's right there." Regrit pointed towards the corner of the cave, and there he saw that same pink-haired girl, yet she did not look nearly the same as he remembered. 

Her hair was dishevelled and had the consistency of hay, she was curled up in the fetal position, rocking back and forth. There was slight whimpering coming from her direction, she was clearly crying. She was no longer that confident girl from before, but simply a broken mess of who she once was. 

"What's gotten into her?"

"I'm not sure," Regrit shook his head. "She wouldn't speak to us at all. But, she must have seen some shit in that snowstorm to make her act like that,"

"Leave her be," Moby sighed. "She seems to be nothing but a hindrance. Either she will join us or she will be thrown to the way-side."

"Join us? Join us where?"

"Where?" Moby raised an eyebrow. "Where else, we're going to the man in the castle, that's where Artorias is and that's where I'll find answers… I need to get in there no matter what..."

"Huh… HUH?! Are you crazy!? Are you just gonna disobey orders like that?!"

"I thought you were a brave man Oswald, one that would take any risk to prove themselves as the best." 

"Yes! But I'm no idiot! Those things were monsters! Our instructors are probably dead! If they can't stand up to them how could we!? And seeing those are just grunts the king in all likely hood is even stronger! Besides, we will get penalized for not following orders! We should stay here and wait for the next few days until a ship witn reinforcements arrive!"

"Tsk," Moby scoffed. "We don't have that much time! They most likely have energy detection skills, it won't be long until they find us, it's best if we go on the offensive with the element of surprise. Also, if it's who I think it is in that castle, then no simple shipment from earth would be able to stand up to them,"

"Okay sure! But that won't solve anything! We're too weak! You even said it yourself that even a group of soldiers might not be able to beat them! So how could we?! We're just simple recruits and soldiers in traning!!"

"Right you are! In our current state we can't! We'd be blown out like a candle" Moby chuckled. 

"Then what the hell are you on about!?" Regrit's confusion was reaching its climax as he stared at Moby's smirk, but Hikari to his side seemed to know exactly what was going on. 

"Let me tell you a little secret. We're in a life or death situation so I have no choice but to tell you. I'll be able to grant you powers from a plane above our own. Powers you did not know even existed… And with that power we'll stand far more of a chance. This is our only way out… So, how does that sound?"

"Big brother… You… You can't mean…"

"Yes Hikari, I do… How would you two like to be turned into demons?"