Missing Past

Therion pulls out chairs from underneath the table. We both sit down and still feeling uneasy with everything. I had my guards up. Therion was so at ease, he sheathed his sword and placed it on the table on top of all the papers.

"I'm guessing you've been here" I say

"Yes, this place was from a close friend of mine. I made peace with him long before I went off to war to fight for the human realm" he answers

"Are you gonna tell me the things I want to know?" I ask

"Yes"

I was expecting him to say it out right off the bat, but it was just pure silence. I think he's expecting me to ask right away.

"How are you my father?" I ask

"This place was the study room of my friend.." he says

"I can see that" I comment

"I knew my chances of survival was low during the war. I wanted to leave a living legacy. Knowing that I would die in the war, this realm would be left vulnerable to attackers. I fear that only a powerful drow is be able to stop whoever would threaten the realm, but I doubt she would be willing to do it" he continues

"I asked my friend to create me something similar to a homunculus, but with a human body that can grow, like a child. I gave him my reason to such a request, and he finally accepted the task I had given him. I didn't expect him to be able to create you right away, but I expected you to be made years after, or centuries even. I still stuck by his side, until I finally had to go. He's been experimenting on different body types that would be suitable for a host, meaning you. Getting a part of me, he was able to manipulate it through magic and create more human copies. Some were in utter failure as they reacted negatively giving them weird or unwanted features. He never got to finish on time. But I'm glad it was successful" he explains

"So you're saying, I'm not actually a human?" I start to question my existence

I was made to be this guy's living legacy. Yet, I don't inherit the abilities he has. I'm weak. Someone else should take over my place. Wait, no hold on a minute. Something doesn't seem right. I was raised by parents before I went on my own separate way.

"No, you are human. You have a part of me" he says

"Here's the thing, I was raised by people called my parents, before I went alone. They're my parents, not you" I say

"Do you remember their names?" he asks

I think as hard as I could, but no name popped up in my mind.

"I don't know what happened after you were born, but I did ask someone to watch over you while I was gone" he says

"Who might this someone be?" I ask

"Someone very powerful" he vaguely answers

I didn't wanna put more light into it, so I didn't ask any further. He might be telling the truth, but it's just a possibility. We continued talking, and he told me about how I inherited a skill. That seems to activate during life or death situations. He didn't put more details into it, but I kind of felt that skill kicking in when I need it the most.

Minutes after, bang noises started coming from the door. It must be the dark figures that were chasing after me.

"What is it?" I ask

"Must be those black things that are after you" he says

"Yeah what are those exactly"

"They're YOU" he answers

The door bursts open and the humanoid creatures starts swarming in. The room shifts into a different location, this time much bigger. It was on top of some sort of building. It had four pillars on each corner, and a circular in the middle of the floor, with a chair on one side. There's a hole with a staircase on the other side of the chair. With a roof on top of us, we were cornered to one side of the room. This room didn't have walls, I looked behind us and it was just clouds. A staircase leading down to the clouds.

"Don't run, we can fight them" Therion says

"We can't fight them, I can't fight them" I say

"Believe in yourself, you're the final version, these are all that reacted negatively to my genes"

The humanoid figure with the claws and tail, ran up, and tried to pounce on me. Luckily, Therion the war hero is here with me. He quickly unsheathed his sword and slashed the humanoid figure in half, with the sword glowing. I fall down to the ground, terrified of the power of the sword. It was nothing I've seen before. Therion gets in front of me.

"Keep your eyes on me kiddo. I'm gonna show you power of hard work" he says

He raised his sword up and it glowed even brighter. Bright enough that it almost blinded me. I kept my eyes fixated on the man who claims to be my parent. A humanoid figure with that huge right arm threw a punch at Therion, which he dodged easily. The punch was going for me, but the whole arm fell to the ground. Therion had quickly cut his huge arm off.

"Always disarm them. Without their weapons, their chances of winning against you are low" he says

Two humanoid figures lunges from behind. One had spikes around his arms, while the other one had spiked wings. Therion, lunges at them also, and thrusts his sword at the one with spiked wings. The one with the spiked arms stopped moving and covered himself, as if he got blinded from the bright light of the sword. He pulls his sword out from the one with the spiked wings. The humanoid falls to the ground, and stays down. He maneuvers behind the humanoid with spiked arms, and slashes his back.

"Always attack their weak spots" he says

Two more humanoid figures with blades as their arms start dashing towards him. They strike together, and he blocks both attack with his shining blade. He jumps back and somehow the two humanoids fall down forward, he uses this chance to strike them. They stay down on the ground.

"Use your intelligence in battle"

Most of the humanoids stay back except for one. This one seemed to have the same shape as me. It didn't have any weapons but it seemed very confident to face Therion.

"A brave challenger, I see" Therion says

The humanoid enters a fighting stance that is similar to mine.

"I see what this is"

Therion sheathes his sword, and enters the similar fighting stance. He throws out the fight jab, which was dodged. He immediately steps back, and the humanoid thrusts himself forward while Therion was still stepping back. Therion immediately threw an uppercut, while dodging the jab from the humanoid. It keeps the humanoid airborne, and he follows up with round house kick. The humanoid lands to the ground face first, and gets up. Therion stood his ground and prepared himself for another attack. The humanoid figure feints a punch, which didn't work on Therion. He kicked its legs causing him to stumble to the ground, and followed up with another kick to the face.

"Always strike hard"

The other humanoid figures retreat back knowing they can't beat Therion. The one that looked like me stood up and pointed at me.

"Athelstan.... live...."

It says before leaving with the others. Therion stays at ease.

"I didn't expect you to be able to stay conscious"

A voice comes flying down. It was Gottlich.

"Hello Gottlich, it's good to see you again" Therion says

"You're boy took down two minotaurs" he says

"Those things are called Minotaurs?" I ask

"The ones that looks like bulls standing on two legs? Yes, they're called Minotaurs" Gottlich answers

"Am I still in the maze?" I ask

"Yes Athelstan, you are. This was just the second phase of the maze. One more, and you should be able to reach the end" Gottlich answers

"Well, it seems I'll be going now" Therion says

"Wait, how did you do all that?" I ask

"I thought I was teaching you how to fight, and I demonstrated it" he answers

"I can't do those high skilled moves" I reply

Therion beings to glow gold. He raises his sheathed sword into the air

"This sword, Galatine, I placed it on a temple in a placed called Avalon. You can retrieve and use it powers, though you must grow strong first for the sword to accept you as it's wielder" he says

I stay silent, and Therion puts his sword back on his sword then turns around.

"See you kiddo" he says

Therion begins to float into the air, and disperses.

"You don't have much time left either Athelstan" Gottlich says

"Why? How long has passed?" I ask

"You took days wandering the maze, you might know it. But there's no night time here in the celestial plane" he says

"It's morning all day every day?"

"Correct, well I'll be watching you" he says

Gottlich spreads his wings, and flies off. His feathers float down, and I reach out to it. The feather landed on my palm. I kept it in my pocket and entered the door back into the castle.