The world he will live in

"Are you sure about this...?" Lilith asks while holding my arm and resting her head on my shoulder.

She is currently trying to keep her tears inside as we ready ourselves to face the consequences of our decision.

"We have no choice... he will be safe in there..." I reply in an attempt to calm her down.

Right now, we are standing on the edge of the hill in front of our house watching the sun rising after the long night we faced.

Lance continues to sleep without a care in the world and starts to adjusting himself in my arms.

"But, why can't you go with us??" she asks.

"There are people here who need me... The magic skill I possess is not something that many can achieve that easily in their lifetimes... Think about how many lives I can save with this power."

The wind starts to blow and makes her long strings of black hair dance around her while her face continues to show an expression of pain.

"I hate this! I hate this so much!!" she continues to cry.

"Me too... But as long as Lance stays here, the magic inside of him will continue to grow and corrupt itself... I can't risk the same thing that happened to me to happen to him as well..."

"Are you sure this is what's happening...? What if there is another explanation?"

"Lilith... You saw what happened... What he did... What else could that mean?"

"But... But..."

Before she could finish her sentence, a strong source of light appeared behind us in the shape of a circle of the size of a fist and continued to grow until it became big enough for an adult person to stand inside of it.

Inside the circle, I could see someone's house revealing itself. Clean white walls, windows that revealed a city with an architecture that seemed strange to me, a table with a picture of the owner of the house with her family, and finally the owner herself.

She was a tall woman with green eyes and short black hair tied up wearing some strange set of clothes that are native of her culture. I believe she called it tank top or something.

By her side, there was a younger girl, someone around the age of fourteen who looked a lot like the woman, except her hair was much longer reaching her elbows and her eyes were of the color blue.

She would look like just a regular kid if it wasn't for the fact that her right hand was missing.

"Sup, Daren? Lilith?" the woman greeted us with a smirk and waving her hand.

"Nice to see you again Mr, Daren and miss Lilith!" the younger one said next while bowing at us for some reason.

"It's nice to see you two as well! Thank you for coming, Evlin." I reply.

"No problem! So what's the trouble? Ellie received your message and wouldn't stop clinging on to me once she heard you wanted us to visit."

I braced myself for the decision that I would have to make and finally said the words that I wished I wouldn't have to say.

"Evlin... I know this might be a lot to ask, especially after everything you already did for us in the past... But we are facing some sort of crisis right now, and were hoping you could help us..."

Evlin started to stretch her arms and legs and finally her neck before giving a reply, "Sure thing! Anything for my two old friends and favorite couple! So... Who are we fighting this time? Another angry god that needs to be put in his place? Are the demons starting to cause trouble again? Did another immortal twelve-year-old looking kid showed up to kidnap all the citizens of a village to feed on their souls again?"

At this moment I extended my hands so she could hold Lance for me.

"Oh! Hey little guy!! How's my cute little nephew doing? Would you like to spend some time with aunt Evie back in my world so we can play together?" she murmured as she grabbed him and began to droll over his sleeping face.

I'm glad she loves kids so much, this will make things much easier.

"That's what we would like to ask, actually..." Lilith said next.

"Eh...?"

"Could you please take care of Lance for a while, for us?" I added.

"Oh!... Sure! No problem... Anything for you guys! When should I send him back?"

"Once he turns fifteen" I reply.

"Pppfftt!!" Evlin started to spit once she heard my answer, "Pardon??"

"Evlin..." I start to explain, "We think there is something wrong with Lance. We think there might be a curse inside of him..."

"W- What...? A curse...? On him?" she repeated while looking at Lance with her eyes wide open as if trying to find something wrong with him but not getting anything, "You sure...?"

"Pretty sure... We often see him talking to himself even when he is alone in a room, he barely eats anything but he never gets tired or weak, in fact, he's constantly full of energy no matter where he goes, and anytime we put him to play with other kids, he always ends up hurting one of them by accident..."

"..."

"And not only that... Last night, he was kidnapped by a group of demons that looked like lizard-men... I don't know how they got past the city's defenses but before I knew it, they had already taken Lance with them."

"Oh, my God! Did they hurt him!!??"

"No... In fact... We think he hurt them..."

"Lance...? Seriously??" Evlin replied while shifting her gaze from him to us, "Are you sure about this...?"

"No... Honestly, I'm not... But I rather not risk it if possible... I don't want Lance to experience the same things I did... Some of the memories of my actions still haunt me to this very day... If there is even a small chance that he will go through this pain as well, I wanna do everything I can to avoid it..."

"... By sending him away...?" she asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Only until he is older..." I reminded her, "Once he is in better control of his emotions, he will be able to suppress the curse just like I did with no trouble."

"Have you tried to remove the curse? We have friends with purification abilities after all..."

"We tried... They said they couldn't do it for some reason..." I explained while looking at Lance with a sense of heaviness over my head. It feels like I failed as a parent by letting something like this happen to him.

"Sigh... Okay, then... If that is your wish, I'll do my best" Evlin commented while shrugging, "You're lucky I love kids..."

"Thank you, Evlin! Lilith will go with you as well..." I added while feeling my wife trembling as she continued to hold my arms.

"What...?" Evlin gasped, "Daren, you're gonna stay here alone...?"

"I have to... Thanks to the crossbow you gave me, I can help many people in need using the power of magic... I can't turn my back on these people... Besides, Eclipse will be with me as well!"

"Daren..."

"I'm sure you will take care of Lance and Lilith on planet Mud..."

"Planet Earth..." Ellie whispered under her breath towards me.

"Right... That... I'm sure you will treat them well..."

"This sounds a little extreme in my opinion... By if this is what you both want, I'm not gonna say no..." Evlin replied while pulling Lance's face closer, "I promise Ill protect them!"

"Thank you!"

She gave me Lance one more time so I could hug him, and right after that, Lilith came next to hug me as well.

"I love you... I love you both!"

"Me too... We will be back as soon as we can, I promise!" she claimed.

I finally let go of her hand and watch as my family enters into the blue portal Ellie created.

Part of me doesn't want to let them go. Maybe I could try harder to find out what's really happening to Lance, to see if maybe his situation has a better solution.

But deep within me, I knew this was the right call.

As long as Lance remained here, in this world where so many powerful beings that hold the ability to destroy with so much ease continue to exist, he would never be truly safe.

The truth is... Very often I would wake up at night and wonder for how long I could protect them by myself.

If creatures can enter my home and steal my baby in the middle of the night while we sleep, who's to say something worse can't happen later.

Lilith and Lance will be much safer on Earth, and my job is to help those who are not safe in here.

Once Lance is older, smarter, stronger, and able to defend himself, we can be reunited again.

Eclipse wakes up and notices me lost in my own thoughts and comes to my side to keep me company as I instantly start to miss my family.

"Hey, buddy..." I murmur before crouching and starting to rub his long black mane, "Lance will be away for a while, so you two won't be able to play together as much... I'm sorry, okay?"

He lowered his ears after hearing that. As always, Eclipse could always understand my words with ease.

"Now come on... We have work to do..."

This was the day I parted with my family, and the day Lance started his life in another world.