Chapter 45: Welcome Home [3]

"... I'm home. "

Huey's hollow voice echoed through the despondent passage way leading from the front door. The corners were shrouded in gloom and scarce of life, a deep and ancient darkness drowning its walls.

The wooden floor was shattered and made a mosaic of grooves. Huey lingered a little by the door, took his sandals off, then walked further in.

The slow tapping of his feet against the old creaking wooden floor created a wrenching dissonance of noise. The first room he arrived upon by his side was the main hall of the dojo.

The hall, just as any other part of the abandoned building, lay in tattered ruin with it's wide walls torn off, and the wooden floor boards ripped open into wide grooves that formed shattered craters.

The direct ceiling over the hall was collapsed, giving view to the floor just above, and the one after that, to the dark swelling grey clouds and rumbling purple lightning. It was from there, the minuscle amount of lighting passed through to penetrate the ever present gloom.

Standing at the very entrance before the hall, the original scenery of dojo from his memories with suffusing light and a bunch of kids and students swinging around wooden swords momentarily overlapped with the current visage.

It went by as quick as it came, leaving behind only a vast and empty sense of vain nostalgia that bore a vacant hole in Huey's heart.

He stepped forward slowly and approached the center of the hall.

Huey peered a little through the gaping hole in the ceiling that made view to the upper floor. The dojo was the ground floor and front of the house, whilst behind it and above on the upper floor was where they lived as a family.

Eventually, Huey made his way around and through the rest of the building. It was nothing but a tattered and abandoned ruin. A dark gloom prevailed and a rotten stench hung in the air.

Huey walked down a dark passage way, his still red eyes and orange pupils beamed like two beacons in the shadows. He took the first few steps up the old and unsteady staircase, the ancient wood creaked and cried defiantly underneath his pressure, and climbed up to the top floor.

He stopped by a small cupboard placed against the side of a wall, with a few picture frames leaning crookedly against it.

Huey lingered then slowly reach an arm for one of the fallen over one. Pieces of broken and shattered glass fell and clanked against the floor as he rose the broken frame that depicted the image of three people.

In it were a gruffly old man with thick bushy eyebrows and sunken red eyes with a piercing gaze, his wrinkle adorned face and naturally furrowed brows from years of scowling and natural glare gave him a rather domineering and oppressive demeanor.

'...Old man..., "

And two little boys standing before him by their respective sides. One of them had black hair, bright red eyes, and shot a rebellious glare at the old man who ruffled his hair from behind. Besides him was a much mild mannered, more obedient boy with bright glossy blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

He appeared younger and more refined as he stood in place for this family portrait. Shiloh Blade, his younger cousin was a complete contradiction to Huey. He was respectful, refined, committed and hardworking. Many times had Huey entertained the thoughts that this younger sibling would be more befitting for the position of the heir.

He had even occasionally brought it up a number of times before. Huey had no real interest in the Patriarch position, so he held no misgivings about giving it up for his favorite cousin.

Despite their clear and opposite personalities, Huey remembered the two were nearly almost inseparable when they were younger. More accurately, Shiloh never left his older brother's side; the little boy may have never excessively shown it, but he held such a deep reverence and awe towards Huey

Huey could do things he couldn't, like talk back to his granddad, and wasn't afraid to confront anyone. To him, Huey Blade was incredible and powerful; he never gave a fuck no matter what anyone around him said — and despite being ostracized by his peers when he was younger, Huey never broke. He still retained his boundless ego and pride, and even welcomed the hate.

It meant he was different. It meant he was better.

To him Huey was his hero.

Without putting the picture frame down, Huey raised the one that was next to it, this time, depicting a young woman with long lustrous black hair of an enchanting ebony sheen, deep black eyes and milky white rosy skin. A deep warm and beautiful smile adorned her vibrant red lips. Held warmly wrapped in her hands was a vibrant young boy with bright red eyes and black hair.

Huey was smiling more brightly here than in that last photo, and looked more like an innocent kid, than an aspiring future terrorist like in the last. There was a stark resemblance between the two; Huey had inherited his looks and hair from his mother, Diana Blade, and quite frankly, a little of his personality. The rest were just forged by circumstances.

Huey felt strange. He had mostly forgotten how his mother looked over the long years. The empty void inside of him pulsated and boiled mildly as he stared at her image.

She was beautiful.

-'You're eyes are beautiful no matter what anyone outside tells you. They're just envious of your good looks, I'm sure you have noticed but not many have such vibrant and enchanting eyes like you do, my little red. Stand tall,'

...

Huey's red eyes beamed more brightly then he turned to face another picture frame. It was a family group photo of everyone. Huey, Shiloh, Diana, Roland, his father; and Calean, his grandad.

Roland was a young man in middle-age with a frail countenance. His skin was pale and his cheeks were slightly sunken. He had full thin blond hair and turbid blue eyes, and a weak but warm smile. The blonde hair and blue eyes was a hereditary trait for the Blade family for generations, but only a handful had been born with the peculiar Red eyes like Calean, Huey's grandad, and none with one as bright as Huey's.

According to the family records, when there was a descendant born with bright red eyes, it meant they were destined for greatness for them, and the Blade family.

Yet, the Blade clan was no more.

Each of them now a haunting memory of the past.

A slight quake rocked the building and all of a sudden, something sprung out of the ensuing darkness and mercilessly attacked Huey.

-BOOM!

A loud sound exploded as Huey's figure was blown through the walls and out of the building. He smashed through the rough ground outssude and skidded across into the building right opposite his old home.

—BOOM!

The ground quaked as half the ancient structure collapsed against him on impact, and in mere seconds, Huey was buried in rubbles.

And then, out from the human sized hole Huey had been been blown from in the Blade's former household in the top floor...an abomination stepped out with a bellowing growl.

It was a mass of billowing and twisting tendrils of grotesque flesh with three looming stingers the sizes of small cars. It's maw was a potruding void of massive tusks and razor sharp fangs.

It appeared an Elder God had made a lair of Huey's former household, and he hadn't noticed.

The pile of rubble's shifted and Huey's unscathed figure emerged with his head hung low.

The Elder God didn't wait for it's intruder and as soon as it confirmed he was alive pounced once more from above. It's massive stinger tails barred and it's maws spread open for Huey's head ready to bite it off.

Huey's left arm flashed and he slapped the abomination into an explosion of viscera that rained around him. The Elder God was dead and Huey still felt empty.

He stood in place for who knew how long, his empty gaze un moving from a chunk of flesh from the burst Elder God corpse, Pointy 02, his blacksword was held loosely in his right hand.

Like that, Huey remained. He didn't bother to return back into the building, he....he had seen enough.

The stormy clouds above rumbled and arcs of purple lighting drew cracks in the fractured sky.

Then various grotesque figures began to emerge one by one , attracted to the sent of their dead brethren. The abominations which had steered clear of Huey this entire time, presumptuously dared to make their presence known.

Their numbers numerous, the Elder Gods easily surrounded Huey. Snarls and ungly growls dominated the surrounding as they slowly inched closer.

Huey merely raised his gaze to meet one of the abominations.

'Elder Gods...' he listlessly thought then his eyes sharpened.

That's right. Didn't it all start with this Monsters descending into the Earth?

Somber awareness slowly began to return to Huey, then his shoulders began to tremble and shake. A deep laughter bellowed from his throat. It started as a low chuckle then transpired into unrestrained savagery.

"Ah...hahahahahhah! Ahahahahahahahaha!!!" Huey held his face and his feet faltered back. His unrestrained voice echoed hauntingly and coldly in the desolation and every abomination froze.

Just as suddenly, Huey stopped and revealed his face. Boundlessly gleaming red eyes, his vertical orange pupils had constricted into thinner slits and a sinister smile tore an arc on his lips. Long trails of tears ran down his face as he wielded his sword then declared.

"Come!"

A loud bang like an explosion resounded, and a battle of savagery descended in the area.

Huey ploughed through the vast numbers of abominations, tearing them limbs from limbs with just his fists and disregarding his sword.

He crushed them into bloody pulps, tore apart their organs and devoured their cores. Around him, slowly a graveyard sea of mutilated corpses spread. The Elder Gods stood no chance, and Huey had not executed a single flashy move.

He destroyed them purely with his hands.

But it didn't help.

The vast number of corpses around him still couldn't fill the void he felt.

'Then I'll just murder more...haha! " Huey laughed with dark sinister glee. His figure danced through the surroundings ploughing a river of pale indigo blood wherever he went. He had abandoned all grace, all reasoning, all control. He just murdered.

The Elder Gods mounted him all at once, attempting to bury him in their vast numbers when a red aura pulsed from within Huey's body.

'This much...' the energy gathered and the atmospheric Mana surged and bent towards him. There was a sharp venomous glint in his eyes as the red Mana began to converge in his open mouth.

'This much is nothing!

"Huaaaarrrghhh!" Huey roared towards the heavens and the world shook. A powerful beam of red energy shot out ofhis mouth and pierced a massive empty hole through black clouds converging above.

The world was died in a red blinding hue. The Mana in the atmosphere surged and ruptured as literal cracks broke the sky and fractured empty space.

"Haaarrrggghhh!!!" " Huey's madened cry persisted for a full minute, the vibrant red beam from his mouth pulsating with such sinister energy and insurmountable power.

The surrounding Elder Gods had long been incinerated and the storm clouds evaporated giving way to the broken sky.

Stillness returned to the world once more when he was finished. The beam of light from his mouth vanished as pure bolts of thick bow red lightning arched in the sky.

Huey stood still and silently in the destruction he had caused. All of the ruined building structures around him had been incinerated and destroyed leaving behind not a piece of rubble.

His long black hair swayed unruly, the rubber cord that had once held it up had been lost mid way through his maddened spree.

Yet, Hue still felt hollow.

But he didn't have to for long.

A loud roar, an eerie one rolled over the land and caused literal storms of hurricane winds. Huey's blood red eyes sharpened and widened as he jerked his head towards a certain direction. His vision zoomed to the very edge of the mainland, the Black River

It's once still and unmoving surface rippled with undulating waves that climbed the heavens like a tsunami. A humongous abomination emerged from the depths of the Black River, its transcendent size could be seen all the way from the very center of the mainland.

Giant tendrils of twisting flesh rose into the sky and it was then Huey realized the Elder God — the Guardian of the Black River, whatever it was — hadn't fully emerged from the river. Those were merely it's limbs.

For a moment Huey stared with wide eyes. Then a madden glint appeared in his eyes and his lips twisted into a sinister smile.

"Yes..."

That should do it.

***

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I said I'd have three chapters for the week, so here's the third one after the last few days.

Side note: Wrote this chapter and had a bit of things I wanted to potray but had to fit it within at maximum 2k words, yet I still am not quite satisfied. I guess I'll just add them later along the story. And with this, we've concluded the Welcome Home Chapter.

Vote and add to collections, thank you and I hope you enjoyed the read.