Beneath the Blood Moon

After a countless time, Liam's body stopped feeling its own value. His consciousness was floating...

He didn't even pay attention to what he was actually feeling or thinking, but he knew that this sensation, however satisfying, was not a good sign.

Even so, a vacuum surrounded his consciousness as he found himself traveling through eternity. The absence of sound quickly turned into a gale with the waves of the sea, swaying the flames of a fire that was confined to the rocks.

Soon, only the wind remained...

The whistle of the absolute element...

Humming, instead of an angelic leather, to the one who, although superior to everything, met death.

The whistling of the wind gathered in Liam's ears; sometimes it was sucked in like the creation of a vacuum.

Suddenly, that whistling turned into whispers... distant whispers coming on the wind until, in a single instant... they exploded into clumsy voices.

"Post periméneis na meíno íremos?! O gios mou den anapnéei!" (translation in paragraph comment)

The honey amber eyes of Camille, the young Duchess of the Duchy of Lawrence, raced around the room. They found themselves in despair when they noticed the nurse's expression; a grizzled, wrinkled woman who, for the first time in her career, felt afraid because she didn't know what to do.

That night was to be marked by the birth of the Lawrence family's second child under the magical event; the Blood Moon that bathed the sky in its most splendid crimson.

"Ellen!" Screaming in desperation, Camille turned to a second nurse. However, she was the youngest member of the team.

Camille carried her lifeless son in her arms...

Only at birth did Ellen realize that the child had no pulse.

The young nurse crossed her fingers and clasped them around her waist, trembling because she didn't know what to say to her boss.

Liam heard the shouts, but couldn't understand the language. Egon's language (the equivalent of German) seemed as distant as Mikoto's language (the equivalent of Japanese).

Even trying, he couldn't manage a single syllable. Especially since the voices were as far away as the sky.

Suddenly moving her arms and hugging her son tightly, Camille burst into tears.

But at the same time, Liam felt practically crushed. A pain he had never felt, not even in a life of war and death. His skin was fragile and his nerves tingled all over his body.

Liam's first and most instantaneous reaction was to shrink down, trying to hug his knees as a spontaneous sob escaped his mouth.

Camille sniffled and held back the tears in her eyes. She was stunned...

Was she crazy or had her son moved?

The strong embrace of the baby's body brought unbearable pain to Liam.

He couldn't do anything but cry out in throat"tearing screams.

Ellen's hesitation suddenly died.

"Laídi Camille…" said Ellen, with a new smile on her face.

Marta, the robust nurse, knelt at the foot of the bed and thanked her God for giving life to the duke's son. Not because he was noble, but because he was an innocent child who deserved to live.

What she didn't know was that the soul that brought life to that body was so stained with the blood of death that even erasing its memories wouldn't maintain its innocence...

"Eínai agóri. Écheis skefteí to ónomá sou?" Marta asked with satisfaction and gratitude in her heart.

"Naí. Tha eínai o Theo!" Camille replied, without taking her eyes off her son.

A tear trickled down her thin cheek.

"Kalós írthes mikrí mou." These were Camille's first words to her youngest son.

Afterwards, she burst into tears.

Not knowing who to thank, he just whispered something to the sky, which was soon consumed by his weeping.

"Mamá, eínai xýpnios?" A child asked, appearing next to Camille on the bed.

Adopting Camille's blonde hair, the girl stretched out to hug her mother's shoulders. However, the blue eyes inherited from Duke Lawrence met her newborn brother.

"Naí," said Camille, sniffling and smiling.

Thays, a seven"year"old child, looked at her younger brother and smoothed his almost hairless head.

The crimson glow of the Blood Moon came through the open window, bringing the cold of that night to the surface.

The baby's vision was limited, seeing nothing but a show of blurred and distorted lights, but something enchanted him beyond...

Camille's genuine, pure smile when she saw that her son was well went beyond the physical limits of Liam's new body.

A smile he had only seen a few times in his life...

A gesture capable of calming the little one down and making them stop crying, so they can enjoy a mother's embrace.

After a while of holding her son, Camille had the newborn taken out of her arms to rest. Meanwhile, Young Master Theo had been put to sleep in his crib.

Liam's thoughts couldn't help but be basic: What's going on? Why is my body, my sight... My senses are inferior?

He felt pain even with the cloths carved with something to make him feel, as if his skin was still adapting to the environment.

But even with his vision blurred, Liam could feel the endless cold of that night invading his room as a crimson light bathed his body.

The same crimson glow that Liam had seen in the last moments of his life. By pure intuition, Egon's former general determined that it was the phenomenon of the blood moon.

Agonized at not being able to see himself or speak, Liam tossed and turned in his crib for several hours.

The moon was high in the sky, marking midnight.

At that moment, Liam had tired of trying anything. He had thought of something he wouldn't like...

The former general, although he lived in an empire that believes only in heaven and hell, had contact with the general of the Xin Empire, the nobleman Minghua.

'That bastard... Don't come planting your religious teachings again!'

A human being with no regrets, but who carries hang"ups in his soul, will never rest as you wish, Liam... Heaven, hell or... eternal rest... These are rights claimed for men after death. But for you, who have sinned so much and have no regrets... What do you think you'll get?

Liam wished for a black screen, no sounds or thoughts for eternity... Eternal rest. But this situation he's in... There's only one answer to that.

Stressed about it, he was about to finish when something caught his eye.

A gentle movement suddenly removed the cloth that served as a fly screen, just as it covered the newborn's cradle.

Suddenly, a moon"pale woman with black hair looked up at Liam.

While a flurry of thoughts invaded his mind with questions like: who is this person? Why, even with all the limitations of this body, can I see them so clearly?

"Oh, renegade by fate... I would like to lament your situation, and beg for your forgiveness... But it was necessary for me to do so."

With her right thumb, the woman stroked the baby's cheek as if admiring it.

"For the time being, keep quiet, okay? Just serve as a soul to make this body create consciousness, and live behind my child's eyes... I must thank those two for allowing you to pass…"

A purple aura covered Theo, rising from the woman's thumb.

"My little golden child... Theo Augustus De Lawrence... Welcome to the world."