Chapter 24--( The King meets the Maddening One )

Across his porch stood a boy.

No more than 9 if Theo had to guess. He saw the boy just after Eren's super dope car drove away.

The boy was slim, he had short blonde hair. He was wearing a white t-shirt with black horizontal stripes tucked into beige boy scout pants.

The boy just stood staring at Theo.

Theo assumed this kid must have seen him on TV somewhere. If not what's with the staring.

The boy was weirdly...

Creepy.

His vision started to waver for a bit. Was the sun getting_

Theo didn't know he was bleeding till he heard the drop of blood fall down his nose.

Slowly his hands went to his nose. Feeling the blood in disbelief. ' A nose bleed?'.

His eyes stung from a pain then his vision drifted and he saw that the boy.....the boy was gone.

Theo sniffed hard. Something unprecedented happened. Something that only happened when his Mother hit him as a kid.

He wasn't regenerating.

For it was in a definite Truth that the Abyss Fiend Daimiur could not obey his sisters orders. It had to see the King for itself. The forgotten one who will only be a saviour if remembered.

Daimiur spoke

" Mr?"

" Ahhh!", Theo shouted jumping a few feet away. His long waist level brown hair swayed as he jolted far to the wall.

It was the same boy he saw not a minute ago.

" Holy shit kid ", Theo held his chest panting tiredly trying to calm his heart. " You scared the crap out of me ".

Daimiur had very very little interactions with mankind. He had many since he'd murdered millions of them but outside war and death he didn't understand their cultures.

His sister always preferred to keep it that way.

He was a defected human Fiend who was unable to copy humanities...habits if you say.

So he could easily be suspected if he made a mistake

" Are....you....a....hero?"

Theo was still catching his breath.

" Well aren't you a cute little scare ", he said kneeling down to the boy. " Yes I am a hero ". Theo said in optimism.

His massive hands pinched the boy's red cheek as lightly as he could.

Daimiur tried to mimic a smile. He failed horribly.

Anyone who was remotely sane would see that that was not the smile of a boy. That was the smile of an Abyssmal deity.

But Theodore Vaughn Gunes had felt enough pain in his life that he had undoubtedly lost his remote sanity long ago.

Theo was unaware to all the signs. He always found children no matter how they looked to be nothing but bundles of joy. Maybe it's cause he cared so much about his younger brother.

Theo didn't even notice that the blood from his nose had reached his lips.

" Where are your parents ".

" They are.... loving," the boys head spasmed a bit " far ".

Now Theo noticed.

' did he mean living?'

This kid seemed to have some sort of speech impediment. But Theo didn't ridicule or say anything involving it. He knew what it felt like to be isolated because of a lack of something. Something everyone else had

" You have friends little boy?".

Daimiur nodded to the contrary.

It'd been way too long since Theo just enjoyed such a mundane conversation with a little boy.

If only he knew.

Before him stood one of the most powerful Fiends in the planet.

" Well hurry along boy ", Theo said getting up and lightly brushing the boy's hair with his hand.

Daimiur left. Ran along as a little boy would.

Theo watched on.

' What a nice kid '.

Then Theo's mind drifted back to his nose. He touched it, it was gone. The blood. He looked at the floor and saw heavy stains of blood. Did he really bleed that much?

" Fuck", he said tiredly.

Now he had to go get a mop.

Theo would not make any effort to muse as to why he didn't regenerate fast enough, or the reason for his bleeding in the first place.

The Fiend dismissed it as some symptoms that came with the prince negating his Fiendish nature or some weird Arcane explanation. bla bla bla.

Right now?

He was just focused on smiling. For the first time in his unkillable life, Theo didn't think about death.

In his house he saw a package. It came out of nowhere. In the middle of his living room on the rug.

It was black. It was a perfect square (1 meter by 1 meter) but had a thickness of say I don't know, 5 inches.

The package was pretty big

It had a foreign language written on it. It was Timysh ( the first language of the Ti-mir continent. Sounds like pronouncing Mongolian in a french manner. Very hard to learn ).

A person must have teleported it to his house. That was the only explanation that negated his fear.

He approached it. Headphones clad on his ear stopping the flow of that long rough brown hair.

He leaned down to it.

His hands moved creeping, massive yet fragile looking.

But they stopped suspended in the air with their own cold sweat.

It was already opened.

Theo couldn't help but let out a nervous chuckle, as his hand moved to flip the casing.

Yet it stopped again millimeters from touching the package.

Who said he had to open it up now?

No one. He'd open it when he wasn't ready to find something horrifying.

The rest of the day was quite mundane for Theodore.

No one called him of course.

He couldn't go outside. It was alright, Theo never really liked to go outside. He was always a lonely man. It's sad he couldn't go grab a beer though. He just spent many hours holding his Ti-mir license in his hand, staring at it.

He was a hero. Never did he think he would be a Ti-mir Hero. But he still was.....a hero.

Then came many more hours of gaming and eating. His appetite was ferocious now. Probably cause of his new body

All the food that came with the house was almost finished in just a few days.

The night revealed itself and in his solitary home Theo knew it would be a smart idea to sleep.

To sleep.

To sleep.

' but I caaaaaant ',. Theo's excitement for the next day prevented his whole being from resting. When he laid down and looked to his chest he could see it heaving up, up up and down. Both of them.

It scared even him but it was kinda badass when he thought about it.

' So this is what it's like to have two hearts '.

His eyes wandered down to his rug as he tried his best to close them. But behold, it was to no avail. Sleep was like a fish jumping down a stream and he was the most inexperienced impatient bear.

' So this is what it's like to have insomnia '.

Theo couldn't help but imagine all the people who would be there. All the soon to be heroes.

He wasn't thinking to fit in. He had no idea what life had set for him. He's realised that there are beings other than his father and Muu who could kill him.

He was just waiting to live, to actually do good. To be a Hero. Not a bum, not a sorry sad man.

But a hero.

All of Theo's excitement enthralled thoughts kept him up till

6:35 am. All trainees were expected to be there but no one would force you. Of course it was in your best interest to come as early as possible and take advantage of the programs point system, but if you were confident in your abilities you could come the last week and finish among the top ten.

But Theo, he would be 4 hours late.

The program always began around 4 am. His short two hour nap weakened his body to an almost feverish degree.

Theo scurried out of his bed.

It didn't feel real, no part of it felt real. His shower, his preparation. He had gone through this routine for the most part of his life. Waking up to a sad world. Dreams of death, nightmares of living. Now in this moment as he stared at his old hero suit he knew. What was he preparing for?

' To become a hero '.

His old hero suit wouldn't fit, it was ugly too and above all else: he never wanted to see it again.

A constant mediocre routine will kill a man.

There should always be a difference between yesterday and today, if not then you won't know when it's been a year.

Your life will slip past you.

It will release itself from your hold and run.

To its final destination.

To death.

You'll be dying wondering how in all that time you never lived.

' Never again '. Theo's hands went to the box and slowly he moved away the card board lid. He felt a blast of arcane fill his room. It was a dark fabric.

" it looks expensive ". His hands slowly moved to feel it. It was soft like wool and cotton. He felt it with both hands now. His hands trembled as he held it there.

Turning it over and trembling as he saw the emblem.

The cloth was stained with the fiends tears.

He tried to wipe them with his arms but it was all so pointless. In the middle of an empty room, holding his superhero suit and kneeling on the lonely rug,Theo couldn't stop his tears. They tickled hot, down his chin and onto the fabric before sliding right back down.

' offcourse it was water resistant '.

The Second Prince Azhraavi was aboard his ship on a journey to attend the world meeting regarding the exploration of the Abyss continent.

He was on the deck resting his arms on the Gunwale and peering into the sea.

His eyes turned behind him in the direction of the United States and a smile crossed Azhraavis face.