Eros awoke in Sepheros' palace.
Sepheros sat down on his crimson throne, resting his face in his palm. He stared intently at Eros, sighing at the fact Eros had intruded his sacred place once more.
"You would think for how long I've been here, I'd enjoy any company I can get." Sepheros murmured restlessly, lazily rolling his sun shaped pupils as Eros stood up. "But you are rather irritating. That's twice now you've invaded my atmosphere."
Eros attempted to speak to no avail. His tongue was still sliced off.
It's not like I chose to come here. This is the last place I'd want to be.
"I'm only going to do this once and only because it's boring to talk to myself. The next time you lose your tongue, it will be permanent…"
Before Eros could object, he was immediately set on fire. Strangely enough, the flames did not hurt this time. There was a slight burning sensation on his tongue, he could feel steam coming off of it as it slowly regenerated back.
"My tongue… how'd you even—"
"Still asking me bothersome questions, do you want to lose your tongue once more?"
"You lied to me…"
"Oh? How so?"
Eros gritted his teeth, clenching his fists as he marched in Sepheros' direction. Sepheros stared indifferently as Eros took step after step up the stairs to be on equal footing with him.
"You lied to me. You said I could change my fate and the fate of others around me."
"I did say that. I didn't lie."
"Then why wasn't I able to save my mother or Elise? Why did my own father try to kill me?"
"It's simple…" A cruel smile slipped its way onto Sepheros' lips. The flames in his eyes danced with malevolence. "You're weak."
Rage overcame Eros, replacing any fear he had left against the god as he punched Sepheros across his left cheek. However, that was a terrible mistake as Sepheros remained unfazed by the punch, Eros' fist hardly leaving a mark on his cheek.
I think the bones in my hand cracked! Why is his face so hard?
Eros fell to his knees, clutching his broken hand as he winced in pain. Sepheros leaned forward on his throne, his sun shaped eyes staring intently into Eros' soul.
"Eros Eldritch… incinerate."
An immense pressure burst his eardrums, his ears leaking blood. The song that released from his body was not one of joy but a requiem for the dead, for his mother, for his father, for himself. His body instantly burst into flames, replacing his fair skin with the colour of charcoal until he was nothing but a pile of ash.
Eros suddenly woke up in a hospital bed.
"Where… am I?" Eros muttered weakly. He could hardly move anything but his eyes.
His droopy, violet eyes were still adjusting to the bright lights in the room, but in the corner of the room he swore he saw a shadowy figure standing there. It did not speak, it did not move, it simply watched him as he lay there.
There was an IV bag hanging off of its stand, tubes tunneling its way into his veins and pumping his body with a lifetime of nutrients he had missed out on.
A nurse walked in, ignoring Eros despite his feeble attempt to talk to her. She replaced Eros' IV bag with another one, hurrying off to another room likely to help someone else.
His eyes slowly closed once more. He was in and out of his sleep until finally he was woken up by a loud slam. A man with light brown hair and sunglasses walked into the room, sipping obnoxiously out of a straw in a soda can. He threw the soda can into the garbage can next to Eros' bed, stopping in front of him.
"Well? Did he wake up yet?"
"He's been in and out of his sleep." The shadowy figure replied from the corner.
So it is a person after all...
"Who are you?" Eros mumbled weakly, his eyes now focusing on the shadowy figure.
He did not reply. Instead, he continued to watch from behind the obnoxious man.
"Oh good! You're awake after all kid! Gotta admit, I didn't think you'd pull through. You were in pretty bad shape and that tongue... I mean... I know artists who wouldn't even go that far to live."
"Who are you?" Eros repeated, slightly annoyed that they were yet to answer his question.
The man did not answer, instead he rambled on about how lucky Eros was to be alive. Eros did not feel lucky. No, if he were lucky, he would have been the one who died in the settlement.
The man invaded Eros' personal space, grabbing his face and moving it side to side. Eros tried his best to resist but found himself unable to move his arms. He then forced open Eros' mouth, grabbing his tongue with a shocked face.
"Holy shit! Will you look at that, Lucerio. His tongue grew back... it's a miracle!"
No, not a miracle. It was the work of a devil. One with a fire fetish.
The figure emerged from the shadows, surprising Eros by his appearance. It was a boy, no taller than Eros himself, dressed in all black and wearing a weird black mask with only eye holes. Through the eye holes, he saw hollow light brown eyes. The boy was devoid of any emotions, he stood there awkwardly letting his arms swing at his sides. It was as if he was not in control of his own body.
"So, is he special then?" Lucerio asked, irritated by the thought itself.
"He is..." The man replied, grinning from ear to ear. He let go of Eros' tongue, wiping his hands along Eros' blanket. "He's the one that scarred that little monster Velvo. And he did it without an Astral Art. He's someone special..."
Astral Art? What isthat?
"How's that possible? Very few artists can even match Velvo in combat..."
"He used his head. Waited for an opening and struck right before the little bastard could react. Got it all on footage on this little hard drive here."
"Then you're going to accept their offer?"
"Not yet. He's got the creativity to be an artist but I still don't know if he's got the skill to be one."
"What are you both talking about? And you still haven't told me who you are..."
"Oh yeah. I nearly forgot." The man smacked his head at the realization. He took off his sunglasses, revealing his bright green eyes. He smiled at Eros in a creepy, eerily way, as if he was the one wearing a mask and not Lucerio. "My name is Ivan Shieldings. I'm an Astral Artist from the Astral Artist Association. And this little walking corpse is Lucerio, just Lucerio."
Eros stared at Lucerio, he was silent and unreadable. For some reason, it felt like Lucerio was seconds away from wrapping Eros' tubes around his neck to choke him out. Had Eros done something to offend the masked boy?
"Have you ever heard of the association?"
"Only once... Velvo mentioned it but I was fading in and out."
"Ah, I see..." Ivan clicked his tongue at the mad prince's name. "He's a nasty one, that Velvo. But believe it or not, he's not the worse in his family."
"Ha! I find that hard to believe." Eros scoffed faintly, remembering just how easy it was for Velvo to kill his mother. He treated everything like a game, like it was all just for fun. He would never forget that evil grin as he proudly raised his mother's head towards his father for approvement. "His father sure seemed nicer than he is. He let me go after all."
Ivan's right eye twitched momentarily at Eros' words, quickly shifting back into that creepy smile of his.
"Velvo's a bastard. He's not right in the head. He's an evil that cannot be contained. But I assure you, it's better to deal with an uncontained evil than a contained evil."
"So his father's a contained evil? He didn't seem that way when he let me go."
"Palaxe couldn't have cared less about you. He was just trying to contain his son. Letting you live and escape Velvo's game has wounded him deeper than you ever will..."
"Ha! I don't know about that, I got his eye pretty good!" Eros laughed like a mental patient, breaking out into a fit of coughing after. Ivan did not laugh.
"Take it easy boy. You managed to take an eye, that's great. But the Volarion family have over 100 elite artists capable of healing that eye back to normal. The only reason he didn't was because Palaxe forbade him from doing so. He wants to humiliate Velvo to maintain whatever little control he has left."
"So, what do you want from me then? I'm not an artist, I can't stop him from healing it back."
"Not yet." Ivan smirked. Lucerio silently observed Eros, searching for a reason to kill him. "Eros, you're going to become an Astral Artist..."