“Ha! Did you really think those church bastards would kill me? Do you have that little faith in your master, kid?!” Cynthia reprimands, walking to the barely standing shocked Newt.

”B-But! That Devoted said you died! How could you have survived?!”

“What do you want me dead brat?!” Slapping the top of Newt’s head, Cynthia explains.

“I told you, most Mages are specialists in specific fields of Magic, mine are Magi-Artificing and Illusions.

It’s not hard to fool some wet behind the ears brat.”

She explains with crossed arms, after a pause she looks up to see Newt crying an ocean in front of her.

Heaving a sigh, her lips curve into a small smile and reach to pull Newt into a hug.

“There there kid, it’s alright, I’ll always be here for you.”

“I…I thought I lost you Mum! I was so worried.” Newt sobs into Cynthia’s chest.

Who in turn from Newt’s fraudulent slip, flinches back but stops herself and gives Newt a small kiss on the forehead.

“Mum huh?”

Newt flinches and turns away, blushing from embarrassment, turning bright red all the way to the tips of his ears.

“It’s alright, that sounds nice, I would be delighted to be your mother, Newt.” She says with a bright smile never before seen from her before.

Newt’s eyes, which had literally stopped crying no less than 20 seconds earlier, erupt outwards with a tsunami of tears, the floodgates truly opening.

Jumping into her arms, Newt calls out, “Mum!” The happiest he had ever been, in both of his lives.

“Yes Newt?”

“I love you!”

Chuckling Cynthia replies.

“I love you t-Bleurgh”

Newt feels a piercing pain in his chest, looking down he sees a deep stab wound, “Huh?”.

Looking back up he sees a trail of blood coming from Cynthia’s mouth, shock spreading across her face.

“Look who we have here! The Demon that got away and it’s little imp!” A huge man with piercing golden eyes towers over the body of Cynthia and Newt.

“I will do the duty bestowed upon me by the Gods themselves and purge these evil corrupt beings from the world!” Slashing downwards towards the incapacitated Cynthia and Newt, a bright Golden energy encompasses his sword.

“No Mum!!!” Jumping in between the blade and Cynthia he takes the brunt of the slash.

That tears him in half.

Excruciating pain takes over as he feels sharp and burning pain spread across his body, even feeling phantom pain from the cut off half of his body.

That wasn’t all however, as the energy from the sword enters his body, entering his heart, his bloodstream, his brain, before exploding outwards, ripping and tearing anything within his body to pieces.

Worst of all, when it found an energy other than itself, it went into a starvation crazed berserk, seemingly stronger during this stage, his heart was torn apart into small pieces, then torn apart again, and again, and again, then once small enough, vaporised by the energy.

This process didn’t occur only for his heart, as it wasn’t the only place that had Mana within.

Blood vessels, burned inside and out, torn apart, nothing but ash, brain, exploded into smaller pieces and brought alight, with nothing left.

The worst part? Newt was fully conscious, and the pain was getting constantly sent into his very soul, even when his brain no longer had form other than ash and dust, he could still feel everything, as if the golden energy wanted nothing but to torment him, slowly burning even the connections with his soul, a trail of golden fire leading into another plane.

Destroying his very soul.

Newt during all of this was merely focusing on Cynthia, she had to live!

Cynthia’s body was staring into his his eyes, although they were soon to be gone.

”haaah, are, ok?” Newt tried to call out, no response.

Lungs torn apart, the pain spreading to his brain, he desperately reaches out towards Cynthia’s lifeless eyes.

He sees Cynthia’s mouth move.

”…ault.”

What?

“..ur…ault.”

I can’t hear you! Just a bit louder!

“This is all your fault!”

W-what…?

Her voice repeats itself.

“This is all your fault! You irritable waste of breath! If you didn’t exist I would still be alive!”

No that’s not true!

“You useless brat! If you had helped me instead of running maybe I would have lived!”

B-but I couldn’t I’m too weak!

“Merely proving my point brat, unable to help the only person who showed you kindness, and even if you could, you would have run away like a coward!”

Her voice morphing, amplifying and duplicating, surrounding Newt, it yells out.

“Coward!”

“Useless!”

“Weak!”

“Waste!”

They continued to yell out, insults ever-flowing down, each insult causing Newt’s body to increase in weight.

Newt’s body begins falling, seemingly in an endless void, with only the body of Cynthia staring in accusation, Her voices and, a large steel sword approaching from beneath him, the insults making him heavier and heavier.

Fallling further and further, until.

“Useless Coward!”

Klshuk

———

Newt jumps awake, trembling as tears break out.

Starting to hyperventilate, he starts running out of breath, dizziness starts taking over and his head feels as light as a feather, he begins to tilt off the bed.

“Hup!” Diving forward Jennifer barely reaches the edge of the bed and catches the boy.

“Kid what were you thinking?!” She begins to reprimand him but stops as she notices the state he was in, trembling intensely with a far away look, quick breath intake and a flood of tears.

PTSD? But the kid’s so young? What the hell?

“Shhh, it’s alright, you’ll be alright, you’re safe, I’ll protect you.” She tries to reassure the kid.

This however sends him spiralling deeper into his panic attack.

“Shit! JARED I NEED SOME HELP!” She calls out to her husband.

“What’s happening?! Is it the church?! Is Tanya okay?!” He quickly jumps off the couch and runs to Jeniffer, seeing her hugging the freaking out kid he observes for a moment, sighs and walks forward.

Newt, seeing in his peripheral vision, further panics at the large masculine figure approaching.

Jared once within range casts a small sleeping spell on Newt.

Quickly taking effect on Newt who passes out soon after, Jeniffer lays Newt back on the bed.

“Mummy? Daddy? Everything okay.” Tanya gets up, rubbing her bag filled eyes.

“Oh sweetie, sorry for the commotion, our guest just had a nightmare is all, you can go back to bed for a few hours.” Jeniffer replies, wishing Tanya a good rest who observes for a moment and turns away.

Not a normal nightmare… Tanya determines after looking at the state of the room, knocked over furniture and kicked around pillows and blanket.

Shrugging it off though as it was early in the morning and she was too tired.

Jared notes the slight pause and decides to explain later while Jeniffer decides what to do with their troubled guest.

“I think we should move him in with Tanya.” Jared suggests, cutting Jeniffer’s line of thinking.

“What?! Tanya is a child younger than him! What would happen if he tries to attack her? We would be putting our baby into potential danger for no reason!”

“Jen.” He rubs his tired eyes and continues, “Think for a second, do you really think the kid who was trembling and sobbing would be able to harm her? Hell I would be more worried for him than Tanya.”

“I guess… Though Tanya wouldn’t hurt a fly!” She argues, receiving a small chuckle.

“What’s so funny?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

Rolling her eyes, she gestures for her husband to continue his explanation, knowing it wasn’t over.

“Anyway, he completely freaked out when I approached, it would be better if he got to know either you or Tanya first. I’m thinking Tanya, she’s adorable.” He says with a faraway look mixed with intense fatherly love, a deep grin on his mouth.

Getting a light slap from Jen, he continues, “Tanya is cute, and well, he’s just a kid, if he was hostile, well would he attack a small kid younger than him? I doubt it.”

“As much as I don’t want her in harms way, something I said also triggered him further, so he might react badly to me. Still, I’m worried, Tanya doesn’t know about how cruel the world is yet! What if he is a church spy and she reveals too much? We could be executed if they found us out.”

Jared shakes his head and gives his wife a slight look of belittlement, “It will be fine, Tanya is… a lot more smart than you give her credit for, not to mention, she won’t stay our little girl forever.”

“I…I know, it’s just, I don’t want to lose her, not again, not like…” Jeniffer gets a sad look on her face as her eyes tear up.

“I know, I know.” Giving his wife a hug he adds on, “But when she inevitably leaves our home.” He says, looking into Jen’s eyes, waiting for her to continue the sentence, “Then we make her prepared, no, over prepared.”

“That we will.” He says as they lock lips.

Soon after the kiss, Jeniffer here’s a quiet, “Blergh” from the slightly open door.

“Tanya! You were suppose to go to bed.”

Tanya’s small head peaks through the gap and replies, “I did! I just came back immediately after! Also It would be really cool to have a sleep over with someone! Move him in with me soon!”

“Alright sweetie~!” Jared immediately replies, much to Jen’s annoyance, but with a huff she heads back to the couches.

“Alright Tanya, to bed! It’s far too early for this. You too Jared.” She adds as Jared started to tiptoe to the kitchen.

With a sigh he starts to move back to the living room, he peaks in the bedroom with the resting teenager and quietly calls out, “Night kid.”

Closing the door he heads to the second couch and lies down.

Completely missing Newt’s opened eyes, who had been awake even after the sleep spell was cast.

Not knowing that Newt was an aspiring Mage with ample willpower to resist the spell, Jared had assumed he was asleep.

Though the spell didn’t work completely, it did still have an effect on Newt, calming him down, his thoughts still drowsy but far more calm than before.

Soon falling asleep as the drowsiness fully takes over him.