I Refuse To Be Fate’s Puppet - Chapter 82

The surroundings began to change and blur. Damien spoke as the scenery changed.

“Since that moment, my mother began finding those within the Clan that were also abused, mistreated and disgusted by the Clan. She spent years secretly building a rebellion. Until it was time to act. We killed many of the Elders and warriors. But we were ratted out before we could finish them off and escape. My mother and I were captured and all of those that had rebelled were slaughtered.”

As Arata sensed the sadness within Damien, the room around them had changed and they were now in a large chamber. There was blood on parts of the wall and the ground was stained red. There were bodies scattered across the floor. There were four guards holding a woman and child down on their knees. Standing before them were a group of men, some were injured and bleeding, but they all had a look of outrage on their faces. Standing in the front was a man in military gear, his clothes stained with blood. He had a crazed look in his eyes.

“You traitorous bitch!”

He slapped the woman hard in the face. The sound echoed throughout the hall. The young boy struggled against the guards holding him seeing his mother being hit. The man turned to the young boy and pointed at him.

“Shut it, you demonic trash! This is your fault!”

Damien watched as the 8 year old him struggled against the guards holding him down. They were equipped with Energy Converters that was siphoning the Energy he was releasing and storing them safely in the containers on the guards backs. The man continued to curse and swear at the young boy. As he was yelling, the woman began laughing hysterically. He turned back to see her grinning at him.

“Blaming your own cowardly decisions and mistakes on a child. You really are a pathetic excuse for a man.”

The man angrily replied by kicking her hard in the stomach as the young boy yelled for him to stop. He was breathing heavily as the look in his eye slowly became more and more crazed looking. He pulled the hair of the woman, lifting her up off the ground and bringing her face to his.

“You want to leave this place so badly? Fine. You can leave.”

He raised his other hand and began channelling his Energy into his fists. Arata felt the Energy within Damien ripple. Damien had red eyes as he stared at the man. This moment was etched into his mind so clearly that he didn’t need a vision to be reminded, he knew what was coming as he tried to charge at the man holding his mother. There were barriers that restricted him from moving forward, but he still continued to struggle and move towards his mother. The man raised his fist as he stared at the woman with disdain.

“You and your wretched son can leave the Clan. As corpses!”

“NO!”

“MOTHER!”

Two Damien’s screamed in pain as the man punched through Valeria’s chest. Valeria coughed up a large amount of blood. The man pulled his fist out of her chest and tossed her on the ground. Valeria looked at the young Damien with slight smile, tears flowing down her face.

“I’m sorry, baby….I….I couldn’t….free y….yo…u…..”

Her eyes slowly closed as both Damien’s roared in sadness, grief and anger. Memories began flashing through both Damiens minds as they watched the life leave her body.

———-

“Who the hell do you think you are to do this to my son!?”

“….and then we bolted out of there as fast as we could. Sure, we could’ve taken more, but we were kids. Plus we were completely terrified of what you’re Grandfather would do to us.”

“One day, when we get out of here, I’ll show you the Ruby Gardens to the south of the Kingdom of Kakuso’s border. The most beautiful shades of red you have ever seen.”

“You deserve freedom, Damien. You deserve to be free to do what you want live how you want. And I’ll beat up anyone who tries to take away the freedom you deserve.”

“I’ll get you out of here if it’s the last thing I do.”

———-

The guards that were holding Damien noticed that something was wrong. The amount of Energy that was coming from Damien was too much for the Energy Converters. Waves of Energy rippled off of Damien as the guards began to panic. Damien growled, his voice distorted. The sound caused a chill to run down the spine of everyone in the hall. Energy exploded from Damien’s arms as the guards were sent flying. The two guards that were holding down Valeria, now charged at Damien, but they were thrown backwards by a powerful burst of Demonic Energy.

The man and the Elders dodged out of the way. As a series of explosions occurred around them. One of the Elders screamed in pain as a Demonic claw came out of his chest. The Elder fell to the floor as the claw exited him, revealing Damien standing behind him. His eyes glowing black, his right arm morphed into a Demon’s claw, and the rest of his body seemed to be changing as well. The Elders channelled their Energy as they attacked the young boy. Damien burst forward with incredible speed as he weaved through the Elders. With his small size and blistering speed, the Elders could barely keep up with his movements, as his claw pierced through the chests of the Elders, leaving a bloody trail wherever he went.

The man in the military uniform pulled out a longsword as he tried to lock on to Damien. Damien was going wild as he tore through the Elders until there were only a couple left. One was shaking in fear and tried to run away. As he ran, Damien charged at his back, biting him on the neck and ripping off a large chunk of flesh. Blood spurted out as the Elder collapsed to the floor. Damien shot like a bullet into the chest of another Elder, blood dousing his arms and face. Damien slowly rose as he locked eyes with the man. The man raised his sword and slashed at Damien. Damien stood still as the blade dug into his shoulder. The man’s eyes went wide as he found that the blade wouldn’t come out of Damien. He screamed in anger, but the fear could be heard in his voice.

“Why won’t you just die!”

Damien stood completely still, eyes locked onto the man. He slowly raised his hand, placing it on the blade that was piercing him. As he spoke, his voice was distorted yet Damien’s voice could still be heard underneath it.

“My death will only come after yours.”

The sword began to glow with a dark light, as did Damien. The man had a look of fear as he tried to pull away, but the Energy from Damien and the blade locked him in place. The Energy grew and grew, this dark light spreading and engulfing the entire chamber. Damien watched with pained eyes as the darkness devoured the entire place before a series of explosions were heard, followed by the sound of a powerful suction of some kind. And then silence.

Damien stood there in darkness, doing his best to gather his emotions. Arata felt the conflicting feelings he had. From the feeling of that Energy, Arata guessed that it was a rather large scale explosion. He quickly pieced things together and finally realised who Damien was.

“You were a member of the Typhon Clan.”

Damien silently nodded. The Typhon Clan was a Clan that dealt with some rather dodgy and corrupt business transactions. They were a subsidiary of a much larger Clan, providing resources for the larger Clan. However, 1 year ago, the Typhon Clan disappeared. Their Clan territory had been completely destroyed with no traces of life anywhere. What happened to the Typhon Clan was a big mystery that the Sato Clan had been looking into. Arata realised that he had just witnessed what had happened. Damien sighed.

“Lady Moriah found me after it happened. She…..My mother was able to ask her for help. But she arrived too late….She brought me to the Institute and enrolled me in Class 7. Even though I was too young, she said that I needed to be in this particular class, this particular year.”

Arata understood. Granny Mo had placed Damien in the same class as him so that they would meet. She knew that he would understand his power and get the power of the Sato Clan to nurture him. Arata didn’t know how he felt about being used, but he knew that it was with good intentions. As Arata was thinking all of this, Damien was looking out into the darkness.

He felt something pulling him. Calling him. He also felt a cold chill pass over him. Arata breathed in as he felt the chill. That was an aura of death. Spirits began to rise up around them, circling Damien. The Spirits were moaning and crying as they slowly began to take the forms of people. There were some that had gashes and wounds, crying in pain. Others were pale and seemed week in their spirit forms. But Damien stiffened as he began recognizing the faces. These were the members of the Typhon Clan.

“Murderer!”

“Monster!”

“You destroyed the Clan!”

“Stop it!”

“You killed your family!”

“Our blood is on your hands!”

“No. I didn’t mean…”

“We trusted you and your mother, and you killed us all!”

“You promised us freedom and you gave us death!”

“No! That wasn’t what I wanted. I couldn’t control…”

Damien began to panic as these spirits circled him, shouting at him. He begged for them to stop. He fell over his words as he tried to explain and apologise but they continued to push and curse at him. The face of the man wearing the military uniform floated before him with a look of disgust.

“I said you were a monster. And you proved me right.”

Damien roared as he charged at the spirit, tears flying off his face as he ran forward. As his fist passed through the spirit, before it began wrapping around his arm. The other spirits began wrapping around him, latching onto him as the screamed in agony, cursing him under their breathes. Damien roared and yelled as he struggled against the spirits. Fear, guilt, anger and sadness all twisting within him. The spirits began to take the form of a Demon around him. His roar became demonic as claws began to form on his hands. Horns began to protrude from his head and his body began to grow in size.

The voices began to overwhelm him, attacking him mentally, emotionally and tearing at his physical and spiritual body. He was roaring in pain as they continued to torture him. Arata could feel the pain within Damien, this agonising pain, tormenting him. King spoke within Arata’s mind.

“This is the pain and anguish of his past. He needs a trigger of some kind to tame the demons attached to his power or else he will eventually be overwhelmed from using his power.”

As Damien screamed in pain, Arata was unsure as to how he could help him. He needed something to help ground him. To calm him.

Arata did his best to channel Damien’s Energy, calling into the Demonic Source as he tried to pull out what he felt would help Damien. As Damien reached a place of utter pain, wanting for nothing more than for it all to end and atone for his sins, being consumed by the demons of his past, a light shone before him. A spirit rose up from the darkness and took the shape of a beautiful, frail woman. Damien went wide eyed as he looked at her. His emotions in shock. She smiled softly at him before her eyes shined with a bright light.

“Get the hell off my baby!”

She sped towards Damien and her light slammed into the Demonic figure around him. One by one, the spirits began to scream in pain as they dissipated and disappeared. However, even as they disappeared, the Demonic figure around Damien remained. But the figure began to glow a different shade of grey as it gave off a more controlled aura. Damien felt the pain within him being replaced by a warmth he hadn’t felt for a long time. Tears rolled down his face as he felt the aura around him.

“M-Mother…”

Arata felt the aura enter Damien, the figure receding into Damien, and briefly approaching the space within Damien that he was residing in. He heard a gentle voice before the Energy dispersed throughout Damien’s body.

“Look after my baby.”