Darkness...he could only see darkness everywhere but it was better to say he could only perceive darkness because his eyes were closed. He tried to open his pupils but couldn't it was as if the weight of his pupils was too heavy for his muscles to open them. He could vaguely feel his arms and legs but something was bizarre about them. He almost felt like he was paralyzed.
Alex could feel some kind of external warmth and nourishment keeping his body in a state of harmony. It was like experiencing the best and most comforting sleep ever.
Alex felt pain because of the death of his family but this pain and feelings of despair were forced and dampened by the warmth. It was better to say his brain was not able to process it because thinking about almost anything made him dizzy instantaneously.
"This is afterlife, I guess." Alex thought as he became unconscious.
A year later…..
Alex was still sleeping. It was like he was in a state of comma.
But suddenly strange noises started disturbing him. The previous warmth and nourishment that was stabilizing his condition started decreasing exponentially.
Alex woke up, his eyes still too heavy to open. But as the energy around him started to dissipate, the burden and heaviness he felt decreased consequently. Alex finally managed to open his eyes into narrow slits. He could see a glaring green light blind him but Alex kept trying harder and harder to open his eyes. He could now feel the sensation of his arms and legs too.
Crack! He heard the sound of something cracking.
The energy around him completely disappeared right after. Alex for the first time sensed a cold sensation on his back. He finally managed to open his eyes and the sight that awaited him was that of a man staring at him in a crouched position as he was lying in a dimly lit place.
The man had a clean shave and sharp facial features like that of a military personnel.
He was none other than Alex's father Matthew. Alex's mind was instantly flooded with many questions. But unbeknownst to Alex, his eyes were tearful. The little amount of saltwater that his baby body aloud to secret through his eyes was so small that it rather made him look pitiful with an innocent shine to his eyes.
The man after seeing this immediately lifted Alex and smiled at him speaking in a mysterious tone, "Remy looks like I have a surprise for you"
Alex had just heard the story about how his father had discovered him, and what he was seeing right now were exactly those same circumstances.
"I got Reborn" Alex came up with the only possible conclusion that could explain everything.
His eyes sharpened, his body became a little stiff, he clenched his baby fist as hard as he could. The images of the incident that happened in his past life before he just died were as clear as the sun in the sky to him.
"I will kill them all, I swear if the need comes I will annihilate the entire Maurya empire if I have to. I swear I will protect all those I love, kill all those who block my path, and find my origins. This time I will make the entire world tremor in my name"
After a deep breath, Alex resolved, "I guess its high time to attain the martial peak"
Matthew on the other hand was looking weirdly at Alex because Alex making all those resolves was coming out as nothing more than some baby-gibberish that echoed in the cave.
"waah, wacou cowwa grrrr !…"
"This one is sure a little chatty eh, exactly like your mother…sigh," Matthew thought as he looked at baby Alex.
Alex after calming down himself felt a sudden urge to sleep he wanted to resist but his memories the sudden turn of events and the small number of brain cells in his body allowed him to only contemplate so much. Afterall his body also needed time to adapt to this new environment to which he was exposed to suddenly at the end he looked at his father's excited face which made him relieved as he fell asleep in Matthew's embrace thinking.
"life of a baby….eat, sleep, shit …repeat sigh"
Matthew retrieved the beast's core and burned the entire body of the beast. On his way back to the camp he had already thought of a story although there were some glaring holes in it he didn't bother much after all "it was a magic world stuff was bound to happen somehow, right" he thought.
The remaining six soldiers that were alive all looked at Matthew incredulously after witnessing the baby in his hands. Rocky immediately came forward as he was the least injured among everyone except Matthew.
"Cap what happened inside"
Matthew then sighed and started speaking.
"The Beast entered a cave carved in the trunk of that huge tree while I followed it to end it's life before it had time to recuperate. But as soon as I went in the cave where the beast was residing another portal opened out of the blue. A man and a woman got teleported from it along with this little guy. Looking at there clothes I think they were just civilians who just happened to encounter the portal which closed right after teleporting them "
Matthew then paused to look at everyone's expression to see whether they were believing it or not. Afterall incidents like these were rare but not unheard off but as when a portal was formed it released some signs like spacial tear and lights in the sky unless and until one was not alert and couldn't see these signs they possibly could enter the portal by mistake.
Rocky not able to hold back his curiosity asked in a hurry, "what happened then?"
Matthew continued with a dejected face "Alas! Before I could reach the beast and kill it, the beast swallowed whole the bodies of that man and women to regain its strength. I guess the baby was too small and so it slipped through the beast fingers before getting caught."
"I then without any further ado attacked the beast before it could absorb the energy from those bodies and incinerated it down with my lightning attacks"
Indeed, Matthew burned the entire body of the beast before leaving the cave so that nothing contradicting could come up in case a postmortem was performed on the beast. "I mean even if the bodies were eaten there should be some traces of their clothes or other belongings that remained behind right", so he thought it's better to just wipe away all evidence.
But there were still some loopholes if thought about carefully but Matthew was confident that his reputation so far and the fact that he had completed the arduous mission would overshadow this small detail.
Everyone was surprised after listening to what Matthew had to say but no one doubted him, there was no reason to and they were already tired to think about anything except going home.
The team then went back to the portal gate after resting for a while. Luckily they only encountered some low-grade beasts which were easily taken out by Rocky and Matthew on there way back to the portal. Everyone stood in silence in respect of the comrades that died in battle here for a minute before entering the portal one by one.
Matthew was the last person to leave so he turned around and looked at the place one last time before exiting through the portal.