Mane was startled by his master's words. He tried to open his eyes. The formerly weighty eye lids were not as heavy as before, making his task all but difficult. After a few seconds he finally succeeded in opening his beautiful blue eyes. The piercing light that fell upon his pupils prompted him to shut them again. Spending thirteen days in darkness was enough to make his eyes forget what light was. He prepared himself and opened them once more, this time slowly. As his eyes adjusted to the bright room, Mane turned his head to the side of his bed while waiting for his eyes to adjust to the lights, all the while wondering who it was that was waiting for him. When his eyes finally did adapt to its surroundings, they grew misty. This wasn't because of pain or weariness on their part, but because of the emotions of their owner. Looking at the woman who had fallen asleep beside his bed, Mane was filled with so many complex emotions: love, joy, and some small amount of anger. Yet when he saw the tear stains on her fair face all the anger he felt for her melted away. Her blonde hair was messy and unkempt, clearly she had spent most of her time beside him. He slowly lifted up his arm, reaching for her face, his eagerness to see her eyes that shared the same colour as his overcoming the pain that wrecked his body and threatened to tear it apart. When his hand finally did reach her, he gently stroked her cheeks and softly called in a voice that was hoarse from being unused for about two weeks, "Mom."
The sleeping beauty immediately opened her eyes when she felt the small hand on her cheek. With her high attainments in wielding, it was almost impossible that she would be found in this state. This was testament to her level of worry and extreme lack of sleep during the past few days. Her blue eyes found a similar pair of eyes staring at her. They were so similar the two, not just their eye colour but facial appearance too. It was almost like Mane was a smaller copy of her. Speaking strictly about the face of course. There was no way Mane had, and would ever possess her curvy physique. The woman respected by the myriad realms felt tears filling her eyes once more. During these past few days she had shed more tears than she had her entire lifetime- with the exception of the period when she had to give Mane up and the few years that followed after. The one known as the Absolute Queen immediately hugged her son, holding him close to her as she sobbed softly,
"I'm here baby. Mommy's here."
Outside Mane's room, and in one of the several washrooms, a handsome man stood before a mirror. His haggard eyes gave away his lack of rest and his messy brown hair acted as a confirmation to this fact. He looked at the image reflected in the mirror, his beautiful green eyes staring back at him. The droplets of water on his face did nothing to decrease his weariness. He sighed as he picked up the towel placed next to a small bowl of water. As he wiped his face he couldn't help but think of his son who lay in bed. They had underestimated the guts of the people of this world. Although he and his wife had been off world for a long time, they still kept track of their son's progress. They knew he was in the higher levels of the profound realm and that his combat ability wasn't what it seemed on the surface. Their surprise at his amazing speed of growth was trumped by their pride in their son, with each of them arguing on whose talent it was the boy inherited. They had assumed that on this small world there was no threat to their boy- they were wrong. It didn't take them long to understand why a profound realmer had grown so weak. They were his parents. His glows came from them- well most of his glows. They knew how strenuous it was to call upon these abilities, the price that one would have to pay when they used them at a lower wielding realm. Even then, they weren't supposed to become as weak as Mane was. Which could only mean,
"My son awakened some glows that are too powerful for him to handle. Glows that are beyond even the origin gods themselves." Anyone listening to Ray would be startled. Not only did he compare his son to the gods, he compared him to gods who were born with the universe. One would have taken his words as that of the ignorant and arrogant, yet any who knew the power of the Brute King knew that they were anything but. He, who was the illegitimate son of his father, born of a mortal woman, yet possessed talent greater than any of the god bred descendants. It was he who caused high realms to tremble when he lost his cool and brought caution to the arrogant gods. He was a powerful man, and he knew what his glows were capable of doing when he was at the lowly profound realm. Yet none of them had penalties as steep as his son's.
"Glows capable of severing one's connection to the edict and to chaos itself, are no regular glows." Mane must have thought that his abilities as a spiritualist were only known to himself and his masters. He was adorably wrong. His parents knew everything about him, even possibly more than he did himself. Ray hadn't heard of glows that had such harsh penalties. He couldn't help but wonder what his son will grow up into with such power at his behest.
"He truly is the child of prophecy", he smiled as he exited the washroom. When he did, he sensed his butler coming towards his direction. The older man half bowed when he reached his master, prompting his master to ask, "Do you have the information, Old Fin?" The butler nodded his head in reply, not as an act of disrespect, but because the young master's room was very close by, and he didn't want to cause any disturbance, especially to the one that was waiting for him to wake up. Ray understood that the information was a sensitive one.
He began to walk to his study and motioned that his subordinate follow him as he stated in a cold tone, "To dare raise a hand against my boy… It is time they met the Brute King."
In the underworld of the 2nd heaven, the eyes of a soul reaper gleamed brightly as he picked up his scythe to sharpen the unusual blade. "The Brute King is on the move. I wonder how many souls the battle god of the 2nd heaven would bring me this time."