The hours ticked by as Daniel was asleep. Soon it reached midnight.
Out of the middle of nowhere, he shot up, drenched in sweat. Hard breathing was heard as he stared in a certain direction.
It stayed like that for seconds. Seconds turned into minutes. After an unknown amount of time, his breathing regulated, and he calmed down; the whole event left him in confusion.
"What was that? It felt like something grabbed my heart, and ripped it out….it hurt…." Daniel muttered to himself.
Throwing the whole event to the back of his head, "I'm too tired to deal with this. Must have been the wind," he went right back to sleep. Eating that casserole had taken a lot of energy out of him.
Unbeknownst to him, that feeling was a warning that his life will never be the same after that night.
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…
"Father Paul of the Cleansing Fire, I have sinned." a voice sounded.
"Jason, confess." another voice answered back.
In the huge church, two people were standing in front of the huge golden statue.
The first voice continued, "I believe that my own son is the holder of that dastardly bloodline that god has given orders to exterminate."
The voice, the first voice named Paul of the Cleansing FIre, spoke again, "Jason…," it paused.
The one addressed as Paul could not be seen; however, Jason could be.
He was a tall brown haired man, with chocolate brown eyes. He was Daniel's father.
Jason wasn't in Daniel's life for all these years, because of how different he looked from him. He believed that Madison had an affair, but there was no evidence suggesting such. When this prophecy was made, the description of the boy matched that of his own son. He saw this as a chance to finally get rid of this scourge in his life.
"Father….forgive me, for I have sinned! I am willing to be cleansed within the Holy Cleansing Fire of Soenus! But, please Father! I still have works to do for god!"
"Jason…shhhh. Your sins are heavy, but there is a chance for redemption, without having to be cleansed."
"Yes, Father, tell me how!"
"You must cleanse both the holder of the bloodline, as well as the wench that gave birth to it, your son and wife with your own two hands. That is the only way your sins can be forgiven without being cleansed."
Hearing that Jason went on his knees, his head between his knees. To the outsider, and even Paul of the Cleansing Fire, he was crying, overcome with grief at having to kill both his wife and son. But, in reality, he was laughing. It was an evil laugh, filled with wickedness and cruelty.
"Finally, I will be rid of this stain on my life!" this thought boomed through his mind.
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…
"Crackle~~~!"
"Boom~~~!"
"Jason! Let me go! Why are you doing this?!"
The sound of crackling fire, and flashing lightning was heard, along with a woman screaming, seemingly struggling to escape something.
"Ughhh," Daniel groaned, waking up, "Mom? Why are you yelling?"
As he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was his father. His father was holding him up by the wrist; his feet, not touching the ground. To his right was Madison, similarly being held up by her wrists, tears streaming down her face.
Gazing down, he realized there was no ground under them; instead, there was a drop into a sea of bright golden flames. Both him and his mom were dangling off of a cliff.
Above, he could feel the coldness of night, yet below, the heat of the flames was intense.
Taking all of this in, Daniel's heart began racing and fear began to sink in, along with a feeling he had never felt before.
Behind his father, they were surrounded by others in the same dark red robes his father wore. There was one that stood out, however: a bald old man with a long beard full of white hair in a similar dark red robe. The only difference between this man and others was that his robes had a prominent golden trim.
"Ah, you're awake, you bastard," Jason said with an evil smile. Because his back was toward the others, they could not see the twisted smile on his face.
The old man in the back began speaking.
"We are here today to witness the cleansing of the one that bears the Bloodline of the Shadow Dragon, as well as the whore that gave birth to it. Jason, to be forgiven for your sins against our great god, you must cleanse them yourself. Now. Drop her first. It was our god's orders that the family must die first."
Hear this, Madison began sobbing, "No, no, no, no! Jason, don't do this! I thought you loved us!"
"Oh, I did. Until you gave birth to this bastard, you cheating whore," Jason replied as he gestured toward Daniel. "Now feel the despair I felt when he was born."
As he said that, the air began to be filled with horrible cackling.
"Watch closely, son. This is how a Rishaw gets what he wants!" Jason continued has he dropped Madison.
"Noooo!" Daniel screamed.
Everything began to move in slow motion as he watched his mom, the only person in the world to ever care for him, drop to her death.
He could see every individual tear drop fly off of her face as she fell. He could see that she was looking right into his eyes. As she fell, she mouthed, "I love you" and he understood every word.
His body went limp as she entered into the ocean of golden flames; his eyes dead.
"Hahaha, what a rush! I love cleansing people! I love seeing the despair on their faces up to their last moments!" Jason let out.
Daniel could not feel anything after his body went limp. All he could hear was the sound of his heart beating as the world began to twist and turn in his vision.
That unknown feeling began getting stronger and stronger, until it was unbearable. It felt like he was about to explode.
His body tensed up as a strange force began building in his throat. He felt as if opening his mouth was the only way to relieve the pressure in his throat.
Opening his mouth, a sound he didn't even know he could make, escaped his throat.
"Roarrr~~~!" it was a dragon's roar.
The roar caused all qi in the surroundings to vibrate and scatter; all except the shadow type qi. It also caused those that surrounded him to freeze up in fear, an innate fear that came from their instincts and soul.
The shadow qi began gathering toward his right hand. As more and more qi gathered, a dragon's claw began forming. While all of this was happening, Daniel looked right into his father's eyes, the desire to kill burning strong. It was so strong that, even after the roar's fear effect wore off, his father was still frozen due to the killing intent exuding off of his body. Being at such a close distance, the killing intent was at an all time high.
"If I survive this father–no, Jason, I will come for you. Starting with this damned church." Daniel let out in a voice that matched the tone of the roar.
As the dragon claw finished forming, he lifted his right hand, on which the dragon claw formed, and cut off his left hand, just below where Jason was holding him. He did all this while staring into his eyes, almost like he was gazing into his soul.
As Daniel began to fall, he maintained eye contact until he flipped upside down and fell into the flames.