Chapter 2.
"How was your training?" Cyrus asked once Adonis sat him in the rocking chair in front of the fire place. The inside of the house wasn't to large nor small, it was cozy having a dining room, small living room area, two bedrooms, small kitchen, and one bathroom.
"It was good." Adonis replied. "I'm basically immune to the cold now, my strength is way stronger than my peers and my proficiency with weapon has improved a lot, well except for firearms I'm still lacking with those."
Adonis handed Cyrus a mug with a warm drink inside of it. Cyrus thanked him and took small sips of the drink while showing a blissful expression.
"Although it's a bit lacking compared to mines, it's way better than anything your mother has ever prepared for me." Cyrus chuckled while staring absent mindedly into the dark liquid.
"Even though you say that, you always finished everything she made for you." Adonis said after sitting on the other chair next to his father. He didn't need to sit near the fire place for warmth since he wasn't cold, but he enjoyed sharing moments like this with his father.
"Of course I would, although the flavor of her food was terrible, the taste of her feelings and love always made me enjoy it... well enjoy the ones where I didn't fall sick after." Cyrus muttered at the end making Adonis chuckle, no matter how many times his father fell ill because of Freya's cooking he always ate it.
"Maybe we should see a doctor to check on those taste buds of yours." Adonis said, earning him a pillow to the face from Cyrus.
"Anyways," Cyrus sighed as his tone fell dejected. "Are you still planning on going to join the military to avenge your mother."
The room fell silent after Cyrus' question. Only the crackle of fire from the fire place and howls from the snowstorm outside could be heard.
The light in Adonis' eyes grew dim and his eyes turned sharp and he looked towards the fire place. He started to unwrap his scarf which revealed the rest of his face. At the bottom of his face, on the left side was a scar that ran down from his jaw to his neck and continued underneath his clothes.
"Yes, despite the dangers and difficulty of it, I still want to do it. It's because of my selfishness that she died in the first place." Adonis said.
"It wasn't your fault, my son. Neither I, nor would your mother blame you or want you to blame yourself for her death." Cyrus said while grabbing Adonis hand. "I will not stop you, nor can I, but I just want you to know that your mission isn't hard, but pretty much impossible." Cyrus sighed.
"Not only do you want to find all of the enemies she had in Haven and kill them which will take years of research, planning and then you need the strength to do it. Then you want to eradicate all the monster behind the dominion." Cyrus shook his head. "Maybe, just maybe you're first goal can be accomplished, but your mother, wouldn't want you to spend majority of your life on revenge. Not to mention eradicating all the monsters outside the dominion, I can only see that as a naïve child's foolish dream."
"It still does change the fact that I feel guilty for her death father, even if it cost me my life I think I would feel better if I tried to avenge her rather than living a happy life. My worst fear would be seeing her disappointed at me in the after life or calling me a failure." Adonis muttered with teary eyes.
Adonis suddenly felt himself being embraced by his father who was a head shorter than him. "It's ok, my son. Your mother would never be disappointed with you or think you are a failure, you were always her pride and joy." Cyrus held the back of Adonis' neck as the boy poured tears on his shoulder.
'Just like you I have to take care of another crybaby, huh my love.' Cyrus thought while looking at the passed the window into the sky.
The snowstorm has passed and the sun was hanging high in the clouds, something rare for the inhabits of the northern territory to see.
"Go take shower, I'll finish preparing lunch and then I have something to show you." Cyrus said once Adonis had calm down. Adonis nodded while taking his scarf and heading upstairs.
It happened around 500 years ago, the people got no warning, message, or reason. Monster and creatures from their worst nightmare started to appear all over the world. These creatures had magical powers only heard of in movies and novels and completely overpower everyone.
Weapon like gun, nukes, and even secret military weapons could hurt some of the weaker ones, but barely scratched the stronger ones, not to mention the monsters, among those monsters. In less than five years humanity was on the bring of extinction.
When everything seemed to be lost and everyone was in despair believing that the gods had abandon them, a hope appeared, The Haven. It was a place that was protected by a large force field which the creatures couldn't break into. People who heard of it, and went there, were ecstatic as the rumors about the Haven were true.
Of course, Haven had it's own set of rules that didn't follow what most people were used to. The Haven used a monarchy system with the Supreme being at the top, then the Cardinals, Nobility, Military, and Commoners. Someone's status wasn't permanent as their were also merits that could increase someone's status all the way to the top of Nobility.
However, the Supreme which was the Imperial Family and Cardinals which were the Pillar Families were unchangeable. There were many ways to increase your status, but the two main ways were by contributing something to the empire, like a new product or becoming a strong accomplished solider.
Haven was broken up into five territories/domains, under the single Haven dominion. The northern winter, the eastern spring, the southern summer, the western autumn, and finally, the apex center.
After three hundred years of peace and comfort, most people forgot about the monsters outside of Haven barrier. Some people however did not. As the dominion's barrier couldn't stretch or become bigger, and the population grew, some people had to leave from the safety of the barrier.
This would have been a problem for the people who were kicked out since they wouldn't have the safety of the barrier, but luckily there were people in the empire who could use supernatural powers too. They were called Mystics.
Not many commoners knew how people obtained these powers as information was limited to only military status and above, but two hundred years ago when this problem occurred, a woman named Gaia used her powers of the earth to manipulate the ground rising it to create large, strong walls around the barrier which protected all the people outside.
As Gaia was a princess of the Haven Empire, most commoners started to praise and pray to her as their goddess while putting full faith in the Imperial family.
Everything went fine for two hundred years, until eight years ago, The Gaia Disaster occurred. There was a breach in the walls that Gaia had made and monsters from outside had entered the outer area of Haven which was the area outside of the barrier.
This brought shook to everyone as the walls were perfectly fine and sturdy before however, after the disaster the Imperial Family made a speech saying the reason why the wall was broken was because a 'Catastrophe Grade' monster called an inferno broke it.
At first it brought panic as Catastrophe Grade was the highest threat level monster and said to be myths however the public was soon put to rest after it was revealed that the monster was killed.
In this disaster, not only did Adonis lose his mother, but was also heavily injured staying in a coma for a whole year. He thought that he had died, but when he woke up he learned that his father had barely saved his life.
Every since the moment he woke up he had been training hard for six years so that he could enlist in the Haven Army and join the Lance Corps, the only division that ventured outside the dominion.
"Such a nasty scar." Adonis muttered while looking at his naked body in the mirror. He had chiseled muscles with some small scars that he gained from his harsh training over the years. However, his biggest scar, was the one which started at the bottom of his jaw ran down all the way to his waist. The scar passed over his heart and at that area was where the scar was dark only turning lighter away from it.
This was the birthday gift that Adonis received from the Catastrophe Grade inferno and he was craving to get revenge. Despite the message of the Imperial family saying that the monster was dead, Adonis knew it wasn't. Rather he felt that the monster was still alive, and once he got strong enough he would make sure to pay it a visit and get his revenge.
"Well that's only if my instincts are true and the monster really is alive." Adonis sighed.