"Mom, I am back home."
With a pleasant smile on his face, a tall, young boy, physically in his late teen years, walked inside, putting down his school bag next to the door. Soft golden brown bangs curled over his forehead, making him appear as quite a charming, cheerful boy.
Hearing his pleasant voice, a pretty middle-aged woman came walking towards him from the kitchen, while wiping her hands with a small towel. She wore a blissful smile as she greeted him softly, "Welcome back, my Ignus."
Meanwhile, Ignus sniffed his nose a few times in the air, and a radiant joy spread on him as he squealed, "Mom, I can smell something delicious. Did you prepare my favorite dish?"
"Of course," the woman tenderly patted his head and reverted to a smile, "today is your birthday after all. My little Ignus is growing up so fast, it worries me."
"Mom, stop treating me like a kid. I am turning 18 this year. Did you forget?" Like a grumpy kid, Ignus pouted as she ruffled his hair, with a shy smile on his lips.
"Yeah yeah..." She smirked, as she proceeded.
"Ignus, I am preparing a cake for you this year. It's been so long since we baked a homemade cake. That's why I went into the storeroom and grabbed the oven utensils. I have kept them inside a metal trunk there."
"Okay."
Holding his soft smile, Ignus obediently headed to the storeroom in the backyard of their small house. It was a small room with an asbestos roof, rarely visited by them, which made the place quite dusty, covered with dirt and spider webs.
As soon as he clutched the doorknob and walked inside the damp, dark room, he noticed there were two metal trunks placed on the floor in the corner.
"Huh? There are two trunks. Mom didn't tell me which one she had kept the utensils in."
Mumbling to himself, Ignus reached the trunks in a few seconds and peered with a stiff gaze at them. A small glass window was the only source of light in the room during the daytime. Moreover, he noticed one of the trunks was painted completely black in color, but covered with rust.
Curiosity overwhelmed him as Ignus knelt down on the ground and opened that black trunk first. As soon as he opened it, a huge amount of dust and dirt emitted from the inside, which made him cough for a while. He realized that it must have been ages since the trunk was last opened.
After momentary exhaustion, Ignus noticed something strange that piqued his curiosity more.
A big, thick book, approximately a kilo by weight was the only thing kept inside the giant trunk. The cover of the book had a strange creature drawn over it, which looked more like a diabolical monster.
It had a deformed, scary face with two big red horns over its head. Furthermore, the creature's giant black-tipped black-colored wings from its shoulder and limbs were transformed into claws, making the creature even more terrifying to look at for any length of time.
A bit nervous and petrified, Ignus gulped and opened the book as he knew it was not turning back from this point. His big, brown eyes wadded up when he noticed all the pages of that thick book were empty, except for a peculiar handwritten scribble on the center page of the book.
Overwhelmed with curiosity, he started to read it aloud.
"Hearken my call, hear me cry
To the dark hell above and flying high,
Break the shackles and bless the world
With the void of darkness and war,
Lend me your powers, hear my sermon
Oh Dark Lord of mine,
Let us bring death and destruction of the divine."
~~~~~~~
As soon as Ignus read aloud the peculiar chant, a cold chill of fear ran down his spine as he could feel a strange uneasiness encircling his mind. Before he could close the book and put it back inside the trunk, all of a sudden, the ground started to shake vigorously as if a terrible earthquake had hit the place right at that moment.
The jolt was so strong that, unable to keep his balance, Ignus tripped down on the ground, and swooned in fear as he watched all the objects inside the room falling around with the quake.
Before he could react further, his eyes widened in shock as he noticed a mild bluish light scattering out of that weird book. He gasped and fretted. He threw the book far away from him to the other corner of the room. Right in a few seconds, the earthquake immediately stopped.
"IGNUS!!?"
Just after the earthquake, his mother came running inside the room with a gravely terrified, pale look on her face. Watching her reach out for him, Ignus quivered in a confused, scared voice, "M-Mom?"
"Ignus!? Are you alright, my child!? Did you get injured!?" Rushing towards him, she immediately wrapped him in her embrace and patted his shoulder, as she realized he was quite scared.
Ignus felt a bit relieved by her warm embrace as he hugged her back, resting his head on her shoulder. "Y-Yes mom, I am okay. A-Are you alright? Was it an e-earthquake?" He was still stuttering in fear.
"Yeah, I have never experienced such a strong earthquake in my entire life." She murmured, glancing around the room where all the objects were scattered around with the earthquake.
Soon enough, she released him from her hold and sounded a bit anxious, "Ignus, get out of here. I will arrange these things and come back to you."
"But mom—"
"No arguments." A concerned look grew on her oval, small face as she sounded a bit stern this time. Without disobeying her anymore, Ignus stood up and slowly walked outside the storeroom.
While walking back inside the house through the yard, Ignus couldn't get the thoughts of that strange book and odd scribble out of his mind. The part that frightened him the most was the dim bluish light that scattered out from that book.
Moreover, no matter how hard he thought, he could understand why the earthquake had to start at the exact moment he finished reading the chant!
"UWAAAHHHH!"
With thousands of questions crowding his mind, before Ignus could open the door inside his house, all of a sudden, a petrified, loud feminine scream shuddered him from the core. Most importantly, the voice was none other than that of his mother in the storeroom!
With this grave realization, Ignus speedily ran towards the storeroom, choked and stifled in fear. Reaching that small glass window of that storeroom, the vision he saw inside froze him with immense shock and trauma.
A giant man of around six feet tall, with pale white skin and dressed in a black full-length coat, had pierced a sharp-edged, shimmering sword straight through her heart, splattering blood all around the room.
Wadding his eyes round, Ignus watched his mother's lifeless body tumble down on the ground as soon as that man withdrew the sword from her heart.
Watching her collapse, the man turned around his face, and the sight further froze him in horror. His big round eyes were completely black without the white scleral part, and the iris was red in color. Two big reddish brown horns were growing above his head, making him look like the creature Ignus had just noticed on the cover of that book.
Moreover, with a cruel smirk, two long white fangs emerged from his bloody red lips, and the man spread out both his big arms, with one of them soaked in her blood.
"LET THE DARKNESS BEGIN! BRING DESTRUCTION OF THE DIVINE!!" He rumbled in a proud voice, and a bluish flame started to ignite in both of his palms.
In fear, distress, and agony, Ignus couldn't move his steps as his teary gaze was locked on his mother's lifeless, blood-soaked body laying down on the cold floor. Unable to process the tragic reality of his life that had turned upside down in a moment, as he was standing like a block of ice, a cowered voice echoed in his head.
"RUN, IGNUS! RUN AWAY NOW! YOU HAVE TO SURVIVE!
YOU MUST!!"