A handsome white-haired man with blood-red eyes, named Loki, gazed at his abruptly appearing mother, wiped off his tears first, and stood straight with a subtle sniffle and a small smile on his face.
'Good luck, Freyr.' He thought inwardly, glancing at his sisters, who stood on the other side with similar small smiles on their faces.
A beautiful white-haired woman with black eyes, named Ylva, noticed her brother's gaze and looked at him with a similar thought in her mind.
Next to Ylva stood Edda, a gorgeous young lady who had blonde hair and dim blue eyes. Glancing at the sweating Freyr from the corner of her eyes, she elbowed at her sister, Freya, who stood next to her. Freya had bright pink hair and bright blue eyes filled with tears but noticing the rest of her brothers and sisters glancing at Freyr, she too glanced at him and almost laughed out loud.
Vigdis had black hair and dark blue eyes; she had her right palm on her face, holding back from laughing out loud. Ingrid, who stood next to Vigdis, stood with a small smile on her face; she had white hair and bright green eyes.
And Hjordis, who stood nearer to Nara, her mother, had a solemn look plastered on her face. She had brown hair and bright green eyes, and she was gazing at Freyr, hoping he wouldn't do anything stupid that would make others laugh, thinking that she should look somewhere else so that she wouldn't laugh. Hjordis glanced at her brothers, who stood in front of her.
Oscar, a handsome white-haired man with bright blue eyes, glanced around with a tear-filled gaze and an innocent expression on his face. Ove, a black-haired man with bright orange eyes, elbowed Oscar and indicated him to wipe off those tears.
"Answer me." Nara, their mother, demanded answers as Daghishat, a handsome blood-red-haired man with black eyes, patted on Freyr's back gently.
"Um, m-ma, ca-calm down." Freyr pleaded, stuttering. He then glanced at his brothers and sisters for help, but looking at the smiles on their faces, he knew that it was hopeless, and he was on his own now, but still, he smiled a little, because even though they had small smiles on their faces, he knew that they, too, were extremely sad, just like him.
"Daghishat, you are supposed to look after us, so answer Mother." Freyr whispered, slightly leaning back.
"Haaa...." It was then that they heard a pained sigh from their mother. Flinching, they glanced at their mother and noticed the tears in the corners of her eyes. She was trembling as if she would collapse any moment, but seemed to be only standing tall to hear the confirmation she required, but by the looks of it, they, her children, knew that their mother, Nara, would break down if she heard the answer to her question.
"An-swer me." Nara asked again in a squeaky tone as her shoulders trembled.
Noticing that their mother was having a harder time than them, they rushed towards Nara and hugged her from all sides, stopping her from collapsing.
'At least we were allowed to say goodbye; Mother couldn't even do that.' They thought in unison, pretending not to notice the tears streaming out of Nara's eyes.
'Father, you are too cruel.' Daghishat thought, having similar thoughts as Freyr.
"He left, mother. He said he'll summon us after arriving at his previous home planet. He'll summon you, the castle, together with us; don't worry, mother; father is strong, he'll do it if he said it." Freyr said, hugging Nara tightly.
"Why? Why did he leave?" Nara asked in a squeaky tone.
"He said that if he remained here, he'd be forced to kill you, again." Xod was the one who replied this time.
"Ah...." Nara let out a strange sound as she realised something. It was only then that she remembered how pained his expression would twist every time it came down to killing her; she had thought that he had already gone numb to all those things; the same had been repeating for thousands of years, so how was she supposed to know if he wouldn't tell her anything! But then, Nara remembered him saying something about his curse before brushing it off by saying it was nothing.
'He should have said something if he was having such a hard time; how was I supposed to know if he kept everything to himself?! I'm such an....' Nara thought, biting her lower lip painfully.
'The kids are crying. This is the first time I'm showing my weak side to them....' Nara thought and slightly blushed in embarrassment.
"So, he ran away?" Nara asked, trying to lighten up the mood.
"No! Father runs away from nothing!" All of them said it resolutely and in unison, with pride.
"....."
"....."
"...pfft, but your oh-so-amazing father ran away from me." Nara said, giggling lightly.
"Th-that!!"
'My lovely children....' Nara thought with motherly love oozing out, gently hugging each of them as she ruffled their hair with love and care, desperately trying to bury her sadness behind them.
*
Even though Ivan was having the urge to pass out as he passed through the crack in space, he resisted it as he looked around warily, keeping an eye on his surroundings so that nothing dangerous abruptly popped up.
He was in space, billions of light years away from Earth, his previous home planet—or so he thought. And right at that very moment, he felt like time had stopped, as he stopped, mid-space, without the fear of being trapped in there forever. Nothing crossed his mind when he saw a star explode in an unknown distance, but the sight was just too mesmerising to think about something else. The enormous amount of energy, the beauty of the destruction that just took place—everything was just too precious for anything else to cross his mind. For the first time in thousands of years, Ivan was thankful for his curse.
Ivan involuntarily licked his lips and reached out at the exploding star, as some kind of strange aura oozed out of him, 'I want it.' Ivan thought, but abruptly his vision shifted, and now he was floating in mid-space with his location unknown.
Yet he didn't mind it, as he saw a star being born at an unknown distance. Again, his vision shifted, and now he was floating "towards" or "backwards," but he was going somewhere. Mesmerised by the beauty of space, he looked around curiously and saw a black hole being born at an uncertain distance.
'Who?' Ivan questioned, looking around.
And it was then, even though he could tell it was very far from the spot he floated, he couldn't help gawking at another star explode in front of him. Ivan, who saw the phenomenon happen nowhere near yet up close, couldn't help but reach out at it; it felt like he could reach out if he reached out a bit more, just a bit more.
While he was struggling in mid-space, unable to possess what he wanted, an eye, a humongous eye, materialised from the exploded star as it seemingly gazed at Ivan in a calm gaze.
'Do. Not. Call. Me. A. Thing!' Ivan commanded inwardly; he didn't know if that thing was able to hear him, but he didn't like the way it was addressing him.
'Give and take, it's the universal law. Give respect and take respect.' Ivan ordered "The Law of Casualty."
<...>
'I'm Ivan; I do not know of whatever you are saying about, but hopefully you can help me get back to Eart-' Ivan began to speak in a formal, respectful manner, but he was cut short by The Law of Casualty.
'..... Really? Aren't the "Law of Casualty" supposed to be something akin to the laws of the worlds? How.... such arrogance, how is it possible for such an "absolute" and "imperfect" existence to exist?'