The King's Beloved

[Music Recommendation: "Somnus" by Yoko Shimomura (instrumental only - FFXV OST) - available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in a loop while you read this part to experience the true atmosphere of this scene ~

As soon as the little children opened the box, they saw what they didn't know was an Exsorbeo…

"Hmm? Another box? What is this a game of opening boxes?" little Elliot complained.

"I don't know. Mr. Avarus said—"

PHHHOOOSSK!!!

Suddenly, large claws like hands sprouted out from the Exsorbeo. Little Calum's eyes widened and he immediately pushed little Elliot in the opposite direction of the claws, making him fall to the ground on his knees.

"Elliot! Run!" he shouted with all his might.

Little Elliot trembled from the sight of the unfamiliar monster they were seeing.

"W-what is that?"

"I don't know, just run!" little Calum replied as he hastily ran towards little Elliot and grabbed his hands. Sweat trickled from his forehead, and his heart thumped hard from both fear and uncertainty. Whatever that thing was, somewhere in his heart told him it was dangerous. He felt it… the malice and darkness emanating from it.

The little children did their best to evade the attack of the Exsorbeo. They tried to fight it with magic but it seemed to only get stronger as it absorbed their spiritual energies. Unsure of what to do, they just ran and ran. They tried teleporting but being the children they still were, it took them longer to cast it, giving enough time for the monster to attack them. They had no choice but to run instead.

While they were busy evading the Exsorbeo's attack, little Elliot managed to call for help to his mother via telepathy. Hearing the urgency in her son's voice, Queen Alice immediately teleported to the scene.

As soon as she saw the monster—Exsorbeo—which wasn't supposed to exist anymore, she was horrified. For how in the world did it come to exist again? What's more, it was chasing her son!

"Elliot!" Queen Alice shouted desperately. She cast a barrier towards little Elliot and Calum's direction to protect them, and shot fire balls towards the monster to get its attention.

But the monster had already locked a target. Once it locks onto someone, it won't stop until it takes its target's spiritual core. And this time, its target was none other than Elliot—the one it first saw when the box was opened. 

Noticing that fact, Queen Alice did her best to protect her son. She couldn't call for backup for it might cause unnecessary panic, so she sent word to her husband instead.

A split second. Just a split second was all it took for her to send a message via telepathy and the monster was back to little Elliot's throat. Elliot tried to run away but his body failed him. The little child slipped and fell on the floor. He just finished rigorous training on his own, and being chased by a monster took all his energy away.

In that split second, the monster almost succeeded in taking Elliot's spiritual core… if not for the queen.

Plop… plop… plop…

"M-mother?" little Elliot froze up from his position. The light in his eyes faded as he stared at his mother's reflection… 

Queen Alice's chest was stabbed by the eight claws of the monster… 

Blood dripped down from her body to the ground… 

And from her chest, the monster took her spiritual core—a beautiful ivory core.

Little Calum was petrified at the sight of it and his body trembled in fear. Deep inside, he started blaming himself.

"I-it's… because of me. I-I shouldn't have," he mumbled to himself.

At the next second, King Eli arrived and his face immediately wretched upon seeing what just happened. Rivers of tears fell from his eyes as he saw his beloved queen's body falling to the ground while the monster who took her core slithered away like a snake. Not minding the wretched monster, King Eli caught Queen Alice's body before it fell to the ground.

"M-my queen… sniff… sniff…" His heart shattered into inexistence. "NOOOOO!!!"

While he wailed miserably at the loss of his queen, little Elliot's spiritual energy went wayward. It increased rapidly and the ground started to shake because of it. Volcanoes started erupting, the skies went dark for the entire planet, and bolts of lightning appeared out of nowhere! The wind blew hard, and random storms emerged all throughout Gaia. Time kept on stopping, and continuing, like a broken clock. All creatures were alerted and even the Guardians noticed it.

Such tremendous power… 

Snapping out of his depression, King Eli went over to little Elliot, trying to wake him from his trauma.

"Elliot! Wake up! Stop this!" he shook his son's body back and forth but he didn't budge. "If you continue this, the whole planet will—"

But the poor child's heart was broken severely. For who could endure seeing his mother die before him?

King Eli tried to suppress Elliot's spiritual energy that was causing great havoc towards the planet. He tried making him fall asleep but his magic simply bounced back, unable to penetrate his son's mind. Since he was releasing too much of his spiritual energy, King Eli then tried to absorb it into his own.

Little by little, the shaking of the ground stopped. Along with it, blood started to trickle from King Eli's mouth.

"U-urgh…," he breathed heavily as his strength failed him.

CRACK! CCCRAAACKK!!!

His spiritual core started to crack. For each Magi was only given a specific amount of spiritual capacity they could handle. If the king's spiritual capacity was to a hundred, then Elliot's was thousands more. Trying to absorb such a large amount of spiritual energy in order to save the planet… his own core gave up.

"Elliot… my dear son," King Eli whispered dearly, huffing the last of his breath, "always remember… we love you."

With that as his parting words, his spiritual core broke into pieces, and his body fell on the ground, lifeless. Along with it, little Elliot lost his consciousness.

After that, Amare arrived, followed by Flora and Ducis, and Sanguis who immediately went over to the little Calum who remained stuck on the ground, staring at the lifeless bodies of the queen, the king, and Elliot. The other Judges and Generals started arriving afterwards, all having a terrified expression on their faces.

"T-the king… and the queen… and the crown prince," one of the Judges mumbled as her body trembled, "t-they're… they're all dead."

"Who?" 

Amare's trembling voice echoed throughout the whole place.

"WHO DARED DID THIS?!"

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