Mal has always been showing off a cold, rigid personality ever since I met him. He rarely shows any emotion like a normal human can. I’m part human, and I have much more emotions than Mal has. The fact he told me he has a son—a son he never mentioned—truly startles me, but just several minutes ago, he wished I was his son.

Was he willingly to put me in harm’s way? I doubt it. But for him to kill his son, I have no words to describe. Now I’m questioning my own father. Did Dantailon have any intention to kill me at some point before deciding to let my mom take care of me?

Glancing over to see Mal, he remains despondent and vexed after what just happened a few minutes ago. Needing to know the reason why he killed his child, I try to make sure he has to stay calm and just tell me why he did it.

“Mal?!”

Mal is barely looking at me. He seems to be daydreaming about something. But what is it? I shake his left shoulder a few times where he snaps out of his trance. He then looks back at me glazing over my eyes. Finally, we can get through this conversation.

“You told me you killed your son.”

“I did.”

“Well can you tell me why? I don’t know if I deserve the truth, but…” Before I can finish, Mal interrupts me. “You do deserve the truth.” He says as he steps back and glances up in the ground below. He then turns back his sights onto me.

“I did have a son, but he was born.”

“The mother?!”

“She was a fellow demon, but Asmodeus had her executed for betraying the Acolytes’ trust.” He continues. “I had to watch as I had to see the mother of my child being killed.”

I listen to what he is saying and try to picture it in my mind.

“Then Asmodeus told me that either my son be part of the Acolytes or face exile.”

“But he was just an infant.” I say.

“I know, but I didn’t want my son to follow his father’s footsteps.”

“Wait, following your footsteps?” I question and then putting the pieces together. “You were one of the Acolytes.”

“Yes, me and as well your father.” He states as I just react stunned after learning not only Mal was this Acolyte yet as well my father, Dantailon. So they knew Asmodeus very well, but decided to give up and splinter away from the other demons.

“I knew keeping my son alive would be endangering his life and forcing him to be part of a society of demons that only serve one thing, The Sovereign.” He says.

 “What you done?” I ask.

“I realized I couldn’t let him be me nor didn’t I want to have him be exiled. So I realize…” As he continues, he starts to tear up.  One of the first times a pure blooded demon is actually showing human emotions. He tears up as he continues, “I realize there was no way out for my son, so I did what was necessary, and I beheaded him.”

I heard that reply and really felt disgusted by it; to listen to how someone could kill an infant, but I could understand Mal’s dilemma. Understand he did not want to have his child be like his father, a servant for evil.

“So that’s why you been so stony all this time, was it because of your loss?” I had to ask.

“Part of it was.” He responds. “The other part was that I couldn’t stand Asmodeus anymore.”

“So you killed your son before you and my father escaped.”

“Yes it was.” He continues, “Your father was the only one who cared about me. He was there for me. And when he had that mortal woman pregnant, your birth mother, I knew I had to be there for him.”

“Did Dantailon have any inkling to kill me like you had to do with yours?”

“No, your father originally was against you conceived, but your birth mother convinced him somehow to keep you.” He replies. I hear that as a much needed remedy to this problematic question.

“Your father soon began to grow love and respect for you even after he died.” 

“And Asmodeus killed him right?!”

“Right.”

 “Well I make sure I give my father some justice.” I say that after hearing those words that my father grew love and respect for me. I did not know that until now. If any doubts I had about Dantailon, it just vanished entirely after hearing that.  It must be hard for Mal to watch me grow where he would never see his own child grow up.

“I’m sorry about your child.”

“Caden, it is not your concern. He will always be part of me. Just like your father was. And just like you are.”

I sort of smile after hearing that, and even when Mal said that his son will always be part of him, I can still see the pain just looking at his appearance. Mal smiles somewhat back to me, but then looks at the sky. I look onto the sky as well to see the clouds getting a bit darker.

“Guess it’s going to rain soon.”  I say.

“And what you think practice will be over.” He states.

“Well yeah?!” I reply wholeheartedly.

“No, I respect that we had this chat, but time for chat is over. Practice time continues.”

“In the rain?” I ponder.

“Yes, Caden, in the rain.” He continues. “You need to know whatever the environment is going to be, you must prepare for anything.”

Great.

Just as I thought we could just talk and then seeing rain coming our way we can cancel, but no, we are going to practice in the rain. I hope whenever I battle Asmodeus, there would not be rain trickling down.

A half hour later, light rain begins to drizzle down; and wondering would my fireballs work seeing how water can exterminate fire easily. However, Mal seems confident about something.

“No fireballs.”

“That’s it?”

“We do the combat and we do the telekinetic blasts.”

Listening to Mal, maybe he knows what he is talking about. Hoping nothing will go wrong. We resume practice like before yet the rain drops are falling much faster. As the rain continues, Mal and I began to practice more and more of the combat. For almost fifteen minutes, we have practiced combating.

One of the combat practices, Mal tried to lunge at me with a few rounds. However, I block each one. I barely escaped a sneaky punch by him, but I was able to recover swiftly. I then do a few rounds of myself. Mal is doing his best to block my blows. And as we continue to go blow to blow; block to block. The rain continues to pour.

The feeling of the water droplets bounces all around me. It has that tingly sensation of coolness. The droplets—each and every one—falls in rapid speed. Though, when I survey the area surrounding me, I look up to the grayish sky where thousands of droplets fall. No wonder kids love playing in the rain, but a nuisance to the parents.

The wind starts to pick up. The breeziness and cold air are putting a damper in my concentration when it comes to practicing. Mal will not like me taking a break, because he might feel I might be taking this hard. However, I’m not like that. With the rain continue to come down and the wind blowing from the northern direction, I wonder if Mal can consider a minor break.

Can he really consider a break in practice? I know we barely began in his eyes, but for me I just need time to recollect myself or at best let the wind die down. And quite possibly continue when the rain begins to drizzle lightly.

Mal wants to continue to spar. He is shifting into his defensive stance. He got his arms up ready for me to hit, so he can block. I hesitate a bit because I do not know if I want to continue sparring.

“Caden, your turn!” Mal yells.

I hear him, but feeling the drafty wind getting a bit worse, I think it is best for me to stop for now at least until this wind stops.

“We need to stop.” I say.

“What for?” He questions. “We just began.”

I did not respond to him not giving him a reason why I need to stop until he looks at me funny. He starts to tweak his eyes almost blinking, yet shows off a disappointing smirk. He then notices it could be the rain and the wind.

“I know, you’re worry about this wind.”

“Well can we at least stop until the wind dies down?”

“I told you Caden you must handle whatever is coming at you. Weather is no exception.”

“Mal!” I holler trying to at best make him reason with me. Is he really hard to understand I’m just not equipped to handle this situation right now? “Give me a break. I’m not as experienced like you.”

“Caden, you need to stop this.” He states.

“What!? Stop what?” I ask him.

“Stop giving in your fear.” He responds very oddly.

“Fear?!” I question as I walk straight forward to him. I’m up so close to his face I can almost smell his breath. However, I need to know what this fear is because frankly I never know I had one. “What fear?”

“You don’t know it, but I can see it in you.” He responds. “I can sense it from inside you.”

“What you mean?” I ask.

“The fear that you may not stop Asmodeus.” He replies.

“And you think what it’s clouding my judgment.” I say as I thought the only fear I know was losing my mother or my friends.

“I think it’s making you uncertain that even if you do complete this training. You may not survive.” He answers.

“I won’t let that happen.” I state.

“Well don’t give into it.” He says.

“So how can I stop it?” I ponder.

“Like I told you before, focus with your mind. Focus with your heart.” He says. The rain starting to fall harder I close my eyes in order to focus. I can see darkness only to hear the noise of the water droplets. Then Mal’s voice appears. “You can do this. Fight the fear. Don’t give in.”

Okay, do not give in. I can picture me battling Asmodeus. I do not know if it is one of those vision things. A premonition or something.

Suddenly, I’m in this visionary scene where I’m bleeding badly. I’m getting pressed down hard to the ground. I can see a shadowy figure coming out of the darkness. Its appearance is very much like Asmodeus. I can see into his red, deathly eyes. Its hand comes at me grabbing hold of my neck. I try to stop it but then I hear a whispery voice.

“You Devos will never stop me.” The voice says. I can feel the shadowy hand squeezing hard onto my throat. I can barely scream at all. The haunting voice reemerges. “But I can stop you.” Then the shadowy figure disappears. The voice fades away. The shadowy hand holding tight around my neck disappears as well. An omen?

Then I open my eyes to see Mal and to see the rain continue to fall. I guess whatever I saw with that shadowy figure. It is gone. The shady voice told me that I cannot stop it, but it can stop me. I have an itchy feeling I might know who that was.

“Caden, you saw something didn’t you.” He says

I glance at Mal to give him his reply. “I saw a shadow-like figure grabbing hold of me and then voices telling me I can’t stop it.”

“Stop what?” Mal asks. I want to respond, but I really do not know what I did saw. If it was vision of the future, it is scary. I can feel the shadowy hand physically grab hold of me. I was losing my breath.  Those voices were like echoing out of my ears. Wondering if it was a vision or a dream, I can see Mal looking at me like I’m crazy.

“Why can’t you tell me?”He questions.

“Because it might have been a vision.” I reply.

“Vision?” He answers dumbfounded.

“Yeah, it could be one, but whatever it was I felt it. It was so real like the one I saw facing my dark version.” I say. Suddenly I start to think about Syril. Did she plant this scene in my head? “Mal, you don’t think Syril did something about this.”

He remains puzzled after telling him I had this obscure vision, but he replies, “Syril is that type of being to do whatever she can to satisfy herself. I really don’t know, Caden.”

Just my luck. Thinking it was clear Syril did something to me, but maybe it could be someone else. I then notice a sudden change in the weather. The wind has already die down minutes ago, but as I observe the sky and around the forest, the rain starts to drizzle very lightly. Presumably that the rain will go away, practice could resume shortly. However, I’m still pondering what I just saw in that vision about that shadowy figure and that creepy voice.

I slightly turn sideways to think more about this vision, but Mal reaches out his left hand over my right shoulder. His strong hand grips firmly onto my shoulder. Guess he needs my attention. I turn back around to see him.

“Now that the rain is gone, we can continue.” He says.

“Can we at least wait another few minutes?” I say.

“You are wasting precious minutes.” He continues, “Minutes that could be very crucial in your survival.”

“I just need time to think about this vision.” I state.

“Caden, that vision could be consistent to you fear.” He says.

“You mean the fear that I may not able to stop Asmodeus. You think that vision has any connection with it?” I ask further.

“Well I guess we just half to find out.” He replies.

As the pressure of trying to solve this confusing vision begin to cloud my focus, I suddenly feel a sharp pain in my mind. Reacting to the pain, I quickly place both my hands on my head. The hands rumble through my silky dark hair to feel my head. The pain I’m experiencing is very different from the pain I felt from my eyes and my hand.

The pain is something I never felt before. Soon the pain increases, I scream loudly alarming Mal. The pain is so bad I collapse onto my knees. Hitting the ground hard, the pain intensifies rapidly. I continue to yell out in pain as Mal crouches down to check on me. “Caden!” he shouts. I can see his face like a concern father. He tries to grab on to me to figure out what is going on. “Caden, tell me!” He continues, “What’s wrong?”

I barely can answer back because of the pain, but with some few stumbling words I reply, “I don’t know.” Mal tries to look at my eyes closely to see it could be my demonic side taking control or something troubling. “Help me!” I holler. The pain continues to intensify with no way stopping. No way this could be my demonic side taking control or is it.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Mal says but looks helpless because he cannot figure out the source of the pain.

Then as the pain continues to cripple my mind, I start to hear voices. The exact same one I heard in that vision. I let go of my hands from holding my head, as that dark, raspy voice continues to spread it begins to tell me something.

“Devos.” It says.

I can barely talk fluently, but trying to give my best shot. “Who is this?”

“Someone you will never beat.” It replies.

“What?!” I say baffled.

“You’re a weak-minded fool just like your pessimal father.”

The only one being who never care about my father, it has to be. “Asmodeus!” I yell.