A sacrificial goat, to be specific.
Duke Leander pulled out several encrypted files he hoped he’d never have to open again.
But he felt this was necessary for his kid to accept the reality.
*EEEEH!*
*H!*
*EEEH!*
They thought their baby was crying out differently the first ti it happened.
Their initial reaction was relief that their son was finally awake and reactive after two weeks of being in a coma, which started once that massive shockwave hit the land.
But then, not only did their Luca stop talking entirely, but even eating was a no-go.
Eventually, the Duchess noticed that her son’s eyes had started turning darker, eventually becoming close to black.
That was a stark change from his ordinarily vibrant golden eyes.
Then, the worst thing happened when they tried going to the garden to get him a bit of sunshine. Luca suddenly got on all fours, mostly falling into that position, before munching on grass.
They were all so scared and surprised that it took so ti before they could pull the child off the ground. And even then, he would try to wrangle free while making those sounds.
It’s been many years, but Duke Leander could still rember how his baby ate actual blades of grass as if he had been starving for so long.
But then another massive shockwave hit the land, and the child suddenly slumped—an even worse sight than eating turf.
It was a horrible several months, and by then, they had tried different hospitals, specialists, and even quack doctors.
And nothing.
They tried all the redies suggested by these professionals but couldn’t find a solution.
Until soone who was known as a spiritual healer told them that he couldn’t be of help because the child was dried up on the inside.
There was nothing to chase.
There was no sea of consciousness and no spiritual energy.
Barren.
Duke Leander rembered just how they collapsed after hearing such a thing, and only then did they realize that they hadn’t checked that angle.
And it was really empty.
Prodding did not produce results, and chanical tests showed no spiritual energy, which was surely not the case when their baby was born.
It was a disaster that not everyone in the duchy could know. But those who did couldn’t help but be worried for the Duke’s family.
The next big break that gave them direction was when an old man’s voice, which couldn’t even be translated, suddenly started coming out of their kid’s mouth.
Luca was around 7 years old at the ti. While he could speak, he could not talk like an old man who seed to be fearing for his life.
They actually couldn’t get much out of him and could only watch as their son’s eyes turned gray.
It was a jarring sight, watching their boy fade in and out of consciousness like his life wasn’t long enough.
And he kept screaming like sothing was coming out to get him.
And that was all that they could get before the grey eyes were extinguished and his son’s dull golden eyes returned.
They thought their son perished with the Old man’s consciousness, but they were surprised to learn that while the old man was gone, their son still managed to survive.
If one could even call that survival.
But this gave them a bit of hope when they realized that their son could’ve been like these ’visitors.’
Eventually, they noticed how these instances happened whenever they experienced a massive shockwave.
But at the ti, they had no idea that the Empire would suddenly face an increase in these inexplicable corrupted attacks.
It wasn’t entirely new to them, but at that point, they could still isolate the cases to far-off planets and ban travel to those affected places.
Then suddenly, it hit closer to ho, and no one could figure out the source of these infestations until they realized that it had happened every ti there had been a huge spatial disturbance.
While the Duke had to go to the front lines to protect the Empire from these mounting threats, the Duchess found a correlation between the guests and the shockwave phenonon.
She decided to leave to look for traces of it and has been in and out to check on Luca before looking for more traces.
And even when the Duke got contaminated, they still agreed to look for traces of their son.
Both the Duke and the Duchess knew that one day, their boy would co back to them.
More than the desire to live longer, this was actually the Duke’s anchor to the world as he held on daily just to get to that point.
"Who would’ve known I’d make it to that day?" Said the Duke proudly.
While he could make light of things, the people of the duchy knew that none of it was easy for anyone.
Especially when they lost contact with the Duchess.
That was the final blow to the Duke, who couldn’t accept his incompetence in protecting his son and wife.
Even if he wanted to go, he wasn’t even strong enough to get out of the manor.
Their only consolation was how they could all tell she was alive, just like she promised.
Their bond was in place, aning she was still out there.
And now, their son was back.
Sothing they’ve been wishing for from the mont he left them.
It’s just that right now, he was a little too obsessed with watching his body eat grass.
"Son, what’s wrong? You’ve been replaying that over and over."
Frankly, it was a bit unsettling because his son was almost plastered to the projection as if he wanted to verify sothing.
To be fair, Lucas was doing precisely that.
He wasn’t sure if it was just him imagining things, but that tag by the child’s ear was all too familiar.
The child before Lucas didn’t have an actual tag on him, but more like a brand.
It was just that it seed so much like the logo of that farm near the orphanage.
Not to ntion the text.
For so reason, the little chipmunk just assud he was operating with the body’s knowledge when it ca to language but then realized that these characters were different.
And maybe, had he investigated more, he’d realize how he agreed with the Duke’s reading of the old man.
The visiting soul didn’t just look it, but he was saying it.
However, Lucas wouldn’t know that everyone else just guessed it from the person’s tone and body language.
But all his thoughts as he scrutinized the video repeatedly stopped when he failed to rewind it, only for the video to move into another reel.
It was Luca as a baby and then as a toddler.
The boy’s first ti taking a step, as they all insisted, and the first ti he said a word (a long fought-over battle).
Lucas watched with rapt attention as a child who looked familiar yet felt unfamiliar ran around, giggling as his family chased after him.
Then ca a video where his parents asked him about his na.
The young boy was capable of saying "Luca," which impressed everyone, like all parents who think their children are the best.
But Lucas watched as the young kid kept on bumbling over, saying his full na.
"Lucas Oren Kyros". The kid insisted.
And laughs were heard as the child kept connecting his first na and middle na.
"See? You’ve always been like that!"
"And we really don’t mind if you want to use Luca or Lucas. It’s okay if you never get your middle na right. That’s from your mom anyway." Giggled the Duke.
"Anything is good, provided you know you’re our son." Duke Leander ruffled Lucas’ hair.
And the young man, who felt like a child seeing the world for the first ti, bawled loudly.
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