I remembered myself still staring out at the rain pattering light droplets against my bedroom window. I remembered my arm, how it kept throbbing and aching.

For how long I could not remember. How many minutes, hours… I spent so much time sitting on that chair there, my legs were languishing, tingling with numbness, like small invisible knives ravaging their way from my thighs all the way down to my tippy toes.

Wasn't the most sunshine-bubbly of sights… looking back at it.

All that energy I expended on the effort, all those words, those heavy breathes I heaved… I had all that focus, all that determination, and every single intent dedicated to finishing what we started out there in the garden.

So I sat there, muttered there, remaining consistent with the somber scene I fabricated for myself. Hoping that no matter how long it took, how much willpower it'd take, I'd be able to clear that murky view outside my window.

I never got the rain to stop.

The next thing I knew, I was lifting my aching head up from my desk, slowly fluttering open a pair of groggy eyes, stretching my lips wide for a long silent yawn.

Sun was out, birds were chirping, trees were swaying.

The rain has stopped.

I tried looking around for any indication of the time anywhere, till I remembered we don't do clocks here anymore. Ash has thoroughly seen to that.

Option two became my phone, which was already laying loosely in the palm of my hand - the same hand I had outstretched.

How'd my phone get from the deepest depths of my pocket to the tips of my fingers was anyone's guess. I thought it a peculiar mystery for a brief moment until the memory portion of my brain finally decided to clock in and do its job, then it all came flooding back to me in an instant.

The memories. The emotions.

Bad memories. Bad emotions.

A little click, a soft chime, and the phone screen flickered to a bright canvas of pure blinding white - I hate the loading of internet browsers… hurts my damn eyes.

Should really get into this whole dark mode fad everyone's been going on about.

Yet that impulse is gonna have to wait for another, better time, for the webpage finally loaded in, settling itself back to the exact same place where I was last at before that dastardly Sandman came and knock me out flat with his signature sleeper punch without any warning.

Realized late through my focusing session that I wasn't getting anywhere with how I was handling things. Had no basis, nothing to go off of. I had the spirit, definitely had a resolve burning.

Just didn't have the know-how.

That's when this whole thing happen. That's why I had my phone on me. Could call it research, could say I was studying - but really I'm more for just calling a spade a spade.

This Demon Mom of mind had a pretty long extensive wiki page dedicated solely to her and her antics. Very, very long.

How long? Well, certainly long enough for me to stumble into sleep mode myself while reading through it.

Terestra had a paper trail that spanned entire centuries. From the very moment I saw her name underlined, bolded, italicized, I knew I was going to in for a ride.

Even now, as I rubbed an eye, scrolling a finger through paragraph after paragraph that filled the screen, I'm not sure where I was supposed to disembark, or if I could ever at all.

Mom's life. Or at least, the Asterian rendition of it was all laid out right here, archived, and written in the always classic Times New Roman.

I should start from the beginning. Salvage what I could from a barely functioning sleep-deprived head. Buckle your seatbelts.

Terestra the Vile is the primary antagonist the player faces during the events of Chronicles of Asteria. Not much is known of her origin, with her first recorded appearance dating back to the year 5250 A.E.

5250 A.E was a year that kept cropping up during my read-through. When I played the game, it was only mentioned once briefly in passing, so I never really thought much about it.

Guess I never reached the point where they'd followed up on what happened in that year.

'Elvanos Sar Teres' was what the Elves came to call it. The Blessed Cleansing.

Dwarves had their own nicknamed for it - Letz Narzks Om. No clue how you pronounce that, neither do I know what it even means. This wiki sucks at wiki-ing.

Luckily we human folks came to an agreement to simply call a spade a spade. Just the way I like it.

5250 A.E would come to be known all across Asteria as the year of the Great Eradication.

What happened? Terestra happened, that's what happened.

One by one, every legendary hero from all walks of life, from every kingdom, every country, had all met their grisly demise by her hand - effectively, single-handedly, rendering Asteria without its defenders. No more heroes.

There was an entire section in the wiki dedicated to that one year, but if I continued on… well, my phone can only last for so long, after all. Best I save it for another time.

Terestra was a being of unmatched power and potential. Her very presence alone enough to paralyze those unfortunate enough to sense it with only a fair few capable of withstanding her influence.

Those measly few that dare take up arms and oppose her would never come to face her, however. Wasn't for the lack of trying, I'll tell you that. Dear sweet mom just couldn't bother herself with squishing insects.

She had other people do it for her. Special people that took the greatest pride adhering to her every wish and whim.

Six people. Six servants.

The six servants of Terestra also had their own page which goes into more detail about them. I remembered taking a quick peek, just curious to see what I'd find.

In order of power ranking, the servants were -

Azamoth, The Putrid Demon. A Demon lord vanquished long ago by an unnamed hero, resurrected by Terestra to do her bidding as a deranged husk of his former self.

Caeru Ignis, The Blue Phoenix. Last of its kind, Terestra's loyal familiar. True to his name, Caeru is capable of spewing blue flames that will never stop burning.

Sera Nas, Advocator of the Damned. Heralded as the only true arbiter of death, though not really known why… nonetheless her prowess in the forbidden art of necromancy makes her a valuable ally to the Demon Goddess.

Carmilla The Matriarch. She's a Matriarch. Need I actually say anymore?

Menastro The Great. Great for a reason. Hailed in his time as the greatest and most powerful of all legendary heroes, now turned mindless slave to the very Demon Goddess he swore to slay. The only known survivor of the Great Eradication.

Last but definitely, most assuredly, not least, we have -

Eshwlyn The Elf-Knight. Feared almost as much as Terestra herself. Formerly a member of the Old Guard and former Knightness to the Great King Ardvair. Decades of force servitude had brewed a great hatred inside of her. After murdering her former comrades of the Old Guard, Eshwlyn usurped the Lazarus Stone, amassing great power that very few could ever hope to match.

I delve into the six servants' history seeking answers, yet rather than attaining any, all I got out of it was even more questions added to the ever-growing list in my head.

Two stood out to me the most.

Caeru Ignis. If I remember right, Ria's last name was also Ignis. Yet one lived and breathed in the fictional setting of Asteria, while the other resided in the very much real realm of Kronocia - so who the hell was this blue phoenix fireman?

Eshwlyn… Ash. Her little descriptor there was an entire can of worms, I'll tell you that. What's the Old Guard? Heck is this Lazarus Stone? Just how powerful did she become? All of this and more…

Funny thing was… every one of my questions can be so easily answered right then and there. All words, any term that looked foreign to me, every single one of them was highlighted in a light blue, one tap of the finger was all it would take if I wanted even more further clarification.

For Ignis. For the Old Guard. The Lazarus stone. Even Ash too.

But the thing about wiki pages right, you can so easily get lost in them, so easily be tempted by the plethora of information available right under your fingertips. Being strung along by it was almost an inevitability.

Had to fight the urge to tap on Ash's name, I had to back away from the servant page before the thought grew too tempting. It wasn't their story I came here seeking answers from. It wasn't them that would get me the answers that I needed.

Terestra.

Cruel, vile, Terestra.

It was her story that'll finally set me down on the right path to follow. Then I can finally get started on walking that trail myself. Because if I take Adalia's words to be true, then by reasons of the rational kind, anything Mom can do, so can I too.

Before sleep overcame me last night, before my head went slumping against the sturdiness of my desk, I had just only recently stumbled upon the section on her page that would rightfully turn out to be my golden ticket out of this bumpy ride.

Apparently, I was so exhausted back then, that I couldn't even find it in me to comprehend just what exactly this little find of mine could entail.

Well… I wasn't exhausted now, could definitely comprehend it now. Took the briefest of moments to let the words inscribed before me sink into my ever-eager eyes.

A slight swipe upwards, and there I was reading again.

>

And let's just say, it was a long, long list.