“Hick!”

“You old fucker…” Helial cursed, as he held up Vidio down the streets of Floralivory City.

He had found that fucker of a master wasted on an inn floor, as a result of yet another waitress’ refusal. Now, with his arm coiled around Helial’s neck, Vidio was struggling to take a few unsteady steps forward.

He was staggering so bad he would have definitely fallen over if he hadn’t been leaning on Helial.

“What the fuck were you even doing?!”

“Hick! Hahahahah!” Vidio burst into laughter, as the expression on Helial’s face grew grumpier. His master knew too well how to get on people’s nerves; he never gave a shit about anything or anyone!

“Hey boy! Hick! Why did we leave the inn? I wasn’t done drinking yet! Hick!”

The moonbeams reflecting on Vidio revealed the traces of drunkenness on his reddened face. His master had clearly hit the bottle.

“Damn old fart. My sister is waiting for me. But I don’t spend my free nights with her, and you know why? Because I have to babysit you, asshole! It’ll take me forever to go back to the village, you know that?” Helial glanced at Vidio with resentful eyes.

“Hick! And how long will it take you to find a sweet lady, kid? Huh? Come with me, your Master will take you to the best whorehouse in this town! Follow your captain, you pirate!”

What the fuck is he saying.

“Do you even know I’m, like, twelve?”

“So what? Peckers won’t work at twelve? Hick!”

Helial looked at Vidio in puzzlement, as he dragged him down the semi-dark lanes of the city.

“How about focusing on something a little more serious than women?”

Vidio looked hurt by his words and dramatically staggered a few steps away from Helial. As soon as he had no stand though, he fell to the ground.

Poff

Vidio slammed on his backside, his eyes glimmering with unusual fierceness.

“And how many things could claim to be more serious than women, kid? How many people sinned, killed and slaughtered in the name of one single woman?!”

Vidio shook his head heavily, as if to regain a bit of his clear thinking.

“But what does a brat like you know about love, anyway?”

Vidio took a deep breath. He looked up at the sky and filled his lungs with the fresh breeze of the night, which differed so greatly from the inns’ stale air.

The night looked somewhat melancholy and lonely. No stars were sprinkled around the moon, seemingly exiled from the sky itself. The moonrays glared down on Vidio, who seemed to turn elderly all of a sudden.

Vidio was searching for something on the moon’s face, as his lips gently whispered one name. Cori.

“Master, if you’re okay I’ll just leave you here. You can make it home alone. I’ve got my own business to do”, Helial said coldly.

How could Helial image what was going on on Vidio’s mind? How could he know whether his master had his mind actually set on women, or rather was hiding something deeper?

“One last thing, then you can go… Hick!”

Helial gave his dead-drunk Master a disdainful look.

“Don’t you ever look down on love. boy. This is no joke. There’s so much for you to discover… Today you only have your sister by your side, but one day… One day, maybe, you’ll find something different… Let me tell you a brief story. It’s worth listening.”

Helial looked at him annoyedly, but did not stop him. He might as well let that boozer speak and then get rid of him as soon as possible.

He nodded, and Vidio got started.

“I was wandering in a demonic dimension and, hick!, met this Devil, or better, the reminiscence of a Devil… Who bestowed me with the most extraordinary gift”, Vidio unfolded his tale, as his vision blurred slightly. “He let me step into one of his memories… And told me about a man, a Devil who lived time out of mind. Every Devil and creature of Destruction still remember his name… A name that is new to no one, but no being could pronounce without shaking.

He was a man who almost razed the Universe to the ground, and never gave up on his love. He, undisputed King of all things, would only bow before his beloved’s gaze. One blink of his eyes and planets would crumble; one sigh of his would put the sun out. Yet this meant nothing while she was in front of him. Destiny undoes the might of the strongest.

This Devil I met gave me his memories and showed me the origin of the power of Destruction, and the birth of this extraordinary man.” Vidio stroked his unshaven beard, as his lips shaped a silly smile. “He would wipe races out just to show her he didn’t know what impossible meant...”

“One word. One single word would be enough for her to stop the power of his Destruction. Well, let’s say two. But she never got to pronounce them. This woman’s beauty made the brightest of suns only reflect off her own light. She was good, an unbelievable good woman. And she made the most terrifying of all beings fall in love with her.”

Vidio’s expression changed drastically, as his solemnity increased. “Never would I have imagined that a Devil could be driven by such reasons; love, longing for living happily ever after. This opened my eyes. If the mightiest of Devils, the undisputed King of Destruction, bent the knee before love, who was I to stand against it? Sometimes I think I shouldn’t have got mixed up with these matters. But despite everything, I gained an Epiphany.”

An abyss of obscurity and darkness was now glistening in Vidio’s eyes.

“I had access to the greatest of Epiphanies. For a split second I immersed myself completely in that Devil’s words. In the words of one of the commanders of the King of Devils. And I became a sinner just by touching a shred of his will, as if something terrifying had started growing inside me. Why though? I’d always believed that one only kills for the sake of hurting, that one only destroys in the name of greed. That death follows the orders of lust instead of those of love. But I was wrong. Would you believe me if I told you the most treacherous monster of all times was just a loving heart? Hick!”

Helial furrowed his eyebrows.

“Why should I give a shit about this?” Helial asked, puzzled by the enigmatic words of his master.

“You shouldn’t, that’s obvious!” Vidio giggled. “Just keep in mind, boy, that one day love could turn you into someone you would never imagine. I could never wish someone to be as ill-fated as that mighty yet helpless Devil. Doesn’t matter how far you can get; love will always be too strong to be tamed. Plus, that Skill…”

Helial was now sure that Vidio’s hangover was so bad it had made him talk all nonsense. The old man had such teary eyes he could burst into tears any second now. “Well, Vidio, listen. It’s getting late. I got stuff to do. See you”, Helial cut short, as he turned his back to the master.

You pitiful boozer.

“Goodnight, boy… Hick!” Vidio whispered. He stared at Helial’s back as he faded away. “I just hope no man will ever suffer so much again, even while wielding the most terrifying power existing. Destiny is cruel and envies the strongest, whom it besieges in any possible way... Be careful, boy. Destiny condemns us to love when we least expect it.”