THE DAMNED DEMON

In the Evangelion Mansion, Arthur walked into the dimly lit study room, his boots making a measured yet firm sound against the polished wooden floor.

His face was set with grim determination as he closed the door behind him, the weight of unspoken truths pressing against his chest.

His father, Edward—stood by the grand bookshelf, his hands clasped behind his back, his usually commanding presence weighed down by something heavy, somber.

Alice, his wife, stood next to him, her cold, unreadable gaze betrayed by the tightness around her lips.

Arthur exhaled sharply, his brows furrowing as he broke the silence.

“We’re finally in a safe place to talk. So please tell me, Father.” His voice was steady, but there was an edge to it, a simmering urgency beneath the surface. “Just what kind of man is Derek truly? Just what all things have you been hiding from me?”

His hands curled into fists at his sides. “I know you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t think it was necessary. But… It’s already too late. I have to know before things get worse.”

Edward let out a deep sigh, the sound of a man who had carried too many secrets for too long. He finally turned to face Arthur, his eyes dark with regret.

“Your suspicions aren’t wrong, son.” He paused before adding, “Derek is more evil than most of the demons you have fought. He betrayed and turned the world against Golden Prince, stole demons from the other side when they were babies to raise them into weapons like Anna. He has been doing a lot more on Mars. He has been doing so for decades.”

Arthur staggered back slightly, his breath hitching.

“W-What…” His voice barely left his lips as his entire world tilted.

The man he had respected. The man he had followed like a son follows a father.

A hero.

No.

A monster.

His stomach churned, his pulse pounding in his ears. He suddenly felt sick.

He shook his head, his voice breaking slightly. “Why… Why hide all this from me? I blindly respected and followed him like a fool. Even if it could put me in danger, I indirectly helped him. Who knows how many people died because I didn’t bring down those I should have?”

His jaw clenched so tight it ached.

“My life doesn’t matter more than the people who trust Hunters like us to protect them from all kinds of evil and not just the demons. You shouldn’t have succumbed to his threats, Father.”

Edward’s expression hardened at his words. Guilt flickered across his face, but there was also something else. Something far worse.

“Arthur, do you really think someone like him would succumb to simple threats?” Alice suddenly spoke, her eyes filled with heavy emotions, something Arthur had rarely seen in such a cold woman.

Arthur’s breath slowed. His heart pounded in his chest.

Something was wrong.

But he then saw his father lowering his head with a heavy expression as he asked, “I am sorry. She is right. Father, you are the strongest man I know. You wouldn’t give in to a man like Derek without a good reason. Just what did he threaten you with?”

Edward clenched his fists as he hesitated to say it.

Alice’s cold mask finally cracked, her hazel eyes shadowed with emotions as she finally said what Edward couldn’t.

“Because… he threatened your mother’s life.”

Silence.

Arthur froze.

His mother’s life?

His mind reeled. “My mother?” He felt the words leave his lips, but they sounded distant, foreign. “She… she is still out there? But held hostage by Derek? But you said she—”

Edward lowered his gaze. “I lied.”

Arthur staggered back again, his breath turning shallow. “No…”

“I lied about a lot of things.” Edward’s voice was filled with sorrow, with years of regret.

Arthur shook his head violently. “No. No, that doesn’t make sense. Why would you lie about her? What other things did you lie about?”

He stared between Edward and Alice, his pulse pounding against his temples.

Edward hesitated. He exchanged a look with Alice, and for the first time in his life, Arthur saw true emotion in Alice’s gaze—a deep, unshakable sadness.

Alice’s lower chin quivered as she spoke, her voice fragile yet firm.

“It’s time he knew, Edward…” she whispered. “I also want him to know…”

Arthur’s heartbeat thundered in his ears.

His fingers trembled slightly, but he clenched his fists, forcing himself to stand his ground. “Know what?”

Edward finally met his gaze, and his next words shattered everything Arthur thought he knew.

“You are not my son.”

The world stopped.

Arthur forgot to breathe.

His vision blurred.

His mind froze.

“What?” he whispered.

Edward’s face was heavy with grief. “You are not my son, Arthur.” He exhaled shakily. “But you are my grandson.”

Arthur felt his legs weaken.

His throat tightened.

“I…I don’t…”

“Your mother is Aira Evangelion,” Edward continued. “She was never your sister. She is your mother, Arthur. The only daughter of mine and Alice.”

The room tilted.

Arthur’s ears rang.

His entire body went cold.

Alice looked at him with moist, heavy eyes, filled with emotions he had never seen before in this woman who had always been cold to him.

“I am so sorry, my child,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell you how much I loved you because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to hold back from telling you everything. It hurt me every single time to push you away… to keep you at a distance. But know that your grandfather and I care about you more than anything.”

Arthur shook his head violently. “No… No, that can’t be true… My memories… I remember playing with my sister and my father taking us to parks as kids… I remember—”

Edward sighed deeply, his voice filled with regret, “Those were false memories, my boy. Implanted by Derek to keep you under his control.”

Arthur’s breath came in ragged gasps.

His vision blurred with anger, confusion, and despair.

But one final question still burned in his mind.

His voice cracked as he whispered, “Then why… Why do I look almost as old as her? How can I be her son when we are nearly the same age?”

Edward’s lips pressed into a thin line.

Alice looked away, as if the answer was too painful to say.

Edward held Arthur’s shoulder and said, “Derek forced her to use a forbidden method to age you faster. He also took the help of multiple powerful mindforce experts to hasten your mental growth as well through fake memories and experiences so that you will be an adult physically and mentally. Of course, these fake memories were curated in a way that made you feel like obeying him and supporting his lies.”

“Why? Why would he want me to grow up so fast? What does he need me for?” Arthur asked with furrowed brows.

“That I do not know. But we do know that he wants to take advantage of you in some way. For some reason, he hasn’t forced you into doing anything or controlled you like he controls his demon slaves. That must be why he even let you live with me for all these years but never let me train you or teach you the powers and knowledge of our ancestors,” Edward said with a hardened expression.

Arthur swallowed hard, his chest aching.

“Then… what happened to my mother?”

Alice’s eyes glistened, “Your mother was the Oracle.”

The Oracle.

His mother.

His real mother.

His knees felt weak. He felt like he was drowning.

“Was? She was the Oracle?” Arthur mumbled weakly as he remembered seeing glimpses of a woman in his dreams. The warmth and sadness he felt…He never knew it was her all this time.

“She lost her powers now. Derek saw to it. The Oracle is a secret title given to someone born in our family every few centuries and has the power to see the future. However, Aira was the most powerful of them all and to ever exist in history. She fought. She fought harder than anyone could have imagined to keep you and us safe. But Derek was relentless. He knew that if he couldn’t control her, she would end him. So by using Cedric, he somehow captured her and hid her away.”

Arthur’s heart clenched as he mumbled with moist eyes, “I should have known…She has been suffering for such a long time while I…” Arthur was unable to complete his sentence as his raging emotions choked him.

Edward closed his eyes, his face contorted in pain. “You weren’t supposed to know. Derek knew that if you found out, you would turn against him. And he would never let that happen. We couldn’t risk losing both of you even though such a decision was equally painful to us.”

Arthur clenched his fists, his breath shaking.

All this time…

He had been fighting for the wrong side.

He had unknowingly helped the man who destroyed his real family.

His teeth gritted. His body trembled.

“Derek…He has to pay for what he has done.”

Edward sighed. “You are not ready to face him yet, son. He is still the most powerful man in our world. If you act recklessly, you’ll only get yourself killed.”

Arthur’s jaw tightened. “I don’t care. He has to be punished for what he’s done. I will make sure he faces justice and answers for all his crimes, even if it ends up with him losing his head.”

Edward and Alice could only exchange worried glances.

Suddenly, a thought struck Arthur like lightning, a deep, unnerving suspicion clawing at the edges of his mind.

His lips parted, his breath hitching, his voice fragile yet desperate—

“My father…” His heart pounded painfully against his ribs. His voice was barely above a whisper. “Was he…”

Alice’s lips pressed together tightly, her blue eyes brimming with an emotion so raw, so overwhelming, that Arthur already knew the answer before she spoke.

She nodded slowly, her voice trembling but firm, “Yes… Your father was Cedric… the Golden Prince.”

And just like that—

Everything inside Arthur shattered.

His breath caught in his throat. His vision blurred. His pulse roared in his ears like the tides crashing against jagged rocks.

No.

No, it couldn’t be.

But it was.

His father—Cedric.

Someone he always hated deep in his heart for causing his sist-no, his mother’s disappearance.

The man who had been crucified by the world despite everything he did. The man who had been betrayed. The man who had been said to love his mother with everything he had… and died.

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His father was the same man the world branded a traitor.

The same man whose name had been dragged through the filth by Derek.

The same man whose death had been orchestrated and celebrated by the very people hehad sworn loyalty to.

His father.

He never even got to see him.

A choked sound left Arthur’s lips, but it wasn’t a word. It wasn’t even a breath.

It was grief and guilt itself, raw and unrelenting.

His knees buckled beneath him, and before he even knew it, he collapsed to the floor.

The world blurred, the weight of reality slamming into his chest with a force that stole the air from his lungs. His hands clutched his chest, as if trying to hold himself together, as if trying to keep his very soul from falling apart.

His father.

His mother.

He felt so sorry for them…for going on about his life while they ended up with a fate worse than death.

His entire life had been a lie.

And the truth was far worse than the lie ever could be.

Tears burned at the edges of his eyes, hot and relentless, slipping down his cheeks as the pain became unbearable.

Edward and Alice immediately moved forward, their own grief and sorrow evident in the way they knelt before him.

“Arthur…” Edward’s voice cracked, and for the first time in his life, Arthur heard his grandfather break.

Alice’s cool, detached mask had completely crumbled, her lips quivering as she reached forward, her hands trembling as they cupped Arthur’s tear-streaked face.

“We are so sorry.”

And then—

They pulled him into a hug.

A tight, desperate yet warm embrace.

Arthur clutched onto them, his fingers digging into their clothes as if afraid they would disappear too.

As if afraid he would lose them like he lost everything else.

And for the first time in his life—

Arthur sobbed.

Silently. Painfully.

His entire body trembled, his breath uneven and ragged as he buried his face into Alice’s shoulder, his grip tightening around them both as if they were his last tether to the world.

Alice stroked his back softly and silently though her face was laced with pain. Edward rested his chin atop Arthur’s head, holding onto his grandson as if he wished he could take away the unbearable weight crushing him.

They stayed like that for what felt like forever—three broken souls clinging to each other in the quiet wreckage of the truth.

Because in that moment—

There were no more lies.

No more illusions.

Just pain.

And the family left behind to bear it.

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