"Are you sure you are going to be alright? "That question knocked Ash out of his deep thoughts, he wasn't expecting that question from the person who was asking; his aunt rarely shows any concerns for him so such a question was meant to catch him off guard.
He gave her a weird look before turning his attention outside which seemed to be an open field that there were passing through, what he is sure that used to be a green open field now turned to a gray landscape filled with nothing but Ash with nothing surviving in it, words even have it that nothing can grow in that field " well my life can get any much worse I don't really care" he replied with a Calm sigh.
"That place isn't going to be any forgiving ….. You are going to break before you know it, " she said. This time, her tone carried worries and a hint of anger, which was something Ash couldn't really understand, or better still, didn't even bother to, since he didn't care.
He was being sent to a place that is worse than a jail, where many wouldn't want to even think about, where most criminals were sent when their crimes were so bad that they couldn't be put in any cell or were too stubborn or uncontrollable. a place known as a bastion
The name sounded fancy until he got to know many about it and the dangers that lurked inside of it, which was rather in a sad way, a briefing before he was sent on the road.
"its not like I was given a choice ….. I'm sure it will be very much fun than what people know it for. " Ash gave that reply with a nonchalant shrug like he wasn't scared on the inside and kept a straight face, which was something he was good at doing, hiding whatever was going on with him and putting on a smile like nothing was wrong.
She gave him a tired look, she has been trying very hard to dissuade him but there was nothing she was doing that was getting to him, "you were giving the option to just hand over the papers, why didn't you ?" she asked this time already close to giving, if there was anything she knows that he is as hard headed as he could be and a total menace like his mother.
Hearing this made Ash pause the song which he was humming turning to look at her with his head tilted slightly like he was trying to read her intention meeting her gaze with what looked like the most confused human on planet earth "If you knew a little about me you should know that it would be over my dead body "Ash gave the most honest reply , he knew what he had to go through with many nights without proper sleep before he was able to create what they were so bent on having.
He would rather die than hand over his hard-earned effort to a child who doesn't know its worth, just thinking about it fouled his mood even more "and where exactly did this stubbornness put you ….. a thirteen-year-old that is living in the bastion a good news to go around " she said already tired Ash could already see the visible strained veins on her head " by around you mean in the bastion , you and I know that those old geezers would not easily let that kind of news out " Ash said knowing that the news of his sentence would only be whispered in quiet places and never in the general public.
He had many reasons why he couldn't hand it over to them , one of them being that it was a knowledge that didn't belong to this world , he didn't belong to this world in the first place , the knowledge he possessed weren't of this world and were extremely dangerous which were to be the case unless for the fact that most of them had somehow been finding their way out of his memory which was beyond bizarre considering the good memory he used to have.
At a young age he had been learning how to use magic very similarly to how he used and managed technology which had him learn a lot until they found something that he wasn't supposed to and now his whole family wanted it and not minding the dangers that accompanied it, planning to use it for the betterment of the "star child " since he was basically useless to them.
The carriage remained silent until a scenery that Ash couldn't really describe with words, since it was more like a feeling that was invoked in his weak heart. A massive wall, which looked small from a distance and when they got closer, he finally sees it real size and it stretched far and it wasn't something to laugh at.
He opened his mouth to say something but the words that came out were "no." he turned to meet his aunt, who shot him an inquisitive look which made him confused. There had to be a reason why he said that word,, and he felt like he was forgetting something important, but couldn't place his finger on it. 'Forget about it,' he muttered to himself, turning back to the weirdly stunning view.
He wanted to describe it as a place of no return. Still, they had beaten him to it, literally carving it into the wall the words ' The land of no return ' onto the wall with a deep red paint which was praying not to be blood and the walls were decorated with the bones of both human and monster "well you are right about this place being one hell of a place " Ash said in a low tune as he could feel his heart beat increase at an exponential rate.
The bastion was built for two main purposes, according to the person who briefed him; one was to act as the first line of defense against what seemed to be the planet's worst enemies, which is known as Gates which are rifts in space which open up in places with high enough spatial distortion bring with it invaders of other dimensions. The second was to act as a jail to hold criminals on death parole, using them as either assets or disposable soldiers.