Thirty thousand years. Ish…

Thats how long he kept his own creation away.

EXE hadn’t been conscious for long before having been banished, and at first, Lord X didn’t feel guilt nor remorse.

At first, it felt like any other day.

But over time, perhaps each thousandth year or so… the guilt built up. He didn’t know why.

Perhaps it was those utterly stupid victims of his, their fear dawned on him. The thought that EXE was scared, like oh so many he had tortured and whatnot… but that was different. Exe’s didn’t necessarily change in form, nor age often… but EXE was still a child,

Was he not?

Was he scared? Terrified? He was smart, that much was clear after he turned against his creator, Lord X, so damn quickly.

Although Lord X tortured broken souls for a living, for fun. He wasn’t completely heartless… he was capable of love. Or, well. Care.

So eventually, although dreading the moment, he supposed that he had been persuaded to unleash his creation. Offspring? Child? Eugh. All those titles felt… weird.

Sighing quietly underneath his breath, he walked down long, seemingly endless halls decorated by a red carpet just as long as the halls itself, and torches being the only speck of light that flooded these halls— even if not by much. His hands remaining folded behind his back, neat. Proper.

Familiar.

Which, this moment, was not.

The guilt was not familiar.

The concern, was foreign.

The wish to apologize and let his creation return home once more, was laughable. A wish he should not have acted on.

He was dangerous, he told himself. He couldn’t carry out what he had been made to do, Lord X reasoned. But his heart. Or perhaps, mind, had none of it.

Standing in front of where he had banished EXE, he summoned a portal.

It was black, almost looking like an endless sea of nothing but stars— but with big patches of black, and maybe a small dot of white every two inches from the last or something like that.

It held a strong aura— could it be from EXE? No. Possibly not. While he was Lord X’s creation, no being could possibly have strengthened that much in power. So he quickly shrugged that thought off and left it to rot in the back of his unyielding mind.

The portal soon came to show a dark realm. Huh. That was what the realm he’d banish EXE to looked like…

Well, that was interesting. But wasn’t his concern.

Looking around, he found nothing inside the portal. Just… a dying land, it seemed.

Grunting in annoyance, he stepped forward and went through the portal, then gave it a small glance to make sure it stayed open before deciding to wander around.

It was small, luckily for him. So soon, he found a small, almost childlike hedgehog with darkened fur that was still way lighter than Lord X’s, laying in a patch of grass.

Clearing his throat, and watched the hedgehog glare at him with such undying hatred that it made Lord X take a double take. How could someone hold such hatred in a glance alone? He thought, but decided not to think about it for much longer. “Creation,” Lord X greeted with as much warmth he could manage, holding out a hand to show that he wasn’t here to fight— and to possibly help EXE up to stand. “I am here to retrieve you, and take you back home. Where you belong. I… apologize. My decision to banish you were rash.” Lord X apologized, hand still out just in case. “Please do return home, and please do not fight me. This encounter is supposed to be a peaceful experience, for us both. Fighting would only diminish that.”