Our clash began when the echoes of his words died.
His feet lifted from the ground as he extended his arms to the side. I narrowed my eyes, expecting a burst of bright light – just like Aelith and the other Divines' power. Instead, I was greeted with darkness.
Pitch black darkness, without even a hint of colour in it, spread from his body, covering the entire arena in a matter of seconds.
I released my power as soon as I noticed the darkness approach . I didn't know why, But I knew that if I let it touch , I'd lose.
Purple flas danced on my skin. At first, the light they spread was nothing more than a little candlelight. Then, as I carefully fed them more mana, they grew stronger and brighter.
Yet, it didn't seem enough to hold back the vast, deep darkness of Fetheion. It circled , trapping within with nothing else but my flas.
I knew he wasn't going to kill , but that didn't make things any less terrifying. I could feel the darkness slowly dimming my flas. I clenched my fists and fed more mana to them. I knew I could get out of this – I was strong enough to do that before!
For a mont, nothing happened. Then, my flas spread out, just like they did before. Roaring, hungry for more power – more fuel – they leapt towards Fetheion. For a mont, it seed as if the bright light of my flas dispersed the darkness. Yet, as we both stood on the opposite sides of our arena, Fetheion's slight smile never disappeared.
Our powers continued to clash, I pushed him back, and he simply remained there, seemingly unbothered. Only when my flas began to reach him did he finally move.
He raised his hand, slightly, and pointed at .
A thin line of darkness appeared in his hand, twirled around his finger, and then leapt towards . From the smile on his face, I knew this was where the real battle began.
I raised my hand, and a wall of flas rose along with it. The line of darkness disappeared soon after it touched the flas, but two more took its place.
"The hell?" I whispered. What was he doing? He wasn't even really trying to win.
I got rid of the other two lines of darkness, then glared at him.
"What are you doing? What's this?" I was annoyed – I didn't want this anymore. I didn't want to fight him at all if he wasn't going to take seriously.
"Fine, fine." He said with a sigh. Then, I lost my vision.
My flas disappeared just like that as I gasped for air. His dark power filled my lungs, keeping alive, but unable to breathe. Sothing lifted up in the air as I struggled to break free.
I don't know how much ti passed – it felt like an eternity, but it was probably only a few seconds when I fell to the ground with a thud.
My vision returned as the darkness surrounding us slowly disappeared. I gasped for air, then coughed as the cold midnight air filled my lungs.
"I think we can safely say that you lost this one." Fetheion's voice sounded. "Not a surprise, considering you haven't used magic in months, but I still expected a little more of you." Was that disdain in his voice? Or just pity?
It took a mont to gather the strength to push myself up to a sitting position. "What was that?" I said, my voice but a whisper. Why was his – a Divine's – power darkness?
He chuckled and helped get back up on my feet instead of answering . "You should rest for tonight." He glanced at the starry sky. "It's quite late."
"No." I firmly said, not budging from where I was standing. "Answer – why is your power like that?"
He stopped and glanced at , sowhat surprised. For a mont, our gazes locked in a battle of wills.
He finally he sighed and gave up. "You weren't always this insistent," He mumbled, then looked away. "The Ereth take their power from the Divine Pillars, so their power mimics that… aesthetic, so to speak. I don't have access to a Pillar, so I have to make do with other, less pleasant power sources." He raised his hand, letting a tiny portion of his power loose. "It's not evil, or good, or anything like that. It's just one of the primal forces of the world. Darkness, shadow." His hand ford a fist, dissipating the swirl of darkness around it.
"You have a primal core, don't you?" I asked without missing a beat. That was the only thing I could think of. His eyes shot open as he lifted his head to look at .
"How did you-?"
"But how?" I asked, more questions popping into my mind. "I was sure the demons had all of them – they used them to power their portals." Had I seen it wrong when I stole the primal core of wind from that massive room? Was my mory deceiving ?
Fetheion hesitated. "What? No, they don't have all of them." He tilted his head, looking at clearly wanting to know more. I furrowed my brows, ignoring him. What the hell was that all about? Then what were the other few portals being powered by?
"Kai?" Fetheion asked, his voice gentle, yet filled with so urgency. "What's wrong?"
I forced my mind back into the present. "Nothing, I must have been mistaken." Despite my words, I was absolutely certain I was right. I had felt the presences of the other primal cores that day, hadn't I?
"About what?" Fetheion insisted. A sudden urge to talk about that day nearly ca over , but I sohow stopped myself and glared at him. "Nothing. You're right, I should go to sleep." I quickly turned my back on him and rushed to the room he'd given .
Only when I closed the door did I feel a tiny bit better, though it wasn't quite enough to quell my anger. Had he just tried the sa trick as Aelith on ? Making want to tell him things? Tricking my mind to get his way? I wasn't going to fall for such tricks.
I needed to train my mind – I needed to beco stronger and get out of here. I had so much to do too; Mona, Asher and Lucius were probably waiting for . I needed to take those souls back from the Divine who orchestrated my murder, I needed – no, I wanted to take my revenge on Alina and Joshua.
But all of this required strength of mind, magic and body.
And such, another long strip of training began.
The first thing I needed was regaining so of my lost souls. Fetheion was ready to help with that, he gave a list of places filled with corrupted monsters. Places I could go to kill things and gather souls. And I did exactly that. The first day, I returned sowhat wounded.
As the days passed seamlessly, my old reflexes returned. My usual awareness, keen senses, everything that gave an edge over my opponent – they all returned. I continued to find opponents to challenge, cursed beasts, corrupted monster nests, whatever Fetheion could locate, the next day they'd end up dead.
Slowly, my powers began to return as well – of course, they were nowhere nearly as powerful as they used to be, but at least I could fly again. With each soul I took in, the coldness in my chest also returned. And then, the dreams.
Not long after, my nights once again beca plagued by dreams – nightmares, even. The mories of these souls, twisted by my own mind, surfaced once again. It didn't take long for my mind to beco muddy, and my usual tiredness to return.
Yet, I didn't let that stop . Despite Fetheion's protests, I continued. It didn't take long to notice him following whenever I left. I didn't mind – he knew not to help out unless I was in mortal danger. So, I pushed him to the back of my mind and continued to train my body and mind.
"When will you let leave?" I asked, glaring at Fetheion one evening. He was sitting in the library, reading so text on an old parchnt again. He lifted his head, sowhat surprised, then a smile flashed across his lips.
"Do you think you're strong enough?" He asked, gesturing to sit on the other couch. I sighed – I knew he wasn't going to make things easy for .
"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think I was strong enough." My interface appeared before . I switched to my status panel and showed it to him.
'Kai Friseal – Level 105 Soul Keeper | Exp: 56980/140000 - - Souls 100/100 471 - - Mana: 2190
Fallen Grace Lv. 5 | Death's Scythe Lv. 5 | Dark Bolt Lv. 5 | Soul's Respite Lv. 5 | Keeper's Haven Lv.5 | Soul's Aspect Lv. 5 | Explorer | Crystal Sage
STR: 20 – CON: 11 – DEX: 100 – INT: 100 – WIS: 100'
He looked at the pale blue demonic text, then glanced at . "Am I supposed to understand sothing from all this?"
We stared blankly at each other a while before I burst into laughter. He seed even more confused. Only when my laughter subsided did I shake my head. "Ah, never mind. My point is that I'm fairly strong – not enough to take on a divine, or maybe even a demon, but enough to leave."
He hesitated. I clenched my fist, hidden under my cloak.
"I won't get much stronger if I stay here. I need the conflict and challenge to grow, you know that." What else could I say to convince him?
"I know,"
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