Aldric made a sacrifice.
Having no connection to his aspect would reduce his abilities by magnitudes. Sacrificing his future safety over the next day. Who knows what could happen in that time?
'I need to push this ability further. I need to see how far it can go…'
Aldric justified it to himself as to why he took such a needless gamble. With all the other tools at his disposal, from his chaos energy to his aspect and apostles, Aldric could have defeated the hordes and their guardian. But this was not a choice made of emotion.
It was a choice to see how far this ability could go. And where else would be the best place to test it out?
And it was worth it. Stacking the two mandates combined to give Aldric a well of power that he had never felt before. The gain was not in strength, durability or endurance but rather in his aspect.
Aldric could not describe the exhilaration inmist was words. Ideas that once seemed like fantasy were now truly feasible with his aspect.
If he were to have seen his seven soul cores fashioned into black holes, he would have noticed their hues and shades brighten significantly.
It was the aspects of his darkness that were quantifiably changed. Trading his future safely for strength that he would not have gained until much further along.
It was all seven aspects that were changed. Knowing enough to not focus on them all, Aldric focused all his energy on one to utilise while increasing his proficiency.
The dark blue soul core shimmered ominously.
'With each new soul core I gained, a new aspect of True Darkness was unlocked. But during the war in the second nightmare, I gained my last three in quick succession.'
And it was one of those that he focused on. The spatial aspect of it.
HISSSSS
An explosion of black mist released from all parts of Aldric's body, heading straight towards the guardian, and it did not stop there. The darkness was so thin and vapourous that it matched the density of air. Directing the plume, Aldric embedded his will into the mist. Enveloping the creature and obscuring its vision, it continued to coalesce all around them until it formed a sphere. Trapping the creature completely and robbing it of its sight.
But this sphere of darkness was not ordinary. The beast immediately took to the sky to escape the domain where it could not see. It was not just the lack of light but the physical force of darkness it had to combat with every movement. Its soul shivered and its senses dulled. Perhaps it was for the best that the guardian did not have any outward abilities, for they would have been weakened.
In its escape, space extended as the dome of darkness stretched and stretched. Insanity began to eat at its instincts, as it knew that the dome when erected was not this large. But nothing was truly infinite as Aldric formed a tendril from the edge of the barrier to grasp and slam it down to the ground in a show of force and violence.
BOOOOOOM
The ground shattered as the guardian landed. Its right leg twisted horribly as it bore the brunt.
'Can True Darkness truly do this, or is this the work of my aspect?'
Aldric thought.
The beast attempted to stand, but it simply could not without leaning on its spear. Rage took over.
SCREEACH
The beast let out a maddening scream as it smashed its spear onto the ground. While Aldric's attention was too focused on his next move, the creature lunged.
Not towards him but to the side. In their battle before the dome was erected, they had repositioned such that the carcasses of the elite Ravens were now closest to the guardian.
CRAACK
GUUUSH
In the total darkness, only Aldric could see what the creature was doing. At first, it was its beak.
It snapped open sickeningly and continued to widen. Its body bulged grotesquely as its beak descended upon its dead kin. Like a worm, its neck continued to extend as it ate away at the first creature. Swallowing it whole at a speed that looked inhumane and alien, it gulped the carcass in true avian fashion. Within an instant, it turned to the next body.
'So that's the creature's ability. I need to stop it right now!'
Rather than running to interrupt the guardian's feast, in a show of pure talent and skill, small tendrils of darkness formed from the dark mist in the air reached out to throw the remaining corpses behind Aldric and out of the sphere of darkness. Hardening the exterior walls as the corpses exited, the Corrupted guardian was interrupted in the middle of its feast.
Almost instantly, the creature bulged its form and increased its mass. It had already digested the singular corpse and was now fully recovered. Dashing, it attempted to intercept its food source but it was too late. Nonetheless, in the darkness, it jumped, and a web of flesh extended from its arm to grasp its weapon that it had impaled into the ground. The flesh looked horrific and raw. As though it had undergone a metamorphosis that was halted.
Unbeknownst to Aldric, had the creature assimilated all the available corpses, it would have reached sizes above any Corrupted ranked gate guardian measured in history.
The battle in darkness had now begun.
The tendril-like limb widened the scope of the creature's combat prowess exponentially. With the flexibility, reach and strength, the arm whipped at speeds that were almost impossible to track with the naked eye.
It was a blur of movement in the dark sphere. In the realm of beast and man, battle was rendered.
Dodging each slash by a hair's breadth, Aldric was on the defensive. With acute hearing, the guardian adapted to the lack of sight and rampaged.
As the battle continued, Aldric began to dissociate as he zoned out and entered a state of focus. A singular thought echoed in his mind.
'This is a battle of choice.'
Aldric thought in anger.
'So why the fuck am I struggling so much? I know I can win. There is no fear of death, so why am I holding back so much? Why am I always reacting?'
At that moment, Aldric turned off. He turned off all the thoughts of anger and inadequacy that were beginning to rise and affect him. He turned off the thoughts of attacking and counters and solely focused on the desire to kill.
[Until this creature is killed, I sacrifice my strength outside of my sphere of darkness in turn to be strengthened within it.]
Aldric had bartered with [Ephemeral Mandate] for the first time, asking rather than receiving. And it seemed to have worked.
His mind simplified the process and stopped stressing about the risks. In a way intuitive to him, he sacrificed the possibility of the creature breaking out of the sphere for a boost in strength to his aspect. The dark miasma in the air fell even closer within his reach. As if he were a maestro, conducting a symphony of the metaphysical.
It felt even more intimate. As though the darkness were even more alive than before and as though he no longer needed [Dire Ordinance] for complex control out of his range.
Running above one hundred percent of his potential, his talent shone.
In the darkness, his left hand rose with his palm faced outward. In an instance, a rush of vaporous darkness collapsed into the guardian. From every orifice, the elemental force poured in. With no will or ability to combat the assault, the avian tyrant twisted and turned as it attempted to resist whatever was happening to it.
With a mind empty with focus, his open hand was grasped. In a moment, cylindrical pillars of darkness formed from the insides of the guardian. A horrific fate that was worse than death befell the creature as its insides were shredded and transposed by masses of darkness that weighed heavier than steel beams and were more dense than tungsten. Like a crystal, the beams of darkness covered its entire form, continually growing.
ARGHGHGHG
The guardian choked out as more and more of its body was continually desecrated, almost excessively. Its form was now embedded into the ground.
But Aldric waited before approaching. A creature's most dangerous moments were in its death.
ARGHGSSSKHH
The choking sound continued as the creature made its last-ditch move. Just as when it was feeding, its mouth opened and a single tube of flesh began to emerge. Like a snake moulting its skin, the avian bird began its ecdysis. In a moment of death, it had put all of its cards on the table and attempted an evolution that it was simply not ready for. But death was not an option.
Extending three feet within a second, a slightly more humanoid avian face was at the front of the flesh-like worm.
With no shock or surprise, Aldric simply grasped his hand tighter as even sharper blades of darkness appeared on the guardian's new form. Trailing from its old mouth along its new form, death caught up no matter how much it tried to run. The newborn-like creature died even in its attempt to escape. With only death waiting for it, none of it mattered.
A desecrated corpse stood like a scarecrow as only the heavy weight of darkness kept it standing. The shallow domain of darkness collapsed around him as the vapourous force sank into the ruined land.
[You have defeated a Corrupted Tyrant: Vile Raven]
[You have received a Memory]
'I always seem to end battles in a dramatic move. Maybe I should get a cameraman.'
Aldric chuckled, the high of battle leaving his body.
In a moment of finesse and instinct, Aldric watched as the pool of darkness covered the dead corpse of the guardian. Looking at the contours of the corpse and the weight he could feel, a strange desire made itself known. Placing his hand on the ground, the corpse slowly began to sink, or at least it would have had his aspect been unsealed.
'I know what this is. A combination of the spatial aspect of my darkness and my evolved innate ability. My darkness can consume, but my aspect is sealed following the next twenty-four hours.'
Aldric was beginning to regret his choice; however, he perished the thought as it came. Knowing what the Corrupted Tyrant was capable of, the young man was simply not strong enough to contend without the boons gained from [Ephemeral Mandate].
'I guess I'll leave it for later.'
He spoke of the desire to consume as he scavenged for the soul cores of the creature.
The shimmering gateway began to close as the item surrounding the seed began to become visible. The temporary moment flickered as though it were about to blink out of existence. Unlike the chains in the ivory tower, this seed covered the form of an ancient sheet of paper. With the battle over, Bael entered the frame as he walked towards the item unprompted.
Behind Aldric, Amon also stood, having come out of the soul sea that housed it. Yet it stood still and watched, its cloak covering its face.
With no expressions, the wraith grasped the aged paper and tore it apart. A nebulous energy traversed his arm from it and entered his chest.
[Your Apostle has absorbed the ???? of ????.]
Aldric wondered why the runes were hidden. Perhaps this was beyond the confines of forbidden knowledge, something much more egregious. Something he was not ready to learn.
As his thoughts wondered, a change began to occur in Bael. A change that would take time and effort to absorb and to make sense of this overwhelming energy. Retreating into Aldric's soul sea, it would be a while before Bael returned to his master's side.
[Your Apostle is changing.]
And that was all that was spoken by the spell. But something else distracted him.
[Mandate has been reached.]
Looking towards his runes, Aldric read them.
[ Mandates Active:
[Ephemeral Seal]
[Devotion and Doubt]
[Promise of Longing and Entropy] ]
It was clear that his ability took the effort to organise and name each of the vows and contracts he formed. It was a convenient thing to have, but Aldric brushed past it. Though the naming choices for his contracts with Nephis and Cassie were interesting. The latter one most definitely.
But with his objectives complete, it was time to head home.
Amon stood behind his master as a plume of whiteness bellowed from its cloak. Its elongated arm grasped onto its cloak lightly as it held it up, a realm of white opening up.
And Aldric stepped through.
—
A few hours later
Sat opposite Aldric in perhaps the most luxurious fine dining restaurant in the capital was a pale figure adorned in a blood-red dress that complemented her curves and figure. Pale silken grey skin and ruby lips met him.
"Aldric… It's been so long…"
The daughter of Song spoke. Her voice pulled Aldric back to a forgotten place.
Sat with no access to his aspect till the next afternoon, It was time for Aldric and Seishan to meet.
***
Thanks for reading.
What did you think? The battle was fun to write. Wonder what Seishan is about to say?
Anyone see Imu's design? Got me wanting to write a one piece fic fr
Till the next one.