The Forest of Beginnings was warm and soft, bathed in the otherworldly light and power of the Spirit Realm. But not all the world of spirits is so bright and inviting. The Spirit Realm is split in two. The Forest Of Beginnings is divided similarly, being the center and focal point of the Spirit Realm. Though Astraoth was transported to the light side, Astraoth would need to traverse through both the dark and the light to find the center of the Forest of Beginnings and meet the Spirit King.
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Inside the Spirit Realm, time loses its power and its meaning altogether. Astraoth could run for days and move centimeters or walk for seconds and move kilometers. Despite not knowing where he was or how he was moving or if he was moving at all, Astraoth steadily continued on.
Before Astraoth stood a wall of gray and white. It was not strong or stable but continued outward endlessly, past even the horizon. Spirits and souls swarm around the wall, vanishing in and out of its faint iridescence. Astraoth looks to the sky, seeing the wall stretch upward to the heavens. Behind the wall, a silvery white moon stands. The moon hangs over the west; it is painted in the blues and soft radiance of the Spirit Realm's light half.
Astaroth takes a deep breath. He closes his eyes, steps forward, and walks into the wall, pushing past his fear without hesitation. While Astraoth passes through, an odd feeling begins to overcome him. As he steps out, Astraoth opens his eyes and finds the dark side of the Spirit Realm.
A deep chill creeps into his bones as the violet sky and warm tones of the light twist and contort into dark and pale reflections of the other side. The sky is an ashen black; the ground is cold and dead and gray. An icy wind lingers softly as Astraoth takes his first step into this new land. Astraoth looks at the wall he came through, but in its place lies a dark portal. It is gray, black, and small; it is but the size of a small man.
Astraoth turns around, finding the moon once more. But this time it is not blue; it is neither warm nor inviting. It is desolate and heavy, stained a blood red with the shadows that lurk in the darkest black. This time, the moon hangs over the east, signaling the beginning of the neverending night. A hazy fog lies in wait for Astraoth, stalking him and blanketing his view in the ghastly, pallid white of darkness.
The once bright Forest of Beginnings is dreary and lifeless and bleak. The light that flowed freely through the trees and grass is gone, and in its place is only pale darkness. Souls and dark spirits float around the forest and the sharp bite of death is ever-present.
Astraoth, strangely enough, feels better in the dark side than in the light. He is no longer vulnerable; Astraoth is stronger and his powers more potent, more complete. Looking at the crimson moon, he thinks, "This place, its shadows and darkness and twisted reflections, it feels...like home. Is the night where I truly belong?"
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"Even the naturally occurring Darkness Essence Energy is subject to my control. I couldn't at all manipulate the Light Essence of the other half, but I can absorb this easily." Astraoth grasps the flow of outside Darkness Essence and directs it to the Origin Egg, still held in his left hand. "As a demon, I know I am aligned with darkness, but..."
"It doesn't matter. If I belong in the dark, so be it. As long as I can make it through this trial and survive. Now, it's time to go." Astraoth disappears into the twilight fog, starting his journey through the Spirit Realm's darkness.
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A serpent hides in wait in the forest's shady underbrush. The beast is enormous at nine meters tall and three meters wide, yet is obscured entirely by the surrounding flora. On a lonely path, a boy walks through the endless mist. As the boy reaches the serpent, it springs up from the forest floor and lunges at him. Its mouth opens, revealing rows of teeth and an eye deep inside its mouth. Astraoth looks up from the floor and raises his right hand.
As the beast is about to swallow the hand, it suddenly halts. Astraoth's eyes flash a blood red, narrowing into slits as he glares at the serpent. The spirit beast retreats instantly, attempting to flee until it halts in place once more, frozen in fear. Astraoth gathers Darkness Essence from the forest, congealing into a ball of pure power. Astraoth saunters over to the snake, still suspended in place. He stretches his hand outward, directly in front of the serpent and launches the ball of dark power.
Darkness wraps around the spirit beast, strangling it in place and invading its body. The snake is pulled to ground level, its head forced into the dirt. Astraoth crouches down, staring at the snake. "Do you know who I am Little Snake?" Hardening his expression, Astraoth lays his hand on the beast's head. "I am the one creature here you should not have attacked."
"Now, you can be swallowed by darkness." A surge of Darkness Essence appears and swarms the beast, engulfing it whole. In seconds, it is consumed entirely, leaving nothing behind with its death. Astraoth steps past the serpent's final resting place and continues onward.
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A steep cliff cloaked in shadow overlooks a bottomless abyss. Rising up from the depths, a black worm appears, climbing up the cliffside with hundreds of beastly arms. A giant scarab beetle crawls across the forest floor, while enormous monsters and beasts fly across the sky. Birds with four faces, tigers with human arms, wolves with snakes as fur, dogs with demonic wings, and countless monstrosities lie everywhere in this world.
Astraoth cloaks himself-and the Origin Egg-in layers of Darkness Essence and Spirit Energy as he walks past these Spirit Beasts, seemingly invisible to these creatures. Soon enough, Astraoth continues past these monsters, coming across the first real challenge he would face in this world.