Underworld

There are two main parts to the Underworld know as the Lightside and the Daarkside.

As you can imagine the Lighsight is the part of the Underworld that has light. Though said light in not sunlight or particularly bright, it is more than enough for the denizens of the Underworld. Most of which develop darkvission their first year of life, never having been exposed to true sunlight.

The second part is known as the Daarkside because of its utter and complete darkness. A place with a darkness so thick and physically present it feels like a thick viscous fluid parked tightly together, sentient, sapient.

Where even those with the darkvision skill are lost for the skill needs microfilaments of light to be useful. Where creatures that harness darkness as weapon, breath it in, or are born into it stay and thrive. Where sight is an unnecessary sense relegated to be tertiary sense at best.

This is the place where Celphata the deity of darkness is called old friend, and darksiders dwell. Creatures known throughout the underworld not to be fucked with on their own turf. Where the reapers of souls that have cleansed the Underworld of life on more than one occasion throughout the ages.

There a crack to the surface opens, and a sliver of darkness reaches upward to visit the surface world.

*

Sachihiro

I wake up slowly, my mind first processing what had happened to me. The epic fight I was involved in, the revelations that were revealed to me about combat and the true form of the beautiful killing art I should be striving towards, the level of power I had acquired in my/our struggle against such a worthy for.

Then my body awakens, and the bone-deep pain within my body starts seeping in like a deep frost permeating into my body. I groan producing more agony in my mouth that immediately causes me to convulse slightly. The jolt itself what my body needed to try to compensate for the pain by making it spread evenly throughout the body.

Permeating everything eventually so I'm not holsted in any one direction and unnecessarily hurt myself further. I breathe through my nose deeply and furiously trying to calm myself and understand what the fuck is happening to me. Why I can't move my arms, why my jaw is stuck wide open.

It takes a minute for me to calm down enough to realise I'm in an infirmary, meaning in Paradisum, meaning no immediate danger and yeah, I'm 'fucken' alive.'

I don't know what did it but a small tremor on the ground caused my foot to divert a second and I saw his counter coming as though I'd been shown a divine revelation. But I couldn't stop it, nor could I fully dodge it, not without stabbing myself straight through the foot anyways.

And I did with no hesitation. Bringing myself to an almost complete hult by being skewered on my own blade by the foot. His blade still doing everything it intended to do to me but being a cm further than it intended to be. Just enough for a barbarian in the Rage to survive long enough to reach a fae healer, if just barely.

I catalogue the rest of my body, feeling for anything I could, missing part. After determining how everything is as far as I can tell I stay like that, expecting for someone to come check on me, no one does.

I fall asleep and wake at least 8 times, a worrying occurrence for it means I've lost so much ether that I need to sleep numerous times to recuperate. Or it could mean there is no one around to check on the patients.

I wake eventually to the sight of the old hermit beside me on a stool.

"Well you've been rested enough don't you think?" He says tapping a stick on a solid block of something holding my bones together.

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"Your friend Om is fine by the way, just a minor broken neck, nothing to worry about. The city is officially under siege as well as the fae and southerners negotiate a 'surrender'.

"But everything is mostly settled. In one fell swoop of the hands of the gods, celestial ore becomes less expensive in human lives and less rare as it falls from the skies for children to play with thinking its a rock." He snorts at his own cleverness.

"You might not be aware but the southerners are falling back, I should have led with that. Officially it will be recorded in their records that we lost. Something they insist is necessary for their historical records.

"Tribes will retain their lands," he says with a snort, "and any ore not already in the hands of the kingdom of Sandoria.

"The slaves that have not already left the tundra are to be released and any exported slaves to be bought by the kingdom which will then sell them back to the tribes for a peace treaty.

"After which time keeping a soul marked tribesman slave will be against the laws of the southern kingdom. It goes on in that vein but I'm sure you get the point."

Gorr says looking at me, speaking as though he actually expects a response, even with my mouth wired wide open. He sighs and squishes water into my mouth from something, then takes a jug and helps me drink slowly. It's the water from Hilltown and it helps a lot.

"But anyway I digress. As soon as Om was in shape and saw you, the boy seems like a daemon has possessed him. He has been training none stop as though trying to break his body, going so far as to neglect that new mate of his from the Highland people."

He shakes his head. "Kids these days not prioritizing well enough," he sighs.

"Anyways you've rested long enough so we will continue your lessons. We were still on visualization.."

And so began my long physical recover, but my minds great awakening. My zanpakutō nestled at my back touching my skin the whole time.

‎

‎ Visualization is a very difficult concept to learn and apply to all aspects of my life but it is something that is necessary. I remember Asriel mentioning the importance of an Imagine when using release seals for chakra because you should always know what you want to do with a mundra sign.

The greater your Image the stronger the released power, in most cases anyway. Imagine is important for any and all power that needs to be interpreted by the world, universe or whatever cosmic force such power comes from.

With Gorr, who because of being blind so many years had to imagine everything around himself all the time, I learnt that visualization can be applied to everything. We started with meditation and visualization of my body, what it looks like internally, what my meridians look like, what my chakra pools look like, what my aura and spiritual pressure looks like.

A process that took me a month while bed ridden with nothing else to do or think about much. A process that took Om the same amount of time while taking lessons during his daily visits and still dedicating his time to his new mate and his training. Its either Om is a naturally quick learner, has a knack for visualization, or I'm just slow.

Ma and others visited almost daily as well. Da visited twice in the early days and couldn't see me in such a state again. Teà came carrying her four-year-old son and a happy Dustin on the other arm. Beautiful insecure Teà who becomes as a Valkyrie of legend on the battlefield.

My casts were eventually taken off, my healing mostly guided by natural ether, good food, rest and cleansing magic, only after my natural recovery had done its best was absolute restore used. I did scar though, a beautiful silver line that runs from my jaw down to my hip across my body.

A scar I'm told is caused by a foreign destructive aura that entered my body from my opponent's blade. Another surprise was Victor waking up and coming to see me. He looked me over while I was still bandaged and in bad shape with my mouth gaping open with trickles of water constantly allowed in.

"Whoever did this to you after what you did to me must be formidable." He said nodding his head. "It was a good fight between us though, I didn't know you had it in you. I hope to fight beside you again someday as a comrade." And with that he left. Not something I expected from him but my zanpakutō hummed pleasantly at the slight lingering aura of fear he had left behind.

By the time I was well enough to be let loose I was antsy to join Om in his training but got the greatest of all surprises. The arrival of Ava and nearly everyone that left with her some four years ago.

"Did we miss all the fun?" She says to me with a grin as their party is met at the gates of Paradisum by family, friends, well-wishers, and the curious.

She engulfs me in a hug, something I always thought her too butch to do. She jumps away and into Teà's arms as soon as she sees her. They laugh as they hold each other before Dustin comes forward to present the baby, Dimitri.

Life isn't so bad right now, it could have been much worse. Now I just need to train up and bring my babies home. I'm sure Mira and Ava will get along fine...