"Well, how do I help her?" Lone asked himself. He had created a sofa which Breena was laying on. She was constantly shaking, and it seemed like she was experiencing some sort of infinitely looping panic attack.
"Soph, look after her and Kyuubi. I'm gonna go experiment. I need to fix my bodyguard since it should be her guarding our bodies, not the other way around," Lone said with a chuckle to which Sophie nodded. She then sat next to Breena and held her hand tightly.
Lone left the room he had created and immediately set up several layers of magical barriers around it before he began searching for prey.
Roughly an hour later, in a chamber similar to one Sophie, Kyuubi and Breena were in, Lone was standing with his arms crossed while he looked at the thirty or so limbless Minotaurs. He had captured them to practice and test on them.
"Well, gents, sorry for the inconvenience. I'm grateful for your participation in this experiment, let's not waste any more time, shall we?" Lone said playfully to help distract himself from the torture he would be inflicting upon the creatures.
"Darkness. Darkness, huh? How do I harness it? Well, I'm surrounded by it. I have a one-hundred percent affinity for it too, so let's just try?" Lone had mumbled before he closed his eyes and raised his arms in an open gesture of sorts.
'Yes, I can sense it. Why can't lightning be as agreeable as you, Darkness?' Lone thought happily and in response to this thought, a power suddenly forced itself into Lone. However, Lone could quite clearly tell that this power held no ill-will to him.
'Huh? Do you elements have personalities?' as if to answer Lone's query, the power inside of Lone flared happily. 'If that's the case, look after my Foxkin companion. I don't know what you did to cause her to panic so much, but do it again, and I will erase your existence,' Lone said passively before the power inside of him immediately reacted negatively and tried to harm his body.
"Heh, your arrogance is worthy of praise, at least," Lone whispered to the power inside of him before he unleashed as much killing intent as he possibly could and focused all of it onto his own body. At the same time, a streak of black power and blue power suddenly began assaulting and battering the dark purple power that was trying to wreck havoc on Lone's internal system.
The purple power, presumably Darkness, was losing and slowly being destroyed completely, so it soon submitted and made it's will to serve Lone known to him since doing so was its last viable option as far as it was concerned. Lone had nodded before the power settled down in his body and a dark purple dot now centred Lone's multi-coloured eyes.
"So, I can forcefully awaken by making elements submit to me? That's very interesting," Lone said aloud. He then focused his will on the blue and black powers which resided in his body that he had never noticed before.
'hmm? Am I correct in assuming you two are Void and Sky? I hope you're also willing to submit to me, or else, I won't hesitate to erase your existences,' Lone said internally. The black power, Void immediately shivered in a way that made it seem like it was ecstatic at Lone's threat while the blue one, Sky was sending nothing but feelings of submission to Lone.
"Good. Well, now that Darkness is under my control, I'm not even sure if I need to do this, but no point wasting the resources I've worked so hard to obtain," Lone said with a chill to his tone before his focus returned to the enraged stumps that were the thirty or Minotaurs that lay in front of him.
Lone approached the first one and placed his hand on its head before he willed the power of Darkness within him to enter its mind. The creature's brain immediately exploded.
"Well, fuck. This is gonna take all of you, isn't it?" Lone expressed with a smile. Clearly, Lone was growing much fonder of torture than he was previously with his time killing the Duke, Oswald Fenton.
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Roughly two hours later, Lone returned to the room that housed his companions much to Sophie's delight. Lone had a smile on his face which obviously meant he was successful and Sophie clearly noticed the difference to his eye's colour. "A sixth awakening?" she happily asked. She was obviously pleased that Lone had awakened again since doing so would only help him due to the fact that his lifespan wasn't affected by his awakenings at all.
"Yeah, I also discovered something about the nature of awakenings for all beings that experience them, at least I think I did. Anyway, I think I found the entrance to the real dungeon here while I was experimenting, so let's get this over with," Lone said with a lot of pride in his voice. He was mildly embarrassed that it had taken him so long to realise, but now that he knew awakenings were related to not only emotions but elements too, he had come up with several plans for the future.
Lone then walked up to the still panicking Breena and gently placed his right hand on her forehead. As if she could sense the connection she held with him through their contract, her shaking subsided a little bit.
"Fear Transfer," Lone said. This was the name of one of the three new skills Lone had learnt which were related to his darkness affinity.
Due to the host's experiments, Gained Beginner Darkness Magic Skill: Skill: Fear Transfer Effect 1: Grants the ability to transfer the host's fear to a target or transfer the target's fear to the host Mastery: Beginner Level 4 The Amount of Fear Transferred: 8%
Thankfully for Lone, due to the Darkness residing within him, he could ignore the skills level and transfer one-hundred percent of the targets fear.
Immediately after using the skill, a strand of dark purple energy was rapidly being absorbed out of Breena's head and was disappearing into Lone's hand. In Lone's body, Darkness was greedily eating up all of Breena's fears which it itself had implanted on her earlier when she had tried to enter its domain, the shadows. The small purple power which was inside of Lone was growing slightly clearer and larger upon eating Breena's fears before Lone shouted at it internally to stop.
Lone wanted to experience some of Breena's fears to help increase the level of one of his other skills that he had gained during his pleasant experience with the Minotaurs.
Due to the host enduring the transferred fear of several monsters, Gained Skill: Skill: Mental Attack Resistance Effect 1: Dampens all mental attacks by varying degrees based on mastery level Mastery: Beginner Level 5 Mental Attack Damage Dampened: 10%
Lone tried to endure the pain that Breena had been experiencing for a few minutes before he ordered the Darkness within him to eat it away. After having done that, Lone sat down on one of the leather seats he had created earlier before he began using his Meditation Skill to regain his mana. He instantly began glowing with a light hue of blue.
Sophie stepped closer to Breena and noticed that her shaking had stopped entirely and her facial expression was one of bliss. She looked like she had just awakened from a terrifying nightmare. Breena was still unconscious though so Sophie decided to sit down just like Lone and she chose to practice her Mana Sensing ability while she cuddled Kyuubi.
Several hours later, Lone stopped his meditating which Sophie noticed, so she too stopped her Mana Sensing training.
"Mmm," Lone yawned with a stretch before his gaze turned to rest on Breena. He then stood up and gently shook her which startled the young Foxkin awake. Her eyes darted around with fear clear in them before she finally came to her senses.
"M-Master... som-something a-attacked me when I succeede-" "I know, it now serves me and won't try to stop you again," Lone interrupted the frantic teenager. He could feel nothing but pity for her. Not only had she accomplished the goal Lone had set for her, but she had even done so within only a few hours. However, she was immediately attacked by the force known as Darkness for intruding upon its territory. Lone was happy at this though since it led to him gaining three new skills and Breena's trust in him had undoubtedly increased thanks to his help too.