"And to the darkness, I shall return~."

With a final, violent flicker, as if it had been brutally slaughtered, the torches on the walls extinguished at the same time due to Nyx attracting as much essence as she could.

Nyx's pull on the surrounding energy was so strong, that dark essence started to seep through the walls, making the void-like darkness, feel extremely heavy and suffocating.

The small cell was instantly plunged into darkness: the only visible light, a small crack at the bottom of the door.

An eerie silence accompanied the darkness, quickly broken by the man's increasingly heavy breathing, the sound becoming deafening in the otherwise silent room.

With a silent sigh of relief, having her theory about the torches' link to the door proven correct, Nyx silently started moving.

To the man's eyes, apart from the crack of light, nothing else could be seen, yet to Nyx, even though she couldn't see in the traditional sense, she was in her element.

A semi-transparent, colourless 3D map of Nyx's surroundings superimposed itself in her mind's eye. While this ability couldn't be used in areas with light energy as it would interfere too much, in its absence, Nyx could use the resonance of the dark energy in her surroundings to accurately map her environment.

While her cultivation was low, she couldn't use the ability to see far, only fifteen or so feet before it started to become fuzzy, but in the cramped cell, it was more than enough.

Nyx's laughter, sounding like a warm, summers breeze, in total contrast to the situation, resonated around the room. Seemingly coming from all directions at once.

"Do you think the dark scares me?" roared the man as he strained his ears, trying to work out Nyx's location so he could accurately attack or escape to the door.

"No," whispered Nyx in the man's left ear, causing him to strike out with his right fist.

With a sickening crunch, the man released a wail of pain as he clutched his hand and staggered a step backwards.

He had put all of his strength into that punch, only for it to collide with the magically strengthened, stone wall.

Trying to flex his hand, the man grimaced as he cursed his stupidity, knowing that he had severely broken its bones.

However, he forgot about the pain moments later, throwing it to the back of his mind, as he felt a terrifying breeze flowing up his bare legs.

Instinctively clamping his legs shut, the man trapped the silky soft skin of what he assumed to be a small foot, between his thighs, a few inches from his privates.

A subconscious shiver ran down his spine, having felt the force applied to the kick, and without a moment's hesitation, the man swept his right arm backwards with all his strength.

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A loud smack, dislodging the foot he had trapped, was followed by a muffled thud as the back of his hand came into contact with something soft.

A wicked smile appeared on the man's face, believing he had delivered a decisive blow.

Turning around to face the direction of the thud, the man was about to step forward and confirm his kill when Nyx's voice once again appeared next to his ear. "It's not the darkness that terrifies mortals."

The man's brain span in confusion. He believed he had just landed a devastating blow on Nyx, using his full power and sending her flying into the wall but, by the sound of her voice, she seemed completely fine.

"It's what lurks inside it." The warm, soft breath of Nyx tickled his opposite ear, the tone sounding as if she was whispering to a lover, yet all it caused the man to feel was a deep-rooted dread.

After punching out with his uninjured hand, the man growled like a mad beast as he forcefully stopped himself from punching the wall again.

"Clever boy," chuckled Nyx, the voice emanating from all directions once again, yet if one were to listen carefully, it didn't contain as much energy as it had done earlier.

A sudden pain erupted from the man's left arm, followed by a cold numbness as he felt a warm wetness on his shoulder, splashing across his chest.

The sensation caused the man's imagination to run wild, and believing that his arm had been cut off, Unadulterated terror filled him.

The man's willpower instantly collapsed, and he turned and started running towards the door.

However, after no more than two steps, his side collided with something cold, hard and sharp, like the corner of a table, and he crashed to the floor before rolling on to his back.

The warm, somewhat sticky sensation of blood flowed down his side and started to pool under him, yet he didn't comprehend much as he was dazed by his fall.

Not willing to miss the opportunity, Nyx lept upon the man and, without a shred of hesitation or mercy, pulled the fingers of her right hand together into a dagger-like shape and attacked the man's right eye.

Internally, Nyx hated the fact that she was unable to deliver a killing blow due to the differences in their cultivation but that didn't mean she was powerless. As she has shown earlier, there were still weak spots to exploit, and the man's eyes were one of them.

With a howl of a wounded beast, the daze the man was in instantly dissolved as an intense, stabbing pain assaulted his eye.

Without thinking, he lashed out with his broken hand, hitting something before using his leg to violently kick it away.

A loud, snapping sound resonated in the darkness but the man didn't pay it any attention as he crawled towards the only source of light in the room.

Just as he was about to lift himself up and grope for the door handle, a heavy weight slammed into the back of his head, causing him to headbutt the door, knocking out one of his front teeth in the process.

"WILL YOU JUST FUCK OFF!" Drawing all the strength he could muster, the man pushed himself off the floor, sending the weight that was now on his back flying away, before finding the handle and pulling the door open.

Staggering out into the light of the hallway, the man looked like he had just crawled out of the depths of hell.

A large, jagged wound on his side was bleeding almost as much as the empty socket that once held his eye. The dark bruise on his forehead, and the split lip and bleeding gum from where his tooth was knocked out all but completed the picture.

Without even turning around, the man quickly stumbled down the corridor, his lower half naked, as if he was fleeing from the devil.

Quickly glancing at his arm, the one that he thought had been torn off, he was surprised to see it was still there. A faint scent of urine wafted into his nose yet he was too injured and frightened to think anything of it. All he wanted to do was leave this place and never return.

Just as the man was about to disappear behind the curve in the corridor, leaving a trail of blood in his wake, Nyx finally appeared at her cell's door.

Her dark, blue eyes glared as if trying to burn a hole in the fleeing man's back.