“It is time.”

“But Master Inoxion…”

“NO EXCUSES! Do you have any idea HOW LONG I have been waiting to do so ever since the Creator came by and create such a havoc by forming the other Elemental Planes in this realm?” “Yes, your humble servant understand the history. However the Light is taking another strategic move against our favour. He suggests that…”

Before the little creature finishes his “Suggestions” to the Great Darkness, he was impaled by a strike of crystal-like object, through the soul of his. The shadow fell to the ground, his shape slowly dissolves and was consumed by the Great One.

“I will not repeat this again. I want all of the Necromancy Sector to move. NOW! I DO NOT WISH TO SEE ANOTHER SCENCE AS SUCH!”

The 9th Lord immediately moved away from the scene. I heard him mumbling about lack of enough Condensed Shards to revive the Necromancy units as he rushes outside the room. Screams soon followed as he disappeared from the room.

“He should have understood that any lack of substance can be given by Me. The audience need not worry of him, I merely scratched his Soul to remind him this. Whispering behind my back is a terrible habit that any of you should not own.”

A great sigh of relief came from the crowd.

“The Great One. I wish to speak.”

This came from the 8th seat. It was Lexy, the ruler of feelings. Jealousy, Anger, Envy are all under her strings. Any form of living with these feelings can be controlled by her strings.

“Permission Granted. What do you wish to discuss?” “The 4th Lord, Cyrix, he is invading my land. I wish the Great Shadow will settle this once and for all. Fear is a feeling and yet it is separated from my control, why is the ruler of fear ranked above many other rulers here when he is also but another feeling? He is using his power as the 4th Lord to take over more land for himself, that Broglosish Mogntinide!” “Not true, my Lord. We have spoken many times on this. Fear is something essential for the Darkness to grow and to feed on. Fear is what drives Darkness forward, other feelings only supports us, giving us the control over them.” “Quiet, you sly fox! Don’t you argue! Why then are you taking over my land?” “I am not.” “You are!” “SILENCE! KNOW YOUR PLACES!”

The room became silent. The two Lords sat down.

“Lexy, as Cyrix have clearly stated this, Fear is essential. In many of the other sources of Darkness Power, fear is needed to grow them. Ask the 12th Lord, Nightius. He rules the Dreams of others, and we only bring one dream to everything: Nightmares. Nightmares brings about Fear, and we capture Fear to empower ourselves. We use Fear for many spells, potions and many other things. Your position is as important as anyone sitting in this room. All 25 lords are given a purpose; soon the 26th will join us, and to bring about a new field in Darkness we have never seen before. If you all are still to argue over such pointless subjects, you should know the outcome. For your land, Lexy, I’m doubting you are stating the truth. You have lied to us, all of us, many times. You should also know I can see how time speaks the truth, I can call the 3rd to show us how it really turned out.”

Lexy showed signs of fear as the Grand Master spoke about using the Time Progion. She stayed quiet for a few minutes and her face shows she has given up.

“True, Lord. I will not do so again.”

The Grand master shakes his head. He brought out a flask of greenish liquid and showed it to Lexy.

“Lexy, you should remember what the Agreement states, don’t you? You need not to answer, for it is of no importance. However, I need to take my position as the Judgement in this Plane. Lexy, take the Trial and let it decides your fate.”

I have seen this happening many times before. The last time this happened was when the previous 5th Lord, Ruler of Mythical Creatures, fought with Lexy. Every time the Grand Master has to step in to settle out fights within. Ever since Lexy took the position of 8th Lord she has been fighting over position and power, wars often break out and the Grand Master do not like this. After getting tired of resolving such issues every time He set The Agreement on wars and battles. The Agreement states If war and battles occur within the Plane and is not due to the influence of Light, any party responsible of it will undergo the Trial, and let Trial decides whether the party loses its’ soul or live. The Trial is a very complicated process that I will not describe, however the main even in this Trial is that it involves the Potion of Trial, recipe known only to Him. Drinking this will grant the user either immense power for a short time or instant death, but likelihood of receiving death over the other is higher.

Lexy has underwent this Trial many times, more than I can count and she has always be lucky so far. Due to her luck, many of the rulers are starting to brew the thoughts of the Grand Master favouring Lexy due to her being the only Female ruler in the Plane of Darkness. However I know this is not the truth. Most of the beings in the Elemental Plane are Souls of creatures and most of them are humans like me. There are some, though, that are not of any types of beings. Grand Master is an example, The Creator is another. All of these are not of any beings known to any, they are not bounded by Time and Space, and they have no identity except of what they wish to be. Most importantly, they have no such things as feelings. That also means, grand Master has no such ability to favour others due to their gender or other fields, it proves that what the others speaks of are untrue.

Lexy took the potion of Trial, she first smiled as there were no effects as she finished it. She handled the empty glass back to Grand Master and sat back to where she was.

She was wrong about the aftermath.

The moment she sat down her face started to decay, her smile begin to vanish from her face and slowly the entire body was enveloped by a greenish mist. Everyone looked at her, I can also see grins creeping up on some faces. Lexy finally has received the Word of Death through the Trial, after so much luck she had she deserve something greater than this. The Grand Master looks unpleased as well, perhaps he is thinking on the same minds as I do. I’m connected to Him through the Contract and also due to my bloodline, so it is reasonable for Him to.

None spoke a word as we awaits the mist to clear, a white soul drifts out from it. The Grand Master stretched out His hand and capture the soul, He then stuff the Soul in a glass bottle.

“She deserve this fate long ago, but somehow the Trial made favour upon her, and it happened more than once. She will not be as others who have their soul destroyed by me, but I will prepare a new punishment for those as such. You have my words, all who sits here.”

Some whisperings can be heard from the 25 seats and silence followed.

“Now we move on to something more serious. Since you all have seen, the 8th position is now empty thanks to the past ruler being a perfect failure. It is time again to renew the positions of 25 Lords in the Plane of Darkness.”

I start to hear different rulers whispering on shuffling themselves to a higher position than they are now. Apparently they have forgotten the few important notes of being a specific ruler of the specified position.

“Now. We all know the rules of specified rulers need to follow upon. I need to show all of you something first. Innight, it is time to show yourself. Please explain everything to them, I’m tired after dealing with Lexy.”

I heard my name being called and instructed an action by Grand Master. I moved from the behind of His seat and present myself to the other 24 Lord of the Plane of Darkness.

“I’m Innight. A human that is bound to Lord Inoxion as signed by the Contract and by relation. Before any of you ask, I will explain everything as Master wished to.”

There is some disturbance within the seats from where I am. I understand what they are thinking. The Grand Master does not simply allow anyone in the Meeting Room, or otherwise known as Gathering Room unless they are either allowed entry to deliver commands, or they are of great power that they are able to hold a seat within the 25 Rulers of Darkness.

 “I was initially similar to any normal human, believed in the false illusion that Light has granted upon the Physical Realm. As I grew older, however, I find discrepancies within the results of what I asked for and get in return. I also found something was calling me, a sound that I have not heard before, in the back of my mind. I followed the instruction the voice gave me, and discovered the truth of the “Religion” was nothing but a false illusion created by the Light in this place in attempt to strengthen their numbers. I sacrificed my mind, my left arm and most of my blood for more information and to earn respect for the voice after the voice revealed its’ identity. It was Lord Inoxion who saved me from the Deepth Chambers that the Lights has placed upon that Realm.”

“After I sacrificed so much, I knew I had signed the Contract. We are now bound by it, and I gave Lord Inoxion the usage of my mind and soul. After I signed the Contract He told me the reason of why He came onto the Plane and why me instead of billions other candidates. He told me of the story of the Elemental realm and Physical realm and many other stories. Most importantly, he told me a secret of His past. This, He told me, I have to ensure complete secrecy until the time comes by for me to complete the story. This is the time for me to reveal the past.”

“Back before the Creation, Master Inoxion exist in the vast Void that envelops Everything. He was alone in The Void with His entire self intact. If you are intelligent enough you should be able to guess what is the entire story, if not, please listen on. Then at a point of Time, The Creator came into existence. A problematic matter, The Creator was, It felt that the Void is too empty, and decided to bring liveliness into the Void. A poor choice. Ignoring Master Inoxion existence, The Creator brought upon the 5 Elements into The Void, ignoring Darkness. Master Inoxion was disrupted by them as they interrupted the long silence He has always enjoyed, and also the fact that another type of Special Beings exist in Everything annoyed Him. He soon found that The Void is no longer as it was, and because the Creator ignored Master, there was no place for Darkness to hold within the Everything. And since Light illuminates the Void and enables the Creator to see His Creations, he let Light to be the centre of Everything, and He called this place the Elemental Realm, a place where the 5 Elements exist and each element holds its’ respective creatures within the Plane of its’ own.”

“Master was in a blaze of fury when He heard this. The Creator finally took notice of Master and remembered that Darkness came before he existed, overseeing The Void for countless timelines and infinitely long. He let Master to be the other Element that resides in the centre of the Elemental Realm, beside the Plane of Light as Master is a representation of Darkness of The Void. Master is still unhappy over the fact that the other elements are created within The Void, but since Master also has His place in the Elemental Realm He decide to let this matter slide, for now.”

“Now we all know Light is an enemy to us, the Creature of Darkness, but there is actually a reason behind it, not because it is natural. When The Elemental realm was created, all the Elemental Creatures are only seeking for one thing: Power. The more power you have, the greater the amount of followers you will have in the Physical Realm. I will explain about the Physical Realm later. The only way to gain power is to grow and expand their boundaries beyond what they have, either by excavating through The Void, which is a dangerous unless you are a Void Elemental or Creature of Darkness, or by conquering the territory of the other Elemental Planes. Wars and fights often broke out between the different elemental Planes because of this, but Master did not start any fights, partly because He has the greatest power within all the Elementals as He existed before any of them did, all regions of The Void is under His power, even though His Plane is considered small as compared to many. The other reason is because He knows that a tint of Darkness always exist within the heart of beings in the Physical Realm, there is no need for Him to gather more supporters, just let the Darkness within their hearts grow and eventually they will become a member of Darkness.”

“Most Elementals are intelligent enough to realise Master is much more powerful than they are, and they stayed away from the Plane of Darkness, so they remain neutral to us. The Element that exist right beside us, however, feels that it should be the centre, not sharing it with us. The Creator still exist back then, not interrupting since He feels there is no need to as these battles will often break out within creations and new introduction of objects. Such battles stabilise the future relationship between the Elemental Planes, or so he thought. Light was the second strongest element in the Elemental Realm at that time, first being us, the Darkness. But in the eyes of the Light, they are the strongest as it has the largest portion of size relative to others, while Darkness is one of the weakest. They begin a battle on Master, at that point in time most Elemental Planes has their own Creatures created, while Darkness only contain Master Himself, this gave Light an indicator that Darkness is weak and hence they started the attack.”

‘I was there on the day of the battle. Some of you may be wondering how am I there since I’m a mere human, I will explain this soon, let me continue the story. The army of Light came in thousands, a brilliant and dazzling sight to my eyes, blinding me. “How disgusting those creatures are, forgetting they were born from the Darkness itself and wanting to dominate over us,” Master told me. As the Light’s army reach the edge of Plane of Darkness, a wave of The Void washed out the army and consumed them, I see them losing the bright aura with them and they turned gained a Dark Aura in return, their shape were twisted into various forms. This was the creation of the first few Creature of Darkness. The thousands of Light’s army slowly turned into thousands of Creatures of Darkness, our numbers became far greater than theirs and they have no choice but to retreat. That was the first time battle between the Light and Darkness happened, and very little records is left about it, the Light twisted this story and told their new Creatures and Servants that those were spies sent by Darkness to convince them that Darkness is evil, when ironically the true evil is themselves.’

“Of course, seeing how Master fought in the battle against Light the other Elements that intended to fight us had nullified the idea, and Light was not satisfied with the result. They begin to send spies to find a method to infiltrate the defence set by Master, little did they know what will happen to those spies at the very end. Master let the spies in on purpose and he set up a trap to capture them, forcing them to reveal their true identity. Master tortured them until He squeezed out all the details He can find about Light, and He let them off on one condition: Do not speak to The Light about them telling Master about Light’s secrets, if they did not follow this condition, the curse He inflicted on them will activate, killing everyone that listened and heard about this, including themselves.”

“As we all know, in the Elemental Realm, if you get killed you will vanish entirely from existence, your soul will be extinguished of its’ energy and you will cease to exist. So this is a great cost for the spies, and they were set free. Just minutes after they left I observed the Death Symbol hanging in the Plane of Light, I knew immediately that the spies were not able to obey the instructions given, and through Clairvoyance I see millions of souls were flying towards Plane of Darkness. Now, most of you do not know this, but Master can consume souls before they are extinguished and vanish, this also grows His strength. The sheer amount of souls being consumed by Master at that time was massive, I was also allowed to have a feast with Him due to far too many souls were present at the time. Be patient, I’m coming to the part of describing what I’m actually is.”

“The Creator took notice of what is happening in the Plant of Light and he traced the origin back to us. He feared that we will eventually grow into a threat that will destroy the other Elemental Planes, hence he formed 2 new Elemental Planes that has now ceased to exist, Chaos and Order. He diverge all his powers to the 2 Elements to ensure they can overthrow us when required, but he forgot that Master is not a Creation of His, and he underestimate His power. Master can create as the Creator did, but He is satisfied with the way things are before the Creator stepped in and create the havoc you see now, Master can do many other things but he was satisfied the way things are before all this mess came by, that is how powerful our Lord Inoxion is.”

‘Back to where I was, The Creator launched a full scale attack on us, with all the Elementals against us. Chaos and Order, this two Elements, are not what I, and all of you here well, have seen before. Chaos Element is just like Poison Waters, except it turns everything it touches into new Creatures one never seen before and it obeys Chaos commands. “This Element has great potential if it falls under our commands. We just have to win this battle first and we will settle on how to get this Element under our control.” Lord Inoxion told me. Order was an Element almost identical to Light, except it has some influence on The Void nearby. When Creatures of Order comes near The Void, it seemed to erase the Void’s existence of that location. This is something that Light cannot do. “We might have some trouble on this one. We will have to observe this Element further before we can launch out an attack on them. This Element can become a potential ally of Light and I will NOT allow this to happen.” Lord Inoxion stated.’

“The fiercest battle ever recorded or seen happened before me, Master wiped out the 4 other Elementals at a fast speed to such a low number that they are forced to retreat or their entire Plane will be destroyed and become ours. Only Light, Order and Chaos were still attacking, Master is getting exhausted as Order is protecting everything and it gets more difficult to strike any targets when they are little left, Chaos is always creating more targets and it appears to be protecting a Core within the army, but it is too difficult to strike it with Order around. Within 6 hours, Master exhausted all his power with the 3 Elements still at full strength. The Creator saw this and he tried to destroy Master with all his might, I positioned myself right in front of Master and took the blow. I survived the attack, and the Creator severely weakened himself through this. I performed Trasquilitic Denecta on him, destroying the Creator. The moment Creator was destroyed Order suddenly lost their power and was overwhelmed by The Void within the Plane of Darkness. Light saw this and quickly fled, leaving Chaos as the last opponent. I found a location that originates the Creatures of Chaos and isolate a purplish sphere from there, the Creatures of Chaos suddenly all started to melt away into The Void. We finally won the battle, but at a cost.”

‘”That was foolish, Innight. As a piece of Shadow, and a Special Being, you should not have done that. Even though you are same as me, if not stronger, you should not take that attack. You should know what is the consequence of doing so, I would need you to rebuild this entire Elemental Realm, you could help out in ensuring the entire Elemental Realm is in proper position and if you can, reconstruct the entire Elemental Realm to be at least peaceful place where no war or battles should ever occur.” I remembered Lord Inoxion told me so.’

‘“I know, and I will return here one day. I may not be able to recognize you and the history of events that has occurred, so when the day arrives that you should see me again, revive the Shadow you see now. Try to keep the entire Elemental Realm under control, and if you need to, raise rulers within the Realm to help you out to strengthen us. I can be sure that Light is not going to be delightful from this event, and they will not end the fight anytime sooner, as far as I can see on the Time.” I replied to Him.”’

‘”Indeed. I also heard from the spies that they are setting up a new base in the Physical Realm, something about using the emptiness of Human’s soul and create a false illusion called “God”. Your soul will be banished there for a few thousand years before you will be reformed as Human, your powers will remain but you cannot use them. Since you won’t have any memories of this Timeline I will have to find you and trigger your memory back, you are also likely to fall for the trap that Light has set, I will see what I can do when that point of Time is reached.”’

‘”Well, looks like my Time is up. To the Fixed Point in Time that we will meet again, Lord Inoxion.”’

‘”Farewell, Innight. When the Point arises I will pay the Physical Realm a visit. It seems that is an interesting place as well from what I’ve heard.”’

“That was my history. After that I knew about nothing that happened in the Elemental Realm, and I had no memory of the History that I had went through, until Lord Inoxion came and rescued me. This is my story.”

I heard some of them whispering of doubts whether my story is the truth. Indeed, I myself initially did not believe what the Grand Master told me since I was but a mere human. Yet I always feel something is hidden within myself, a power signature stronger than anything I have felt before. It is true that Special Beings retain their power even when they are banished and reformed into other life forms, but they are usually unable to use their powers as it will be sealed until another Special being comes by and breaks the seal.

As I think about what will happen next, the grand Master rose from his seat.

“Now everyone has heard about him, let us start the discussion on the reshuffling of the positions. As always, we use a test through your strengths and see where you lie. Innight will not be participating as he has yet to unseal the powers he holds. He will be by my side as an assistant until I can figure out how to break his seal.”

Everyone seems to be in agreement on this order that Master has given. As everyone drew out their source of weapon, an alarm sounded. This means Light is delivering its’ daily round of battle towards us again.

Except the alarm sounded familiar. It sound like an alarm clock rather than the Ghoulish chime we often hear. I wonder is it because all I’m seeing now is a dream?

“Innight! You are not going to be late for school again are you?” A familiar voice came from a distance away.

No… This can’t be. All this is only a dream, I cannot accept this fact. I have little chance to escape this stupid reality that has been forced onto me, why can I not have the chance to stay away from it forever?

I felt a blow on my head. The images of the Grand Master and the other rulers turned blur and vanished, a bright ray of Light broke out from The Void, I’m forced to open my eyes to see who delivered this surprise.

“Morning, Innight. Now can you please hurry up? Everyone is already dressing up and on their way to school!” The face of my “Friend”, Maningson, dropped into my field of vision, with his disgusting face beaming.

I only replied one thing.

“Shut up, you just ruined my entire day.”

All that before was just a dream, I still cannot believe that. Maybe there is a hint of whatever that had happened left here somewhere else, I will look for it once I return, but now I have school to attend to.

“That alarm clock of yours is useless, Innight. You never wake up according to it, you either wake up so early that everyone is still asleep or so late when everyone is going to school!”

“Quiet, Maningson. You have ruined my entire day so stop ruining everything else.”

Sometimes I don’t understand why do I still tolerate this “Friend” of mine. He is complete failure, a walking presence of pure nonsense of the entire Human population. There is not one day that goes by without him giving me nonsense to destroy my mood for the entire day. Just his presence irks me, and the worst is that we are roommates, which gives him more chance of disturbing me throughout the day. If I can, I would have cleaned up this mess that Luck has created by chance, but I lack of the power to do so.

It seems I have forgotten something very important, I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Innight, a male human, 18 years old, currently studying in a highschool known as Rescendant High School. Just as many students do, I have the same fixed routine for nearly every day, different from others is that I live within the school with my roommate, not with my parents at home. There are reasons that caused this to occur, but it is unimportant now. The same situation applies to my roommate, but unfortunately for me he is not someone I could get along with.

As we walk along the corridors of the bunks, I saw many who were just dressed and get ready to move to school. I immediately guessed this was a joke from Maningson, I turned around to get my revenge on him but he had vanished. He may be nonsensical, but in terms of common sense and basic intelligence he seems to be perfectly fine, which produced his disgusting character that many hate.

I sighed. I took out my booklet and record down a reminder to get my revenge back sometime today on him, once that is done I took a stroll towards my classroom. As others slowly stream into the classroom I took notice if any of them wore the Sign, a symbol that identifies themselves as the member of Darkness, then I remembered this Area belongs to Light, showing that is a foolish move. Yet I feel someone is watching me, as if they knew my identity as a member of Darkness. I may need to observe a few targets just in case.

The class started as normal, ended as normal. The break then came, I took advantage of this time to look for a teacher, named Mister Lavinsky, who first introduced me to the Elemental Planes and the rituals associated with them. I first head to the Occult Research Room, normally Mr. Lavinsky does his study and practises his magic there. This room was created because of the abnormal amount of supernatural and Elemental magic is observe in our school and students are interested to know more about these. The principal initially denied the request but after parents begin to send their request in as well the Principal agreed to build this room.

I found the room, but it is locked. This is common as such rituals are not meant to be interrupted, furthermore many people who do not believe the existence of the Elemental Realm will find his actions strange and mock him, to indicate we are a friend to him we developed a system for identification. I knocked on the door twice, said ”Nightius” and knocked the door another 3 times, followed by my name and told him I have to tell him what I have seen this morning in my dreams.

A crimson red glow came from the room and diminished, I heard footsteps coming towards the door and locks being opened, the door then swing open and in front of me stood my favourite teacher: Mr. Lavinsky.

“Well, Innight, you are always welcomed to meet me. Come in first and we will discuss what happened.”

I followed him into the room and stared at the floor. A magical circle that I recognize is there, within the circle I see the symbols of Darkness drawn with it, there were also blood stains on some of the regions.

“Excuse me, Mr. Lavinsky, but what are you trying to do before I interrupted you?”

“Well Innight, you do know that Element of Darkness is the strongest within all the Elements in the Elemental Plane, and they often require work to be done here to recruit more member of Darkness for the future. I’m a follower of them, and often I need to replenish my supplies of Magic. This magic circle is a form of communication between us and them.”

“Indeed, but I know this circle. This is actually used for sending object through the Realms or for signing contracts. Mr. Lavinsky, are you… Never mind, that is not my point here today. I need to tell you what I have seen today morning.”

I spent the next 20 minutes describing what I have seen in my dreams to Mr. Lavinsky. When I finished, he seemed to be surprised.

“I see… So this means your dream is likely to be true and will come true in some point in Time. You followed my path into the study of the Elemental Realm and performed the Forbidden Rituals that I forbid you to. I’m still furious upon that incident but if the rituals did do their work, I should have done it long ago, I have already destroyed all documents relevant to it. If my memory serves, what you see is probably going to happen somewhere along today to tomorrow, but before that I have to tell you something as well. The rulers of Darkness told me Light is doing something here tomorrow, they will be coming here as well to observe and disrupt them if necessary. If your dreams are true, then be prepared, tomorrow will be a rough day for everyone.”

After Mr. Lavinsky told me these, the bell rang. I have to bid farewell to Mr. Lavinsky and return to my classroom. I cannot focus on the lessons after what Mr. Lavinsky told me. His last sentence echoed in my head over and over again, making me worry greatly on what will happen tomorrow.

End of lessons and finally time to head back to the dormitory. Maningson continued to bombard me with all his nonsensical might but I ignored him, Mr. Lavinsky do not give warnings to anyone unless it is a very serious matter, great enough to cause widespread damage. That night I went to sleep with uneasiness in mind.

When I woke up, it is already morning. I looked around at my alarm clock, it gave a nonsensical reading of time, and the reading is worded using strange symbols that I don’t understand. I looked at the surrounding, the entire dormitory is empty, and screams were coming from outside the dormitory. I drew up the window near my bed, and saw the sky coloured with Crimson, Magical circles are appearing from various places outside the dormitory with Creatures I’ve seen before appearing from them.

I quickly realised what is happening. The event that Mr. Lavinsky described is happening now, and it appears that the Creature of Darkness is protecting this dormitory, judging from the amount of barriers being set up here. Some distance away I can see a gigantic portal with numerous Light Creations pouring out of it, and they are heading in the dormitory’s direction. On the ground I observe the carcasses of various students and Creatures, some are currently being slaughtered by the Creatures of Light.

Suddenly my room’s door flew open and in shot Mr. Lavinsky. He rushed in and quickly sealed the door with a spell.

“Mr. Lavinsky! This is the event you have been telling me isn’t it? What is exactly happening here?”

Mr. Lavinsky took a few deep breaths to cool himself down, then he told me:

“Indeed this is the event. The Light were here to find the Piece of Shadow that has been reformed as human, they knew that if Darkness laid their hands on it they will complete their strength to back how they were back in the war against The Creator. The initially just wanted to cleanse the Piece and turn it into a Piece of Light, however after it backfired and the Piece corrupted their cleansers, they then changed their plans to destroy it instead. The Darkness heard of this news after I reported to them yesterday and decide to launch an attack here as they know the Piece is here. Their job today is to drive the Light away from this location and cause them to lose their position on this location. They will come back to claim the Piece and take it back to where it belongs after they have driven back the invasion.”

“The current situation is that both sides know the Piece is in this very dormitory and the Darkness is using all its’ force to protect from the Light getting their hands on it. Light, on the other hand, is trying its’ best to infiltrate the Darkness’ defence, many people have no idea what is happening in this dormitory and went out, all those are now souls that will take theirs paths in the Elemental Realm. Since none of the sides, even myself initially, have any idea which human is the Piece, the Light is killing every student they can find while Darkness is protecting everyone with its’ best abilities. Even with that, Light is gaining an advantage as this is their territory. I want to help the Darkness, but the commander told me to protect everyone in this dormitory instead. You are the very last person surviving in this dormitory, the others are either already dead or they reached the school, which is safe from this attack since it has no interest to both parties now. You must be the Piece, judging by the situation and your dream’s prediction, so I need to protect you with everything I have.”

“I see. I also see my clock is running wild, did the Light tried to reconfigure the Timeline and Spatial definition here?”

“It appears so. When I initially entered the dormitory my clocked also went haywire, I used my various measuring equipment and all showed signs of abnormality. Light was trying to prevent anything else from disturbing them for this invasion, but Darkness was prepared after what I told them yesterday, they got in before Light tried to distort the Time and Space within this region and got themselves a few portals before Light has the chance to disable them. This probably wouldn’t end anytime sooner until either side completely exhaust their strength, luckily since Time is distorted in this region we wouldn’t have to worry about being late for classes or lessons. Unfortunately as well, this means we will have to suffer complications like travelling through Paradoxes created by such an event.”

While I’m talking with Mr. Lavinsky, chains of explosions and screams came from outside the building. I can no longer tell the difference between reality and ideality, this scenario is supposed to be idealistic, yet it is happening in the real world now. If the beginning of my dream has come true, this also means…..

“Mr. Lavinsky… This was in the beginning of my dream, if this has come true, this must mean that the rest…”

“Agreed.”

A blinding light came from outside the window, it was then tainted by crimson and it vanished. A magical circle started to form in the middle of the room. A dark purpled coloured circle, this must mean that Darkness has driven Light away and won this battle.

Out from the circle a human stepped out. I recognize the face, it is the 7th Ruler of Darkness, Ringulus. Ringulus is also known as the Ruler of Void, Lord Inoxion assigned him to ruler over the entire Void Elemental Plane which is under control by the Darkness Elemental Plane.

“Good work, Mr. Lavinsky, or should I say, Nightius?”

I cannot believed my ears. Mr. Lavinsky is Nightius? The 12th Ruler of Darkness, who controls over the Dreams of others and twisting them into Nightmares? I must have been blind to not see something so obvious.

“Don’t say that, Ringulus, especially not when we are in the presence of my favourite student. There is nothing now to hide though, now that he knows he is the Piece we are looking for.”

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Mr. Lavinsky” took out a piece of Dark Crystal and threw it into his mouth and chew it. His greyish coloured hair turned red, his wrinkles on his face melt away, his hands turned into fangs. These are characteristic of only Nightius have. He was borned with abnormal human features, his eternal life of despair caused him to turn towards Darkness as the source of comfort, and Darkness eventually accepted him as one of the rules of Darkness. He is now the ruler of Dreams as he strikes Fear within others, but others do not show fear until he creeps into their dreams.

“Now what should we do, Ringulus? We cannot just take him away now, look at all this casualties here and the damage incurred. We have to clear up this mess and also report back to the Master.”

A Magical Ring of Communication suddenly opened up from the middle of the room. A deep and dark voice came from it.

“Does this thing even work? Nightius, Ringulus, if you hear me, reply!”

I felt a shiver down my spine. Suddenly I feel the need to move closer to the circle, so much that I started to walk towards it without control. Ringulus quickly took hold of me before I moved any further.

“Yes, we can hear you well. We won the battle and found the Piece, he is very eager to meet you now, but there are far too many casualties and the battlefield is in a mess. What should we do now, Lord Inoxion?”

I was right. That voice belongs to the Great Shadow of the Dark, the Void before Time, The Creator of Creation. I’m looking forward to the day I meet him, and finally leaving this disgusting world of Light.

“I’m reaching the place soon. Do not do anything until I arrive. The Light is not going to back off so easily, they are bound to return soon with greater force.” The circle then closed by itself, the three of us were silent for the next few minutes.

A huge magical circle appeared in the sky, the symbol in the middle signifies the Darkness itself.

The Great Shadow of Darkness has arrived.

A strange being that most would have never seen before descend from the Circle, behind him is a massive building. I would guess that is Lord Inoxion and his entire Castle. He must have thought that he would need many items to fight against the entire army of Light and its’ rulers, should they appear.

As soon as the building touched the ground, Nightius broke the seal he placed on the door, he grabbed my hand and rushed out the dormitory.

“Lord Inoxion! I’m glad you have arrived!”

Lord Inoxion seems unpleased for some reason as I can feel a dangerous aura being emitted by him at that moment. Nightius seems to be unaware, however, of this fact.

A red soul seems to form between the hands of Lord Inoxion, he grasped it tightly. Nightius suddenly collapse to the ground, howling in pain.

“How imprudent. I told you not to do anything and what did you just do? The Light have left us surprises before and I’m relieved that they did not leave behind anything for spying on us. If they had you would have just ruined all the efforts you took to protect the Piece.”

Lord Inoxion then turned towards me.

“I see… So that is how it all came to be. Innight, if that is your name, you have already know why I came here, who you are, and what should be happening next, aren’t you?”

I quivered a little. All the images that went through my mind where coming true, one after another. This is something I would have not expected to see while I’m alive. A dream that is to come, a reality that has yet to be.

“Yes, my Master. The picture is not complete but the timeline is intact. I do wish, however, to ask for but one little favour. Can Master please grant me a potion recipe and the stabilizer? I need the recipe for “Forgoing Memory”. I need the potion to destroy one of my arch-nemesis’ memories about myself.”

Master’s eye begin to flinch, this is a sign that he is thinking and weighting the decisions.

“I will grant you the items that you wish to have. We need to brew these potions as well to sprinkle over this entire area so people will forget what they see here today. I never thought the Light will take action so quickly on this matter, I initially decide to leave you here longer, but since they are intending to bend towards destruction, you are too dangerous to be left here with the seal still on you. I need to stay here and ensure Light lose their control over this area before I can leave. I will not be taking you now since they are more important matters on the Elemental Plane itself I have to take care of. I will come back soon to take you once I’ve settle out the matters over there.”

With that, He took out a scroll that appeared from his hand and gave it to me. He then turned himself towards his castle. Before he took a step, he told me this:

“Also, I’ve just broke the first layer of the seal. You should be able to perform simple magic now, this should allow you to build your own stabilizer.”

He then vanished into his castle.

Nightius crawled up from the ground, he seems to have recovered from the torture that Master gave.

“That hurts. Lord Inoxion is sometimes too forceful on his punishment. Just send me to the Endless Whirlpool is better than this form of punishment.” Nightius said as he crawled up from the ground.

“Either way, it teaches you a lesson, Nightius. Innight, we have to protect you for the moment until we are sure that Light has lost this place completely. We will do some cleaning up of the area here later and for your school, Nightius will do something about it.” The speaker is Ringulus.

“Indeed. I expect something to be done here, we can’t possibly leave all these carcasses around for everyone to see, and some are bound to have seen the whole incident and survived. Experiencing Paradoxes and Spatial disruption is probably lesser of a concern compared to this. We should try to clear up this mess as quickly as possible, I’ve no idea how long this Field Light created will last, when it breaks the complications will arise, we have little time to lose.” I replied.

Progression was quick. I cleared up the mess within the dormitory to ensure it doesn’t look like a battlefield. Nightius and Ringulus removed the carcasses lying around the entire filled around the dormitory. Master is, all the while, conducting spells within his castle to ensure the Field is intact until our work is done. I can hear him doing so even without being near Him.

“Innight. What are you doing? Get back to work.”

I immediately stopped gazing at His castle and went back to clearing up. All of a sudden a bolt of blinding light crashed from the sky and struck on Master’s castle. I quickly rushed to the window facing His castle. Luckily Master always keep a barrier around it so the castle is unharmed, but the bolt of light kept striking from the sky, making me suspicious of this to be an action by the Light. After another few strikes the thunder strike in the middle of the field and open up a magical circle, the circle shone brightly, so bright that it blinds my eyes, I managed to see the symbols on the circle before it starts to shine.

I was right again.

The light begin to fade and I took a glance of the visitors Light brought this time. These were three humans standing there, rather than the usual creatures that they often bring about.

“The Grand master of Darkness, Lord Inoxion! We, the Holy Trinity, wish to speak to you!”

I nearly vomited. The Holy Trinity is a false image produced by Light to convince humans in the Physical Plane into believing Light as the ultimate Goodness and Darkness as their eternal enemy. How dare such illusions wish to speak to our Greatest Ruler in the entire Elemental Realm! Master will not meet with any other members of the other Elemental Planes other than the Rulers. The last time a General of the Water wished to meet Master, he was nearly destroyed by Master by making such a foolish request.

A sinkhole of The Void was created beneath the feet of the “Holy Trinity”, pulling them into the ground. They struggled and used their staffs to dissipate the sinkhole, but to no avail. The Void is the only weakness of the Light, and is strongly associated to Darkness, even though Light can dissipate our Darkness, it fails to dissipate The Void. We often use this weakness against them to ensure the Light do not go beyond our boundaries. Master’s voice then came from within the castle:

“Fools. You are but illusions created for making the humans a puppet for the Light. You are in no position to call out my name and definitely not to meet me. Call out to your rulers of Light, they are the only ones that I will talk to. If not, I’ll let this sinkhole swallow you all. That will make my job on the Physical Plane in the future easier anyway so there is no lost for me.”

The Holy Trinity then cried out: “The 5 Lords of Light, please stop hiding! The Evil One only wish to speak to you all, and if you refuse we will die!”

I chuckled. Who knew that the Rulers of Light are as such? Light always claims itself to upright justice, a signature of how good is to be, always does things that are the best for the general audience, and all the rest of goodness, this move that they have taken is definitely proving their claims wrong. Pathetic.

Five figures slowly formed near the sinkhole, all human-like. They begin to pull the Holy Trinity out of the sinkhole, but to no avail. Suddenly the sinkhole dissipates on its’ own, and the Holy Trinity were ejected out from it. They quickly teleported themselves out of here.

“I believe this is the first time we have ever meet, Rulers of Light. May I please ask you all to introduce yourselves?” Master said this as he appeared outside the castle.

“Very well, if you wish so, Evil One. I’m Luricerite, the Representor of Light, also known as the Grand Ruler of Light. Beside me are Remius, Plurisia, Aganos and Fluriun. We are the five rulers of the Light Elemental Plane, out motive here today is to know about your intention on The Piece and to know slightly more about the Darkness Elemental Plane, we came in peace and hope to resolve this issue peacefully as well.”

I guffawed at this speech. Luckily I’m in the dormitory, which is far away from the scene, so no one takes notice of me, but I felt Master giving me a pinch from the dark. Light always claims to come in peace and resolve things peacefully, every time, even when they are resolving issues with other Elemental Plane. However it will never end up to be a peaceful solution, a battle is always guaranteed whenever an agreement needs to be made with the Light.

“Not quite right. I remembered many rotations of the Time Progion, and 3 or 4 rotations ago, when the last time I visited the Light Elemental Plane there were 6 rulers, and you were not the Grand Master. Where is the Grand Ruler Resika, the incarnation of Light?”

“Thanks to The Piece, she was corrupted and overcome by Evil. We had to banish her to The Void to prevent her spreading the corruption within our Elemental Plane. What happened to her thereafter we have no idea, but we have gathered news that she is currently in the hands of yours, Evil One.”

“That is to be expected. The Piece is a part of myself, you cannot change something that is of Darkness in nature and is also a Special Being.”

“That is not the issue we wish to discuss. We want to know your stand on the Piece and why do you wish to take your stand. We also want to know our enemy better so we also want to know your rulers of your Plane.”

“You should know my stand on The Piece very clear by now. After all that had happened just moments ago you should know what I’m about to do. I’m taking The Piece and reform it to back to how it used to be. It is also a Special Being and it needs to be treated with respect, same goes for your Ancient Creature of Light, Luricerite. I have 25 rulers in my Plane of Darkness, when The Piece regains its power, it will set itself as the 2nd Ruler of Darkness, giving us 26 rulers in the future.”

“So that is how it is, Evil One. Unfortunately after The Piece corrupted our Grand Ruler we are not able to forgive such a tool of Evil. We have to destroy it to release the soul of our corrupted leader.”

“Impossible. The Piece is not something for you to destroy upon. It is same as me, and has lived as long as I do. Going against The Piece is identical in going against me. If your information is correct, I can trace the soul and recover your leader and release her soul. If you insist on destroying The Piece to do so, I’m afraid I have to take the worst possible action.”

“We knew your decision will be placed on this, but after what The Piece has done it is hard to forget the incident. May we suggest an alternative that gives us some form of control and punishment to The Piece…?”

“I have my decisions set. There is no change to be made. End of discussion. Learn to be magnanimous towards others. Is that not what your Ancient Creature taught you, Rulers of Light?”

I can sense a fight breaking out soon in the region. Light seems to be finding ways to break me, if not to eliminate. Master, on the other hand, is only thinking of protecting me from being attacked or harmed by the Light. When two opposite ideas exist and one of them happens to arise from a party of Light, a fight, battle or even war is guaranteed to happen.

“And so it is. But such Ancient Creatures forgot how as Time moves along, each rotation of the Time Progion new ideas and minds appear while old ones fades from existence. Its’ ideas are long of something in the past that does not apply to us. It appears, then, we have to settle this with a method that never gets old.”

And I was right again. This can be a bad thing, since battles between Light and Darkness is often large scaled and if the Field does not contain the power within this region, the entire city can easily be wiped out. I suddenly heard a rustle from the closet near the door, I went over to take a peak in it, and guess who did I find hiding inside?

“Hello…. Innight…. What is happening here? Why is everyone getting killed?”

That idiotic moron. Of all times to hide in that closet and trying to scare me, why now?

“Louren Maningson. How stupid can you possibly get? This is not the place for you to be and definitely not the right time either. If you want to stay alive please keep yourself rooted to the spot and don’t make any movements. I don’t want you to tell anyone anything about this once you get away from this entire incident alive, do you understand?”

“Yes Innight. But why and how and who and…”

I slammed the closet door shut. Now it is not the time to argue and entertain him with his questions. Once Master and the other Lords left I will have to ensure he forgets everything that happened here, he definitely would have eavesdrop the conversation I had with Nightius, Ringulus and Master, I must not let the secret out or more trouble might arise after this.

First I need to see how Master is planning to deal with the Light’s rulers.

A battle is definitely going to unfold in this region, but it is going to be restricted. First is because most magic doesn’t work in the Physical Realm due to the lack of a Mana Network, only spells independent on Mana can be performed here. The second reason is the damage from conducting such magic is often dangerous and large scaled, the only form of barrier preventing the damage from spreading out into the surroundings is The Field set up by Light some time ago. If the fight gets out of control and breaks the field, the sheer amount of power is more than enough to bring the entire city into oblivion. This brings me to one conclusion: The battle is going to be simple and quick, as the field is getting fragile and may start to break any moment.

“We will do just a very simple battle here to determine the outcome of our discussion. We don’t want to break this field and destroy anything here, do we?”

“Very Well. We shall proceed with your decision.”

I see Master and the Rulers of Light taking out their own weapons through a Magic Circle. They are using weapons to fight this battle, which lowers the risk of breaking the barrier by a significant amount, as long as Master doesn’t use the magic locked within the weapon it should be fine.

The battle begins. Five rulers of Light against our Grand Master, Master is outnumbered, but this does not diminish our chances of winning.  I decide to leave Master fighting while I interrogate Maningson. I need to know how much he have overheard and what is his belief on the situation now.

I heard some mumbling from the closet, I opened it and saw Maningson is curling up like a ball inside. I pulled him out of the closet and slapped him until he uncurled himself and showed his face, all white and blank. From his eyes I can see signs of Fear and Dread, I need to ensure he doesn’t do anything stupid from now on, judging from the amount of noises I’m hearing from outside the dormitory.

“Maningson, get a hold of yourself! You wouldn’t be killed here, not unless you do anything stupid! I need you to answer some questions!” I screamed into his ears.

That blanked face of his suddenly sprung into life.

“Uh… Innight? What is going on here? I must know!”

“Quiet! From this moment I want you to answer me as truthfully as possible and you must NOT leave this room at all cost! I will answer your questions later but I need some important information on you first!”

I questioned him on how much he actually overheard, he told me that he heard everything that Nightius and Ringulus said within the room, he also overheard the voice of Master. This can be a problem later on, if I do not resolve the issue of him overhearing our plans and he gets captured by Light.

I spent the next 20 minutes on trying to explain to him on the current situation.

“So… You are what they called ‘The Piece’? Are you going to kill me because you are evil?”

“No, I’m powerless now. I have 7 magical seals placed within myself, only when one of such a seal is broken a part of my true self is released with the magic sealed within, I will only turn into the real Piece once all the magic seals breaks. I have no intention to kill you as you do not pose any threats to us, yet.”

Suddenly a purple ball of magic broke into the room. I quickly rolled Maningson and myself away from the spell. It touched the closet and the closet disintegrated into dust. Whoever did that probably is unaware there are still some people here.

I took a look outside through the hole the spell created. It appears that it was a spell casted by Master but was deflected by the Rulers of Light. I can see a barrier shielding the five Rulers of Light, it appears to be made of very powerful Light magic and is highly unbreakable. I suddenly hear Master speaking to me through magic.

“Innight, are you affected by the spell? These betrayers seems to have woven a strong barrier using Light magic, it deflects any weak magic I throw at it, I wanted to use stronger spells but that can potentially break the barrier.”

“I’m safe. Though I wish I could use magic, I’m not being particularly useful here. Also, Master, I’ve found a little bug that overheard us. Once we have driven the Rulers of Light away we have to see what to do with him.”

“The seals are preventing your use of magic. If only I knew how to break them you can then help us out. I will personally see the bug later. Innight, I’m going to use Insigma, stay away from any openings in the room.”

I pushed my bed to cover up the hole the spell made and closed the windows. Insigma is an anti-magic spell, it works in by allowing the enemies to breathe it the spell, disabling their ability to perform magic. If the spell is strong enough, the spell can even disable the movement of the enemy. The most important thing about this spell that when it is casted it is not visible to the enemy as no magic circles are formed.

I felt a tap from my back, it was Maningson again. I explained the need of doing all the actions and told him to hold his breath when I signal him to. Just as I finished explaining I felt a blow of magic flowing into the room, which is a sign of Insigma. I quickly signalled to Maningson to hold his breath and I did the same. I heard another blast came from the outside and felt something of great magical power faded. I hold my breath for another minute before I start to breathe normally again. I moved aside the bed and took a peak at the situation outside, Maningson lean towards the window.

The barrier that the Rulers of Light put against themselves are destroyed, instead they are trapped within a dark sphere and immobile. It appears that Insigma worked and disabled the barrier, Master seems to be sending all of them back to the Elemental Realm to win the battle.

“You have won this time, Evil One. You have earned your right to this place now, but this will not be the last time you will see us. We shall meet again soon.”

I heard this message echoing around the field as a crack opened in space and the dark sphere floats into it. Hopefully this is the last time we have to deal with the Rulers of Light in the Physical Realm. Master turned and warped into our room.

“So… you are the little snoop that hid yourself and heard everything. Pleased to meet you, I’m Lord Inoxion, the Grand Ruler in the Plane of Darkness.”

Maningson looked a little shocked, I understand why he would feel that way. Most people associate Darkness with purely evil thoughts, and if anyone overhears the plan of Darkness they will be killed almost immediately. In reality this is definitely untrue, evil is a result of falling into Darkness, but evil is not equal to Darkness. My guess on Master is either he recruit him to be under us or to cleanse his memory on this issue altogether.

“So you are the boss behind all of this? I need to ask something, are you going to kill me?”

“I’m not responsible for the events today, the Light is the responsible party. I refuse to kill anyone without a very good reason, just overhearing our secrets doesn’t make you a thorn at our side and you will be spared from death, but I still need to deliver a punishment for overhearing us when you are not a member of Darkness. I will give you two choices. Option one, you will becomes a part of the Darkness and follow our orders. This is the simplest path and you will need not to suffer anything other than the often battles we have against Light. Your second option is to allow me to eliminate all your memories of today’s event, you will suffer from a gap in your memory bank as a result. Furthermore you will have yourself targeted by the Light as they have noticed you, I do not know what Light will do to you as they are far more evil than I am, that may sound as a hypocritical statement but it is not.”

Maningson walked around the room, possibly weighting the decision. I hope he can become a member of Darkness, as that means I will have someone to talk to about the things in the Darkness Elemental Plane. On the other hand, if he decides to have his memory wiped, he can become a tool by the Light as Light knows how close he is to me, and that makes him a potential danger if left unguarded. Maningson stopped moving, and said,

“I’ve decided to go with option one.”

I’m glad he made this decision. I now gained a friend that we can talk on everything we know.

“Very well, you have made your choice and will not be able to revert it. Open your hands.”

Master took out an amulet and placed it in Maningson’s palm.

“What is your name, the friend of Piece?”

“Maningson. Louren Maningson.”

“What a horrible name, dragging our form of Darkness in shame. I shall give you a new name with your new form. Close your eyes and stand still.”

Master formed a magic circle under Maningson, the amulet in Maningson’s palm begin to glow crimson. Master begin to chant these words:

Today you will leave your previous identity as a human, you now fall under as a servant of Darkness. You will leave behind all your previous names you have been called, and summit yourself to your new name as Luthriel. Forget and remove all the previous Lord you have served, and only serve under my name: Lord Inoxion. You will swear complete loyalty to the Darkness, and refuse anyone who wish you to betray us. I now shall awake you from the Darkness you hide within, into your new form: Luthriel!

Dark purple strips of magic cocooned Maningson, now better known as Luthriel, as Master spoke the lines in The Conversion. When the strips of magic fell off, Luthriel appeared in his new form. He still remain his base as human, but his eyes shone with red light, he wore a dark armour on himself, holding a dark sword in his hands.

“I feel… different. I feel a large amount of power flowing through myself. Is this the power of Darkness?”

“Indeed, servant of Darkness. You are currently of one of the lowest rank in the Darkness Elemental Plane, I’ve only given you a sparkle of energy from Darkness myself. As you prove yourself to be capable and loyal you will rise in position and gain more in power. Make yourself useful enough and maybe sometime in the far future you can earn yourself the capability to earn yourself a seat for the 25 lords of Darkness Elemental Plane. Now if you please, please transform yourself back to normal, we cannot have any member of Darkness showing their true self to any human here.”

The transformation of Luthriel came undone and his human form appeared. I can see the sign of Darkness on his left hand, shaped like the Alpha symbol. (α) He is now officially a member of Darkness, I need to teach him everything about being a member of Darkness and how to behave in this Realm.

“Now I’ve done my work here, I have to leave. Innight, I will be looking forward to the time I can take you back, the same goes for you, Luthriel. There is a reason why I have to leave both of you in this Realm now, Light is plotting on something that we are still unsure about and your job is to figure that out. This entire planet ‘Earth’ is created by Light to create more armies of Light, staying here might give you chances of knowing more information on their plans. Innight, teach Luthriel about the Plane of Darkness and how we work. I need to leave now, the students are returning soon.”

Master disappeared into his Castle when he finished speaking. The entire Castle started to float into the sky, a magical circle begin to form in the sky and the castle flew through it, the magical circle then dissipated. Master also did this just in time as after the magic circle vanished, the Field begin to crack and shattered into pieces which melted into nothingness. I can also hear laughter and chattering coming from distance, I pulled Luthriel into our room. I spent the entire night teaching everything about the Plane of Darkness to Luthriel, we are lucky that rooms in dormitories are restricted to 2 person per room and no one came by to take a look at us.

That night I can’t sleep. First reason is because I have got myself a new friend, and he is one that I can speak to about anything from the Darkness Elemental Plane. The second reason is because of something master told us. In the middle of my teachings to Luthriel, Master suddenly activated my Calling Crystal. He told us, through the Crystal, that there is also another member of Darkness in our class, and to make things more interesting, the member is a female. We are supposed to try to find her and communicate with her, she has found some important information on the plans of Light and she also does not know our existence. She lost her Calling Crystal and master is unable to contact her, nor is she able to perform any spells to form a connection between here to Master’s location.

The night pass by uneasily for me, I sensed a trace of magic in the background of the room. I hope that this is only the left over traces over Master’s magic and not anything else. Tomorrow I have to trace down this girl in my class who is a member of Darkness, she is supposedly a spy for us and she wouldn’t show her Sign openly like most of us do. This may make the job more difficult that I predicted it to be.

The next day I begin to take notice of the movements of the girls in my class. According to Master, she is currently in danger because Light seemed to have identified her as a member of Darkness and is beginning an attempt to eliminate her. We have very little time to find her and protect her, because according to Master, they are going to strike within the next 2 days and they may strike anytime. I’m starting to feel glares from the girls because of my action, I’m feeling that I will receive more hatred from the girls by the time I found the member of Darkness, but I have to do the necessary.

I’ve placed tracking crystals on various girls to track their movements and observe their actions, but none seemed to be out of ordinary. I wanted to do a spell that analyse their mana movements to determine whether they are members of Darkness, however I cannot even perform a single spell due to my seals. Luthriel is unable to perform any spells as well as he is still far too weak to perform spells without a mana pool, I just have to use my crystals to identify the target. This is going to be a hard mission.

Another day passed without anything new to discover. Luthriel also found nothing knew even after scouting around the documents of the teachers and asking Nightius. She appeared to have hidden all information about herself very carefully, as even Nightius knew nothing about her. Nightius warned us there seems be a surge in Light magic around the region, meaning something very powerful is approaching. He also told us that such a spy lacks of enough mana resource and power to perform any spells, so often once they get into any trouble they are unable to get out, thus often spies are a one-time job.

Nothing really happened the next day until around afternoon. At the strike of afternoon, I felt traces of magic around the area and it amplified. A wave of spell suddenly swept over everyone, when it stopped, everyone except me, Luthriel and a girl sitting two seats in front of me froze solid. It seems to prevent any interventions to any human uninvolved with their operation, they performed a spell that stopped anyone that lacks of magic power. I’m both pleased and worried about this move they take. I’m pleased as it simplified my task on finding our member of Darkness, I’m worried as this means we have almost no time left before Light attacks all of us, and we are powerless to defend ourselves.

The girl looked surprised as she see us still capable of moving even under the Light’s spell, I took a good look at her. Golden hair, her heights is around my shoulders, green coloured eyes. She looks like any other human, except I finally see the Sign that she has been hiding all the time. She has been hiding it inside her eyes, a tricky place to find.

“Who are you? Are you members of Light? Don’t’ come near me!”

She seems to be feared that we are members of Light, which is perfectly understandable. I hold up my left palm and Luthriel’s, showing the Sign. Luthriel transformed into his Darkness form to further prove it.

“Worry not. You should know this Sign. I’m The Piece that Lord Inoxion have been searching for, and this is Luthriel, a new member of Darkness. We are instructed by Lord Inoxion to look for you, member of Darkness, to give you a Calling Crystal and to retrieve the information about Light.”

She seemed to cool down a little after seeing the Sign.

“I’m Aquis. You have to help me drive back to Light forces before I can give you the information. All our lives are in danger now.”

“Truth to that. However none of us can perform any magic. Luthriel lacks of a magic pool to perform any magic, and even with one his range of spells is very limited. I’m unable to perform a single spell as my seals prevents me from using them, and I have no idea how to break any of the seals. We are really out of options now, and we don’t even have power to retaliate. I will have to try to contact Master if he can help us, but I doubt he will be able to, judging by how problematic Light is at the Elemental Realm right now. We will have to do as much as we can with our power.”

Just as I finished, explosions came from the walls of the classroom. Various fantasy creatures like unicorns appeared in front of us and some servants of Light appeared before us. Humans-like figures covered by blinding amount of Light, they are of the lowest rank in the Light Elemental Plane. They should be easy to dispel, judging by the amount of power they hold, as long as they don’t come in large numbers.

“Luthriel, I felt a mana pool nearby, try connecting to the mana pool and eliminate these enemies.”

Luthriel closed his eyes and soon he begin to blast the enemies left and right. I hope Light only sent these enemies, if they sent any stronger units we won’t be able to hold out. Unless I can find a way to lift my seals we might not stand a chance against any stronger units.

Just as I thought about this a huge hammer blasted into the room. I immediately recognized the symbol carved onto the hammer, it belongs to a Paladin, we are in real trouble now. Paladin are stiff creatures, they have very high resistance to any magic, and their tough armour prevents any physical damage done on them. They excel in performing Light magic and are capable of destroying anything with their hammer. The hammer flew back outside the classroom, I was about to take a look at the Paladin when a magic circle appeared in the room and it belongs to The Light. Out stepped a human figure covered in white robes. It’s a Mage, a Light mage to be precise. He must be the strategist for this battle.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? All members of the Darkness. We have our spy over here, The Piece of Shadow that is completely powerless, and a newly entered member of Darkness. What an interesting group we have here. My name is Merlin, I’m one of the generals in the Light Elemental Plane and I’m the boss of the entire troop here.”

“Enough with the small talk, Merlin. What do you want?”

“Be patient. We have a simple choice for you to choose from, that will decide your fate. The first option is we will destroy The Piece here, but everyone else will get to live. The second option is we will erase the memory of this spy, hand over us The Piece, that member will get to live. The third option, everyone will die here, or until you defeat us, which is impossible for you. The fourth and most lenient choice, we will convert all of you into a member of Light, and we will destroy The Piece together.”

“I knew it would come to this. So this is, in the end, a trap just to eliminate me?”

“How clever! Yes, this is our plan. You can decide, The Piece, in which way do you wish to die.”

Aquis and Luthriel wanted to speak, but I held them back.

“I will go for the first choice. Spare the rest. If you want me then let this be it, but do not drag anyone who is not relevant into this operation.”

“How magnificent. This spare us from more problems.”

A magic circle appeared under me, chains came out from it and bound me to the ground.

“And now… Time to say goodbye to your friends. No one from the Darkness should ever be spared, as how our Rulers all said!”

I received a shock. Merlin is once known in Legend to be a fair and righteous wizard, how can he fall to be such a despicable person as the Rulers of Light is?

“You are weak, The Piece. Light is always supposed to be the ones that extinguish Darkness. Darkness is the purest form of Evil and must be completely destroyed with its’ core. We Light aim to conquer Darkness and extinguish the very last shadow you Darkness cast. As long as Darkness exist the entire Existence can never be pure, Darkness must be destroyed! And of course, since you all are a member of Darkness, you will all be destroyed!”

I should have known. Any being that has fallen under the influence of Light will have the same mind set as they do. Just as I’m thinking about this, Merlin chanted something and a beam of white light shot towards Aquis, she screamed and cried, eventually she became silent. I thought I saw a dark red orb floating into the staff Merlin is holding, that must be the soul that she has, Merlin must have extracted her soul and use it to power himself. Such evil intentions under those fake words of his, this is how all Servant of Light behaves.

“She is supposed to die in a much gruesome way. I have extracted her soul and will purify it, you should thank me for doing such a wonderful job to save her from the evil that all of you are tainting her. We will give her a new body, a much more beautiful one, with her soul purified, she will get to live a joyous and wonderful life, not rotting her life away in those disgusting Castle of yours.

“You do not… humiliate us! We came into existence far before Light even saw its’ birth, and we even let all the other Elemental Planes to have a share in the Elemental Realm. It is you Light who were greedy of power!”

“You are weak, The Piece. You could not even stand up against the weakest member of Light, let alone me. You could not even protect a single friend that you have! You have no say in such topics! Who came before in the Timeline matters not! In this Timeline, power is the most important! Those that are the weakest deserves to be wiped out, and you, The Piece, is weak, so you will be destroyed! If you want to prove me wrong, defeat me then! Wait, you are weak, so you can’t!” This followed by a series of laughter from himself and the other Creatures of Light.

He is right. I’m weak. I’m weaker than the weakest unit in the Darkness Elemental Plane, I have absolutely zero capability to perform any spells and I have very little physical strength. And yet I’m called The Piece that holds more power than anyone will do. I could not even protect my friends against the single attack that Light delivered. What am I to call myself The Piece when I’m weaker than the weakest? Here this Servant of Light is killing all my friends and humiliating us, I cannot stand this, yet I cannot do anything. The amount of hatred grew in myself, I wish I could kill such a fool who dared to trample upon us.

I suddenly see the 7 seals within myself appearing before my sight, all of them suddenly breaks. I felt a huge surge of power within myself and I begin to transform. Merlin stopped laughing as I turned into a fearsome form. I can see myself through the reflection on the windows. My black coloured hair turned Crimson, my hands turned into claws, vampire fangs hang around my mouth and a black pair of wings appeared behind me. The chains that bounded me shattered and the magic circle dissipated.

“Hm... Maybe I underestimated you a little. But you are still weak, you will never be able to defeat me! Haqious!”

Streams of white light came from his staff and binds on me. I immediately ripped it apart.

“No… that should not be possible! Not even a high ranking member of Darkness has ever broke that spell before!”

“Thanks to you, Merlin, you have really angered me this time. I’m not giving up until I’ve slaughtered every single Creature of Light here. You will pay for what you have done with your soul.” I said this in my new, deep voice.

“Never! Hacuixia!”

 A magical circle appeared under myself and immediately white light swallowed me. I took out my right hand and absorbed all the magic from it, weakening the power until the spell fades.

“Are you done now, Merlin? Now it is my turn to give you a glance what my weakest spell will do.”

Merlin dropped onto the floor and quivered. I love how the look of fear on his face seemed to be.

“Glenoxven.”

Nothing happened for the first few seconds, Merlin started to break into a smile when he suddenly vomited blood on the floor. His eyes and mouths started bleeding, his four limbs withering and diminishing.

“How could this be? Light should always triumph over Darkness, never the other way round! What have you done to me, The Piece?”

“Nothing much, Merlin the fool, you have just seconds to live. I have shortened your life span of eternity into just a few minutes and soon you will be left with nothing but your soul, and rest assured, I will not let your soul rest in peace that easily.”

Merlin’s body begin to twist into a disfigured manner as more blood poured from his eyes and mouth, screams walloped the room. In just a few seconds his entire body rot away into nothingness, and a white orb flew out from it. I stretched out my hand to capture it and I consumed it. The staff shattered into a thousand pieces.

“Now… for the rest of the spectators here… Ruination.”

All the other Creatures of the Light wanted to flee, but they are rooted to their spot, a magic circle appeared from the centre of the class and out stretched thousands of purple hands, each targeting a single Creature of Light and pulling them into the circle. Not before long the entire army of Light was wiped clean.

Aquis seemed to have returned her senses. Her soul was returned to the body the moment I killed Merlin and broke his staff. I turned around and looked at her, both her and Luthriel showed signs of fear on their faces.

“Aquis, you are back. Here are the Calling crystals I’ve promised to give you. Luthriel, get more information from her, I have more important jobs to do.”

I took out some crystals and threw it to her.

“What are you up to, Innight?”

“I’m The Piece, made for destruction and reconfiguration of Existence. I exist longer before anything that you know, do not underestimate me. Now it is time to reconfigure everything you see here once again to how it is supposed to be.”

I’m losing myself. At that very moment I yearned for death and destruction, I hear screams echoing in the back of my mind and I love it, never wanting them to stop. I’m certain at that moment I’m under the influence of my true self, and I’m unable to think normally.

“Innight, stop! The Light’s army has been defeated, you can stop now!”

“I’ve remembered now, what I’m supposed to do. Every rotation of the Time Progion I’m supposed to destroy the entire Existence and recreate a new one. I am to overlook the entire Elemental Planes and remain the integrity of the Darkness Elemental Plane. I am Darkness himself, not Lord Inoxion. Lord Inoxion is a result of Darkness and my power. I’m placed under the seals after I saved Lord Inoxion from the Creator and now I return to where I am. It is time for the world to reformat once again, and it shall start from here!”

I created a magical circle around the school itself. That is a destruction spell, capable of wiping out everything within the circle itself. As destructive as it is, it consumes the user large amount of power, so much that it can potentially kill the user. However I seem to have infinite amount of power stored within myself, so much that I have no trouble keeping up the power consumption. The entire sky turned crimson and the sun turned black, strange dark creatures begin appearing from all around the places. I laughed insanely as I perform the spell, objects begin to melt away into nothingness as time passes. Aquis and Luthriel shivered at their positions and froze at their spot.

A magic circle with the Sign of Darkness opened up in the middle of the room, out stepped Master. Aquis or Luthriel must have used the Calling Crystal to inform him of the situation. Master appeared surprised to see such a large scaled destruction spell performed.

“Innight! Stop it! We are not supposed to do anything until we have learnt what plans they are up to!” Master shouted at me.

“Master, do you know of my purpose? Every rotation of the Time Progion I have to destroy the entire Existence and recreate a new one in its place. I have to do so to ensure that the Timelines and different dimensions do not exhaust the Mana flow and it gets recycled every time. I am already 3 rotations behind for Recreation, I have to perform it now, starting from this school. No worries, all members of Darkness are immune to this spell.”

Master start to take a move and wanted to cast something, but I saw it with the back of my head and froze him.

“What is this, Innight? I’m your Master in the Darkness Elemental Plane!”

“You are my Master, indeed, but that is restricted within the Darkness Elemental Plane. I never belonged to just the Darkness Elemental Plane. I came from The Void within The Gap, I belong to nothing, but you choose to take myself in. Since The Void has the closest association with Darkness I took up your offer, but I have always known for the better that I will have to perform my job when the time is right. That time is now!”

“Innight, you shouldn’t!”

“It is too late, bare your hate against fate for landing yourself in this moment.”

Suddenly I felt my power is being restricted, I faintly see the seven seals appearing again. My spell came to a halt, felt all my power drained from myself, and my transformation came undone.

“I will be back again… Just you wait, I will finish whatever I need to do the next time I awaken…” I spoke these last words before I lost consciousness.