---Maddy---
The road trip continued. It felt strange – it felt like time was passing incredibly quickly but it was also rapidly becoming the longest section of Maddy’s new life.
At night the caravan would stop – many people huddling in as sections puffed out like a transforming RV into bedrooms – they would eat quietly bringing their protectors food and slowly climbing back inside – as if afraid movement would draw monsters. She hadn’t fully noticed it when Renald was here protecting them but monsters came out at night.
Even if they weren’t in a nest, slinking creatures would circle the source of life the caravan posed – and it was her crew's contractual and moral job to fend them off.
In this area everything was tier 1 or so – a soft application of her new spell “sound seeds” was enough to kill nearly everything without leaving the roof…
Everything that could hear her that is. Some monsters didn’t seem to have ears and one or two were defensive enough to shrug off the effect. Those were usually shot by an arrow or two and dealt with.
They also started stopping at miniature towns more and more frequently. Nearly every single one had a similar setup – a ‘massive’ (read tall but not as high as most skyscrapers) tower in the middle surrounded by dozens to hundreds of small buildings. The tower was home to the mage king and the surroundings held by the ‘citizens’ – who all seemed normal but meek. Occasionally scared for no reason and…stifled.
The caravan would stop for an hour or so at each small stronghold, rapidly trade a lot of complicated goods – they weren’t bringing food or anything about instead their wares were mostly marshal scrolls and translators and other magical tools – then continue on.
At one Maddy stepped down and after staring at the tower in the center too long was pulled to the side by a citizen. She was carefully told not to disrespect their god or she would be smote by holy lightning. Another of these cities nearly a day later had every single ‘citizen’ wearing a collar of vines. If they spoke out of turn those collars would tighten as if warning them and presumably they could strangle and kill those who did worse…
That was probably the worst one. Maddy could ever so slightly see the life and death mana contained in those collars. It was close enough to her own affinity she could almost see how they were doing it and it scared her due to the complexity.
Maddy…if she were honest felt kind of off about the situation.
She didn’t want to come in here and push her modern sensibilities on the natives. They were being protected from the monsters and maybe that’s what the world needed? The strong protecting the weak?
Some of the cities really did feel like trading with dictators in autocratic third-world countries.
But she was an outsider. She wasn’t even a part of the trades – just a third party watching from on top of her ride.
At least most ‘citizens’ seemed healthy and well cared for outside of the tyranny? Some of the small cities were truly beautiful – the people happy.
She ended up choosing to turn a blind eye to it – no matter how guilty it made her feel. She chose to close her eyes and enjoy the trip. A tourist.
Some of the cities had dungeons in them – they could have stopped and done another run but…then they would have lost their ride until another came past and as a group, they agreed to see it through to the end.
Finally, on the 5th day they were nearing the end of their route. The caravan would start looping back soon – heading towards Ser once again while passing through a few of the largest cities.
Should they continue? Make another whole loop? Stop at a city or two to try another dungeon? Some of them were rank 2 instead of the rank 1 dungeon they had completed last time.
Currently, they were near the ‘end’ of the zone trundling along towards the city the closest to the edge.
That’s what the natives called the barrier to the next zone. The ‘edge’. It was a massive arcane barrier holding back a monstrous area even worse than the badlands.
Supposedly at least. The barrier had been there so long it was almost legend by this point.
So, what was the best option? Maddy had a goal before they left. She wanted…she wanted to gain a second affinity and it felt like the best time was to do it now before they advanced further.
Considering Troy at least seemed interested in doing so as well – he didn’t talk much but had mentioned how annoying his limited arrows were and how it felt like all his thoughts were on rationing them and collecting them once again.
To complete this goal they had two options – the method for gaining a second affinity was simple enough but not easy. First they had to hold onto a source of mana of the affinity they hoped to gain. A task that was infinitely easier because of her friends. Swap some mana and hold onto it. Without them she would have to find a natural treasure or hire someone to do the donation – considering it would leak away over time it would need to be done quickly and honestly it all sounded like a pain.
Much easier with friends.
They then had to do something worthy of gaining a new skill. Beat a dungeon their ‘level’. Beat the field boss at the center of a nest that was their ‘level’ or higher. Those were the simplest and nearly sure-fire methods of gaining a skill though obviously not the only way.
When gaining that skill there was a high chance it would latch onto the mana they held but didn’t use – a high chance that shifted to 100% if they did something like use some of that mana to land a finishing blow.
After that point they would be…mostly given a skill. The skill would almost be in limbo – not fully theirs because the mana wasn’t theirs.
Then they had to commit. To make it theirs they had to break that skill and give the new source of mana a place to live.
Remove a stat and replace it with this mana. The hardest technical part but also the simplest in comparison to everything up to that point.
For her friends picking would be a more emotional thing. Feeling it out. Relinquishing and replacing their stuff.
For her she could use a spell. She could write down what she wanted – the shape of how she would break her skill.
“So dungeon or field boss?” Maddy asked making sure her friends knew they were in this together.
“I’m…I don’t think I’m going to gain a second affinity” Jess spoke up.
“Really? You heard the advice Renald gave right? A life affinity would synergize incredibly well with your distributed body and tank build.” Maddy asked curious.
“I don’t…I don’t know if I trust that. Besides, if I just need healing I have you. You’re not going to leave me, are you?” Jess asked.
…she hadn’t been planning on it. Had that been what Jess was thinking? She didn’t want to remove her dependency on Maddy hoping that bond would keep them together? Maddy could use that couldn’t she? No! Why was her brain wired wrong. She shouldn’t take advantage of that!
“I’m going to. Removing mind power and body speed” Troy spoke up.
…that was right, they had to figure out which stats they were giving up. They only ‘needed’ to pick one – but the combined element was exponentially stronger than the uncombined one and it would be stupid not to fully commit.
“That’s fine, back around to the original question. Dungeon or field boss?” Maddy asked.
She had to figure out what stats she was willing to forgo.
Really…there were two that made the most sense didn’t there? If she was committing to being a mage, ‘body power’ and ‘body speed’ were the safest to chuck right? Defense was the best body stat to keep even if she didn’t have a lot of it? No...it was better to keep speed. Better to not get hit than to try and shrug off hits right? Getting hit hurt.
“I think…I think we haven’t beaten a field boss yet. Another dungeon would be same old but the achievement for a first-time field boss is probably better right?” Jess spoke up after a pause.
Right, achievements were a thing. Maddy had gotten distracted by magic – it was a good point.
“What do you think?” Maddy asked Troy making sure he felt included.
Starting to nod and then pausing as if gathering courage Troy spoke. “Yes. That’s fine.”
“Perfect, want to help me pick a nest? Only a few by us right now” Maddy spoke up picking out her book and scanning the area.
“Nothing sneaky. I hate the monsters that hide and attack from your blind spot or can confuse your senses” Jess spoke up.
Straightforward request for straightforwardness.
“There’s one…hard to say exactly how far but within a mile or so that’s fire-themed. Lots of burning attacks – even the foliage has fire mana in it. Could also pick this one just past it – it's shield themed and has lots of monsters that look like this” Pointing to her book Maddy showed off the shield monster.
“That one!” Jess spoke up pointing at the defensive nest.
“Alright, that fine with you?” Maddy asked and got confirmation from Troy.
Now how to tell the merchants they would be ditching them here?
…
Maddy and crew got off. The merchants seemed sad to see them go but they were close to the next city and could stay there overnight. There wasn’t always an adventuring party traveling with them after all, they must be able to do so somehow.
All three of them prepared in different ways.
Maddy went over her scythe carefully fixing any smudging on her runework and Troy seemed to be counting his arrows.
Jess walked over to a tree and whipped it several times, each slash leaving grooves in the bark. She then wrapped her whip around the trunk and held it in both hands concentrating. One foot came out and then she yanked her whip towards her – the leathery material cutting through the wood like a string of floss through butter.
The tree was cut in two – the trunk sliding sideways after her void mana guillotined it – and fell to the ground with a huge crash.
…seemed she now had some more offensive capabilities? More a paladin and less a pure tank? Good for her.
…
The crew was ready and began their slightly awkward ritual. Jess and Maddy stood on either side of Troy holding his hands. Jess slowly pushed all of her mana towards Troy aspecting it towards creation. Troy pushed all his mana towards Maddy aspected towards light.
Maddy felt the pump of mana. She could feel it in her body but it wasn’t something she could really control. Even as she watched it seemed to spread out and leak from her skin – her forearm glowing slightly as the mana faded.
Quickly pulling out a charcoal pen she painted a few symbols where the biggest section was located.
'Apply to this apply.' she wrote.
Application was not the best concept for what she wanted – really she needed something like ‘collection’ or ‘storage’ – but her collection concept was a part and not bendable enough to suit her needs. Maybe if she had more time she could sit down and twist it towards that purpose anyways but for now a simple application loop worked.
The mana at least wasn’t fading – even if it didn’t seem to know what it was doing with the spell.
Troy hadn’t needed to write anything down to contain the mana inside of him – he had a look of concentration upon his face however and that wasn’t going away while Maddy was now free.
…she liked her situation more but understood the appeal.
Turning as one they stepped past the invisible boundary of the nest – a sign at the edge with shields and half-filled circles all that indicated something was off.
Deeper into the nest they walked – this one was much much larger than the last they had entered and took a while to show many changes.
The grass – because it was always the grass – showed the first signs something was off.
It was like paths had been pushed through the foliage below them – it pressed down in different random patches each ‘pointing’ in different directions.
When on those patches of grass it was much easier to walk the direction they pointed – it was roughly a doubling of effect. Walking along the grains in one direction was twice as easy. Twice as fast. Walking side to side did nothing and walking against the grains felt like she was walking through molasses. Her body slowed down and struggled against it at nearly twice its difficulty.
Jess seemed slightly less affected by the effect – her defensive stats blocking the directional concept? But enough time was spent on the environment.
The monsters were here.
…
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Four creatures awaited their approach. They looked like a cross between those spiky square blocks in Mario and a monkey.
Each had an almost mirror-like front – a grey that shifted to chrome dead on.
They moved sideways like crabs – always facing towards the group – but for a brief moment when one was getting into place Maddy saw its back was bright pink. A baboon's pink bum pulled up until it covered most of their back.
They were a variation of ‘specialized body’. their back a weak side their front stronger for it. In fact – because they embraced their weak spot so much and tied whatever their concepts were into it so much they were nearly immune to damage from the front. Nearly completely impervious to damage from one direction.
Maddy spoke.
“Apply the seeds of potential on mine enemies”. Her voice carried with it a deadly package. As long as the creatures could hear her it should land…
…The block nearest to her rushed forward at an incredible speed.
“Damn, it didn’t work” Maddy yelped – somehow because they were facing her their concepts overpowered her own. Even if sound should go around them. Even if it made no logical sense they could block sound if their backs weren't exposed…
Magic.
Jess’s whip shot forward and placed a massive yellow barrier in the creature's path.
She was getting better at that – her barrier seemed thicker now that she had broken her skill and could strengthen it.
The first baboon thwomp smashed against the barrier with a sound like shattering glass. It slowed for a second and then sped up once again – undazed.
“Cover me” Maddy yelled dashing forward. Soon she wouldn’t have to throw herself into danger like this – at least not this directly. She didn’t enjoy it. Having to get this close wasn’t fun.
Trying to stick to the grass – Maddy hit a patch and turned sideways running around toward the back of the creature.
…that should have been enough but she wasn’t facing a single monster. Its pack attacked as well – the one on the side rushing towards her from Maddy’s blind spot and smashing into her like a truck.
Maddy was flung. She felt bones break – the impact literally threw her up into the air and for a brief moment she spun, a dizzy view of the entire battle visible before she landed groaning to the side.
Troy shot an arrow – a blinding bolt of energy that actually sunk a teeny bit into the front of one of the monsters.
…all of them seemed to be outmatched. All three of their attacks fell short – was this really an ‘on-level’ area? They seemed so much stronger. As a group…they were falling behind their theoretical strength weren’t they?
Maddy activated her self-healing spell – a simplified version of the spell she used to heal others then spoke as soon as her head felt less dazed. “Fix and hold my body together.”
She didn’t need to be fully healed. She just needed to stick herself together enough to return to the fight – she could feel roots travel around her body. Felt the magic fortifying any broken bits, roots momentarily surrounding and replacing bones.
There, two of the creature’s backs were to her – the monster seemed like something you could only really face in a group. Mentally thanking her friends for distracting them Maddy cast her first spell once more – pushing the last drops of her mana into it.
“Sew the seeds of retribution. Apply the potential to defeat my enemies”. This time the two with their back to her were hit.
The magic travelled through the sound of her voice and into their ears – tiny dormant parasites deposited cleanly.
Another monster was approaching her – seemed the sound of battle had done it – and it was now rushing towards her.
Quickly slashing out with her scythe and calling for the seeds to awaken – the amount of mana she used wouldn’t be that strong for the ‘real hit’ but with how weak their backs were it was enough to kill them.
Tiny maggots swept sideways and then dove into the pink bottom ripping them to shreds with a keening cry.
“Dodge” Jess called seeing Maddy’s back turned towards the 5th monster but Maddy had already accounted for it.
Stepping onto a patch of grass and throwing herself forward Maddy heard the whistle of wind right behind her, the tip of her foot clipped in passing.
Stumbling around she slashed – her blade whipping at the back of the monster and just barely missing.
It wasn’t enough. Maddy’s mana was near rock bottom – the constant trickle just barely refilling what she had lost.
They hadn’t even reached the field boss yet. The ‘alpha’ as some called it.
Why hadn’t they picked a better matchup? Picked a nest they countered better?
…Maddy shook her head. Sometimes you couldn’t control everything. It was good to face more natural creatures sometimes. She didn’t want to lock herself into only being good against squishy distributed tanks like the bulls had been.
Dodging to the side again – Maddy felt like she was being corralled picking the direction the grass moved every time – Maddy suddenly felt a stream of mana begin filling her nearly to bursting – the maggots had finished gorging on the first two deaths and returned to her with their bounty.
Quickly her pool filled to bursting and then the rest of the maggots began filling her scythe – crawling down her arm into the wood where they sunk into collection tanks for later.
A mage was always better when she had mana.
“Apply eggs into grass around us,” Maddy yelled pushing her entire pool into the spell pushing her words and the image in her mind as hard as she could towards bending her spell.
She had briefly thought of it back when she was planning out her current setup – back when testing she found her mana covered all the grass easily the sound rustling and sticking onto the vegetation.
The reason she had moved away from that point. The ‘stick it in grass plan’ was due to how wasteful it was. How much mana the route would take without more concepts to enhance it as an attack vector? Using sound directly had seemed smarter – now she was regretting not including it anyways. There was space on her staff for more spells.
Maddy’s mana bottomed out – a wave of tiny clear eggs deposited on nearly every single blade of grass in the clearing as she did so. Each blade became a host – like a tick clinging to the tip of the blade ready for someone to walk through and pick it up.
Quickly she pulled the ‘on hold’ and fading maggots from the scythe back into her body filling up her pool again.
A sixth monster appeared but was killed by an arrow to the back as it charged Maddy – Troy taking advantage of its turned form.
“Reap the souls of enemies and heal my friends. Slash of activation” Maddy yelled sweeping her blade across the battlefield.
Every single creature had been covered in eggs. In seeds – and this was the moment they hatched.
Jess and Troy both had healing versions – the sweeping scythe beginning to fix them – while all three of the remaining monsters – and yet another that had just arrived – all shuddered as her curse was activated.
Even if the sound had been blocked in one direction her activation slash didn’t seem to care for direction or distance, bursting all the eggs at once.
The ones on the grass were a waste – if she had better prepared this spell those could have been saved – but it was fine.
She would soon have more mana again – and yes her pool was refilling. She should cast the seeds once more now, no matter how inefficient.
💜 Achievement get: Spell a dozen deaths (unique)
Description: Kill twelve or more same tier creatures with a single spell.
----------------------------------------
Stat: +2 soul power.
Stat: +3 mental power.
Waiting till her pool was full Maddy yelled for seeds to coat grass – removing the part about them being near her.
Casting the same spell a second time when her pool refilled Maddy felt the density of eggs in the nest increasing.
With such a wide range they were dispersed – barely at a density or size enough to catch things – but as she stood in the clearing catching her breath she could feel more and more seeds catch hold of things.
She couldn’t fully tell where they were but her connection to the spell said they were on a monster now.
Returning to her friends she panted slightly.
“Does anyone need more healing? Do you want to continue? I think I’m getting a better hand at killing these things but depending on how much worse the boss is I’m not sure how I’ll do.”
Jess shook her head then nodded. “I’m okay, And yeah, It's better to try and redirect them than stop their charges – I’m having better luck deflecting the charges than I am stopping them.”
Troy simply stared at his bow a faint frustration radiating off of him.
“Let's keep going then,” Maddy spoke and led the way once more, deeper into the nest.
The effect on the grass started to become more and more pronounced – getting to the point where Maddy could barely move against them and was almost pulled along them even if she didn’t want to be.
It felt like standing in a river – the rush of water pulling her downstream. Down towards the boss.
Cause it became more and more obvious a large chunk of the streams were focused inwards. Pulling food towards the monster – pulling prey towards it.
Coming across several roving bands of thrump baboons the group had a few tense battles – they didn’t separate again, Jess really did seem to get the hang of deflecting them and a few were trivial as they already had seeds on them.
Finally the group reached the center of the mess.
It wasn’t just the grass anymore. The few trees and the few shrubs that were in this nest were all bent at a nearly flat level as they followed the flows of direction about.
And in the center of the clearing stood a humanoid figure. He held a single shield in one arm – no, his one arm was a shield – and carried a long spear in the shape of a giant silver arrow.
Glancing towards them the knight stared for a moment then suddenly charged.
Fast, Incredibly fast, the creature's movement burned new ‘vectors’ into the ground as it moved. Directly in front of it and charging towards them like an arrow the shifting grass rotated and pointed directly at their position.
Was this boss responsible for all the lines in the nest? Or was the nest’s ability to make those streams what made this monster able to?
Jess quickly placed an angled barrier in the boss’s path even as the group dove in different directions.
With a contemptuous swing the boss shattered the barrier with its spear and was suddenly beside them.
All three of them were in different directions and the way the boss bent and turned its charge in an arc reminded Maddy of the tutorial. The bull – it was the same sort of movement if much much faster.
Proof that was meant to prepare them.
Troy shot off a completely black arrow as he jumped backwards – somehow aiming and accurately firing the shot even though he was in the air.
The boss whipped its arm around – slapping the arrow out of the air even though its back was turned.
How had he responded so quickly? How had Troy and the boss both attacked already?
Maddy struggled to get a moment to stand – taking advantage of the fact the boss seemed to turn and head towards Troy to center herself.
“Apply the seeds of potential upon my voice. My voice will reach all, my voice will apply magic upon the knight in front of us.” Maddy dumped her entire pool into the attack – for the barest hint of a moment she thought it might work but then the shield was swung with a blur as if the knight had parried her attack.
Had parried something at the speed of sound.
Continuing its charge towards Troy the knight wound back its spear.
Jess swung her whip at the creature's legs – coating it heavily in void mana as it ran past her.
Jumping to avoid the slash the charge was slowed and Troy got out of the way once more.
Maddy had to think. Her new attack vector wasn’t working. She was nearly out of mana, Sound…without a kinetic affinity wasn’t as strong as she had hoped. It was still incredibly strong being able to attack with her voice but she should…she should stick to an attack she knew would land.
Not imaginative enough to come up with a new spell in the heat of battle Maddy focused.
She turned and spun – a spin through the air that slashed in a three sixty and shouted out. “Apply all seeds already sewn. Grow and gather me mana from my enemies” All across the nest eggs hatched. It took a moment but mana began to pour in – most still raw with the stench of death.
She felt like a spider in the center of a web – dozens of lines of ‘transference’ leading out from her to her victims and back to her once again.
As soon as she was full she focused on her surroundings once more and flung eggs into the grass surrounding them.
And again. And again.
She used the combined deaths to paint the clearing with her parasites – both her companions were still alive. Somehow Troy had managed to land a shot, the knights arm bled white blood even as the arrow lit up the surroundings.
Stabbing forward the knight finally impaled Troy – not bothering to finish the job as he turned once more to attack the ‘second pest’ – Jess.
Maddy continued to use her makeshift spell to dump seeds in the grass. One or two had latched onto the boss’s legs but it didn’t seem enough. She wanted to be sure of the attack before she used it.
Finally the flow of mana from her first attack faded and it was time.
Jess was stabbed once and then shield bashed into the ground her whip arm nothing more than paste.
Troy was crouched bleeding from a wound that should be fatal, ignoring it with his body’s foundation.
“Attack the knight. Grow and provide necrotic death for the boss – activation slash,” Maddy shouted her attack – glad in the moment she didn’t have an audience. At some point or another, she had started shouting all her attacks and it was beginning to feel like she was in an anime or something.
Seeds hatched and maggots bit down deep. The boss twisted in shock focusing in on her voice and correctly identifying it as what was causing it pain.
Starting a charge across the clearing towards her it suddenly tripped.
Her maggots were working.
Hundreds of them digging deep – multiple times her mana pool – as the boss slid along the grass seeds that had been planted and not landed yet all hatched as well adding to the attack.
Suddenly with a twitch, the boss was dead.
⬅️ Achievement get: Defeat the vector knight. (unique)
Description: Beat a field boss within a tier of you as a group of three.
----------------------------------------
Stat: +1 soul power.
Stat: +1 soul speed.
Active skill: Dead lights
Protect and kill all who would gaze upon the death of all light. Stare deep into the necrotic pits of illuminus. Brighten and show your desire to kill.
Casting time 3s per light. Max 3 lights. Cooldown 30 minutes per stored light to a maximum of an hour and a half.
Maddy broke the new skill as quickly as she could – even as she ran towards her friends to heal them as fast as she could.
They had to stop getting this bashed up in fights.
…
Maddy could feel her new mana flowing through her body. She was at a crossroads – either let it disappear her effort wasted (although she would still gain the concepts from the ‘dead lights’ mainly ‘orbs’ and partial ‘surround’ (the concept of surrounding something but only the part that could surround her own body)).
With a trembling hand she wrote on her arm. 'Give up body power, give up body defense. Gain a light and darkness affinity. Gain the combination between both my affinities.'
A popup appeared.
Self spell, Consent achieved.
'Body Strength' being replaced with Light (not-dark), Dark (un-light) mana.
'Body Defense' replaced with 'Living Light. Living Dark. Deadly Light, Deadly Dark...'.
Do you wish to proceed?
Warning: Spells to strengthen or defend your physical body will be drastically weakened.
Warning: Current (body defense) and (body power) stats will be reduced to a third of their effectiveness and natural gain of both stat types will be reduced to near zero.
Warning: This decision cannot be reverted.
Accept. Ignore.
Maddy paused with the warning. She wanted to do this. She wanted to be stronger – maybe if she had this affinity before the fight, she could have gotten through it better. Her attacks might have landed – she wouldn’t have been able to beat the knight without her spread seeds.
She accepted and immediately felt different.
Instead of being in some unknown place she could feel both of her new pools condense down into her body. pushing stats out of the way they housed themselves in the center of her being and both began to fill.
The base affinity filled someone naturally – it simply slowly filled like her life and death mana did.
The combined affinity however…it too filled very slowly the mana dipping down into it from nothing at an incredibly slow rate. Alongside this however the pool drew from her other two pools.
Life and death mana was funnelled towards it almost halting its own refilling and her new light and darkness affinity was funnelled towards it – the one super pool greedily sucking the rest until it was filled itself.
Quickly sketching the skill she had claimed into her scythe and activating it in curiosity, she watched as one by one motes of light floated out and began to spin about her head.
This skill used Deadly Light mana. Illumious necrotic damage. Each mote shone with sickly power – they somewhat shot in an invisible cone she could direct like searchlights but they also bathed the surroundings in poisonous power – even if it wasn’t focusing on them it passively started to burn her friends so Maddy quickly shut it off.
Inverting the death mana she activated it again – greenish motes floating out like drones to spin around and shoot healing beams of light on her damaged companions.
The mana evenly hit their bodies sinking down deep into them…pausing Maddy realized this was not the time to experiment, but she couldn’t help herself. She needed to know her new capabilities. Activating the skill, a final time – now with darkness and life – pitch black mist began to shift and grow out.
These versions really did not want to stay as perfect spheres – instead they undulated. Floating droplets of soothing midnight that spread through the air towards her companions when she aimed them.
Darkness was much slower than light moving on its own but in exchange as soon as it hit their bodies instead of impacting their skin it sunk though as if they weren’t there.
It had an incredible piercing power and Maddy cut the spell – replacing it with seeds of life using dark-life.
Darkness…darkness spoke to her in a way that light did not. Her body, her mind. Darkness felt more 'right'. Every part of her screamed it was better than light. She was more in tune with it. It was her.
There was only one problem with focusing on it more going forward.
Darkness and making all of her powers darkness focused seemed edgy as heck.