Pushing hard off the ground, he flipped high through the air, hanging upside down for a moment before gravity took hold. Black daggers materialised in his hands as he threw them out in different directions as he twisted around.

The projectiles flew true, landing directly in the centre of the wooden targets surrounding him before he even self-righted in the air. After returning to being upright but still in the air, he used Many Forms Mirage to conjure a smaller twinblade similar to the one his father uses.

With this new weapon, he continued rotating, using it to behead a straw dummy behind him. After dispatching the strawman, a small step formed under his feet, dissipating as he landed, allowing him to hit the ground far quieter than usual. The step was created from regular essence and allowed the usual thud of his landing to be muffled as the Mirage quietly dissipated.

Causing the conjured twinblade to vanish, he crafted more knives on the fly and threw them at the targets once more as he rolled forward, coming up with a new twinblade and beheading another dummy that stood opposite the first.

*Clap. Clap. Clap*

"Yeey, big brother is strong." A childlike voice came from nearby.

He turned to see a little girl sitting on a wall nearby, clapping excitedly and smiled.

"Little rascal, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be inside studying?" He replied as he walked over and tousled her hair.

This young girl was his five-year-old sister, Nyx. Her long raven hair contrasted with her pale, near-white irises as she looked up at him.

"You're the rascal, not me. I'm a good girl." Nyx declared as she batted his arm away with a giggle, jumping down from the wall.

It had been five years since his parents had informed him of the pregnancy, and he was delighted to have a little sister. The only problem was she also wasn't as simple as the rest of the children in Mysthaven, having been born with a powerful essence body that left his in the dust, for now anyway.

When his mother had given birth, Nyx's core springing to life caused every light source in the valley to go dark as both shadow and light were sucked into his little sister.

Marcus had been dumbfounded at the event, and he had overheard his parents talking about how the founder of the Darklight clan had presented similar signs on his birth. The only difference was that on his birth, even the sun was blotted out nearby for several moments as an eclipse took place.

It seemed the only reason his sister didn't create the same commotion was because she had been born at night. Her core wasn't any lesser than the man who had founded his father's clan, though, by the sounds of it.

This created some worry and friction between his parents. They didn't want to return to his father's clan, but that was also the best place for her to grow stronger. She had the first layer of the clan cultivation technique for now, but she would need the next step after leaving the Mortal Realm, and Marcus didn't have it. His father had walked his own path, refusing to return to the clan, but he might not have the luxury of choice for her. Who didn't want the best for their children?

He talked to his sister about mundane things as they rounded the house that had now been extended upwards, giving both of them their own rooms upstairs, with his old one now the location of the stairs and new front door. He even had a small balcony at the front, and his life was going well.

As they reached the front, he spotted a couple of teenagers walking past, hand in hand, and he felt the rising of old hatred that reared its head whenever he saw the duo.

Tantalus and Rhea looked over at him as he appeared, but neither stared for long as they looked away. He'd had many run-ins with them over the years, but now they preferred avoiding him over antagonising him.

He had taken a slow revenge, choosing the village training sessions as a medium to channel his hatred as he picked them apart at every chance he got.

This kept his inner revenge demon at bay for now, but he knew it wouldn't be satisfied until they died. Eventually, he'd have to kill them, or he'd probably go mad and do it anyway. Controlling such dark urges was not as easy as he had hoped.

At first, he wasn't a match for the young noble who had his father's money to provide him with a constant stream of precious materials and skill manuals. That gap had quickly closed with his improved Many Forms Mirage and the lifelike illusions he could conjure at will. His reverse cycling had also given him an abundant spirit power to work with, and the combination was devastating at this level.

In a test of raw power, he wasn't the boy's match, but he never thought head-on, and with his constant weapons training, there were none in the village close to his age that could match his skill.

His Many Forms Mirage had come on by leaps and bounds, but he had yet to create more complex illusions like fire, even though he knew how it worked. He could still bring plenty of other things to life, and he had even got the mirages to produce sound.

Whilst the skill was more solid now with the inclusion of his mixed essence, it didn't mean the things he created were real. His illusions were still fragile and were susceptible to being destroyed easily, but they did damage now.

Insects were a favourite of his. Their small size and speedy mobility were well-suited for avoiding damage. They also seemed to get under Rhea's skin particularly, but he figured having them crawl into any body opening they could find had that effect.

Still, he hadn't found a way to hide himself as well as he would have liked, but using a series of clones to confuse his opponent worked well. If there was a chance, creating an illusion of a tree or large bush to surround him was doable, and it was a great way to hide in the forest given time, not so much in the heat of combat. The unique thing was that he had found he could see out from the illusion wrapping him in such a scenario, which immensely helped his hunting.

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"Brother, why do you dislike them so much?" Nyx asked as she followed his gaze that was burning into the back of the pair.

"Because they're bad people inside. Come on, let's go in. It's getting late." He replied as he looked up at the darkening sky.

Walking inside, he popped into the living area to say hello to his mother and send his sister back to the table before heading to his room and shutting the door.

The house's second floor was a straight left turn after reaching the top of the stairs and down a corridor with doors on both sides. These were the bedrooms.

Heading through the door on the left, he walked into his room and stared out of the open balcony doors as the sun began to set. He liked to leave them open to watch the sky light up at night, closing it after the lights faded. Tonight, he needed a little privacy, so he closed them.

His bed and cabinet were to the right of the doors, and his desk and wardrobe were to the left.

Walking over to the desk, he sat on the stool before it and pulled out some paper, ready to craft another Talisman. This one was called Ember Burst and was a one-time attack inscription he had picked up when the wayfarers had come through again many months ago.

The travelling merchants had no set timetable, but they always had excellent wares to look at.

Unlike his other inscriptions, this one wasn't essence-neutral and required an inscription master with a core filled with fire essence to craft successfully.

Forming a pen in his hand, he topped it up with white ink that had red crystals floating in it as he began to draw. Channelling his mixed essences into the design, his pen fluidly danced across the paper, and it didn't take long before a runic diagram made from multiple shapes filled the small paper square.

The design flashed with the typical sign of a completed Talisman, but instead of red lines glowing with subtle power, this one looked more like liquid lava flowing across the paper.

This was something else he'd discovered by experimenting with his mixed essence. The ability to create runes that had a specific essence requirement that he didn't possess.

He had tried to create the same inscription with illusion essence and a mixture of one of the others, but they never worked. Only the combination of all three did.

Tucking the Talisman in a pouch that hung from his belt, he drew a few others and added them to his collection.

Another thing he had found was that his mixed essence could activate the inscriptions that required a particular affinity for, like the one that created the light he had Marcus test. These were usually basic and not all that popular due to those restrictions.

A decent Talisman would pull essence from the surroundings and store it, ready for activation by anyone, much like the Ember Burst he had created.

Because of this unique ability, he had gone heavily into inscription crafting as he planned to use this to fund his travels when he left Mysthaven. He felt the time of his leaving was fast approaching, but part of him couldn't bring himself to leave this place and his family. He had much of what he had always wanted in this place. If it was possible to remain and gain the strength he desired, he would have done it in a heartbeat, but it wasn't.

Creating an inscription wasn't as simple as drawing it on paper and selling it to make money as those were the most basic types of inscriptions, and whilst they would work fine in the Mortal realm, they wouldn't do for higher realms.

Those needed more expensive materials with similar attributes, increased density of essence and spirit power, and greater control, amongst other things, and that was only for the next realm up.

He had yet to move on to crafting Sigils, even though he'd managed to bag a few crystals from the village mine, as crafting them was still beyond him for now.

So far, he had made do with practising carving out designs in stones, but he lacked the ink for such crafting anyway, with it being slightly different from the types he used for Talismans.

Standing up, he changed into a dark, long-sleeved fur outfit and set his belt over the top as he tucked his four daggers into specially made leather straps dotted around his body.

Walking onto his balcony, he looked up at the lights flowing across the sky. It was night now, and it wouldn't be long until true darkness descended.

Jumping off the balcony, he landed silently on the ground and waved over his shoulder to his parents sitting on the porch to his rear, drinking.

They knew he sometimes went out at night to combat the Nightlings that slipped into the valley, ensuring he stayed within sight of the overwatching sentry position.

As for why he went out of the window? It was because he enjoyed slipping out into the night that way. Walking out the front door felt a little boring.

Not long after arriving in the middle of a field near the tree line, one of the creatures that stalked the night came barreling through the trees with a hiss.

The sentry position wasn't there to stop these creatures and more to spot other threats, as the lights that dotted the nearby land were typically enough to keep them at bay.

Watching the creature that resembled a giant lizard charging towards him, he removed a dagger from his body and held it in hand, ready. He could pull out a Talisman and release a cone of light at it that would send it scurrying away, but that wouldn't be good practice.

Nights on Tyrannis are extremely dark without a moon, and it was only because of the slight enhancements he had done to his body during cultivation over the years that he could see anything at all.

Waiting for the lizard to close the distance, he conjured two duplicates of himself. Mixing in with his clones, they split up randomly, with him taking the left.

Even though it whipped his head around in confusion, the monster didn't stop as it sprinted for the middle cone, jumping through it as it dissipated. When it jumped, he turned, threw a dagger and watched as it caught the creature in the side just behind its front leg.

Damn, it missed.

With a loud hiss, it spun toward the pain and spotted him in the distance, taking another dagger out, so it charged.

He let the other clone vanish and waited until it was closer. He watched it ponce at him, claws extended and snarling as he quickly stepped to the side. With an underarm thrust, he sank another dagger into the rear of its head as it passed by.

The lizard fell to the ground dead, and he walked over to it, removing his daggers and cutting it open, leaving the stinky corpse to attract others.

This wasn't a particularly powerful Nightling, so it wasn't anything he wanted to waste his time on. He had hoped to end the fight in one blow with his first throw, but it had missed the mark. Hitting a moving target in an exact location wasn't easy.

He was now in the fourth tier of the mortal realm, and if he had to guess, this one was at the second, judging from its speed and lack of defences. It would be of more use as bait to pull in others, and it did.

Ten minutes later, a humanoid-shaped Nightling with four clawed arms charged into the field and roared at him. This one moved faster and leapt occasionally as it closed the gap.

Using Many Forms Mirage, he conjured a twinblade into his bare hands and moved to meet the creature.

As they clashed, he swung the leading blade down to his left, catching an outstretched lower hand and cutting it off. Ducking under the higher one, he turned and used the rear blade to stab downwards into its leg, bringing the creature to a knee.

The humanoid roared in anger as it turned and reached out to grab him, so he let go of the blade and stepped backwards, conjuring a dagger and throwing it. Continuing to backstep, he created more daggers and threw them forward, watching as one caught the beast in the throat and sent it gargling to the ground as it rolled around.

He watched impassively as it tried to furiously claw its way across to get him, and he noted that they didn't seem to care about pain or self-preservation. All they wanted to do was kill, so he put it out of its misery with another conjured dagger to an eye.

Opening this one up and seeing the black insides and tar-like blood, he stopped himself from gagging at the smell of rotten flesh. He wanted to use it to attract further prey, but he couldn't stand the stink. They all smelt when he opened them up, but this one was particularly ripe.

What the hell did you eat?

As he was wondering, a flapping sound came from behind him, and he quickly rolled forward, avoiding a sizeable outstretched talon as a large dark shape flew by his head.