Chapter 1
In a distant galaxy, a certain small planet is being orbited by 2 moons, this planet is called Agrov. One of these moons is pitch black, which contrasts the other which is a bright white. The black moon is only viewable at day when it is bright and is the home of the God of Darkness and the Demons. The white moon can only be seen at night when it is dark and is home to the God of Light and the Angels. On the planet below is a very peculiar continent.
Within a poorly lit house is a table with people on either side. One was a man of around 40 who had short hair that was starting to turn grey, other than the scar he had on his left cheek and the finger he was missing on his left hand he was average in every way possible. On the other side of the table was a young child of 7 years old that was short for his age, he had tattered clothes and dirty black hair that came down to his shoulders. He right eye was purple and the left eye was black.
" Okay let's begin the history lesson! The north is a frozen wasteland with ice up to 10 feet thick at some places while only a few inches in others, it also is very sparsely populated with only a dozen or so villages with 200 people. Where the ice came from is a mystery but many theories have been speculated that it was suddenly frozen as the grass and flowers are still alive underneath the ice
The east is home to the Sitia Kingdom with the strongest naval force because of the calm seas, many small islands and coral reefs protecting the shore from attacks. The Sitia Kingdom also is home to the biggest trading companies as it is the safest place in the continent for civilians because it is the furthest away from the west.
The west is an uninhabitable place with weather so extreme and places so unpredictable that it is home to the fearsome magical beasts. These magical beasts can use magic that belongs to their strongest element ; fire, water, earth, wind. Magical beast meat is poisonous to humans because of the incompatibility of the elemental energy with the light or dark energy. The west is the main cause of wars for land, power and the vastly superior resources that appear in the west.
The south is the main base of the Xules Kingdom which is located at the edge of the mirrored mountain range. Out of all of the kingdoms Xules has the biggest amount of resources from the mines in the mountains and the crops which grow in the hot and humid environment specific of the south.
Finally the centre of the continent which is home to the Norian Kingdom and the Aslumid Empire. The Norian Kingdom is greatly outshadowed and currently being forced into submission to join the Aslumid Empire. The Aslumid Empire is currently the most powerful nation and is also the richest as they trade to every Kingdom surrounding them. But the Empire is also the vanguard in the fight against the magical beasts.
The only thing in common between every Kingdom and Empire is that they all have 1 church; the church of Agrov. This church is the worship of both the God of Light and Darkness. In Agrov there is no discrimination between light and dark, it is believed they are equal this includes Angels and Demons as they are both higher life forms that only possess different elements. The church was formed because after Light and Darkness joined together to create the human race they each chose 1 champion who would share the responsibilities of the church. Once the human race was created and the church was started the God of Light created the bright white moon and the God of Darkness created the pitch black moon, these moons contained 99% of the Gods power. The Gods did this so that the humans would be left to their own devices and could live the way they want.
What the Gods did leave behind was the power to become strong. When a human is born it has either the light energy or the dark energy, this energy is stored in the soul. Also the amount of energy one can contain is mostly from inborn talent but can be increased with repeated training by releasing and recovering the energy. The way to recover energy is by waiting a long time or by meditating to speed up the process, there are special types of meditation that yield better results than others.
There are 2 ways to use the energy, either by using chants and hand signs to create spells using the energy in the soul, or by distributing the energy from the soul to the body by using special meditation to increase speed, strength and reaction time. The first way is the path of the Mage and the second way is the path of the Warrior. Both paths use the same ranking system, the amount of energy one can contain in the soul or the body can be ranked on a scale ranging from 1 to 15. The average rank for a human is 4, and for soldiers is 8. And in all the 1000+ years humans have been around only 1 has reached rank 15. Do you understand Edge? " the man explained to Edge the young boy.
"Yes d-dad" Edge replied respectfully because this was the man who saved him
"Do you know why I adopted you from the orphanage?" His dad asked him
"No, but others told me I have high amounts of dark energy" Edge replied innocently
"Yes that is the reason, I saw that you have very high potential that I could help cultivate and teach you my shadow art" his dad smiled proudly "But first lets get you cleaned up, hahah"
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3 Days Later
At night when only the white moon can be seen a pair of people on horses are walking up the side of a mountain. These people are Edge and his new dad can be seen walking up the side of a mountain on a pair of horses. The only thing different from the scene from 3 days ago is that now Edge is wearing clean clothes and has hair that comes down to his ears and his purple eye shines through the hair covering his face in the darkness of the night.
"Hey dad how much longer until we reach the top?" Edge asked tiredly, they had been riding their horses for 2 whole days with no rest.
"Do not worry my son we are nearly there" his dad gives Edge a warm smile "Ah see look we can see it now" he points to a sheer wall of rocks.
"Eh but it's just a wall of rocks" Edge did not seem happy, their destination which he stayed up for 2 days is a wall.
"Hehe, follow me" his dad walked towards the wall but did not stop or even slow down but passed straight through. Edge was dumbfounded but followed him, as he stepped through he found it a lot easier to breath then when he was outside. His dad called to him "Quickly you're falling behind. Don't wanna get lost" Edge followed his dad deeper into the hidden cave. There was hundreds of different paths that intersected and would be hard not to get lost. They arrived at a dead end but like before his dad carried on walking straight through, Edge followed him through and on the other side was a big hall that was built into the cave.
"You've finally returned Mattius, I was wondering what you were doing. Oh by the way you were followed" the stranger pointed towards Edge
"Haha do not worry Reev, this is my son Edge." Edge's dad Mattius gestured to Edge. "Edge say hi to Reev"
"Hello I am Edge, nice to meet you"
"Ooh is this one going to be your apprentice, hehe. Good luck kid you're gonna need it" after this the man, Reev walked back deeper into the cave.
"Well Edge welcome to our base, Shadow Canyon. This is were we are going to live until you have finished your training and only once you have finished will you be able to see the path that leads you to the exit" Mattius welcomed his son to his new home for an indefinite amount of time. "Also, you should know what are shadow arts will provide to you. Shadow arts focus on the style of assassination, stealth and burst damage, assassins are types of warriors so we need a strong body. But ours is not a regular shadow art because we use illusions to trick the enemies. Although you will not be able to do that until you have complete control over your dark energy haha"
"When do I start" right now Mattius was the only person Edge trusted and would do anything that he asked. Because of his young age Edge did not realise what type of path he was about to walk.
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The first thing that Edge needed to learn was to be to control his dark energy perfectly to be able to create illusions. The way that illusions work is by spreading dark energy all around the body and release it as a mist around the body and then control the mist to the desired shape, size, colour and appearance.
To start of Edge was tasked with the mission of finding his soul and releasing the dark energy inside to his body. Mattius asked Reev to teach Edge the meditation they use to distribute the dark energy.
"Okay, so first sit down with your legs crossed then place your left hand on your right shoulder and your right hand on your right knee. Once you have done this close your eyes and focus on your head. Once you feel something keep your eyes closed but move your left hand to your left knee and your right hand to your left shoulder. Then keep alternating between left knee form and right knee form" Reev said in a serious tone which is not like his usual care free personality. Once Edge had gotten in the position that Reev described and closed his eyes Reeve put his hand onto Edge's forehead and a black mist started to surround his head.
*Edge POV*
I closed my eyes and focused on my head but I don't see or feel anything. I felt a hand on my head and suddenly the light I could see through my closed eyes disappeared and when I panicked and breathed I felt something go in through my nose and out through my mouth. It wasn't like normal air but more like a thick smoke. But every time I breath it in I can sense more and more of it around me. Oh there is some of it inside my head, ah that's what I'm supposed to look for. Now I move left hand to my left knee and my right hand to my left shoulder, ahh the thing in my head moved to my left shoulder then to my left hand to my left knee. Now I switch, I put my right hand on my right knee and my left hand on my right shoulder. The thing moved to my left foot then into torso, then to my right shoulder, hand, then knee. I switch back and it moves to my right foot then my torso then it repeats the first course. Hmm where ever the thing went it left a bit of it behind and started to get smaller.
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I've been doing this for about 15 minutes and the thick smoke around my head is still there and I'm still breathing it in but I don't think it's helping me sense the thing anymore. But the thing that was moving around is nearly gone but my whole body now has what it left behind and all I can see is the outline of my body but the inside is completely blacked out and so is the area around my head.
Another 5 minutes later and the thing is completely gone I opened my eyes but everything was still black and I panicked and started to feel my face with my hands and there was a thick smoke there. While I was panicking the hand was removed from my head and the thick smoke slowly dissipated.
In front of me was a smiling Reevs, he was back to his usual carefree self.
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"So Edge what did you feel?" Asked Reevs he was holding in a laugh but Edge did not know why. Edge was about to stand up but his body was covered in a fluorescent liquid that glowed white.
"Ugghhh, what is this all over me" Edge was concerned for his own safety.
"Hahahahahahah that's the impurities inside of your body, the tiny amount of light energy that was absorbed while breathing was forced out of your body" Reev was laughing he always likes when the new recruits freak out.
"So it just comes off then.... Oh yeah I felt a thing in my head and it started to move to around all of my body and once it disappeared my body was filled with whatever it was" Edge explained what he felt to Reevs
"That thing in your head was the dark energy in your soul, the trace it left behind was the dark energy being distributed to your bones, muscles, arteries and organs. The dark energy will strengthen your body and with repeated action begin to get stronger and stronger" Reev stated then continued "Now to recover the dark energy in your soul you will need a different type of meditation, this is the hard part because it takes longer to accumulate dark energy then to distribute it. So go clean yourself of then come back here."
After a few minutes Edge returned and was now clean. He sat back down in front of Reev and began to listen. "So cross your legs, close your eyes, put your left hand on your head, your right hand on your left elbow and your right elbow should point straight out so that your right arm will be at 90 degrees."
*Edge POV*
I got into the position that Reev described and after about 10 minutes the dark energy started to gather around my arms like the thick smoke around my head earlier. The dark energy was gathering into my hands. My left hand was putting the dark energy into my soul and my right hand was passing it into my left hand which then put it into my soul. Oh that means I gain it twice as fast then if my right hand wasn't there.
After 2 hours my arms started to hurt because I held the, up for such a long time but the amount of dark energy had long ago surpassed the amount that moved around my body earlier but was not slowing down at all
After another 30 minutes it started to slow down. As it got slower and then stopped but I carried on my head started to sting and I got a really bad headache so I opened my eyes and was once again greeted by Reev who had not moved an inch.
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"Oh are you full" asked Reev he chuckled a bit "So how do you feel?"
"I have a really bad headache, urgghh" Edge replied and rubbed his temples
"Now that you are done. Go back to the distribution type of meditation but try to control the dark energy inside of you so that you can stop and start it on demand, once it is all gone do the gathering type of meditation to recover the dark energy. When you can completely control the dark energy inside come back to me or go to Mat.... Your dad, hehe" Reevs explained to Edge his future training menu
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7 months later
Edge is sitting down in the distribution type meditation. Inside of his body the dark energy is circulating from his left shoulder to his left hand, but mid way through the dark energy slows down to a stop. Back outside Edge's face is scrunched up and he is heavily sweating. Inside the dark energy starts again but speeds ups and is going twice as fast maybe even more than it was in the beginning. The meditation form is now more like a dance as he switches from left shoulder to right shoulder every few seconds, but finally after 7 months Edge can control the dark energy in his soul. The dark energy in his soul is now multiply times bigger than when he started and even though his body is full of dark energy it continues to grow to a higher and higher density, giving his muscles more power and his body clean of impurities. Within his body is 100% pure dark energy.
Edge stops mid meditation and runs towards the main hall, "Dad, Reevs I can control it now!!! Dad!!"
"Yes son" Mattius walks in from the left with a smile on his face, this is because of his genius son who grasps what takes others years maybe decades in 7 months. "So do you want to know the next step then?"
"Yeah yeah yeah" Edge was excited for the last 7 months all he had done was sit around for hours and hours everyday.
"Sit down and close your eyes" Mattius ordered
"Ehh but I have done that already" Edge was annoyed he had done this already
"No just sit down and do not meditate, okay". Edge sat down and closed his eyes, Mattius put his hand on to Edge's shoulder. "Move the dark energy inside your body and circulate it around your body just like your blood" Mattius was helping to push the dark energy around Edge's body.
Inside of Edge's body the before tranquil dark energy was starting to be pushed around his body starting from the left shoulder, then to left hand before it comes back to the armpit before going to the left foot, then to the crotch where it loops and goes to the right foot before going to the right armpit then the right hand, next it goes to the right shoulder before congregating in the abdomen and swirling around like a black hole before finally returning to the left shoulder.
Edge's body is now trying to adapt to the sudden change which resulted in the constant contractions and expansions of all of his muscles, this caused Edge to uncontrollably spasm on the floor. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Edge released a cry of pain like nothing he had felt before, it didn't even begin to compare to the headaches of an overflowing soul.
Reevs arrived and saw Edge on the floor and said "Maybe we should have gotten someone else to test our new methods, it's clearly to much for him"
Mattius face did not change even when his son is in this much pain "Yeah, but I doubt I could find someone with higher talent them him"
Edge's screams stopped and he fell unconscious. Mattius checked on Edge, "He is still breathing at least, hahaha I can't believe it worked" Mattius was smiling, but his smile was malicious and full of evil intent.
"This is gonna be great" the same was for Reev he was also grinning from ear to ear "We finally did it brother, the ultimate killing machine"
Inside of Edge's body the swirling vortex in his abdomen was naturally collecting dark energy with no need for meditation and it was also circulating around his body without meditation. This is the reason why he is described as the ultimate killing machine, he will naturally get stronger even if he does nothing and with Mattius and Reevs evil intentions he will be feared.
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Over the next 12 years Mattius and Reev taught there only student Edge all the techniques they knew. The first technique was shadow manipulation, he uses illusions to create shadows to engulf his figure to completely disappear and become undetectable. The second was disguise, he coats his body in dark energy mist and controls its shape, size and colour which allows him to blend into crowds and pretend to be other people. The third was speed burst where he pumps extra dark energy into his legs to temporarily increase speed, but with the downside of extreme fatigue, although the fatigue did not bother Edge who had long ago became insensitive to pain. The fourth was power burst where he pumps extra dark energy into his arms which temporarily increase his attack power and speed but with increased fatigue. The fifth was shadow mark which is activated when he coats his weapon in dark energy which gets inside of his enemies and destroys them from the inside out, it is especially effective on light energy users. The sixth was the shadow bolt which is dark energy mist that is compressed and solidified and fired of to the range of 400m with pinpoint accuracy and complete control. The final was drain which can only be used on dark energy users, the dark energy in an enemy is sucked into the swirling vortex in his abdomen. The weapons of choice are dual daggers which are coated in dark energy mist.
But most importantly they brought him up to trust no one, and never care for others. They completely shut his heart off from the outside world, but that led to their downfall as Edge began to doubt even his father and uncle and killed them both in his 9th year of training when they had finished teaching him all they knew. For the last 3 years Edge has only been working on training and improving his skills.The only person Edge trusted was himself and it was finally time for him to leave at the age of 19 and a rank of 11. As Edge coats himself in dark energy mist to create some new clothes, the only thing visible in the pitch blackness is a shining purple eye.