Silas woke, but he wasn't on the ship's deck anymore. There was no dragon flying overhead, no water crashing around him. Instead, he was... There was no way to describe it other than darkness. It was like he was in this world made of the ooze inside his madra channels and the ooze he saw in the remains of Kyoto.
Silas looked around this world now. This felt different from the nightmare he had before in his camp. This was somehow more real. He was out of his bed and moving around, walking through this realm. The landscape shifted around him, and forms appeared and disappeared in the shadows, but he walked through it sluggishly. He had to figure out what was going on and how long he had been here? It seemed an instant, but Silas had this nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Off in the distance, he saw a figure standing alone. This figure wasn't like the forms appearing and dissolving in the gray ooze. Silas stopped and stared at the figure. It was so far away, but Silas could make it out like it was right in front of him. Then, as if they cut the distance between the two from the fabric of reality, Silas was standing in front of the man.
He was a little taller than Silas, and narrow. He was probably too skinny, with long straight black hair that hung randomly down his head. Some strands pressed against his face underneath a black blindfold the man wore. He wore threadbare black pants, and Silas could tell the man wasn't wearing a shirt. There was this always moving sort of tattoo on his skin, bubbling and shifting forms. He wore a long black coat that reached the floor, and Silas couldn't help but gape at the man.
"You have not been the best Initiate, Silas. You will, however, be a powerful adept." The man told him, and then suddenly, Silas fell to his knees, kowtowing in front of him. His face in the oozy floor of this place in front of the man's bare feet.
"We're going to change that. I will show you how to understand my power. Most people will not recognize your abilities, Silas, but you will represent me in the world. I can not abide you making a fool of such power." Kenji looked away from Silas, and with a wave of his hand, the shadows warped around them and exploded away, transporting them.
Silas still stood in front of the god, he guessed, but behind him was a crumbling manor. The manor was probably once extensive and exquisite, but now it was perhaps not even livable. The roof was crumbling down on the sides and the front of the middle.
When they appeared in front of the manor, a dark bird flew over and landed on the god's shoulder. Silas lowered his head and smiled. He recognized the bird. It was his old friend Shu. The god pulled a small cracker from his pocket and held it up to the bird, who nibbled it slowly. He smiled at Silas and spoke in his cracked, weak voice.
"That's right, the phoenix here was from the same minor accident that happened that had created you." The man smiled and nodded, finally lowering his hand once Shu ate the cracker.
"Yes, master. Shu belonged to my wife. She took care of him and was an alchemist, so his tears and feathers were prized." Silas nodded his head, bowing softly to show respect to the man.
"Don't call me master. I'm not your master. I am a simple Kami. I have a father and siblings and my own duties just like any of you mortals do." Kenji paused then and looked to Shu, reaching with his hand once more to pet the creature’s head softly.
"You know, you could have learned something from Shu. Did you see while you struggled with your madra and the shadows in your channels? Did you see how Shu did not have those same problems? He embraced his new power and had a much more violent elemental power than you did." Kenji explained.
Silas nodded, listening to Kenji. "Yes, he disappeared in poofs of shadows here and there during my travels."
Kenji nodded his head, watching Silas. "Yes, it is a fundamental ability. You should be able to do it at least by now." He stared at Silas. Silas would have guessed the blindfolded man was glaring at him now, the way his face was scrunched and eyebrows lowered.
Silas winced slightly at the accusation. How could Silas figure anything out? Whenever he tried to cultivate, he was just in pain. The damage to his madra channels and core only worsened as time passed.
Finally, Kenji sighed, and the calm, almost blank facial expression returned. "While you are here, you will learn what you need to be an accurate representation of my realm. You will grow in power, and when it comes time, you will represent me when I ask it of you."
Silas thought of asking why the Kami would need Silas to represent him, but he supposed it wasn't an intelligent question. Instead, he simply nodded and gave a low bow to him. "Yes, Kenji."
"This is your end goal, Silas. When you can shadow walk back to my manor, you will be ready to move on to your next set of goals and become an Adept. For now, though," Kenji waved his hand again, and the shadows swelled around them and exploded out, transporting them once more.
They were in the middle of a field or this land's version of an open area. Everything was dark and ranged in colors from dark purple to gray to just straight black. Silas took a moment to look up. The lightest thing he saw was the sky. It was a sort of light gray. The ground was a deep black, but he could see a kind of a purple outline of grass and bushes.
"This is where I leave you, Silas. I have my own affairs to attend to, and you cannot learn with me holding your hand. Sometimes you just have to give your child a goal and leave it to him. I will tell you meditation is key to this. You have the powers running through you." Kenji explained to Silas.
They stood shoulder to shoulder, looking over the expanse of not much more than nothingness. Silas could see creatures running through the fields. It was almost a proper ecosystem, just backward. Upside down? Opposite? Silas couldn't explain it. He could barely comprehend this place. It was all so much to take in.
"Is it safe?" Was Silas's only question for Kenji.
Kenji gave Silas a sidelong glance. "You are technically more powerful than anything you should encounter. I will make sure the more powerful nightmares leave you alone, but I cannot promise you anything. If you die in my lands, it was meant to be so, and you don't deserve the gift you received." Kenji then disappeared in a minor explosion of shadow.
Silas sighed and looked back towards the expansive area Kenji left him in. Where was he? Where was the manor the god or Kami showed him? What was a Kami? He supposed it was just some fancy way of saying a god he had never heard of. He couldn’t worry about that now. Kenji told him the best way to learn his new abilities was to meditate, so Silas sat in the spot of grass he was in and did just that.
What was he supposed to meditate on? That was the question. So he sat and didn't really think of anything. As he sat and meditated, he could hear the chattering noises that sounded so familiar from his basement in Kyoto and frowned. He watched the creatures, nightmares as Kenji called them. None of them bothered with Silas, they could feel the power radiating off of him, and they saw him with their master, Kenji. They just ran through the area, trying their best to ignore the stranger in their lands.
Silas sat in a lotus pose in the middle of nothingness. This state of existence he was in was full of shadow that melted and shifted away, then reformed into unique structures or objects. Kenji seemed to be the most potent being Silas had ever seen in his life, even more powerful than what they hypothesized a Celestial to be. The rank of Celestial was said to be like a god, but Silas wasn't sure now.
Silas, before the attack, was a Jade-level cultivator. He felt he may have been close to Opal, which was an accomplishment. Most of the sect heads were Opal. It meant his spirit was pure and ready to move onto the next level, which was said to be Saint.
Then there were those who focused more on body cultivation and were known as Heralds instead of Saints. They had powerful spirits, of course, but didn't focus on those sorts of techniques. The body cultivators thought of the spirit cultivators as flashy. Why do something outside your body when you could simply reinforce your own form to do it yourself?
There was no Celestial in the mortal realm. They were the peak of what a cultivator could reach. The Celestials were almost a myth, Silas had always thought. Every sect followed one of the twelve constellations in the sky. Or, well, that's what everyone thought, but it seemed like what everything most Sacred Artists thought was completely wrong.
Silas shook off all the thoughts he was having. He had to figure out how to do this shadow walk thing. He opened his eyes and tried to enhance his vision in this dark world. To do this, he figured he would do like Kenji said, he'd 'lean into it.'
Where he used to cycle madra to his brain and eyes to enhance his vision, he'd now take hold of that black goop in his channels. It felt different from what he was used to. It was more complex. The shadowy goop seemed to be harder to control. It was harder to force where he wanted it, but eventually, he could do so.
When he enhanced his vision, he could see more than he used to. Whereas before, he could see better, and further. Now, he could pick up on other things. Other movements he couldn't see before. He could see into the shadows. Not that there were too many shadows here since the entire realm was shadow, but he noticed the creatures disappearing and reappearing elsewhere. The creatures were shadow walking.
Silas watched the creatures for a long time, trying to figure out how they did it. He sensed their aura and spirits when they used the ability to try to figure it out. Silas began idly thinking while he watched about how long he had been here already and how he wasn't tired. He took a moment to look around, and there was no sun. Time didn't have a meaning here. So, he didn't need to sleep? His body didn't feel tired, and he wondered what was happening in the world with Kio and William.
Silas had just passed out on the ship's deck when the dragon appeared. He frowned softly and sighed. Silas couldn't help that right now. Even if he could get back with his friends, he wasn't sure if he quite wanted to do that right now. He needed to learn what Kenji could teach him. He was tired of being sick and in pain. Silas was a Sacred Artist, and he needed to act like it once more.
Silas went back to watching the nightmares. Eventually, he noticed how the creatures' spirits enveloped them, and then they just disappeared. He supposed it made sense. If their spirit was made of that shadowy goop like his, then if it enveloped them, they would turn into it and be shadows. He shook his head and once more pushed thoughts from his head that weren't helping him with the task at hand.
Holding out his arm, Silas decided to try to experiment. Struggling again, he pushed the goop in his system towards his arm and controlled it like he would the metal madra he used to have in his channels. He tried to form it outside his body like he used to do in battle. Like the creatures, he made it wrap around his arm.
The goop was there but wasn't. It was a weird sort of stuff, the goop. He left the goop away from his eyes for the time being while he did this. Sure enough, eventually, he could not see his hand anymore until he enhanced his vision like he did before. The hand was still there when he did that, just enveloped in the shadow.
Silas nodded his head and grinned stupidly, releasing the ability. His hand was visible now without having to use this unfamiliar sight he had. Looking back to the vast landscape, he stood on his feet and applied the same technique he used on his hand and arm around his body.
His vision took on a dark tinge to it, which was saying something, considering how dark it was in the world. He looked down. The man was gone into the shadows. He walked over and tried to keep up the technique. He could move three whole steps before he had to release it. Silas was left standing there, bent over with his hands on his knees for support, panting.
Moving back, he sat back on the ground, resumed his meditation pose, and closed his eyes. He immediately set about sensing within himself. At this point, he couldn’t feel the gray metal madra in his channels anymore. He couldn't feel the power he once had flowing inside of him. Lowering his head, he sighed softly.
Silas sat still, and once he was able, when he could really meditate, he didn't move. He heard no sounds and saw nothing. His spirit however sensed everywhere around him. After what seemed like forever, he felt someone appear next to him. Silas jumped to his feet and bowed to Kenji, hands clasped in front of him.
"None of that," Kenji told him. "How are you progressing?"
"I need to be able to hold the technique longer is the only thing stopping me. I do not know where the manor is." Silas told Kenji, looking at him.
Kenji nodded, and Silas felt Kenji's spirit reach out to sense Silas's. Silas allowed this to happen. He would not try to hide from a Kami, especially a Kami that appeared to be his benefactor and gave him new power.
"You're doing well and have more than enough power to do what I want. You don't need to use so much to accomplish your task. The manor is that way." Kenji pointed out to the left of where they stood.
"Kenji, where is my wife? What happened to Kyoto?" Silas asked before Kenji could disappear again in his burst of shadow.
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Kenji stared at Silas and developed a deep frown. "She is gone, Silas. It will be hard, but you must put that all behind you. They all are. Most of them are in my sister's land. Considering it was one of my nightmares that attacked your village, some of them are here."
Silas's jaw dropped. He couldn't help but stare at Kenji. "One of these creatures attacked Kyoto?!" Kenji had said it so passively, with no remorse in his voice. Silas was livid, he knew better than to attack or accuse, but he couldn't help his rage.
"Yes, you recognize the shadow stuff, don't you? It was a nightmare released from here into the mortal realm and ended up in Kyoto. It wasn't by design or anything that I know of that it attacked your village. That's just the way things happen sometimes. It would have been some other village if it didn't attack Kyoto." Kenji explained this to Silas in an unremorseful matter-of-fact tone that was grating Silas's nerves.
"How?! Wait…” Silas remembered when he woke up in the water and discovered everything. "There was a young girl. She was wearing black robes, but had a strange color for hair. She watched the monster attack."
"Hm. Yes. It was Genki, my little sister." Kenji spoke with ice on his tongue and frowned deeper yet. "She's playing games, and she released the nightmare to cause a distraction to stop me from noticing what she had done."
Silas couldn't help it. He slumped to the ground. His world was spinning. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "My wife?" He looked up at Kenji from his knees.
Kenji sighed, "I understand that you mortals…."
Silas cut him off, "is she here?"
"Work on your task at hand, Silas," Kenji reached and put a hand on Silas's shoulder. "You shall find out."
Then before Silas could say anything else, there was that pulse of shadow, and Kenji was gone. Leaving Silas by himself on his knees in the middle of the nothingness. He stayed in that patch of grass for quite a while, unable to do much other than weep and sit in his own pool of despair.
Eventually, he could get himself back in his meditation pose. He breathed deeply and shook his body, trying to shake away the sadness inside of him. This certainly wasn't the first time he cried over Himari, his wife, and it probably would not be the last. Kenji told him that if he could do the task laid out for him, he might tell him. Or he might find out where and what happened to Himari on his own. This would help drive him forward.
It seemed he didn't have to work to refill his power, at least not in this world of shadows. So he meditated and thought about the process. He went through the same approach when he first used the technique. Kenji had told him he didn't need to use as much madra as he had before to do it, so he worked on using it less and less. Silas had to concentrate on doing it, moving the shadows inside of himself, making sure to not expel too much of the power. After each attempt, he would open his eyes and look at his hand like before to check if it was working.
During one of these attempts, he looked at his hand and was pleased with his attempts thus far. He focused on enhancing his eyes so he could see his hand through the technique. Then he looked up to see something approaching him through the shadows, which caused him to move to his feet. This was the least amount of power he had used to achieve his desired result.
Silas released the technique around his body but kept his eyes enhanced as the form shifted towards him and formed something. No, it developed into someone. Someone he recognized? He squinted his eyes, the brown almond eyes and the straight black hair put into a sort of double bun behind her head. The narrow chin and thick lips smiling.
"Silas, my love." Himari spoke to him, but it sounded like she was an echo. Her voice had that soft, far-away sound like echoes when the children yelled into the mountains.
He felt weak in the knees, and his mouth gaped open. "Himari?!" It couldn't be her. Though it could be, couldn't it? A shadow monster, or nightmare, the creature that attacked Kyoto, was from these lands. Kenji admitted that himself.
Himari smiled and nodded. "I have been here the entire time, my love."
Silas fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around the figure. She had a softness to her, a certain squishiness she didn't have before, but underneath that, there was a solid body. He held on with all the strength he dared. He was almost scared that she'd disappear in a puff of shadow if he squeezed her too tight.
Himari gave Silas a soft giggle that he loved so much. The laugh that she reserved for quiet private moments. She was always careful about showing the complex alchemist Sacred Artist exterior, but together she was always his. Silas looked up at her, looked into her eyes, and smiled broadly.
"Himari, I, we, what…"
Silas stumbled over his words. He had so many things to tell her, to ask her, he wasn't sure where to start. She gave him another giggle and then moved one of her fingers to his lips, shushing him. He stared at her with wide eyes, still not believing this. The finger on his lips went under his chin, and she lifted him to his feet to look him in the eyes.
"Shhh, dear Silas, I don't have long. It's not your fault what happened in Kyoto. The Kami, there's trouble in the Kami family. Kenji is mad and is using all this to justify helping you and taking Reiko in." She explained to him softly. Her hands were on his shoulders, and she looked into his eyes.
"Reiko is here too?" Silas looked around as if the boy, his apprentice, would just pop out of the shadows, which was entirely possible here.
Himari gave another giggle, closing her eyes. Opening them again, she smiled softly. "He's been with you the entire time."
Silas looked right into her eyes, flabbergasted, "huh?"
Before he could quite get the noise out, though, his shadow rose from the ground beside him into that figure. The same figure Silas had seen twice before. The shadow had helped him when he needed it in the past. When he could not fight, that shadow sprung into action to help him.
"Master." The shadow seemed to melt around the figure, dissolving until it formed the boy Silas recognized, Reiko. The young boy with a round face and skinny frame. He had messy black hair and was tall for his age. He seemed older now, though, older beyond what would be his years. His face had narrowed somewhat, and he had wrinkles under his eyes.
"Forgiveness, master. Kenji did not permit me to reveal who I was, but I have been with you the entire time. He gave me powers over the shadows to help you if needed. To protect you," Reiko explained.
Reiko was begging for his own forgiveness?! Silas couldn't take it. He did the only thing he could think of. Silas clasped his hands together and gave the boy the deepest bow he had ever given. Silas kept his back straight and stayed down for several moments before lifting and looking back at Reiko. The apprentice smiled at his master and returned the bow.
"Silas, my love, it is time for us to go now. Kenji is taking Reiko back into the realm of shadow and nightmare. You no longer need him, he says." Himari grabbed Silas's face and pulled it to look away from Reiko and back to her. Reiko remained silent and stood at attention before his master and his wife.
"I can't say goodbye." Silas spoke softly to Himari and then looked to Reiko, "to either of you." He focused his gaze back on Himari.
Himari simply smiled and reached up, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "This isn't goodbye, my love. We shall see each other again."
Silas looked between them, mouth moving but words unable to form. Himari just giggled and turned her back to him, walking away. Reiko gave Silas one last deep bow, which Silas returned.
"See you again, Master," Reiko said before turning and walking away.
When Reiko had caught up to Himari, she put a hand on Reiko's back. They walked a few more steps together before they both looked back to Silas and smiled before being swallowed by the shadows and pulled away.
Silas stood there for several long moments, unable to say anything or even think. He furrowed his brow. A new determination in his soul.
He looked off in the direction Kenji had indicated, where the manor was. Silas moved the shadow within his body using the shadow walk technique. Invisible to anything around him, he took off running. Pushing himself to run as fast as he could. The shadows were much easier to move through than the physical world. There was nothing in his way to stop him, and if there was something, he just drove through it.
Finally, he arrived at the manor. Kenji was standing there with Shu on his shoulder, apparently waiting for Silas to show up. He was close to running out of the shadows in his body before he made it, so the technique was easy to release when he came in front of Kenji.
"Good, you made it just in time." Kenji said as soon as Silas appeared.
"In time for what?" Silas asked, panting, out of breath from running so hard and holding the technique for so long. He wasn't sure how far he had just run, but keeping the technique while he did so was tiring.
"It's time for you to go back," Kenji explained and lifted a thin bony finger to Silas's forehead. Before Silas could say anything else. He felt a pulse of power through his body.
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The young girl in purple and teal stood facing a dragon and a man dressed in robes that matched the young Kami. They were dark purple outer robes, and a teal inner robe. Genki had that playful smirk on her lips, the same one she always had.
"So, you two have been getting along all this time?" She asked them, knowing the answer, of course.
The dragon simply grumbled. The old dragon was tired of the child Kami's games and nonsense. Since their first meeting so long ago, he and his kind had done nothing special. They just left the cultivators who followed them now alone and pretended they didn't exist, which is what dragons had done with mortals mostly since the dawn of time.
The man, however, dropped to his knees and put his forehead into the dirt in front of the Kami. "Yes, master. We thank you and the dragons for the powers and knowledge you have both given us."
Genki gave a soft laugh, and the dragon rolled its eyes.
"Good, good. I trust your sect has made out well with the knowledge I've given you. You are the closest mortal to reach your rank of Saint. Soon you will be the first saint-leveled cultivator, and the world shall be yours to do with what I tell you," Genki told him with a broad smile.
"Years ago, I had the dragons destroy a small village in the middle of nowhere, and you took what remained. A small girl lived, though, and was picked up by an old man. I haven't been able to tell what happened to the girl since the old man took her in. She has learned the ways of the sacred arts and has sworn vengeance upon you. She blames your sect for the movement of dragons and the death of her parents." Genki explained this to the man while his forehead was still in the dirt.
The dragon just looked at them, hanging there in the air, bored.
The man, however, finally raised his head and looked at Genki. "I am not concerned with the girl. As you said, I will be the first saint in the mortal realm. I will be your ambassador. None will be able to stand up to me."
Genki nodded, looking down at him. "Maybe, but she has powerful friends. This old man has hidden himself and her from me, and that's concerning. There is a young dragon that made its home around the island of Sunhae. You are to go there and take care of this girl and whoever she has with her.
"Why must we be involved?" The dragon, once more irritated, gave Genki a face of annoyance. Once more, if it could frown, it would have.
"Because I deemed it so. These people seem to follow the cults around to stop me. I'm tired of it. Our little pawn, the Sacred Artist here, is going to take care of it." Genki explained to the dragon, smiling.
The dragon huffed a breath of fire and then grumbled, "fine. I know whom you speak. It's a young dragon in terms of dragons, but I will make sure she makes herself more well-known to the mortals."
Genki nodded her head, pleased. "Good. That will help, so no one suspects I am part of it. Now go, both of you.”