"I am..."
A pulse of chaos collapsed around him, spreading through the hall like a miasma. Bolts of red lightning propagated as if it was the eye of a horrific storm.
Though in a split second, the well of energy returned to its source. As if time itself was reversing, chaos personified enveloped Aldric wholly. Pulsing around his figure in a regular vibration, a change was occurring.
His blood began to pump through his vessel. Strangely vapourous and light.
His reflective marble skin became more lifelike. Trading a hard-shelled exterior for a more defined and textured layer of obsidian skin.
The anger poured out of the young man like a flood. Leaving behind a stark emptiness. A cold oblivion where the anguish remained, yet the heightened emotions evaporated.
An unbearable weight loomed inside of his stomach.
Now encapsulated within him, lines of red energy glowed beneath his obsidian skin. Mapping his body in intricate patterns, they slowly coalesced towards his heart. For where the spark of divinity rested within the children of Nether, a different spark rested within Aldric. One of his own making.
Centering around his chest, a scorched burn formed into a circle. A hole filled with ruby glowed ominously. It was strange and out of place on the obsidian doll. Though, it began to act as a source. Fuelling his metamorphosis.
In any other situation, the young man would have already come to multiple conclusions as to what caused this stark change. But this was different.
The power did not remain steady. After fuelling him, it seemed to continuously grow as if it were responding to his heightened emotions. Reaching a crescendo in line with his thoughts.
Unknown to Aldric, it was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Waiting. Waiting for its host to speak something into existence.
"I..."
His tightly formed fist loosened into a palm on the obsidian wall. Feeling the marble's coldness for the first time.
THUD
He dropped to the ground. His gaze resting on the ceiling of the hall.
To him, he could not feel it at all.
With his mind numb to the burning energy coursing through him, he could not feel a thing.
Just an all-devouring emptiness that drenched his entire being in a never-ending cold.
And in line with that, the boiling energy of chaos silently dissipated.
---
Aldric would not leave that position for a very long time.
Why would he?
Without the need to sleep or to eat, his prone body remained there.
With his soul resting in his soul sea, he gazed at the dim stars as he rested on a bed of black clouds.
---
Aldric did not care to know how long he remained there. With his psyche strained, the only thing that got him out of his state was his subconscious. His subconscious that had been trained through years of routine and challenge.
Besides, the answers that he needed would not be found within his own mind.
As if he were guided by a spirit, his body stood up, and he returned to his task.
Looking at his fully transformed body, his empty mind quickly came to a conclusion. With a sort of strange apathy, the source of this transformation could have only been one thing.
The strange formation of chaos resting within his soul.
In the same vein that the power responded to his desire in escaping the temple within the Phantom Verge, it seemed to respond to his desires now.
Though it was clear to him that controlling this power was a myth.
Since escaping the Phantom Verge last July, Aldric had continuously attempted to call upon the energy bestowed upon him by his aspect legacy, the [Seed of Chaos].
But it was just not responding.
Countless ideas had been brewing in his mind for months that could explain the reason behind it. From him not being strong enough, certain conditions needing to be met or even the energy needing to recharge.
He could feel it in his soul sea but it just would not reveal itself to the outside world.
'Do I have to be at the brink of despair or death to use this power?'
He thought, detached from what it meant for him.
INHALE.
He finally took a deep breath. Cold air entering an even colder body.
"At least I don't have to constantly focus on moving my body."
He said.
This would not stop him from practising diamond weave. After all, he was still missing a limb.
STEP
STEP
A strong thudding sound rang around the hall. The sound of two similar materials hitting against each other.
Moving down the steps, Aldric returned to the main entrance of the Ebony Tower.
'I need to find a way out of this hell.'
He thought.
Feeling like a cornered rat was not the best feeling for his psyche. Of course, Aldric did not think this way before. Before, he leisurely planned to find an exit from the Sky Below.
But that was the thing about anxiety and emotional turmoil.
It warped your reality and mindset.
Placing his palm on the cold wall, dark essence poured onto the diamond lattice. Pouring through lines and paths.
With [Visionary] facilitating a pseudo mind's eye for visualising the correct path to navigate the complex structure of the diamond weave, Aldric noticed the patterns of repeating structures within the gate, all leading towards the nexus in the centre.
'Does that govern the door's movements? Acting like a lock.'
It seemed that the past few days of study were not a waste. It looked like the best way to learn the art would be through studying items that incorporated Diamond Chaining.
'That sounds a lot better than diamond weave to be honest.'
Aldric thought. Not wanting to admit to any other reason as to why he would change the name.
The lattice pulsing with dark essence, spreading throughout the structure. Passing through the centre like a heart before filtering back. The gate seamlessly opened.
And hell descended upon him.
Blistering heat blasted through the gate. An instantaneous exchange between the cool air of the tower and the scorching air outside. This created a vacuum-like effect that pulled Aldric slightly forward.
Instantly, Aldric slammed his palm back onto the door and locked the gate.
Looking around, black soot formed at his feet. Strangely though, not a single flame entered the tower.
"Just how hot are the divine flames?"
To burn the obsidian-like floor of the temple, just through a transfer of heat in the air. It broke the law of physics.
The very laws of the world.
Though to the divine, it must be akin to child's play.
Taking stock of the damage, Aldric felt fine. Besides the tolerable sting along his body, the bolstering heat did not breach the threshold of his new body. The marble shell withstanding the heat.
He was sure to not take a single breath with the gate open. Even if his skin was durable, he did not want to test the inside of his body.
This did not take away from the divine flames in any capacity, though. Even though the rift in the Sky Below was most likely to be much smaller due to Aldric going back in time, he knew that his human body would have boiled in the face of that heat. Likely evaporating the liquid within him.
"No leaving from there."
He thought.
Just because he withstood the secondary heat from the divine flames did not mean he was immune to them. Getting any closer would likely burn him out of existence, with how small the rift may be. If it even exists.
Any plan to harness his darkness to leave the Sky Below died. Though, with his weakness to light, was it even alive?
Aldric did not lament or worry.
Returning back towards the second floor, he continued upwards.
The third floor was also much different. Back in reality, this floor contained an assortment of porcelain dolls in the midst of being disassembled. Entire sheets of diamond chains spread out in the air like laundry.
It was here that Weaver studied the creation of Nether, threading one of the porcelain arms onto his body after losing a limb to the corruption Nether left behind. Leaving behind a golden needle for Sunny to find.
Though, it was now much more different.
A dozen braziers filled with divine flames licked the air of the room. Each contained a pit of divine flame. Above the grid of braziers, incomplete porcelain dolls hung above the ceiling like curtains. The entire thing looked like a morbid assembly line.
Strangely, there was no heat in the air. As though each pit of flames were contained by some unknown system.
"So this is where he was harvesting the divine flames. Attempting to breathe life into his dolls."
He concluded.
Moving past the third floor, he reached the fourth floor.
The place where he was headed.
Facing a familiar statue of the Storm Goddess, Aldric summoned the [Tesseract].
The black shard looked worn out. Parts of the runic array covering the stone becoming inert with cracks moving along it.
In the vicinity of the statue, the [Tesseract] automatically shifted into the shape of a key.
The same key that he held so long ago in front of the gates of the underworld.
Unlike the last time he was in front of the statue, Aldric did not hesitate. Placing his palm on the Storm Goddess, he poured a measured amount of darkness into the statue.
SHIFT
Like it did before, the state shifted to the side slightly before sinking down. Twisting as it sank, it revealed a spiral staircase that led beneath them.
Wasting no time, Aldric followed the path laid out for him. The journey down was much shorter than the previous time in the caverns; however, it was still much too long for where it was. The gap between the third and fourth floors could not account for the staircase. It was simply too long.
Finally reaching the end, a large gate sat in a small space. Obsidian walls covering the gate and stairs in every direction. Made with the same ebony material as the statue, the gate was adorned with countless designs of unknown origin that looked as if it came from a lost time.
But now it looked different to him. Thousands of pathways revealed themselves, stacked in layers. At the heart of the diamond weave, a soul shard was embedded between the layers.
Although his flaw did not extend to soul shards, his instincts as an Awakened human allowed him to deduce that it was beyond the rank of transcendent but perhaps not divine. Though, it was mostly guesswork.
This time as he neared the gate, there were no pulses of danger from [Insight]. Urging him with his next move.
A small opening warped into existence. Blending into reality as if it were always there. Slotting the key inside, empty air met him.
There was no mechanism or bolt to twist.
And the door opened. Slowly and measured with no issues.
"What on earth?"
---
Another world.
A space outside of reality.
That was all that he could describe it as.
A void in the sky littered with brightly lit stars was above him. Though to Aldric, they seemed strangely positioned. As if there was something hidden behind them.
In front of him was a simple stone ground.
A mixture of sand and stone came together to give an archaic feel. As if you had stumbled upon an Egyptian archeological site, where the boundary between sediment and ruins was blurred.
The sand-like material in this case was completely white. Painting the ground in ivory with obsidian shards scattered on the field like rocks.
Looking along the walls, gates similar to the one that he entered from lined the circumference. There were numerous destroyed gates, each destroyed in various ways, but most of them looked to be shattered with a singular print of a fist left behind as the only evidence. For those that remained intact, he could count seven distinct gates.
In the centre, a large monument stood tall. At the height of a room with tall ceilings, there was a large gap in existence. Covered by a shroud of darkness so dense and so thick, there was not a single movement or change at all. Aldric could not even visualise himself producing something so overwhelming.
This was absolute true darkness.
The arch that served as a boundary to the void was made up of an ancient stone. With large unknown runes embedded within it like hieroglyphics. It spoke of a more simple and basic runic language, but Aldric knew not to underestimate it.
Moving forward, he felt strangely at home. With nothing inhibiting him or challenging him, it felt like a leisurely stroll on the beach on a starry night.
At that exact moment, something changed.
The closer that he neared, the more that reality began to fray.
At first, the colours seemed to die. Slowly bleeding into a shallow black and white. And then, space itself began to unravel. The distance covered in his steps fluctuated. Some were short, and some were much longer than they should have been.
The archaic archway dissolved out of existence, as if it were an illusion conjured. Looking beside him, the other numerous gates fell apart too. Leaving, ahead of him, nothing but an empty white space. If he looked deeper, familiar weaves of light would reveal themselves.
Looking behind, he could see the timeline in which the world came undone. It was like watching an intricate painting slowly blend and wilt away gradually into a singular shape.
The only gateways that retained their shape were the one that he entered from and the one beside it.
Aldric could not believe what his eyes were seeing. He felt as though he had reached the end of the world.
The end of reality.
A thought was birthed from his mind.
Taking a deep exhale and centering his mind, he spoke.
"Is this the end of the nightmare?"
*****
Thanks for reading.
Where the hell is Aldric? Seriously?
My god, the latest chapters of Shadow Slave are absolute peak. For anyone stacking, catch up if you haven't already.
Thanks for the kind words ShadowPlayz.
Till the next one.