Chapter 6.6: The Dark in the Light

Chapter 6.6: The Dark in the Light

1

Ash opened his eyes, shrouded by the veil of darkness, unsure where he was as the last thing he remembered was Tuvira finally answering his call when their eyes met. Though they were enemies competing against one another, Ash saw the elation of her heart right before their heads collided.

“Man Tuvira, you may even be more stubborn than me,” Ash said, rubbing his forehead as he looked around to see a whole lot of nothing. Just the vast reaches of the abyss he had somehow fallen into.

“That’s my Sensei.” Ash sighed as he heard the sound of an organ. “Throwing me so hard I got a concussion.”

Ash chuckled to himself as he followed the somber notes wading through the path of darkness paved in a light so bright you can’t even see.

What was the point of keeping out the dark if it blinded you? Ash thought as he didn’t want to disturb the person playing since that was his only source of figuring out where he was.

“There once was a Princess trapped in the Kingdom of Light.”

A soft-spoken voice sang. It wasn’t Tuvira’s as she sounded too old, too mature, too hopeful. Which wasn’t a bad thing. It just wasn’t what Ash expected as he continued to slowly walk with his eyes closed.

“For a crime, her parents committed. For choosing to enslave Humanity.”

Ash stopped.

“Generations have passed since then, yet the Princess was still not allowed to return home.”

Ash quickened his pace.

“Until the day a Prince arrived from the Kingdom of Night.”

Ash knew this fairytale turned lullaby.

“Where he would free her from the endless light—”

“And bring back the night,” Ash said, finishing the story as he opened his eyes, no longer needing to keep them closed as there was a balance between the light and dark enough to see. Enough to where he recognized the figure adorned in black as if she was getting ready for a funeral, all while trapped within a golden bird cage.

“So you know of this tale, my prince,” Tuvira said, staring at Ash through the cage bars. There she witnessed how he painted the world in darkness wherever he went like a plague; his simple existence infected the land around him.

“Of course I do,” Ash said, unable to take another step closer as the golden cage burned to the touch. So much so that he felt as if he’d wake from the pain. “It was the first one my mother sang to me.”

“You do know this story is only passed down to Princesses of Water and—”

“Do not say it. I am not that. I’m a Pyro Dragonoid. A Human named Ash Spitfire who dreams of living in the Kingdom of Fire with his friends. Exploring the world together and going on adventures with you, Tuvira.”

“And yet, if you were, you would not be here, my prince. Your eyes can do more than see into the hearts of man. You can delve into the deepest parts of their soul. Something even I can’t do.”

“Or our Stars Aligned. Did you forget that’s a thing—”

“Please do not lie to me. Not here. Not when I’m at my most vulnerable. Don’t hurt me again, Ash Darkstar.”

Tuvira blinked away the tears from her eyes. Where on one hand, here he was, her Prince of Darkness, and it was Ash, her personal prince, but on the other hand, he refused who he was just as he had rejected her before.

“Fine! You want to hear the truth!” Ash couldn’t contain himself any longer as the purple light in his eyes shone bright, revealing the stars that lay within his black sclera. “I am the Prince of Darkness… But I am not the one from that story. I will not be the one to end this Kingdom of Light.”

“But they’re the reason you’re the last of your kind—”

“And so what?” Ash said, strangely calm. “Did you not hear the line? They wanted to enslave Humanity. Honestly, heh, have you seen me? I swing my blade with a smile. Even at death’s door. I’m only ever truly alive on the field of battle. I’m a monster made to bring about the end.”

With a snap of his finger, Ash Darkstar obliterated the golden cage of light as it was devoured by a hole of darkness engulfing Tuvira’s world into the night of the void. “I can’t even shed tears. I mean, who would want something getting in their eyes when emotions ran high in a fight? If you ask me, we don’t deserve to exist—”

“Then who will free me!” Tuvira cried out, losing sight as it was darker than even the deepest of depths. “Who will allow me to see the sea again? Allow me to see my home again!”

“We will,” Ash said as the light from his eyes no longer peered inwardly. As they became that of violet shining a way for Tuvira to see the light in the dark. “The people whose hands reach out to you. Your friends.”

“I don’t have friends. I don’t have bonds like that.”

Ash let out a laugh as he smiled at Tuvira. “I’m your friend. I may not be the Prince of Darkness. I may not be Ash Darkstar. But I am Ash Spitfire, the Human Dragonoid that you named her prince.”

Ash Spitfire stepped forward, turning dark to light just enough to where they became beacons in the sea of night as if the Moon and the Sun and the Stars were inside them.

“So let’s forget about these fairytales and go back home, my little princess—”

The world shook as cracks formed between the two. A part of Tuvira wanted to grab hold of Ash’s hand. To go back to the little home she had created at their lunch table, but another part of her knew that it was not her home. That her heart did not belong there, for Typhon knew the terror she felt on the day she was told she’d never see Aquarius again. That she’d never see her family again. The family she could barely remember.

“You can forget. And you can go back home. But I can’t. My prince. I will win this game and show the cracks within the light. Even if you come to hate me, Ash Darkstar. You will be my Prince of Darkness.”

“Tuvira—”

The moment Ash opened his mouth, it was filled with water as Tuvira grew smaller and smaller as he floated away. Ash couldn’t swim, but that didn’t stop him from wadding through the night. Pushing himself forward just to get back to Tuvira, but right before she was within his grasp, Ash saw the black scales on his left hand that twinkled a darklight. The mark that he was a Devil, and so he hesitated, filled with fear as Tuvira smiled, fading into the light.

2

There, Tuvira left him alone with the terrors of her heart as a beast whose size was too massive to exist in reality as Ash could only view its flaring nostrils and garnet eyes. Yet when the scaled beast opened its mouth, showcasing rows of shark teeth, Ash knew he was looking at a Dragon of old: Typhon.

“It seems you have failed, Spawn of Skia.”

“That is not my mother’s name, nor is it my father’s,” Ash Darkstar said with eyes so cold it froze a pocket within the space for him to speak as his shadows freed him from the sea.

“Ah yes, you Dragonoids refer to your latest parents and not your earliest.”

“So Skia is the name of the Dragon I got these tainted genes from.”

“Did you not know that?”

“Of course not.” Ash Darkstar said as not even his fairytales talked of the beast, nor did his mother: Celestia, ever mention it. “That’s how much they fear it.”

“Ah yes, speaking of fear. Are those tears? Spawn of Skia.”

Ash Darkstar wiped the blood from his eye, staring at the crimson that stained his black scales, then chuckled. “Nope. Devils never cry. But I know Dragons can. So I’d be careful calling me that again.”

Typhon let out a laugh that, if they were in the real world, it would have caused flooding the likes the planet had never seen. Then again, there was a point when Typhon did exist, and at one point, the landmass known as Asia existed above sea level. But that was in the past. When the world wasn’t called Drakos but rather Earth.

“How amusing. To be threatened by a mere Human.”

“Hey, don’t forget it was a mere Human that sealed you away. Oh Great Typhon, Water Dragon of Terrors.” Ash took a bow smiling as the old Dragon lunged at him only to taste nothing but shade.

“I shall remember this insult, Spawn of Skia!”

Ash Darkstar chuckled while hidden within the shadows as toying with a Dragon was something he was sure everyone he knew would cleanse him with fire for. Yet if they truly read and listened to the fairytales passed down through time, they’d understand that Dragons were not meant to be worshipped as Gods. That was something his mother always told him. Both of them.

Yet Ash Darkstar sighed as he felt himself begin to lose consciousness which meant he was waking up. The seal his mother, Celestia, placed on him was faltering. So he took it upon himself to tamper with it in hope that he could remain Ash Spitfire just a little longer.

“Sorry me… but I’m sure you can save Tuvira without embracing the shadows. I mean, you’re her prince, after all. Now go have fun. With the people you love. To your heart’s content. Do it for me, your unwelcomed true self.”