Chapter 8: The shadow of the king

I was right, the shadow wasn’t very strong, it seems his strength wasn’t able to convey properly into the mimic. That however doesn’t mean it was easy, as I was still going at it. No matter what I did the mimic seemed to regenerate whenever its inflicted with damage, I try wielding that power again, only this time resulted in nothing but pain, the mimic took advantage of this pause to strike back. For some reason the energy decided it didn’t want to manifest right away, on the second attempt while staying mobile and evading the mimics attacks, was much more successful, wielding the darkness for the second time. I'm able to freely channel on the power unlike during my fight with Agrai, back then I was using it for the first time and I had used it unconsciously, now it seems i’ve adapted to it, I channel the energy into my gun which was more than enough to finish off the shadow, it couldn't heal from gunshots infused with darkness. I was able to sustain enough power to kill but unfortunately, the gateway had closed while the echo kept me occupied. As I turn to leave a crackling sound echoed the area, I turn around to see a tear in space was procured in front of the gateway, and the real Onyx emerged, inspecting his surroundings until he saw me. “ I thought I felt a familiar presence, kin of light. It is a shame to snuff out the flame of such a talented human, but you would only serve as a hindrance to my plans, or perhaps you would like to join me as one of my champions, I just so happen to be missing one,” Onyx offers holding his hand out, in it was a flame of abyssal energy,

“ no thanks, I’d prefer to beat you using my own power,” I keep my blade pointed at him, my first show down with the leader was about to begin. You know what they say, blink and you’ll miss it, which is what I did, Onyx’s first attack would’ve ended me if I reacted a second late. The force of his swing launched me back into the wall. My entire arm was throbbing with pain just from blocking it but fortunately it wasn’t broken, I force myself to stand as I lead the second attack, he blocked them with ease making the difference in our power very apparent, Onyx had sheathed his blade and instead threw a punch with equal force to his blade swing. His second attack alone set me back, my left forearm tanked most of the force resulting in it being broken, pain burned through my left arm, my vision blurred for a second but it was clear that another hit and I’d be done for. Compared to Agrai, Onyx was significantly stronger, I charge in again this time drawing onto the power from before, it flowed through my body numbing the pain from my left forearm, allowing me to do one full force swing with my sword against onyx, I pace myself, this time Im able to evade his fist to land one blow, one good swing infused with the last of the power to cut through Onxy’s side. That was all, a small cut had taken all my energy leaving me unable to defend and it was clear he was toying with me before but it seems hes had enough. He looked down on me, both figuratively and literally, “ it must have been pure luck for you to have bested Agrai, or he was just weak,” Onyx says sounding almost disappointed, “ but it seems this is as far as you go, farewell King of light,” Onyx concludes, slamming his hand against my body hard enough for me to feel it before instantly blacking out. The pain slowly resides as my eyes drift open, Im floating in some strange ocean, beyond the water was gray sky but underneath the waves was light, I rest my eyes. To which they open on their own, the sea no longer there, my scenery had shifted this time I was standing on a river bank, a stranger stood across from me speaking, though the words don’t reach, Im somewhere new again, no, I’ve woken this time around, I lay in bed in a cabin, a fire place sat against the far wall dimly illuminating the room. My wounds still ache but they’ve been treated, moving still hurts so I turn my head without getting up, “ To bypass the gateway you need the essence of one of Onyx’s most trusted, whether it be a champion or someone of same rank it doesn’t matter,” Eren says with her writing something down, “ How you survived eludes me as well, but you were lucky I had found you, else the remaining abyssal soldiers would have killed you. The kings sudden appearance was unexpected, but it seems you managed to hold well,” Eren says as she stands up closing her note book. So all we need is to trick the magic into thinking Im a high-ranking abyss, and according to Eren passing through the door requires the essence of an abyssal chosen by Onyx. Eren has a past with the Abyssal after having ran into the First King while on an expedition, Eren had a small affinity to the darkness, in order to survive she had used forbidden magic to force shift her entire affinity into darkness, allowing her to survive. She claims she's fine and no change is happening but Winter is still wary. After resting a bit more I set off to become worthy, Eren had a base on Blight-1, not too far from where I needed to go. To a smaller ship in orbit of Mars. The high-ranker was stationed to this ship, there was strange writing on the wall into the command deck, the words glowed a dark red, faint but visible. The high ranking abyssal was big with flesh covering its entire body but unlike Onyx and Agrai this thing had no armor, it did however have eyes littered around its head as they moved out of sync, it was wielding a large sword made of the same strange stone as Agrai, but one a much lager scale. I planned to take it out quickly, however, the more I use my power the more familiar it becomes to me, acquiring the essence was simple, its brutish size was all it was as it swung the big sword in an unruly manner, the thing clearly had no mind. It was another forcefully made abyssal, whatever it was is long gone, this fight ended quick which was easy, maybe I had gotten stronger. Turns out when Agrai died his essence flowed back into this thing, now the gate will think im Agrai. A strange glow drafted onto my left arm as I reached toward the corpse of the thing, thanks to the spell Eren had embedded into my arm, it was so the essence of gate magic would separate from its old host and latch into me. The smoke manifested into a strange-looking chain that wrapped around my forearm, the entry key acquired, now leaving was the problem. Onyx probably gets a feeling whenever one of his high-rankers are killed, I assume, because strange spacial distortions began ripping the ship apart, he’d rather sacrifice his own ship if it meant killing me. I need out! My vision darkens for a split second as a shadow reaches out and engulfs me, and I'm no longer in the abyssal ship. "To better fight your opponent, it would be best to understand how he came to be in the first place and why,” Eren says, she had used one of her many abilities granted to her when her affinity changed, similar to what Onyx can do, being able to teleport people including self-teleportation, depending on the distance would also determine the amount of fatigue the user received, Eren had to sit down from the distance I was at she was pushing her limit, now the storytelling began.