"Sorry for the wait, creature. I'm ready."
With his eyes flaming red, he lunged.
With a clear mind and endorphins rushing through his body, Aldric felt on top of the world. As if he had reached the zenith of his potential and could defeat anything that reared itself at him.
The red lightning-like energy that sparked along his blade grew in intensity as it reacted to his feelings.
It was time to make this energy combat ready. Pooling his darkness towards his blade, it flowed like water down a stream. It was strangely much smoother and easier to direct. Dousing the sparks with darkness, they did not falter. It instead rose from it; sparks of red and the occasional black littered the chokuto.
Not even visibly reacting to the success of synergising two foreign energies together, Aldric was relieved to fully incorporate the chaotic energy into his battle art. But unknown to the divine aspect wielder, the two energies were not as foreign as he had thought.
Not wasting any time, he readied his most recent ability.
Rashomon
A sentient pool of darkness wrapped around him tightly. It was the same coat of darkness that had enhanced his offensive capabilities since he had received his aspect, but with intent and will, [Dire Ordinance] made it into something new. And it was not just that; red lightning sparked its surface.
Locked into battle, Aldric did not realise just how potent the energy was. The way that it almost rejected the reality that was the mist.
Swinging his sword, he bound his will onto the attack. Imbuing the desire for it to sharpen and cut, six lines of black and red slashes traversed through the air as it bisected the pool of mist into smaller and smaller pieces.
"SCRHEEE"
A scream that sounded utterly alien even amongst nightmare creatures sounded from the potent mist. This was something different.
As the red arcs of light bisected the mist, it did not reform. Like a cut-off limb, it stayed dead. And in that space created, a spectre appeared.
Shifting and twisting, the eerie phantom had no form, yet it did. It was silent, yet it seemed so loud at the same time. And when it had shape, its form looked as though there was somebody trapped within the mist. It was as though they were wrapped in a skintight film of white that they were pushing against to escape.
With his mind completely empty and focused, Aldric knew that this could be the end. Taking advantage of the reaction the creature was having to the nature of his attacks, Aldric pushed forward.
'One final move.'
Just as he began to ready his final attack, something changed.
A massive gust of wind pulled away from behind him and towards the creature. As if a vacuum in space opened, all the mist gathered at one singular point. Or rather, around a singular point.
The more mist that gathered, the more compact that it became. What had emerged from a football field of mist had now formed into a humanoid shape that was becoming more and more detailed. The hazy white mist had become fully solid, now carrying weight.
The change had happened within a three-second interval, barely enough time for Aldric to attempt to interrupt what he was seeing. And it was at that instance that he was on the defence.
Raising his blade, a heavy attack met him. It was a sword formed completely out of mist, held by a humanoid figure that now fully looked like a spectre. With no face or features, it simply looked like an outline. But strangely, it was an outline that mirrored his own. With the same height and shape, it seemed that the creature was emulating the only thing that it could see.
'Just how intelligent is this thing?'
And the attack grew heavier as they were locked in a clash of blades. Made of itself, the mist blade easily matched the durability of [Sundered Sorrow], yet the creature behind it continued to exert an increasing amount of strength.
Jumping backwards, Aldric gained some space. But the creature would not relent. Jumping towards him, they were bound in a flurry of clashes. Like a choreographed performance, they shifted along the forest floor. And for every time that Aldric changed and improvised, the creature adapted. An attack using a tree as a springboard would be blocked and copied. A wall of darkness to obscure vision would be copied with a wall of mist. He knew that this could not continue.
But the most harrowing detail was that Aldric was beginning to reach his limit. The more that he battled against the nothing creature, the weaker his newfound resistance became. Whispers of futility and identity loss were beginning to surround him. It would only be a matter of time until he forgot who he was. And that version of him would be the most vulnerable to having his soul taken.
A cold exhale left Aldric as it nearly frosted along with the cold temperature. He began to speak.
"As smart as it was for you to choose such a form, you've only given me a smaller target."
A feral grin formed on his face as he blurred towards the spectre. A void in space began to form at the tip of his blade. But it was not just that; the black sun was alight with red. Sparks of energy coalescing around the orb as if the chaotic energy was contained within it.
He could feel the creature begin to stir at what it felt. Jumping toward Aldric, it tried to bridge the gap and interrupt the deadly technique.
But it was too far.
The semi-sentient creature was simply too young. Inexperienced in battle as it was, it did not notice just where Aldric had led them in the last exchange and just how much distance he had created.
'It's time to en...'
DANGER!
DANGER!
DANGER!
A signal from [Insight] pulsed both his brain and gut with pain. Enough pain to get him out of the zone of battle and to wake him up to something happening.
Looking towards the spectre, its face began to morph. Forming a nose and mouth, amongst other features, but most importantly, there was one feature that would spell guaranteed death for Aldric.
Two milky grey eyes formed within the two sockets etched on the spectre's new face.
And within the next one hundred and fifty milliseconds, Aldric had shut his eyes. And in the next instance, a blade of mist struck his gut.
The sentient darkness that he had imbued with his will had felt the fast attack, and even when its master did react, it reacted fast enough to mitigate the attack. A serpent's head bit the sharp tip of the blade and twisted around it. Diverting an attack that would have pierced his armour and drawn blood. But it could not divert the force of the blow. The serpent's head slammed back towards where it had originated, forcing Aldric to firm the force of a killing blow.
A dry heave of spit and air left his mouth as pain littered his nerves. But pain was something he was used to. And the hunter was not one to create useless techniques.
Just as the mist blade retracted, the serpent of darkness twisted and wrapped around the blade and limb of the nothing creature. Whilst before it would have simply slipped past the darkness with no issue, that was not the case now. The chaotic energy traversed the body of the serpent, allowing it to hold the creature in place.
Rashomon: Bind
Pushing past the pain, Aldric spent his essence to order the suit of sentient darkness. Exploding into a myriad of small serpent-like tendrils, they wrapped around the spectre completely. Drenching the creature in darkness and red, it twisted and turned as it fought back. Just before it made its decision to turn back into its previous gaseous form to escape, the hunter prepared his final attack.
Aldric pushed past the pain, the exhaustion and, most importantly, the effects of the mist. With his eyes still closed, he drained his essence as he used his aspect ability. Preparing the same orb of chaos and darkness intertwined, he did not stop there. Imbuing commands and desires into the orb, he was ready.
His blade lunged forward.
Midnight Sun
A wave of red engulfed everything. An implosion of extreme proportions expanded before Aldric. The shell of darkness that held the spectre stretched until it couldn't hold on anymore. Like a firework, red lit up the forest. Nothingness gave way to darkness and entropy, completely eviscerating the spectre out of existence.
Only a singular pearly white stone remained as the last trace of the creature.
[You have defeated a creature of Nothing.]
[Y̷o̴u̶r̵ ̶s̶o̵u̴l̸ ̶g̵r̸o̶w̴s̴ ̴d̶a̸r̵k̴e̴r̶.]
A torrent of dark sprites poured into the hunter's form.
All alone in the silence of a dead battlefield, Aldric took his first breath.
The victor was decided.
Picking up the remnant stone, he did not even deem to study it. Placing it in his pouch, he walked towards the base of the nearest tree. Subsequently summoning Bael to guard him as he rested his back against the base of the tree.
With his mind still clear and in shock from the battle, Aldric looked towards the runes of the nightmare spell to distract his mind.
[Your memory has been destroyed.]
[You have lost an attribute.]
[You have gained an attribute.]
[You have gained a Possibility of Nether's Domain.]
'Damn…'
*****
Thanks for reading.
How's everyone doing?
The fight is now done. Nothing creature got packed up differently. How did he lose an attribute? and a Domain?
Till next time.