The Darkness Unleashed

The Raging War: Light vs Dark

Prologue

The blades clashed with a deafening effect. I moved back to gain proper footing and unleash a second attack, but he wouldn't let me. He pounced on me like a cat on a mouse, I attempted a side step to dodge, but he still got a cut at my cheek. Blood flowed, yet I felt nothing, I just released a menacing smile knowing I was going to win this duel. We both now had a couple metres distance between us, waiting for the next move. His blade was blinding, the white light it displayed was far brighter than the sun, repelling any eyes that were set on it. My blade on the other hand was the exact opposite, the darkness it released soaked up any colour around, eyes were dragged in, making one who looked at it go insane, never being able to break free from the dream it promised. This fight had been fated and the winner already decided. It was a fight between the man entrusted by the gods to allow all the lands to prosper and the man entrusted by the demons to take control and end it all. The man hadn't even been entrusted in the first place, he had just sacrificed everything for power, just looking at him made my blood boil. I locked my eyes with the enemy, and that's when he made his move. He dashed across to move towards me, he was going so fast I couldn't even see him, but I could track his bright blade. He unleased a wave of attacks that I blocked one after another, as I fended his attacks off, I took a swing in the air, which sent an arc of darkness towards him, he quickly ducked to avoid. It looked as if 100 trees in the distance had been cut off by this slashing attack. Now that distance had been created once again, I didn't give him any time, as he was regaining his footing from my previous attack.

I dashed, disappearing to the human eye, reappearing in front of my opponent, I saw his eyes widen. I swung my black sword as hard as possible, which had a trailing effect as it sliced through the air and my opponent's head. The severed head landed not far from my position, red all over the place. Was the fight over? I had known I was going to win, but I didn't even need to use IT. He was the king, the strongest man, yet the fight was over before I knew it. That's when I heard it, the sound of laughter echoed through my ears, it was coming from behind me. "If it was that easy, do you think I would bear the name of King, and be granted the only white blade." I turned around, my gaze set on my opponent standing perfectly fine, having not even a single drop of sweat. My thoughts quickly went ablaze, "who had I just cut? What was going on?" As if sensing my confusion, my opponent responded quickly and straight to the point, "A light clone." This confused me even more, but when I turned back to the lifeless body, it began to disintegrate in a white light and was gone before I knew it. "Was this a special relitack?" I asked in a weary, still tone, he didn't respond. His warm, white eyes locked with my cold, dark ones, and I knew what I needed to do. I wanted to end this quick and so I got ready to unleash a relitack of my own. I sheathed my sword and only held on to the handle, I put my left foot forward on the sandy, dirt terrain, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and focused all my relia energy into my left hand which bared the handle to my blade. "1000 dark cuts!" I announced with the ferocity of a tiger. I was now metres behind him, my sword still sheathed, I turned around and took my hand off the handle. There was a black trail that covered the distance from where I started to my current position. I had sent 1000 different black slashes at him; he couldn't be standing after that. I had just used one out of ten of my relitack's. These were special attacks made possible using the relia energy given by the ancient relic possessed. The attack that had just been used was one that allowed me to slow down time to the point at which it stops. I walked towards my opponent and took my time sending 1000 arcs of darkness, then, I slowly walked past him and finished off the attack. With this attack my opponent wouldn't feel any pain, since everything happens so quick, they would simply be dead, with barely anything remaining of their corpse. Yet once the dust cleared, he stood straight, completely fine. His blade clearly visible was partly in the ground, his hand firmly on the handle. I watched as he slowly pulled it out, and sheathed his blade. The way he did this was like an art; it had spun in the air and fell smoothly onto the rough metal. "A very nice move indeed," he spoke in a very gentle tone, almost as if I wasn't his enemy. He treated me with the utmost respect, to bad I was going to have to kill him here and now. There was no need to even wonder how he was still standing; he's a dangerous man and I should know that the most. I took some time to look about, the scenery around us had changed tremendously. There was a hint of warmth in the air, the sun beginning it's decent, the sky and clouds all in disarray, as if God was frowning at me. This made me release a menacing grin, after all he was one of my enemies. I continued to eye my surroundings; the small dusty field the fight began in had been enlarged a hundred-fold; trees that had been slain in the background lay idle on the vast floor. I now brought my focus onto my opponent once more. He stood in the same position as before, now with a new sense of urgency shown on his face. He wore an all-white kimono and hakama that seemed as it was one with the wind. On the other hand, I was dressed in all black. I noticed he was now shifting his stance, dragging his right leg forward and putting his weight on it, almost in a lunge position. He made a humming noise as if he was trying to concentrate, I drew my blade and got ready for any long-range attack, but something different happened. I heard a sudden yell, then a sound made by his sword and sheath colliding, the sound lingered, but then it happened. He started sprinting at me, I got in a more refined position, but that's when I heard it, the discrete footsteps running towards me from behind, from my left and right. I quickly took a glace in all my directions, and that's when I saw 4 enemies rushing me, but they were all him. He used the same clone relitack as before, I didn't have any time to think. The first person to reach me was my real opponent, I blocked quickly as he threw down a heavy slash. All of sudden, the clone from behind reached me, I focused all my relia energy to my right hand, this hardened my hand to the strength of steel. He sent a horizontal slash right at my head, I grabbed the blade. This put me in the worst position possible, both of my hands were covered and I had two more clones a metres distance from me. "Think, think, think!" I repeatedly said to myself. There was nothing I could do now, then I remembered, I would have to use IT. The two clones were now swinging, one blade was nearing my neck as the other my lower body. I saw a tear fall from my opponents' eye, "forgive me," he whispered. "No," I thought, "forgive me." "SWITCH!" I screamed, I noticed I had a chill in my throat. I was now not in control, I simply just watched through my eyes, without being able to move a muscle. Darkness it self was now UNLEASHED.

Chapter 1: Erathaol

My interest nor grew nor diminished. I didn't particularly hate this place, but I found it somewhat boring. There was nothing that could pleasure me, somethings more fun than others, yet all was particularly lame. I lay idle on my bed, until I had a knock at my door, it was locked and I didn't want to get up. I listened to the knock endlessly almost like an alarm clock, that never stopped. As the knock prolonged, anger begun to rise, I wanted to stay lying down and never get up, but this deranged knock kept coming back. I got to the point where I didn't mind stabbing my ears, "what a drag," I spoke aloud. Forcingly, I stood up, putting my two feet under my body, sliding one foot after the other on the smooth marble floor. I opened the door with a disgusted look on my face, but to my surprise it was Anastasia. "Get ready," she spoke, wasting no time. I gestured her in, but she wouldn't follow. I hated Anastasia, ever since we were young, she dragged me into boring things and for a reason unknown she thinks we're friends. I keep telling her to not come back, yet she manages to make her way in this huge castle. I'm guessing the workers here assume she's with me, so they let her in, since she's the only one who even bothers talking to me. I never socialize with anyone to be honest, that's why many see me as a disappointment. The apparent successor of the throne in the Hollow Kingdom who can't even talk to a subject or anyone in general. It's not that I can't talk, but I find no point in using speech, it's just such a waste of time and it's something that can never be trusted. There are many out there who use speech to fool everyone around them. People in power always speak about promises that can't be kept, truths that are not the full picture, and health they can't guarantee. To the people in the royal palace, I was a waste of space, but since I was the prince, they had no choice but to bow down and treat me with the utmost respect. For most kingdoms, anyone who took one wrong step would get beheaded, but the Hollow Kingdom was different. The supreme ruler, my father, was a man of extreme strength, but one of amazing mental fortitude. To anybody other than me, he was God itself, a divine spirit sent down to bring peace. The problem was it was almost all a lie. He not only sold everything for power, but he also had the audacity to call himself chosen. I didn't care much for him, but I couldn't disagree on his power. He himself possessed the rarest, most powerful ancient relic of all time. The Angel Blade. I drifted back to reality as Anastasia slapped me across the face, I had zoned out. "What do you want?" I spoke in a low monotone voice. My voice sounded weird to my ears, kind of deep. It had been a couple of days since I had last heard my own voice. Anastasia was lucky, for some reason I only talked to her. For the past 10 years, she's been coming to get me, at first, she would sneak, but now no one seemed to care. Every time she came, she would have something planned to do, I wondered why she had no other friends and why she always decided to only bother me. Even though I didn't enjoy doing any of the things she forced me into, I wouldn't tell her that. I would force laughter, I would force enjoyment, and before I knew it, I mastered the art of acting. I don't know what made me not want to tell her anything, usually I had no problem speaking a truth towards others, but she was somehow different. For some reason my thoughts always wandered around her, like the Earth around the Sun. I guess you could say I needed her, but I didn't want to admit that. She's always taken care of me; without her I don't think I'd have ever talked to anyone.

I focused back on her, her face a mix of melatonin and white; a creamy brown colour. It was very smooth and well managed, along with her straight hair, she looked beautiful. I continued to stare at her amazing bodily features until her hand struck up upon my face with the strength of 100 samurais. "Ow!" I screamed. I looked up to find her laughing, a smile so wide I could easily count all her teeth. The laughter filled the room, and for some reason made my pain go away. I wonder what this feeling is, I'd never felt anything like it. "We're going on an adventure" she said with a touch of excitement and seriousness. "What do you mean?" I replied curiously. "What I mean is we're leaving this boring city, you me, explore the world." "Is she crazy? That would be a lot of work, and my father would never allow it, after all he still thinks I would be a great king with guidance." I thought to myself. "I want to get you out of here," she said harshly, out of the blue. "Why?" The word flowed out of my mouth. "Because I feel bad, it's like you're a prisoner to your dad, lounging in the palace all day, training, feasting, working, like a slave." I took all this in, but she didn't stop there. "You don't find anything fun and do it all with that straight face of yours, it pisses me off," she was right, out of all the things I've done in my 16 years alive, I haven't done anything that allowed me to acknowledge life itself. Nothing that put me to the edge of my seat, or that got my adrenaline going, or that got me dying of laughter, but I did notice something, I felt certain things when I was with her that I'd never felt before. A slab of stone that was beginning to break. There was a problem though, even if I wanted to go with her, on this so-called adventure, it was impossible. The city I was in, Flasea, the city of the royal. Was surrounded by tons of different past Kingdoms my father and his personal and royal army had conquered. My father was on the verge of conquering every Kingdom in the world, and he would be the reason for "unification" on this Earth. Since I was his only son, he would do anything to retrieve me and I most likely wouldn't even make it out of the Hollow Kingdom let alone The Icrophate Dynasty, it was so vast. The Icrophate Dynasty is the outcome of all the land my father has conquered. Every kingdom put down at the mercy of him. He was given the strength to control the world. "It's impossible," I said without giving it careful thought, but even if I did think about it the outcome would be the same. "Rath," she said, short for Erathaol, "this adventure will make you genuinely smile, trust me." The sentence she spoke was short, yet just one word out of the nine got me really intrigued. The word was "genuine," what did Asia mean by this. I began to wonder, "was I not as good an actor as I saw myself as? Or was it just a play of words? Did she know I didn't actually care for everything we did?" Thoughts ran around my head, questions flying everywhere, and confusion simply finding a resting place in the front of my mind, it was like an out-of-control zoo. The monkeys ran and chased, the birds flew, and the tiger sat down. "You think I'm stupid Rath" she announced, as if she could sense the emotions in the air. "I've dragged you into every possibly fun thing to do in Flasea for literally the past 10 years, and you have the audacity to believe that I didn't know it was all a charade." I guess that was true, she always seemed to try extra hard when it came to doing different and new things. I did act though, and I felt my fake laugh was similar to the real thing. "Every time I took you out to try something new, I attempted to make you genuinely laugh, so I would hear your laugh and get excited, but there was no sparkle in your eyes, like a lifeless doll." I looked up at her and was surprised to find tears rushing down her face like a waterfall. She continued, crying intensely. "I don't care what it is, but I just want to make you happy, I want you to come back to me, just like you were, before her." "Who is her" I thought. Then it happened, my body shook. Something was flowing through my head, it was a memory, one that I was trying to forget. The details surged through me, and before I knew it, I was on my knees with tears welling up around my eye. "No! No! I don't want to remember this" my mouth moving on it's on, I was now screaming. My hands holding my ears tightly, and my mind racing through image after image, I felt scared. Then Asia made a move, she wrapped her hands around me tightly, I felt warm, and she whispered in my ear, "I'm sorry, it'll be okay, I'm here." This somehow calmed me, I had stopped screaming, and my tears so stopped flooding and my hands found there way onto Asia's back. We sat there, together for a couple of minutes. It had been 10 years since I had last seen my tears. I was blind with the water welling up around my eyes, but with Asia's warmth surrounding me, I felt I was being reborn. This forced me to wipe my tears and clean myself up, I was the prince of all the land surrounding me, but anger quickly swelled up at this thought. I wasn't meant to be a prince, if anything I was a slave forced in here. I quickly regained my poker face, my emotions buried deep down once again. I was glad I got this chance to get everything out, my head felt clearer and some weight had been relieved. I pulled Asia up and wiped her tears with my clothing, I whispered a thank you and sorry. We stood against each other with no distance apart, I had to crane my neck downwards as she was much smaller than me. She shot a heart filled smile and as much as I attempted to return the gesture, my smile wasn't genuine nor heart filled. I now knew what I needed to do, "I'll come along," I spoke heavily. That generous smile of hers quickly turned into a dirty grin, "Obviously, I'm not leaving alone." A knock rose from my grand door again, this time Asia quickly moved to open it. It was a maid, she announced that it was time for my studies and battle training, and so Asia left the palace and I got changed.