Sparkly

Point

Darius walked softly into the Cursed Cave, fear trickling from his heart and into his movements, making them softer, more careful.

Being asked to enter a dark cave system inhabited by evil spirits was like a nightmare.

His mind couldn't comprehend how his father expected him to do this, how the school required its students to fight ancient demons in this cave in order to take ownership of a Cursed Weapon.

And so many students failed... For every student to succeed there were two who didn't.

Darius' weak magic activated, letting out a faint glow from his heart that his enhanced eyes could see by.

In front of him was a sword.

Darius's heart sank just to see it. Even in the darkness, it seemed as though tendrils of pure hatred rose from the hilt.

A shadow stepped from behind it and grabbed it, pulling it from the ground in one wide, angry motion.

Even with his enhanced vision, Darius couldn't see the person clearly. But he recognized the outline, he recognized the way the anger flowed through the limbs.

It was Darius himself, or rather his shadow.

Whether it was an illusion or a dream, Darius knew he had to kill it or it would kill him.

But he had no weapon. He remembered the lessons on this- the evil spirits fed on hatred. Drawing his weapon would only bring about his own demise.

But the thing in front of him, the monster, was running toward him with a blade made of malice, steaming with purple black fear.

Darius screamed, possessed by the desire to get away from the blade, as far away as possible, even as he feared greater horrors lurking in the darkness.

At the last moment he rolled out of the way, his shadow scraping the air out of the space where he had been.

Darius was vaguely aware of blood running down his back where he'd scraped himself on the rough rock. The fear was overwhelming him as he desperately backed away from his shadow, hitting a wall.

'Calm down!' he told himself. He knew he was lost if he panicked, he'd gone over this in his training.

But his training had never told him exactly what to do.

There was a bright yellow spot on his shadow now. It was completely foreign, not a part of him or anything he knew.

He ignored it and looked right into the darkness of his shadow.

It was a beast made of anger at his parents for sending him here, loneliness that nobody cared for him beyond whatever power he could gain, distrust that his friends were not just with him for power.

"It's valid. You're valid." Darius said, smoothly stepping out of the way.

His shadow's blade struck the wall and cut through it like butter, rock flying in every direction. What incredible power, some corner of his mind noticed.

"I can't tell you that any of that is wrong. But nonetheless..." Darius stepped easily around the darkness as it swung the sword that meant absolute death at him again.

"I will not let it overwhelm me!" Darius grabbed the thing's throat, but his fingers sank into it.

The thing sunk into him and he felt a moment of barely controlled rage heaving underneath his skin before it sank deep beneath the surface, lurking, waiting for the time to burst out.

The sword in front of him, sunk nearly to the hilt into the pure hard rock, held no more fear for him.

Darius clasped his fingers around the hilt and pulled it out of the ground.

Later, in his dorm, Darius studied the sword lying on the desk. Even in a regular, well lit room, it glowed darkly as if radiating anger.

It would be a constant struggle to keep it from overwhelming him.

Darius was treating the cuts on his back when he noticed something bright and yellowish orange on his chest. Right... this had been on the shadow before it fused with him. Part of the powers that came with the sword?

He ran a finger over the warm gem.

He felt that he had control over it. He tested that and it split into many tiny droplets, hanging perfectly in the air around him as his body changed into something else.

At that moment, the door opened and his roommate Kylis walked in. He stared at Darius for a moment, mouth slightly open.

"Who're you?" he asked.

Darius put a hand in front of his face. It was a soft female hand with perfectly trimmed fingernails.

Silky yellow orange fabric was twined perfectly around the thin arm, leading to some kind of stylish dress.

Darius was puzzled more than anything else, but the first thing he needed to do was convince his roommate he wasn't some random stranger in a weird costume who wandered into the boys dorm for whatever reason.

He called the gem back to him, and it fused into one bright shape as his real form returned along with a brief wave of relief that he wasn't about to be stuck in that form.

"It's just me." he said.

Kylis just looked flatly at him. He was good at the whole 'weird looks' thing.

"I don't know either." Darius told him.

He put a hand to the wounds on his back. The incredible mysterious power of the gem in his chest seemed to ask him a question, and he allowed it to work. In the blink of an eye, the wounds were gone.

'You could do so much with this power.' said a sinister voice in his head. It was his shadow's voice.

Of course, this power came from his shadow.

"It's an evil power. I don't know why it looks like a teenage girl, but I'm sure it is born from hatred." Darius muttered.