The Darkness Awakening

Story Untold (Chapter #6)

The portal felt warm and comfortable. It felt like home, at-least more homey than anything I remember. My parents left me abandoned in front of an orphanage so I never knew them. But this place gave off a strange feeling, and I felt like I belonged here, in the darkness. The swirling darkness mixed with the many different colors of the worm-hole was simply beautiful beyond imagination. The moment was short lived though as I got yanked straight out of the portal. I took a close look at my surroundings and realized that it was very familiar, almost as if I had been here before. It then hit me, it was the school library! I turned around as I saw the old man and the girl exit the portal.

"This is the school library isn't it?" I asked them just to confirm my thoughts. The girl just glared at me for a good couple of seconds and then turned around and walked away to god knows where.

The old man sighed and said, "Yes, this is the school library, but also not at the same time. Come follow me, we have a lot to talk about."

I followed him all the way to a bookshelf that was in the corner of the wall. He beckoned the darkness again and covered the bookshelf with it. The book-shelf was now turning into a door the more the darkness engulfed it. I stared at the old man with surprise. He noticed me staring at him and laughed, "Don't be surprised. It's just a simple illusion which I'm undoing. We did the same to your room to make it look like you were still there and asleep. You should be able to do so in no time with training as well."

I just sighed in desperation and turned my head. The 'door' was now wide open revealing a huge set of stairs that were going down to somewhere. He walked down to them and I followed. It took a good five to ten minutes to walk down all of them but at the end, it was worth it. It was a huge room that looked like it was straight out of a medieval castle. Just being here gave me a feeling of being noble. I looked at the old man and he was looking at me with a face that made him look lonely. He sat by the  round table in the middle of the room and told me to sit on the other side.

"I believe I owe you an explanation." the old man told me as he was staring at my eyes. I just nodded and stared back.

"Let me start from the very beginning. With what you've done and who we are. In this world, humans are generally devoid and unable to harness the energy better known as magic. But it does exist, and there are many kinds of it. The ones who wield these magics are classified into four groups or types, so to speak. There are the Red-Knights, who wield the magic of emotions. The one who leads them is called the 'Red-Lord'. The Celestials, who wield the magics related to light and healing. They are our exact opposites and are led by the 'Light'. The Desirers, who wield the magic to manifest whatever it is that they desire. The one who commands them is the 'Desire King'. And then the Wraiths, us, who have the ability to use all darkness related magics and our leader being 'The Shadow'. In terms of military strength, we were all rather equal, but we were a slight step higher. This made us the reigning power for a very long time, long enough to make us ignorant to the threat that was looming all around us until it was too late. The Desirers had grown in numbers by a very lot, thus increasing their strength. Back then, they outnumbered us by at least a hundred for each one of us. They attacked us without warning and there was nothing that we could've done. We were annihilated and held no chance as to making a comeback. Our leader had fallen in battle and communications were destroyed. All of us, at least the ones who survived the first attack, ran. We spread out all over the universe hoping to build our strength once again. We did have a plan, and it relied heavily on an artifact left behind by the Ancients, it was called the Shadow's Chronicle. It holds the power of all the previous Shadows within it. To help you better understand how powerful it is, you need to know its history. When the first leader of the Wraiths, the first shadow, was ready to retire, he gathered all of his power and stored it in a book, the Shadow's Chronicle. He then gave this  to his heir, who took that power with him. When he was retiring, he did the same thing again. He gathered all of the power that he had and stored it in that book again and  this cycle continued. Eventually, their powers became linked with that book and since their powers were in essence, a part of them, they had a mind of their own. They started to choose who was worthy, and wouldn't let anyone who wanted to use that power. So it officially became it so, whoever the chronicles choose, was the new Shadow. When the last Shadow died in the war, he sent his power to the chronicles and since then, it had chosen no-one, until now. For some reason which I can't fathom why, it choose you. This makes you the new Shadow and our final hope. Now, any questions?"

I did nothing but stare at him trying to digest my way through this huge pile of information that I was just told. After a huge moment of silence and awkward staring at each other, I mustered up the sanity to ask what was in my mind.

"So you're saying that there is a hidden magical world out there, in which there are four groups or types with a leader of their own. One of them revolted and is destroying the rest, and I just happen to be the leader of the one that is nearly destroyed? "

"Yes, but even though we are nearly destroyed, we're still not weak. We did have a good plan, but as you see, it's gone awry. But you, who now has the power of the chronicles, should be easily able to help us enough given the needed training."

"Too much optimism is never a good thing you know. And none of this explains as to how the school was intact and all the people who I know died and came back the next day. This is absurd and is going to drive me insane." I declared, finally being able to speak my mind. What he told me didn't really answer my questions but rather gave me more.

"Ah! Yes. That incident. Our enemy, the desirers, know of the chronicles. Somehow they figured out where we were hiding it and they attacked. We were overwhelmed and there wasn't much we could do. Since that was our last chance to survive against them, some of our best warriors went immediately to try to get it back. That plane that they were on was a desirer plane, the one in which they were carrying it. We attacked them there and it was a trap. They used the chronicles as bait and we fell for it. But both sides had underestimated each other, we managed to grab the chronicles and made a mad attempt at retreat. We damaged the plane and we crashed it into the school. We thought that hopefully that would bring us to a more equal playing field. Unfortunately that didn't work out and we lost the chronicles, to you. As for why nothing changed, it was due to the universes' anti-magic. This is basically a magic that undoes all magic related things given time. This means that whatever natural disaster or mass genocide we commit using magic on people who don't have it, it will be undone. It was magic that was casted by the Ancients in order to keep our existence hidden."

"So you're saying you crashed the plane on to the school? You killed them all?" I looked at him questioningly. 

"It was for the greater good. If they aren't stopped, they will bring ruin to not just us, but humans as well. The desirers seek to control everything, and they won't stop anytime soon." He replied with a straight face. 

"There aren't any consequences for this? Like someone could keep just keep killing people with magic and nothing will ever change. "

"There are consequences, but we don't know what they will be. The universe works in mysterious ways, sometimes it will just give you an incurable disease, take away your magic, maybe even just cause your death somehow. But there are consequences and we just had to take that risk."

"You're saying that this thing was so important, you all risked your lives for this. And it just so happened to fall into my hands and now it's mine."

"Yes. You could call it your fate. Your destiny, if you will."

" And I have to do this? I have to fight and possible kill people just because of this...book? Can't I just give it to someone else? Pass it down?"

"You could, but you'll still be forever marked as a wraith. You will have to spend your entire life running and hiding away from them. We'd love to take it back from you,  but you should know that means you're signing your own death certificate. "

"So it's basically do or die? I really don't have an option here do I? So what am I supposed to do?"

"Now, you train and learn."