Nightblade (Darkest night)-Chapter 148: Sarenus
Morgan instinctively took a step back, staring at the massive creature in shock.
"What the hell is that supposed to be?"
The Drayghar scoffed, taking a step forward.
"You may address me as Sarenus," it spoke, its voice echoing in his mind. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
Morgan froze, his eyes widening in surprise.
" Did you just read my mind?"
Sarenus blinked, then laughed heartily, the sound rolling across the dark plains.
"Yes, in this place, all is laid bare. We can simply speak like this, with our thoughts."
Morgan stared at the drayghar in silence, a multitude of thoughts drifting through his mind.
" What it’s basically saying is that there’s no privacy here..."
"He... not it..."
Morgan opened his mouth, then closed it comically.
"Right..."
After a brief while, he spoke.
"So...you are Sarenus..."
The Drayghar moved forward, circling him slowly.
Despite its massive form, the large creature moved silently, with the grace of a seasoned predator.
Morgan could tell the creature was studying him in detail, uncanny intelligence gleaming in the depths of its light-filled eyes.
In the next moment, its voice rang out, reverberating in the depths of Morgan’s mind.
"Sarenus Darksbane, Lord of the Drayghar, that is the name my master gave me."
Sarenus came to a stop, raising his wings and flapping them slightly.
The small motion stirred a small gale of wind into existence, the powerful current passing harmlessly around Morgan.
" And who is your master?"Morgan asked, turning around and staring at the winged creature.
"From your memories, I can see that you’ve already met him. The one known as Alsterius."
Morgan grew still, the light in his eyes in the ghostly form shining brighter.
"So you know him..."
The Drayghar nodded, its form dissipating and appearing next to him.
" Of course, I know him. My master was known and feared by all in the Obscure Age, also known as the Age of Knowledge."
Morgan frowned at the mention of the unfamiliar name.
"Age of Knowledge? Obscure? What is that?"
" A story for another time, the way things are right now, your companions are likely going to perish if we don’t help them."
" Wait, does that mean I’m still alive?"
Sarenus scoffed, shaking his head.
" Of course you’re still alive? Why would the afterlife look like this?"
Morgan stared at Sarenus in shock.
"Did you just roll your eyes? That’s a first... First time I’ve seen anything other than a human do that..."
" Focus," Sarenus growled.
He sat down, folding his wings in on themselves, behind himself.
In the next moment, his body began to morph, his smoky form rapidly condensing in on itself.
Within seconds, a seven-foot-tall man stood in front of Morgan, with his arms folded across his chest.
Long, inky black tendrils of darkness that passed for his hair flowed down from his head, stopping at his waist, rippling fluidly in a continuous motion.
White flames burned in his eye sockets, the flames flowing out in small continuous streams.
The rest of his features were obscured in the impenetrable darkness that seemed to move with him, giving him a mysterious air.
" Wow, that’s wicked, I mean cool, very cool...Can I do that as well?"
Sarenus gave him an awkwardly long look.
Morgan was sure the large man was definitely raising an eyebrow in question.
Morgan shrugged, folding his arms across his chest in a similar pose.
" So what is this place? And how are we supposed to get out of here? How did I even end up here?
Sarenus sighed, shaking his head slightly.
" So many questions..."
" Can you blame me? I hardly know what’s going on here..."
" Fair enough, " Sarenus grunted.
Gesturing slightly at the dark space around them, he spoke.
" This is the Spirit Void. Your inner Spirit Void. You may call it the Void World."
Morgan nodded, listening with rapt attention.
" You must know, not everyone has a Void World. This kind of thing is found in only a select few individuals."
" You should know it’s also the reason I was able to bond with you. As for how you’re here, the heat of combat probably triggered a fight or flight response that helped you access this place..."
Sarenus shrugged, the flames in his eyes narrowing.
" Well, saying this place in particular would be a stretch. Your mind subconsciously reached out for more power, my power."
Morgan nodded, taking in everything Sarenus was saying.
" That’s basically the gist of it."
" So you’re saying I need some sort of traumatic event to say that to come here, right?"
Sarenus shook his head slightly.
" After this, you’re now consciously aware of this place. You should be able to come here if you focus on it, specifically my connection with you. It’s basically a part of you, think of it like a muscle that you haven’t used, it won’t grow to its full potential, but if you train it when you should be able to consciously access it even without focusing on your connection with me."
"It’s the only reason I’m here in the first place, you called me here. And we definitely should get going now."
Morgan gasped, remembering that the fight with the Bretnar king was still going on.
" So how do we get out of here?"
" Well, that depends mostly on you; you are the Master of this Void World."
Morgan stared at him with a dumbfounded expression.
" So what exactly am I supposed to do?"
" The Works in here is controlled by you, at least to some extent, so anytime you want to leave, you can leave. But if you do that, you’ll return without me. So you will need to will this form of yours, and mine, into existence. That way, we can help your friends."
" That’s very...vague."
Sarenus stared at him for a few moments, then walked forward.
"Stretch out your hand. It’s easier if I show you."
Morgan did as instructed.
Sarenus placed his hand over his hand, closing his eyes.
In the next moment, Morgan felt a dark, cold energy course through him, his strength growing exponentially.
" The power you know as umbralis is simply one of many different energies. Of course, these are forgotten truths, knowledge lost in the annals of time"
A ripple of power pulsed through the Void World, a slight tremor running through the ground in the illusory world.
" Now, while holding onto this power, focus on your friends, on your connection with Tenebris."
Memories of his friends flitted through his mind.
"Lucian, Emily...they need my help..."
He focused on the memory of the dark-haired girl, her piercing green eyes staring at him in his subconscious.
Then Lucian, the aloof scion, wiped his glasses out of habit, then stared up at him questioningly.
The flames in Morgan’s eyes pulsated wildly behind his tenebrous eyelids, growing brighter.
In the space in front of them, a dark rift cracked into existence, revealing the struggling youths on the other side.
"Open your eyes."
Morgan’s eyes fluttered open, his mouth falling open in surprise.
"Come then, let’s go."
The man and the youth stepped through the rift, appearing in the devastated city.
Just then, the Bretnar king lunged past him, barreling towards Samantha.
"Samantha!"
Morgan blurred forward, but the brunette didn’t even register his presence.
Fortunately, Samantha reacted with uncanny speed, moving out of harm’s way.
Sarenus’ shadowy figure materialised next to him.
" In this form, your friends can’t see you. You haven’t reached that level yet. The flow of time in the Void World is different from the flow of time here. In Tenebris, hardly any time has passed since the point at which you lost consciousness."
Emily moved past him, freezing the Bretnar king in its tracks.
Morgan turned around, grabbing his head in desperation.
"What’s the point of this then?" he asked, the white flames in his eyes blazing wildly.
The Bretnar king broke through the ice, lunging forward.
Oppressive waves of rampaging umbralis flowed off its skin, cracking through the ice.
"The point," Sarenus said coolly, walking forward, " Is for you to learn."
With a gentle flourish, he stretched out his hand. A ghostly wind stirred in his wake.
" While you’re incorporeal in this form, what you lose in appearing in the material world, you gain in the ability to manipulate the different energies we spoke of on a more intricate level."
Sarenus smiled, turning back to Morgan.
" Let this be your first lesson."
In the next second, with a casual flick of his hand, the umbralis around the Bretnar king surged outwards in unstable waves.
Emily’s ballista bolts plummeted down, falling through the sky like meteors.
Sarenus redirected the flow of umbralis, coating the large bolts in massive amounts of umbralis.
"At this point, that creature is like any other ordinary creature, and because of that..."
The large bolts collided with the Bretnar king’s enormous body in a horrendous explosion of light and sound.
A shockwave of force rippled through the air, pushing back the Talented and the nearby Bretnar and raising a small cloud of dust into the air.
"...it can now die, just like all the rest."
The Bretnar king’s pulverised corpse lay unmoving in a crater that had formed beneath it.
Sarenus shifted back to his Drayghar form, flapping his dark wings slightly.
"I can’t always protect you like this, young one...you need to learn to do this on your own, but of course it’s going to take time and effort. Come now, let’s return before your friends find you."
