Chapter 1: Chapter 01- The Phenomenon of Darkness

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

The enormous sound of lightning striking against a shield made up of iron resounded in the surroundings as even the very earth and sky shook at the might of the unfathomable existences whose powers seemed to spread throughout the surroundings as the two surfaces contested against each other.

The heavens and the creatures dwelling on earth lay witness to the unbelievable phenomenon that was visible even through the dark, cloudless night sky.

The lightning came straight down the heavens and headed for the earth but before it could ever reach the ground it seemed as if the sky itself had become some kind of a shield for the earth as it prevented the lightning from hitting the ground every time it tried to strike the earth through the thin air.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!!*

The intensity of the lightning had decreased with time along with the shield that was hovering in the sky with the new-formed cracks that had appeared over its surface.

The entire saga of the clash between the lightning and the mysterious force that kept on shielding the earth from the deadly lightning finally seemed to be at its end as the clash abruptly came to a stop before it ceased for more than an hour.

For a moment everything came to a standstill, it was as if the time itself had stopped, there was silence everywhere and it seemed like everything was now fine for sure, but even so, everyone who laid witness to the scene knew that the clash wasn’t over just yet, it was actually the calm before the storm!

Both sides were preparing for their last move!

A group of 20 figures radiating extremely dangerous auras could be spotted sitting in the lotus position in what seemed to be some kind of a formation, facing their palms towards the sky as they had their faces pale and drenched with sweat.

They looked as if they might die any moment now.

Just in front of those 20 figures, a youth who looked to be in his late teens could be found staring at the sky with a grim expression on his face.

The youth seemed like he wanted to say something but before he could even open his mouth, the lightning started moving above him as the entire sky lit like a lantern with white light, and just a few seconds later,

*Bang!!!!*, a single condensed beam of lightning fell to the earth piercing through the barrier formed by the group of men, gravely injuring all of them in the process.

The youth in his late teens came running to the group of men and gave them each a round pill out of one of his pockets as he once again brought his attention back to the sky that now seemed to be completely calm.

‘Elder Bao, and Elder Mo lost their lives in the process, and yet, we failed!’, the youth thought as he gritted his teeth and looked at the sky with hateful eyes.

His eyes looked so frightening that even gods might shiver at his mere glance but the menacing look on his face didn’t remain for long as he once again took a deep breath and shook his head as if he was trying to mourn those who have died.

Finishing his mourning, the boy got up from the ground as he found the others to be in a better position than they were before and in a grim tone called a name, “Ai Nen”.

The moment he said this name, a burly man who stood around 7ft tall appeared behind him as he kneeled on the ground and waited for the youth for further instructions.

The youth kept on looking at the sky as if he was trying to come to some kind of decision.

Looking at the sky with somewhat unsure eyes the boy exhaled an audible sigh as if he had finally made a decision and said, “Clean up every single living thing within 100km radius of here, leave no one alive, not even insects or birds”, the man conveyed these instructions in an indifferent voice devoid of any emotion and vanished into thin air leaving no trace of him behind.

The burly man, Ai Nen, looked at the settlement in front of him as a cruel smirk formed on his previously emotionless face.

***

21 years later,

The dog didn’t bark.

Resting under the shed of an old tree, a man, probably 21-22 years of age laying on a grassy field continued to look at the cloudless sky with a somewhat bored expression on his face.

His eyes kept on moving here and there as if he was searching for something.

The unusual dog who didn't bark and the bored man had become friends over time.

The dog would sometimes look the man’s way and give him a slight nod as if it was greeting him and strangely so, the man, a human would do the same thing and return the greeting the dog had offered him earlier.

Turning his head away from the dog the man’s eyes all of a sudden came to a pause at a certain point in the sky as he looked at the sun hovering in the sky like a sparkling orange-colored fruit, its intensity had decreased a lot, so probably deciding on something he got up, patted the dust off his clothes, and fixed the pair of swords at his waist.

The man looked at the dog again and gave it a small nod, the dog did the same and then he left the place whistling some tune.

***

The man was walking down a busy street, making his way through crowds of different people as all of them walked through the somewhat dirty congested streets of a small town.

Even though it was a bit before evening the street was busy as usual.

The man saw different people along his way; a group of children playing together, a group of three girls walking down the road chatting happily, a mother and her child holding hands whilst walking, and a man, probably in his forties covered with sweat carrying a bag full of spears and weapons on his back with his eyes filled with a kind of determination that seemed unnatural and unknown to the man as a frown involuntarily formed over his face as he looked over at the man carrying weapons on his back.

Honestly, it was a pretty normal sight, like you could find this kind of scenery at many other places in the world too.

But for some reason, even this common scenery seemed extraordinary to the man as the frown on his face only deepened until he reached the city gates that were packed with guards in military uniforms.

Walking towards the gates the guards noticed him and looked his way.

Perhaps knowing his reason for visit, one of the guards extended his hand towards the man and asked for the staying fees, something that he was required to pay to the officials so taking out a few copper coins he gave them to the guard and turned around to leave but just as he was about to walk away,

“Hey wait!”, a sudden call from behind stopped him in his tracks.

Turning around, the man saw the guard who had just collected the staying fees from him standing before him looking at him with somewhat furious and worried eyes,

“What’s up?”, the man, ignoring the guard’s weird behavior asked him this question in a carefree tone as he continued looking at the guard straight in the eyes.

The guard, as if he had regained his composure and looked at the boy and then in a grumpy tone said, “What do you mean by ‘what’s up?’ Hah? You know what day today is, right? ‘They’ will be out tonight, you sure you want to go out, kid?”, although his tone was a bit rough, the guard was probably just worried about the boy’s safety as he had just mentioned ‘their’ existence as a means to deter the boy from going out of the city gates.

But in response to the guard’s question, the boy just nodded his head with a smile on his face and left the place leaving the guard standing speechless with a ridiculous expression on his face.

***

THE DOG-WATCHING MAN’S POV:-

The world has become corrupted, people don’t fear death anymore, killing, invading, vandalizing and shaming have all become a part of their daily lives, an entire race walking mindlessly on the path of its own destruction.

The entire world has become diseased and there seems to be no end to all the pain and suffering either, with each passing day the situation is becoming worse. Humans are no longer humans, they have all become demons, there is no place left for kindness in this world.

I left the city and started walking towards the dense forest. The sun had already set and there was no light to guide me towards my destination but I was still able to somehow make out my surroundings, probably because I had grown accustomed to walking in darkness, or maybe it was because of the full moon in the sky that had been illuminating my way for quite a while now.

Anyway, I was able to walk in the darkness without much trouble.

I didn’t have any lantern with me as it might attract unnecessary attraction. My sense of hearing was unusually heightened today, probably because of the darkness that had been blocking my vision to a very high degree.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”, it was then that I suddenly heard a girl’s scream, a bit of a distance away from me.

If it were me from the ‘past’ then I would have probably rushed ahead to save the girl without thinking much about the consequences, but from my twenty years of life, I have learnt a very important fact, or maybe you could even call it a lesson, that is, humans are scum and they shouldn’t be trusted easily.

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But even so, I still decided to go and check out the situation, I don’t know why I decided to do that, maybe it was because I wasn’t able to change my habit of poking my nose into other’s affairs, or maybe it was because I was curious, but anyway, I couldn’t help but rush towards the voice full of fright.

I was about to move to the place from where the voice came when I suddenly heard the sound of someone’s footsteps.

*Tap, tap, tap*

I gazed to my right and saw a silhouette rapidly approaching the source of the voice. The silhouette belonged to another man, probably the same age as me, so I decided to follow him without making any noise and finally reached the place from where the voice came.

There I saw a girl in her late teens, standing in front of her was a man with a big sword in his hand. The man had a dirty grin on his face and he was looking at the girl with eyes full of cruelty and savagery.

The girl on the other hand was crying. Her eyes full of tears seemed to be on the verge of leaking out, it looked as if she might break down any moment and start crying.

*Tap, Tap, Tap*

The sound of the man’s footsteps reverberated in the surroundings as he made his way towards the ‘lady in trouble’.

Seeing his lack of awareness and wariness made me involuntarily voice out the word, ‘fool’, but since I made sure to keep my voice to a minimum I was somehow able to mask it under the heavy footsteps of the ‘brave’ hero.

Coming back to the present scenario,

The girl, after noticing the boy rushing towards her brightened up and started waving her hand at him and cheering, “Hero!!! Please save me!!!”

‘I don’t have a good feeling about this’ I thought

As I continued to look towards the scene that was happening before me, I saw the boy reaching the girl at an unbelievable speed and standing in front of the girl as if he was trying to protect her from any harm that might come her way.

The man glared at his opponent with an angry look on his face, his heroic features kept on shining even in the dead of the night.

He opened his mouth and was about to say something when,
The boy noticed a small sword, probably a kodachi (small Japanese sword) protruding out of his chest.

He looked greatly frightened and shaken, he probably didn’t want to accept the reality as he initially closed his eyes and then slowly turned his head backwards hoping that this had only been a bad dream, but things like that never happen in reality.

When he looked back, all he saw was a girl with a derisive sneer on her face holding a short sword in her hands that was protruding out of his chest.

The was conned and stabbed by the one he had saved, he was truly miserable, truly pathetic.

“You…!”, probably trying to utter the last few words before dying the man tried to say something but before he could ever finish himself, he found the world before him turn upside down as his neck was ruthlessly chopped down by the other guy who was previously standing in front of him.

The blood dripping from the swords was fresh and the body in front of them was still twitching but ignoring it, the girl and the man started distributing the exploits of their loot with happy expressions on their faces.

‘Humans are scum, I will repeat this again, they are nothing but evil.’

I turned around and left the place, this had nothing to do with me and I am not some kind of a carrier of justice who would go on and slaughter criminals and fiends, I have more important things to do, after all, ‘they’ will be coming out in some time.

I kept on walking until I found a place inside the forest, there was a big boulder there. I decided to rest by the boulder and wait for ‘them’.

***

I found myself in an unfamiliar place where there was nothing but darkness around me. The place was eerie, dark, and void but for some reason, I found an inexplicable sense of calm and peace in that place. I felt as if I would fall asleep anytime now, no, I actually wanted to fall asleep.

It was then, that I saw a strange vision, or maybe it was a memory. I was running on a road all alone, completely bare, completely exposed, both physically and mentally. In the vision I would keep on running and then for some reason I would look back at regular intervals as if I was looking out for someone or something following me. I had been running and turning back over and over again, it was then that I finally saw it, I saw the silhouettes of various people standing behind me, the moment I saw them all color drained from my face and I started running again.

I was about to stop the ‘me’ who was running from ‘those’ people but as soon as I got on my feet, the space around me started to distort and I started feeling nauseous and dizzy, for a moment it seemed to me as if I was going to die, but then… I didn’t die, instead of that… I just woke up.

I opened my eyes.

"Looks like I fell asleep"

The forest still seemed as silent and unmoved as ever

I looked at the moon, it was a full moon today, meaning ‘they’ will be coming out today.

I looked at the moon again, it was illuminating the forest, being the only source of light- the moon was nothing short of a god for the people who travelled through the forest during night, it was then that I heard ‘that’,

*Awooo!!!*, this sound came from the right side of the forest just over the patch of hills that spread through a distance of 5 kilometers, and then as if to confirm it,

*Awooo!!!*, another voice came from my left side where there lay a deep cavern, also known as the Death Cavern

As soon as I heard the voices I realized,

It was ‘them’, the ones I had been waiting for!

***

The mana in the atmosphere started reacting with ‘their’ presence, an ominous aura covered the entire forest, no matter where I went the feeling of oppression never left me.

I was running through the forest when I suddenly heard a scream,

“Kyaaaaaa!!!”

It was the same scream that I heard back then when I first entered the forest

I decided to trace it back to the source, when I reached there I saw three figures. Two of them belonged to the pair of the man and the girl that I saw when I entered the forest. The man was lying on the ground, well, precisely it was his corpse. The man was missing his arm and there was a big hole in his stomach.

As for the girl, she was standing there shivering, there was not even a single tear in her eye, I guess she got so scared that she even forgot to cry.

When I arrived there, the girl somehow sensed me and then looked at me, with relief apparent in her eyes.

“H-hero! Hero!! Please, please help me kill this beast!!”, the girl started waving and shouting in my direction.

What a cunning woman, she is trying so hard to dump her troubles on me.

Sigh… no matter where you go you will always encounter scumbags like them.

I didn’t reply and focused my attention on the third figure.

It was then, that the third figure which stood almost 2.5 meters tall turned its head towards me as if it had just now noticed my arrival. But I knew all too well, that it was just an act, this thing knew all about me even before I arrived here.

The third figure had the body of an overgrown man with extremely long limbs, it was covered with fur all over its body and it had the head of a wolf, with bloodlust dripping from its deep yellow eyes.

Yes, this thing before me was an ‘Apostle’.

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