108 Erebus

While Killheart's clones were in their cocoons, the energies between the two bodies started to rotate. They intertwined and became one as they rotated between the two bodies. The world seemed to become submerged in a strange power, anyone who looked on would be brought into a strange land of illusions.

Inside the intertwining, from the power came about a brilliant realm of darkness. At the center of the realm was a massive revolving black lotus. There were 5 realms, one with a massive star illuminating the world.

The second was a 4 colored elemental world, the third was a world of unending serpents and sword intent. The fourth was a plane of shadows and devil dominating the world. The fifth was a lightning pool filled with beasts. All of these worlds were contained within this realm of darkness in balance.

In the strange interactions of energies, a memory of a distant past manifested. It was a dark and quiet room, and Remmie was in the center of the room. He was extremely confused when he woke up in the dungeon room. On the table was a myriad of torture weapons and strange alchemical materials.

He was chained to the wall and he couldn't move in the slightest. He was extremely shocked because this was his lab from years ago in Kirin. The shadows of the room smiled with schadenfreude

A fluctuation started in the shadows, they bent and twisted into strange shapes. Then they just stopped as a powerful aura came from the shadows. It was a strange young man with black and blonde hair.

His eyes flashed with nomological runes that held immense primordial power. As he exited the shadows, Remmie's face distorted in extreme surprise and fear. The young man swished his sleeves, a black and white power departed from both sides.

"It has been quite a long while, Remmie!" The young man snickered as he slowly approached Remmie.

"That's impossible, you should be dead!" Remmie said in a quivering voice

"I have you to thank for that." The young man said as he went over his table of tools.

"You don't know my name, do you?" He said as if he realized something important.

"Well let me properly introduce myself, I am the Lord of Shadows! But you can call me by my Dao name Killheart" Killheart laughed as Remmie's face paled in fear.

He flipped his palm over as various strange herbs appeared in abundance. He took out a strange root that seemed to be cursed.

"Nirnroot..." Remmie said in an enraptured voice, such an item would be useful for his experiments he thought in his heart.

Killheart created a burning black and gold flame in his palm, he liquified the herbs using the flame in moments. He then created 6 different globs of herbal essence. Then he gripped his hand into a fist, and the streams rapidly fused together. The various colors ended as a black elixir and he quickly put it inside a beaker.

"How...." Remmie couldn't help but watch slack-jawed, such refinement was so fast and effective that it was nothing like alchemy. It would be more apt to call it cooking than it would be alchemy.

"I really must thank you, after all, I would never have stepped on this path without you." Killheart laughed as he gripped the black elixir, and he drenched Remmie in it.

"ARGHHH!!!!!!" Remmie screamed as his body wreathed in pain, his skin was even peeling off. Then his body reddened and some steam came from his body.

"Hurts doesn't it?" Killheart mocked as he removed a kit of needles, he accurately stabbed into all his acupoints. Remmie kept screaming in pain with each stab.

"Killheart, please let us negotiate; I am a grand mage I surely have something that will satisfy you." Remmie said, his eyes were filled with desperation, Killheart looked into his eyes and couldn't help but start to laugh.

"HAHAHAAHAHA!!!!!!!"

"AHAHAHAHAHAH!"

"What kind of bullshit are you spouting? Do you think I covet anything you hold? My power has far surpassed anything you could possibly imagine!" Killheart laughed as he stabbed more needles into Remmie.

"Do you believe that your weak little existence holds any value? I can ensure you one thing, you are nothing. The only thing of consequence about you is the role you played in my birth." Killheart laughed as he stabbed the final needle into Remmie's forehead.

"Please, don't do this!" Remmie pleaded half crying and half angry.

"Shut it!" Killheart yelled in an extremely cold voice, natural law seemed to yell with him. Remmie found that he couldn't even use his voice any longer.

"I will kill you and give you new life..." Killheart smirked as Remmie's eyes filled with intense depression.

In Killheart's hands generated black holes of terrifying devouring power. The each held infinite darkness and nothingness at its zenith. Killheart's darkness hands tapped each of the needles once, and they turned from silver to black. He proceeded to tap every one of them into darkness needles.

"You shall be reborn!" Killheart laughed as he used telekinesis to force each of the needles into Remmie body.

Remmie body flopped around like it was being electrocuted. His eyes lost their color, and his soul was completely shattered. All life on his body was completely gone, but Killheart was still smiling. He sat down and fiddled with a few of the potions on the table.

He quietly waited as a time passed unnoticed, he ran a few experiments and meditated for some time. Then finally something happened, Remmie's body started to move. His hands seemed to twitch and so Killheart got up.

"Good, very good!" He said with a sneer as he watched even more closely.

The next day Remmie's body started to peel apart, the skin was fading away. Underneath though was a strange black substance, it was like his bones and muscles were made of it.

"Shadow demons, maybe they aren't bad for me...." Killheart mumbled as Remmie eyes' flashed open, they were red and seemed to have a demonic quality.

"HARHHHHHHG" Remmie growled as he stared at Killheart.

"Oh, since when did such a lowly existence dare offend me?" Killheart said with a devious smile as he released his devilish aura.

A shadow force seemed to soar without any bounds, and the powerful shadow energy overwhelmed Remmie. His eyes were filled with intense fear, like a serpent meeting a true dragon.

"Good for my first demon, you turned out quite well." Killheart laughed as he extended his hands out and pulled out the devil. A strange blob of darkness energy assembled in his palm, on it was Remmie's distorted face of madness and gluttony.

"What a strange fate, my dreams of revenge were attained so soon...."Killheart chuckled as a swarm of starbugs left his shadow, they were 20 of them.

They all lacked eyes except for one demonic black starbug with glowing red eyes. Killheart sent the shadow demon essence into all of the starbugs splitting it up amongst them. They each seemed to grow a sinister presence within them, as they released an evil demonic aura.

The one with glowing eyes started to scream out in pain. It metamorphosized becoming larger and larger, and a strange power developed around it. All over its body started to appear various large mouths with sharp blade-like teeth.

"I crown you as my first demon, Beelzebub the great devourer!" Killheart said as he formed a rune in his palm, it was a flying devil-snake with thousands of mouths. It touched the starbug and it seemed to stabilize, the mouths closed and it shrunk down into a tiny starbug among the swarm of 20.

'This mental realm is rather useful for my experiments, it is already taking steps into becoming real.' Killheart thought as he directed the starbugs back into his shadow.

The path of grand mages was to make their mental realm manifest in reality. That was the revered domain of grand mages, and grand knights are supposed to brand their weapons into their mental realm.

When the mindscape is saturated with sword intent, or when it becomes real. It leads to a qualitative difference in how a cultivator fights, but what happens when you combine both perfectly...

The first step for both paths is to fuse with their fundamental power, for a Magus that means they need to start on the path of elemental conversion. For a Knight, it means they need to fuse their body with intent until it becomes a divine weapon.

'I need to recuperate and cultivate slowly build a strong foundation. When I have all the resources I need and all the time accumulated, I will start on my designs for the human continent....' Killheart contemplated as he shattered the room, it was after all just a memory inside his mindscape.

He flew into the darkness that was his mind and looked off into the distance. Levitating over the black lotus at the center of the realm was a strange rotating rune, it wasn't obvious back when he was just a transitioning knight.

Now though, he could see that at the end of his mindscape was a strange universal seal. He could only tell that because of his experience with arcane inscriptions, but he couldn't tell who or what was responsible.

"I wouldn't mess with that if I were you." A familiar voice said as Killheart's face stopped smiling, he looked next to him there was a shadowy version of himself.

"Taking your real form?" Killheart said he recognized him, it was the Lord of Shadows sealed within him.

"All thanks to you...." The Lord said with a sinister smile.

"I wonder what is your name?" Killheart said as he examined the universal seal.

"You can call me, Erebus!" The shadowy man said as he released his darkness origin energy.

"That power! You're not Cenir, what the hell are you?" Killheart said with extreme surprise and edged back, that was the origin of darkness elemental particles. It was as though he was the progenitor of all darkness.

"If you want to know about this seal, then get stronger!" Erebus said laughed

Killheart's eyes glazed over and when he opened the next, he was back to where he started. He no longer see the end of his own mindscape or the universal seal.

"Fine, then I'll be back!" Killheart said in a determined voice as his body split apart and the energies of his clones stopped intertwining. Everything quietly went back into stasis, as Killheart went back to sleep.