Chapter-1 The Journey Begins

As the sun rose into the sky, blazing in all its glory, a moan was heard from a deep cave, inside a mountain, towering over the town of Hawkloon. Inside the cave, there was a youth, in his teens, wearing ragged clothes and a black cloak over them. As he woke up, he walked down into the manually carved but also natural looking stairs, heading towards the bathroom where he washed up and took a bath. The bathroom was also hand made, but all the water sources were natural. The bath was a natural hot spring, which would be a delightful sight to most people, but not Alex. This was Alex, a shabby-looking teenager, living alone in the mountains, with a hot spring as a bath.

From an outside perspective, that was all there was to him, but that was but one side of the coin, as Alex had suffered, rather terribly when he was 12. In this world, everyone has a certain element, that they are bound to since birth. If one harnesses the power of the element, and is able to grasp its advantages and tackle its weaknesses, they can become one of the strongest people alive, able to control not only towns or cities, but also entire Kingdoms and Empires.

Alex, when he was 12 years old, had awakened his element, and it was really mysterious and rare, the element of Darkness. Normally, one should be pleased and rather excited if they acquire something rare that most people don't have, but that wasn't the case with Alex's family and townsfolk. The Church of Light, one of the major powers not only in his town, but in an extremely larger picture, was the group that had conducted the ceremony of testing the children's elements and they weren't a bit happy about Alex procuring the Darkness element.

They spread rumors that he was evil, and was going to destroy the whole city in the near future. They also threatened him in many ways to get out of the town and never come back, such as taking his family as hostage. At that time, Alex, as naive he was; wanted to stay back with his family, unlike now, that he realized that they were generous enough to let him live.

As Alex was but a young kid then, he couldn't do much, but now, as all these years went by; as Alex had countless nightmares about that unfortunate day that had changed his life, for the better and the worse, he had started to develop a deep-rooted hatred for the Church of Light. He was getting stronger day by day; mentally, physically and elementally.

Darkness was just the element Alex was bestowed upon, it wasn't something that he had chosen for himself. As an element, Darkness wasn't necessarily bad, because what is good and what is bad is decided based on who is using it and how, not the nature of the ability, itself. What Alex was mad about the most was not that he was thrown out of the town because of having the Darkness element, it was because of the reactions of his townsfolk.

People who he had known since the time he was born, such as his own family, as well as his close friends, all of them; just because of a couple of rumors the Church of Light had passed, ended up leaving him on his own. People in his town didn't care as to even think before they believed what the Church of Light said.

'Relationships forged for years which tend to break just because of a few words of some influential people are not relationships that matter anymore' was what Alex had started to believe, since he built this cave for himself and lived life outside of the town, on a mountain at the edge of a forest.

His thinking was really deep and logical even for an adult even though he was just a 16 year old, but he also harbored thoughts that were illogical and only harbored by emotion and past grievances, such as lust; lust for the blood of those who made his life hell.

The first couple of years after leaving town, Alex had nightmares every single day. He relived all that had happened that day again and again every night in his dreams, but a few years later, things started to change.

'You are supposed to imagine things you can't or didn't do in real life in dreams, because there, everything; no matter how improbable they may seem in real life, are possible in your dreams' once popped up in Alex's mind, and since then. every night has been equally terrorizing, but completely different; as now, Alex was the hunter, and the Church was the hunted.

After a quick bath, Alex came back upstairs, wore his clothes, and sat calmly on his 'chair', which was a carved out rock, as he thought.

'After all these years, I haven't gotten out of this damn cave and gone to the city. I have only been to the woods that nobody explores to get food. Since 4 years have passed, and my physique, personality, look and everything about me has changed, it wouldn't be difficult for me to sneak into the town and remain alive, while also take revenge on the Church of Light,' he pondered, coming to a conclusion that the positives outweigh the negatives.

Alex had gotten stronger by practicing the Darkness elemental abilities and had gained a lot of helpful and valuable experience. According to the current information Alex had about the power of Darkness, it is based on the user's desire to kill or injure its opponent. The higher the willpower, the stronger the attack. It could also be used to wrap a thin layer of poison that doesn't affect the user to be used as either a set of armor, that would have anything that comes in contact with it deteriorate, protecting the user, or also as a form of melee combat, wherein the user punches his or her opponent, and then the poison spreads throughout their body.

Alex didn't know much about his element of Darkness, but he was sure that he knew enough, at least for now, as he had stuff to do. Alex climbed down the stairs, reaching the ground, and got out of his 'house', ready to enter the town for the first time in four years. It was night time, and it would be easy to get into the town.

"I'm gonna skin those shits alive!" grumbled Alex, who had just walked through the town gates.