The Second Time In A Decade

Darkness, it exists on its own, it exists when there's light.

The void left when light fails to penetrate completely, gets even darker the more the light shines. So in a sense, it is inevitable, unavoidable... omnipresent.

Whenever there is life, there is light, but darkness exists nonetheless.

And no matter where you go or what you do, no one can escape the deathless darkness.

———

Six years ago, everyone knew what this poem was about, as it spread far and wide to anyone who had access to information one way or the other. Be it from the internet, or from the circulating rumors, everyone knew it.

And it didn't really have much to do with the person who wrote it first because, truth be told, no one knows who did, it was all about when they did:

The start of the rampage of the one Earth came to know as,

The Phantom.

...

The first incident involving the Phantom happened with the Animats.

On an exploration in an unknown part of Earth, a group of Animats explorers arrived in a strange place.

This place had an atmosphere that was covered in thick black mists, floating in the sky like clouds.

The crew were surprised to find life in a place like this. But the plants and animals living there looked even more horrifying than the already hideous and evolved animals in normal places.

But the weirdest phenomenon in that place was neither it's atmosphere nor the life it housed, but it's gravitational environment.

At some parts of the red land, the gravity was lower, at other parts, the direction of gravitational pull wasn't acting down, but in unexpected places.

There were even mountains floating upside down in the sky, with their bottoms attached to the black mist clouds.

And it was inside of a cave in an upside down mountain that the crew found the potential cause of the gravitational anomaly: a strange half red shard floating in the air.

Somehow or another, they managed to find a way to contain the mysterious shard after months of mind racking and sweat so they could take it back to their homeland for further study.

And so they did.

With the discovery, the Animats would have finally left the human half of Earth in the dust and have the upper hand in technological and power advancement.

The crew had felt it in their bones. Domination was imminent

But unfortunately, things don't always go as planned, for the very moment the shard arrived at the lab, it disappeared.

The only thing anyone could relate to the incident was the security cameras picking up a creature glowing in a deep purple light, walking out of the facility. No one knew how it got in.

No one knows how he gets in, how strong he really is or even what species he was.

This Phantom had created a tale for himself, an immortal tale.

———

Present time...

"He's dead!"

"No, no, no, no! You're not supposed to die. You should have blocked my attack or at least dodge."

A silver haired girl clad in white and golden armor panicked as she held Asher's head in her hands.

The look in his eyes were dead, and he wasn't moving.

'Big sis is going to kill me if she finds out.' Cold sweat slipped down her face.

As the silver haired girl was in a state of mental disarray, she looked at the dead expression on Asher's face again before realizing that something wasn't right.

Asher had literal 'X's for eyes and there was an obviously fake tongue sticking out of his face mask.

"Why you—" The silver haired girl raised her fist to punch the face when it suddenly spoke.

"Woah, wait, wait! My head isn't an illusion, you really chopped it off Nova!" Asher's head tried to save itself.

"What?! Since when did you get a detachable head?"

She pulled his head to her face in surprise.

"Since when did you get so big?"

At Asher's answer, the girl scoffed and then threw his head right into the chest of his body still floating in the air.

Asher's body caught the detached head and then put it back on his neck.

"Do you even know how long it's been?"

After calming down from the slight shock Asher had put her through, Nova reverted to her cold and indifferent self.

"How long it's been since I last saw you?"

After a second of thinking, Asher replied,

"Two thousand five hundred and fifty nine days and twelve hours. That's approximately seven years."

Nova looked at him as if expecting him to say something else, but Asher just looked her back in the eyes.

After seeing that Asher really didn't remember what she wanted, she shook her head. He didn't remember that, but still somehow remembers every second in seven years.

"It's been seven years since you asked to leave. Well, your time is up."

Asher pulled down his face mask and smiled, "I was hoping you weren't here for that."

As she looked at his face, Nova thought, 'Yet another surprise.'

Nova's thoughts were soon interrupted by Asher though.

"I've been gone for almost a decade, searching for almost a decade. But even at that, I still only have a fifth of what I'm looking for." He turned around and faced the orange sky with a meaningful look.

"I've learnt a lot from being free in this world, and I don't think I'm going back. The only attachment I had to that place... is dead. So you see little light princess, there's no reason for me to return."

'No reason?' Nova didn't know how to feel about his words.

But she stopped thinking with her heart a long time ago.

[Light Manipulation]

Her golden eyes shone with a piercing gleam.

"I was sent here on a mission, and if you won't comply with me willingly, then I'll just have to drag you back!"

Asher looked over his shoulder and laughed.

"It seems you're still that same naive girl after all."

At that instant, his expression turned cold.

"But if you think can beat me in a fight, then you're in a far off dream."

[Your Soul Constrictor Fabric has been reactivated.]

[Available abilities: Void Fire Domination,

Wind Domination,

Gravity Domination,

Hephaestus,

Amethyst Spectre and

The crimson eyed Animat.]

"Ah, good timing."

Nova could see the fangs in his mouth as Asher murmured.

———

Ten years ago...

"Okay Nova, you can open your eyes now." Hearing the woman's words, a little silver haired girl took off the blindfold from her face.

She was excited because she had been expecting a present from her mother for a long time.

Today was Nova's birthday, but it was normal for children to start thinking about the things they'd get on their special day from weeks before.

When little Nova opened her eyes in anticipation and excitement, she finally saw what her mother wanted to show her.

And the second she did, her cute and innocent smile regressed just like her mood.

"Mom, who are these people?" Nova turned around to look at her mom as she pointed in front of her.

She was expecting cool toys or a cute pet, never in her life did she think she'd get humans for her birthday.

Her mother stepped forward and introduced Nova to the two children she was pointing at.

"This is Asher, and this little angel on his back is Yenn."

"Okay?" Nova still didn't get what her mother was trying to do.

After looking at the cool older boy standing in front of her with another older girl lying asleep on his back, a thought suddenly popped into her head.

"Am I getting married?" Her mood seemed to lighten up a bit as she stared at his face.

'Yes. I must be getting married. Mom must have gotten me a prince for my birthday.' Her childish mind started coming up with fantasies, at light speed.

Nova nodded to herself for figuring out her present. 'But then why did mom bring his evil twin sister along? Maybe she doesn't want to let go.'

"What?!" The mother was baffled for a second before she suddenly started laughing uncontrollably.

"Yeah, what?" The girl lying on Asher's back suddenly shot her head up.

"Ashie is mine." Yenn growled at the little girl and gripped onto the boy even harder, choking the air out of his body.

"Huh!" The small birthday girl gasped. "I knew it! Mommy, tell her to let go of my prince! Weh!"

Nova rubbed her eyes pretending to cry, but her mom wasn't done laughing yet.

All the while this was happening, the boy just stared at the commotion like it was none of his business. He was even thinking of leaving, but eventually, he decided to stay for some reason.

"Okay, okay sweetie." Her mother knelt on one knee and said non-jokingly,

"You're a big girl now so I'm sure you'll understand." She started.

"These two over here are your new siblings."

Nova's expression turned sour again, "So, I'm not getting married?"

"Would you quit saying that?" The older girl muttered in frustration as she went back to sleep.

"No, these are your brother and sister. They'll take care of you when me and daddy go to work."

"But I don't want a brother and sister!" Nova cried.

She was used to being the only child, so having siblings to share her parent's love with, scared her.

Looking at the tears about to fall down her daughter's eyes, she pulled Nova in for a tight hug.

"Mommy loves you. She really does, and there's nothing in the world that would ever change that.

I won't give even a tiny bit of the love I have for you to something else: not to a million cute kitties, a billion hamsters or even your dad's sweet sweet cream butter crepes."

"Huh!" The girl gasped with her small mouth and looked at her mother's face. "But you love dad's sweet sweet cream butter crepes."

"Not as much as I love my sweet sweet baby." Her mother pinched her small nose and laughed.

"Hehehe." Nova pushed her mom's hand away from my face.

"So you'll give big sister and brother a chance?"

"Mhm" Nova nodded her cute little head. "But only if he calls me princess."

"No way!" Yenn was awoken once again.

After a few years of living together, the three eventually became really close friends and were already accepting themselves as part of the same family.

Three years after, when Nova was eleven years old, she finally got her own powers.

This was a rare occurrence for young children her age as most super humans only got their powers when they reached the level of 10 in the Earth Core System. And normally, only eighteen years olds and above could achieve that level.

She was certainly a prodigy, but at the school she attended, she wasn't the only anomaly.

Nova was walking home happily, humming a lullaby her mom liked singing to her. She was going to meet her family back at home to show off her new powers.

But on her way, she caught sight of two of her soon to be ex-classmates, arguing about something.

"You said the pills would work, but all it did was make me look stupid in front of the PTA!" One of them yelled.

"Just give it time Buster, the guy who sold the pills to me said puking is just a side effect—"

"It's the only effect!" Buster didn't seem keen on listening.

"I don't even know how many litres I spilled on the chairman's pants, but if I'm going down because of it, then I'm dragging you along with me."

Buster pulled the boy's collar and was about to punch him in the face when he suddenly noticed that the person he was talking to wasn't even paying attention to him.

"Hey Bust, isn't that the girl who just got her powers?"

"What?"

The raging boy looked back. When he saw the oblivious silver haired girl approaching, a new way to let out his frustration came to his mind.

"Oh it is." Buster pushed his 'friend' away.

He ran over to meet Nova and put on an ugly smile.

"Hello little girl.

How did a poor person like you level up this fast? Does your family deal in 'those' types of drugs? Is that why they never show up at school? Huh?" He was venting by bombarding her with mean questions.

Nova was well known in the academy because of her talents, but for some reason, her parents never participated in any school activities. This gave her many haters the freedom to gossip and spread rumors about her, however they liked.

"Umm, I don't know what you're talking about." Nova stepped back in fear. She didn't like the way this boy was looking at her.

"Oh really, well let me help you jog your memory."

The boy rose his hands up to grab Nova.

Not wanting to cause trouble, Nova tried to retreat, but she was too shaken by the boy's expression that she could only take a step back.

"Hehe." As the boy placed his hands on her shoulders, he suddenly realized one crucial thing...

He didn't have hands.

"Wha— what?" He pulled his arms back just to see blood gushing out uncontrollably from the remaining part of his arms.

"B... Buster?" The friend behind him looked at Buster with his hands covering his mouth.'

The scene in front of him was disgusting, disgusting and very scary.

"Ah... a a...h!!!" The two boys murmured in fear as they looked behind Nova.

Because standing on all fours, at nine feet tall, was a big red tiger.

The tiger looked them in the eye as it slurped the parts it had bitten off from Buster's hands.

Seeing that, the two felt their brains short circuit and they fainted on the spot.