8 Dark age

It was a peaceful sunny day in the vast green forest and its inhabitants exploited this rare quiet day to relax or do a few simple mundane tasks…

The colourful birds searched for materials to build their nests.

The fluffy horned rabbits slowly ate some herbs that radiated an intense lifeforce.

The sly shadow foxes took a day off to laze around and play with their cubs.

Unfortunately for them… This peaceful day wasn't destined to last for long.

A human being disrupted this peace as he ran across the forest as fast as his shaky legs permitted.

He was a young man in his 20s, someone at the prime of his life, but he was exhausted both physically and mentally.

His eyes were red and immense sorrow was visible within them as two wet lines could be seen descending from his eyes, it looked like he just cried a lot recently.

He was wearing an expensive-looking leather armour but it was now ruined… Dried blood and holes that exposed the damaged chainmail under it could be seen everywhere.

There were a few symbols inscribed on the grey leather armour, but they had been damaged and natural energy had long since stopped flowing and powering them up.

At the young man's waist, two black sheaths for long knives could be seen, but the one that should be at his left seemed to be missing.

Behind him, a 2.5 meters (8.2 ft.) tall gorilla was chasing him.

The gorilla's fur that should have been pitch-black was currently stained with dark blood and dirt, multiple wounds and even a few arrows could be seen all over its fur.

The gorilla was staring at the young man's back with bloodshot eyes as it carelessly chased him, destroying every branch in its path.

Its skin was grey and looked more like a rock with a few white marks left behind by some blades' attacks rather than skin.

As the young man ran as fast as he could with an unfocused gaze… He suddenly stopped running, he froze on the spot while staring with wide frightened eyes at the creature that just appeared in front of him.

In front of him, the creature's eyes that looked like a bottomless abyss were locked on his.

He could still barely hear the noise of the spiritual beast behind him, but he didn't care about it.

His blood seemed to be reacting to the creature's presence as well… It wasn't the first time he felt it, the life hierarchy suppression, but there was something else that blocked his body from answering his commands.

It was the first time that he felt like this, he didn't understand what was going on at all… But there was one single thing he was sure of… That creature would be able to kill him in an instant if it wanted to.

The young man closed his eyes waiting for the end… He gave up on resisting completely.

'Is this the end? Why… No. Maybe, because I deserve it? It doesn't matter anymore… I hope my next life will be happier'

Sometime later… The young man opened his eyes once again confused 'What is going on? I'm still alive?'

The creature in front of him was still there… It didn't move at all.

As for the gorilla… It was nowhere to be seen.

As if to answer his questions, he felt a pulling force within his spirit from the direction of the scary creature.

He didn't try to resist at all and let the creature do whatever it wanted with his spirit.

[Hello there]

The young man became pale as that thought reverberated within his mind… The only problem being that that thought didn't belong to him.

He could only ask himself one question as he realized it… 'I'm finally going crazy?'

Before he could even compose himself, another weird thought invaded his mind.

[I'm sorry to disappoint you but you're not crazy… yet… I think… I'm not completely sure though...

Besides, being crazy means not being normal… What does being "normal" even mean?

Honestly, I don't know.

You know, one time some peopl-]

This time, he realized that those thoughts weren't his since he could still somehow think while hearing them… It seemed like someone was speaking within his mind.

The young man's face was becoming paler and paler as he listened to that voice's unending rambling.

'What the fuck is going on?!'

The answer arrived soon after.

[Oh right, sorry, my bad… You must be confused… I've just cast a primitive spell to create a bridge between our minds.

Thanks to it, we can communicate through surface thoughts.]

Hearing this, he realized that maybe this voice belonged to the creature in front of him…

The young man looked at the still-unmoving creature in shock. 'You are that scary scaled...thing?'

[Bingo! Congratulations, you have won a token of forgiveness… I won't beat you up for calling me "scary scaled thing"... This time...

Now, I have a deal for you… I will accompany you to the closest settlement while you answer my questions.]

The young man narrowed his eyes when he heard the proposal, but while he was considering his options, he heard the creature's voice once again.

[Well, if you don't need my help, our ways will part here… But I wouldn't advise you to do it unless you know how to deal with that spiritual beast over there]

The creature pointed with its head toward a tree between the bushes a few meters behind the young man… A wary gorilla could be seen peeking from behind the tree.

Seeing the spiritual beast that chased him before, the young man knew that he didn't have any other option...

'Deal!'

[I see, a wise decision… You won't regret it.

Well… Where is the closest settlement?]

'It should be over there…' The young man answered while pointing somewhere toward his left.

[Led the way, I will follow you]

Just after the young man started walking, the creature started asking questions one after another.

[What is your name?]

'Marlon… I'm a commoner…

What about you? Do you have a name?'

[I'm still nameless…

Where are we?]

Marlon wasn't surprised by the answer, after all, it was extremely rare for a spiritual beast to have a True name…

Many beasts won't ever obtain a True name in their whole life.

What surprised him instead was the question, but he answered nonetheless without thinking too much about it.

After all, it isn't that strange for someone to lose his/her way within the forest

'Hm… We are on the outskirts of the evergreen forest… We should be near Viridi city.'

[Under whose rule it's this city?]

Marlon answered unsure while suppressing his urge to ask where that spiritual beast came from.

'The royal family of the Venand kingdom… I guess?'

[Venand… One of the six small kingdoms of the humans within the primordial continent?]

At first, he was confused. 'Six kingdoms? Small?'

But after thinking for a while he realised something 'Sir, maybe your knowledge is a little outdated'

[What year is this?]

'We are at the twentieth year of the Dark age'

[Dark age? What the hell is this?]

Marlon was struck dumb by that question and it took him a few seconds to compose himself.

'You don't know? Did you live under a rock until now?'

After seeing the creature's eyes narrow a little, Marlon wisely decided to not probe any further.

'Twenty years ago… A natural disaster struck the whole planet.

I don't know what it was nor why it happened… I only know that out of nowhere, the natural energy around us went berserk and all the formations stopped working for some time or were damaged.

The more advanced formations suffered more damage… For this reason, many cities became vulnerable.

As you can imagine, many factions that were hiding in the shadows until now exploited the situation.

No one expected it to happen… It happened out of nowhere…

One moment, everyone wondered what was going on, the moment later, the sentinels' horns echoed across the city, a bloody battle followed soon after.

Fortunately, at that time, an ascended being protected the city where I lived… But not everyone living in other cities were as lucky as me...

Many outposts, great mages' towers, cities, and even one royal capital fell in just a few days.

A few noble families became extinct overnight.

For a few days, humans got slaughtered in the hundreds of thousands… The Rubrum kingdom fell as well.'