The Dark Favor

My birthplace was one of the strangest places in the entire universe. I didn't know that.

My ignorance was understandable. Other than a few of my kind in this dark world, everyone was like me. All we know was what our eyes showed us.

We didn't know we were living in seclusion, making preparations for our ultimate goal. A goal that pushed on our shoulders by outlanders, a goal that born out of a great enmity.

The world we know was covered with darkness. Not by any evil means, our world had a Dark Sun. More appropriately, dark for outlanders. To my people, it was the source of life and warmth.

The Dark Sun wasn't the only unique existence in this place. Our realm had a protective barrier. It was like there were numerous black holes surrounding our realm, but unlike the black holes, the barrier was working in just one direction. When something approached the barrier, it would face a strong suction power. Anything that came close to the barrier would be sucked in. The only way to leave the realm was to have sufficient cultivation.

At those times only our elders could leave the dark world. However, the elders wouldn't leave the darkness frequently, the outside world was unsuitable for us to stay for a long time. They went to the outside world only out of curiosity, there wasn't another particular reason.

I think the thing that led us to our apocalypse was the curiosity. There wasn't any concrete detail about how it began. We didn't have the energy to spare to know either. The war was already upon us.

In the past, the moment they noticed our existence they labeled us as evil, treated us like something that had to be eliminated. They had not tried to learn us, understand us. They had become judges losing no time.

It was understandable from their point of view. Their world had more colors than our own. They were beings afraid of the unknown, and the dark was unknown to them. They weren't like us; the dark was our home, and it was our light at the same time.

They declared war to us, brainwashed ignorant members of their race and led their armies to our dark world. Those weak people didn't know they won't be able to come out from this place even if they won the war.

Outlanders called themselves as justice, shouted justified words unknown and meaningless to us as they fought.

There were just a few large-scaled wars. However, for us, it did not differ from genocide.

In these wars, they were far superior to us in terms of numbers. Thanks to our special homeland, we hardly dealt with the outlanders that had come upon us like waves.

Soon, they became sure of the barrier's properties and abandoned their previous battle tactics. They started to send just dozens of strong people in. My ancestors had said they were cunning like devils. Their war tactics and fighting techniques were all devil-like.

The rest of the battles had become 'hit-and-run tactics' to weaken us further. Maybe I should say they had aimed to gather intelligence.

The universe was big. We had realized much later that all of these creatures were like a hair on nine bulls. Compared to their number we weren't even a ten thousandth. We had wondered why didn't they come to war with a much larger battle force? They were capable of this.

The answer was simple. Greed…

They didn't want to share battle spoils with anyone. Especially what they came for.

Outlanders understood that they won't be able to win anything from this. They didn't want to call reinforcements, didn't want to waste everything they had done so far. They would not go head to head with us anymore, so they closed the gap with their cunningness.

When they came to us with the proposal of peace, we had not believed at them first. In the process of making so-called peace, they didn't attack us and kept every promise they had made in the peace agreement. We were tired too, so after a long time, we gave in.

We had felt no happiness in any of our dealings with Outlanders. Including the peace negotiations. They demanded resources from us shamelessly, to compensate their so-called losses. What about our losses? To them, we weren't in a situation to turn them down.

They said they could come at any time with a stronger battle force, said they could raze down our cities and kill our entire race. They threw us many threats.

Naturally, negotiations had not concluded. For them, there was no need to reach a conclusion. Everything was going according to their plan. They were just stalling for time.

Soon the long-awaited moment came, the entire world shook. A sudden cold enveloped everywhere. We had not understood a thing, but apparently, the outlanders were waiting precisely for this moment.

As their eyes shone, they made an attack on us. My ancestors were caught off guard. However, the real blow was still on the way.

After the quick attack, what we all saw were our most horrible nightmare. The Dark Sun has started to shrink, the dark light it has emitted began to decline. In the end, it completely disappeared alongside with outlanders.

Everything had happened so quick, we couldn't come to ourselves for a long time. There were so many questions in our heads. What had happened? How has it happened? How has the sun shrunk like that?

The sun was gone. Our light was gone.

We wanted to cry for what we had lost, but there was no time. The strange phenomena have started to happen.

With the disappearance of light, the dark world has sunk into another kind of darkness. Fortunately, the temperature had not dropped so much as everyone expected.

The most strange case was the barrier that surrounded the realm. The suction power had gotten incredibly strong, none of us had managed to come close to the barrier, forget about leaving the realm. Even the outlanders could no longer leave anymore if they were still here.

This realm was our home, and now it also became a prison for us.

The creatures that have made all of this to us called themselves humans!

Humans say patience is the virtue. Indeed, they were virtuous. But if you were in our shoes, would you accept patience as the virtue? No. In this case, it was an act worthy of the devil.

Before the outlanders came, we were peaceful creatures, always looking after our own business. Like any other living beings in their own homelands, we also liked the good and hated evil. Taught our children to be good, warned them to restrain themselves from evil.

Afterwards, everything changed… we changed.

After the apocalypse, weird changes have started to happen to survivors. I don't know if this was another phenomenon or not. We have gradually become what they labeled us to be. Day by day we were becoming more and more malicious creatures.

You can say we have learned from them, or you can say this was our true essence. I don't know the answer! We don't care about the answer! What we care about was only revenge!

It has become only thought in our minds. They buried our world into darkness and cold, so we would spread the same cold and darkness to the entire universe, paint their colorful worlds with the same dark! We would steal everything they care about and give them nothing but pain in return!

Starting from that day, we called ourselves Darksiders.

My parents gave birth to me with the thoughts of revenge in mind, and I grew up with the thoughts of revenge.

Humans also say revenge is best served cold, I have always hated humans' sayings, this time is no different! Our burning desire for revenge won't be as simple as the word cold!

Hate made us stronger than ever!

We made our preparations quietly, waited for the promised day to come.

…

But… even the most unexpected things have a chance of happening.

Somehow I became witness to a story completely unrelated to me and deeply related at the same time.

Until recent times, I was a woman whose eyes blinded by the desire for revenge. Now I can only be an observer that no one knew of.

I will tell you the story of Yulian. Since everything have started with that event, I'll call this story 'The Dark Favor'.