Birth

"Dark Crescent."

A black ark of darkness in a crescent-like shape traversed through the air from the swordsman's blade. 

The twenty sleepers who charged to avenge their commander did not believe that the ark would reach them. With its apparent small size during its conception, it seemed as though only one person would have to block it. Allowing the rest of the group to continue the attack. However, as they moved forward, the size of the ark seemed to increase in reach. Causing a deep slash in the nearest sleeper, marking him dead. As well as incurring grievous injuries to the three sleepers beside him. 

Aldric sent a mental command to his apostle to return to his side and aid him in battle. Fighting against 20 sleepers armed with powerful memories and unknown aspects would be deadly for him. 

A black figure blitzed to his side, a layer of darkness numbing its presence to the world. Aldric could see damages along his armour, with the majority of it focused around his visor. 

'Those bastards must have thought his weakness was his visor. I can't blame them, to be honest.'

As he watched the figure unveil itself, his mind went back to exactly what happened with his echo.

FLASHBACK

On the second day before the battle of the castle began, Aldric was training with his newly acquired echo. All of the echoes he had received previously were either too weak or mindless in their fighting style to train against. He would admit that he destroyed one echoes while trying to spar against it. However, the biggest reason as to why Aldric never retained an echo was due to his experiments. The idea of making a being similar to Sunny's shadows. Tying them together beyond the spell and releasing their potential to evolve. 

His earlier experiments did not go well at all. Destroying one echo as he tried to inject his darkness aspect within their core. In hindsight, it was not the smartest move. However, his [Insight] could not tell him about something that had not happened yet outside of danger. His attribute was not foresight. 

For some reason, this time was different. His intuition was telling him that it would work out. The apparent synergy between himself and his echo only spurred him on.

Approaching the ghastly wraith, he placed his hand on the armour of his echo. Utilising his [Tenerbrous control] attribute, he slowly fed his viscous darkness into the wraith, drop by drop. Not overwhelming his echo at all. 

Seconds turned into minutes as he dispersed the darkness evenly around its intangible body, already saturating its core. It was difficult to disperse his darkness through a literal wraith, but he managed. As his reserves were about to deplete, Aldric looked for any response or feedback from the nightmare spell or his echo. 

Nothing. 

With no other option, he pushed through and continued to give whatever he had left. Just as his reserves ran dry, a deeper and more viscous darkness spread from his hand and into the echo. The young man felt as if his soul was being laid bare, peeling away its protections by the second. 

The echo began to finally respond to the stimuli. With the red flames moving chaotically from his visor towards his horns, black specks began to litter the flames. Like a match set alight, the horns sparked in the flames of purgatory. A shell of darkness cocooned around the echo, hiding its metamorphosis from plain view.

Aldric began to feel weaker and weaker. However, it was only until a pulse of danger from his attribute that he stopped immediately. It felt as if he ran a marathon. It was not just physical or mental fatigue, but it was as if his soul was drained. He laid down on the floor beside him and closed his eyes.

---------

Some time later, Aldric woke up relaxed. Physically and mentally refreshed, however, his soul still felt bare. Looking around for the Forsaken Knight, the area was empty. 

With a mental tug, he entered his soul sea. Looking around, it was as splendid as ever. The infinite stars bled their light at him. 

Just beyond, a familiar figure stood silently, but with some changes. Red flames jetted from his horns, and black flames glimmered from his visor. A merchant of death. Straight from purgatory. 

His peripheral vision caught a stark change in the scenery below him. Where once stood an ever-growing line of dark shapes, spiralling from the centre. Usually surrounded by darkness, these shapes would not be noticed by anyone but Aldric. Now those solitary shapes were simply gone. The more he looked at the empty abyss, the more his soul felt empty. The feeling between the two connecting. 

His soul was not damaged; however, the regular soul strengthening that an awakened receives as they develop their soul core had reverted to its base. Right when he became a dormant. Leaving his soul much more vulnerable. It would take a long time before he could revert it to its original state. 

Instinctively, he looked to the gaping chasm at the boundary of his soul core. Noticing its red hue shining ever so much brighter. 

It made sense to Aldric. He was not Sunny. He did not have an aspect that related to the Shadow God that allowed Sunny to do what he does. He was lucky enough that his aspect allowed him this, even with its costs. 

'Ahh..So that was the cost of forcing my will. Well, it better be worth it.'

Still, it seemed too easy. From what he could imagine, it would cost for a fallen-ranked echo that could evolve. Remembering what it cost Sunny, he looked at his Dark Sprites.

After his battle with the Forsaken Knight, he had gained the most amount of sprites he had ever received since his episode on the builder's statue. Before this experiment, he was sitting on over 1200 sprites. He looked at his runes. 

Dark Sprites:[217/2000]

'Over a 1000! It took me over ten times the amount it took Sunny.'

Aldric did not even want to think about the reserves of darkness that would never return from this loss. 

He looked at the runes of the black figure in front of him. 

It seemed as though its attributes and abilities were the same. However, its classification had changed. 

Apostle: [Oath-Bound Knight]

Apostle Rank: Ascended

Apostle Class: Devil

Skimming through the attributes, he saw its description.

Apostle Description: [The first of its kind. Born from the darkness of a singularity, this knight swore an oath once more, far beyond the tapestry of fate.]

He was shocked by what he read. Like a description in real time, it felt odd. 

Below the description, there was something there. Something that his instincts told him existed but he just could not see. Ignoring the abnormality, he returned his focus to the waking world and summoned his newly dubbed Apostle. 

With a drop of darkness falling on the ground, a black gateway opened. With his Oath-Bound Knight walking through in measured steps.

"Let's see what you can do."

FLASHBACK END

With his Apostle by his side, Aldric erased his presence and dashed to his next target.

The leader of the Hunters.

Gemma.

**********

Thank you for reading once more.

So what did you think? The transformation of his Knight?

Anyone have any ideas on a nickname for his 'Apostle'? 

Had to drop some lore. Back to the fighting next chapter.

Take care, till next time.