Chapter 11: Fear

Kioku waited near the gate of the capital. The moon was obscured by clouds and the streets were all but empty. He wore his training robes which had been repaired along with his usual high leather boots.

A beam of light descended near Kioku and when the light subsided Mora could be seen. He too wore his repaired training robes with boots except his was no longer silver but black.

"Kioku," said Mora as he approached Kioku who noticed that Mora looked angry.

"What's wrong with you?"

"What the hell happened to my robe!" Shouted Mora pointing at his robes.

"It looks fine to me-,"

"Like hell it is!" Shouted Mora. "It went from silver to black. And what's up with this damn place, the sun doesn't come up so I didn't know what time to wake up and stayed up all night!"

"When the moon is covered it's day and when it's visible it's night," said Kioku as though it were obvious.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" Asked Mora angrily.

"You didn't ask," Kioku said with a shrug. He turned towards the gates as he heard a loud rumble from the distance.

"Zeru's signal?" Asked Mora. Kioku nodded and approached the gate, the gate disappeared as he approached it and reappeared as the two stepped out of the capital.

Before them was a barren black land and the two walked in the direction the sound of thunder had originated from.

"By the way," began Mora after they had walked a good distance. "How exactly are we getting out of here. I'm sure we can't just leave through the gateway."

"We're travelling to Asgard using the Greater Darkness."

"What is the Greater Darkness?"

"I don't understand it myself," said Kioku, they had entered an area with long blades of grass and were struggling to navigate forward.

"It's a layer of darkness below existence that only Hakai and people of the Shadow Realm can navigate through undetected and across great distances."

"Wait, then why didn't you directly teleport us here from the Master's palace?"

"Travelling through the Greater Darkness is like jumping into a gigantic black ocean," said Kioku as he summoned a blade of darkness to cut the grass.

"Its easy to get lost in it, that's why only high ranking officers of the Shadow Realm are permitted to travel through it"

Mora nodded in understanding and remained silent until realisation dawned on his face. "Does that mean there's a high chance of us dying just by travelling there?"

"Obviously."

"Why have all your recent ideas contained a high possibility of death?"

"Why has every question you've asked been so fucking annoying," Kioku said, sounding slightly irritated. The duo remained silent and they travelled through the thicket of grass until they emerged and saw a great forest ahead of them.

"Thats where Zeru is," Mora said while stretching his legs. "First one there gets to be leader of the unit."

Mora shot forward like a beam of light and left Kioku alone scratching his head. Kioku sighed as he put his hands together and disappeared into his shadow.

"Fucking idiot."

♤♤♤

"You cheated!"

Kioku, Mora and Zeru stood at the edge of the forest. The trees were extremely tall and thick and had numerous leaves, various animal noises could be heard from within the forest.

Kioku and Mora held each other by collar and Zeru watched the proceedings with an exasperated expression.

"I did no such thing."

"That's bullshit and you know it!" Shouted Mora angrily.

"The only bullshit I see here is you."

Mora raised his fist and was about to hit Kioku when Zeru finally stepped in between them.

"That's enough, remember why we're here."

Mora glared at Kioku before turning to face Zeru with folded arms. "We would if you had actually told us why we're here."

"Chaos is arriving to fortify the Shadow Realm' s defence and the process will be complete in ten days, it would impossible to leave here if it's done," Zeru said calmly as he walked closer to the forest, the ground began to shake slightly.

"In these ten days you two have to learn how to control your Arch the right way. The only quick way to do that is by being exposed to actual combat."

An enormous black gorilla emerged from the forest. It was as half as tall as the trees and had fur as dark as night, it's eyes were completely black. The gorilla roared revealing it's sharp long fangs, it observed the group with a look of rage.

"What's that?" Asked Mora nervously, he took a step back so that he could take in the sheer size of the creature. He turned to look at Kioku and noticed he and Zeru were standing a considerable distance away.

"Defeat that thing and you pass day one of training, remember, let the Arch flow!" Shouted Zeru with a smile. Mora turned back to face the large creature which waited for him to make a move and snorted.

"Don't see how defeating a monkey counts as training but alright," said Mora taking a running stance.

He shot towards the gorilla at high speed with his fist raised, just as he was about to connect with its face, Henry's cold laughter echoed through his ears.

Mora faltered and before he could recollect himself a large hairy fist hit him from the side. Mora flew back like a bullet and landed hard on the ground causing it to quake.

Mora was bleeding from his head and left arm and struggled to stand and when he managed to he vomited a large amount of blood.

"Damn it," said Mora breathing heavily, his left arm began to glow and he could move it again.

"Even though my body heals itself, I can't take another hit like that else I'm dead, I need to focus."

Mora dived to his left as the gorilla came crashing down from above. He started running around the beast in a circle muttering softly as he did, the ground on which he ran upon began to glow brightly like a ring of light and above the gorilla, a lantern made of silver light appeared.

"Chandra's Lantern."

Chains of light erupted from glowing circle on the ground and the lantern. The gorilla was completely wrapped in chains of light save for a small section it's chest. Mora's right fist stormed with silver energy and he rocketed towards the gorilla leaving a small shockwave as he lept.

"Go to hell."

Mora's attack struck the gorilla with incredible force and sent flying into one the large trees at the edge of the forest causing it to shake violently. The gorilla was already beginning to rise and Mora prepared to charge again when he heard Henry's voice in his head.

'You can't win, you're too weak.'

"Stop," whispered Mora softly.

'Your Arch is weak.'

"Stop," said Mora in an angry tone.

'That is fear.'

"SHUT UP!" Shouted Mora. He charged towards the gorilla which glared at him as he approached, Mora was about to strike the final blow when he looked in it's eyes. It's eyes were cold, they reminded him of Henry's eyes, the eyes that had brought Mora fear.

The gorilla punched Mora into the ground causing a crater to form, it kept punching and punching digging Mora deeper into the ground.

♤♤♤

"Damn it," said Zeru stepping forward. "We have to help hi-,"

Zeru stopped, Kioku had put his hand forward to block him. He looked at the scene of the gorilla constantly attack with calmly and shook his head.

"If he wouldn't have been able to survive something like this, I wouldn't have asked him to join me," said Kioku.

"He may be annoying but that bastard is the only person worthy of being my rival."

'Worthy of being the only friend I trust,' thought Kioku.

Zeru wanted to say something to counter Kioku's words but he knew they were true.

♤♤♤

Mora opened his eyes and expected to see the pearly white gates of heaven. He looked up and saw hairy fists rising and falling, somehow the fists didn't strike him.

'Fuck, must be hell,' thought Mora. 'Didn't make the cut for heaven then.'

Mora stood and realised all his injuries had been healed and in front of him was the Regetsu in the ground.

A beam of silver light was connecting Mora's chest and the hilt of the blade. 'The sword, it healed my wounds and formed a barrier, but this Arch isn't mine.'

Mora reached for sword and just as he was about to touch it, the soft echo of a voice reached his ears.

"Win and survive."

Mora momentarily stopped as he heard the voice of Henry in his head, the memory of the words he spoke.

'That is fear.'

"Yes, I'm afraid of you," said Mora quietly as he grabbed the sword and pulled it from the ground.

Silver energy exploded all around, the gorilla was blasted backwards a few feet and high above in the skies was Mora, raising the Regetsu over his head with one hand.

"But I won't let you haunt me," Mora said, the clouds parted revealing the moon and the blade glowed brightly and ribbons of silver energy danced around it.

"I will fight and survive so that I can grow strong enough to face you."

Mora's eyes were glowing brightly as he looked down coldly at the gorilla, in that moment, the gorilla saw Mora as a god looking down from above.

"Strong enough to show you fear."

"Twilight!"

The blade came down and the attack that came with it split the gorilla, the ground and the forest nearby in half.

Mora fainted in mid air and Zeru raced to catch him, Kioku remained looking at the clouds above the forest, where a shadowy serpentine shape could be seen.

"The will to survive is the greatest tool needed to slay gods," said Kioku in a whisper.

"Looks like it's my turn."