In the Middle of Nowhere
Bloop! Poof! Akhil violently lands on the hot, grainy sand with a monster's severed head next to him. A few hours later, I woke up groggy. "Where am I? Am I in the desert?" Akhil thought as he looked around, seeing only the golden sand spread as far as he could see in all directions. "Aaaah! That's the monster's head, it looks like a wolf's head," Akhil stares in bewilderment and curiosity. "Where did it come from? What's going on? Is my family okay?" Reality sinks in, and the questions pile up in Akhil's head.
After calming down and taking things slowly, he gets up and looks around to see if he can see a sign or anything showing life. He sees a black dot far out in the distance and chooses it as his destination. Unwilling at first because of all the weird things he had seen, he thought it couldn't be any worse than staying out in the scorching sun in the middle of nowhere. Heading in that direction, Akhil got his hopes up as he wanted to go home.
Three days later, Akhil walked a far distance from where he started; his upper body was covered in sunburns, and the cut he received from the creature was festering and causing him pain, making him feel even weaker. He was tired, hungry, and thirsty; the only thing left for him was a mirage, but all of a sudden, multiple black dots, similar to the one he was walking to, appeared. He was seeing multiple mirages; this is something expected in a desert from a person tired and thirsty, willing to believe anything. But in his delirium, he continued walking in a straight line, never stopping or slowing down but not going faster either.
As he gets closer, the black dot starts shaping into an enormous castle, with a man's statue wielding a short dagger with chains attached to the ends. The statue seemed to not have any source of light, as if completely consumed by darkness, but showed the epitome of power, the feeling that you are standing in the presence of a god. Walking towards the castle door, Akhil feels chilly. Every strand of hair was standing. He looks up at the sky, staring at the dazzling sun burning the sand behind him. At that moment, he realizes he was no longer in the sun but standing in the shade, which gave a weird feeling to him because a while ago, he was scorching in the sun and now he is ice-cold.
Looking at the door, the words were written in ancient Greek but weirdly enough; he understood what it was saying - DARKNESS IS WITHOUT FORM AND WITH FORM; IT WELCOMES ALL BUT ONLY SOME CAN LIVE IN IT. The words are saying something, but it was unknown to Akhil, as he has never faced the darkness it is speaking about. Akhil pushed the door open with a screech, and a flash of light entered his eyes, blinding him for a second then he appeared in the center of the castle where a throne made of the same material as the statue outside was. Akhil put all his strength into pushing the door open, and after finding the unknown area safe, he fell unconscious on the cold, hard marble floor. A few hours later, he regained strength. Opening his eyes, seeing a faint light disappearing from his body and his injuries healed, he came to a conclusion that he was miraculously healed by the light. Looking around, Akhil saw various weapons hanging on a wall to the left, and to the right, a book and an orb were on a table. Noticing that there wasn't any dust or dirt for an old-looking castle, there wasn't anything showing signs of being abandoned.
"You have looked around long enough, boy," a booming voice sounded from all directions. A figure appeared out of the ground at the side of the throne, padded in a black cloak from his face, hiding his appearance, but not the tall sword in his hand trapped in the scabbard. The man's overwhelming presence filled the room, spreading to all corners of the room, forcing Akhil to his knees. On Akhil's face, a look of bewilderment and fear can be seen, as he has never experienced such a feeling of absolute powerlessness. He stares at the man in front of him with eyes pleading for mercy as the only thing he could do because it was as if he was paralyzed from his mouth down.
"Narc, don't kill him," a monotone voice sounded from all sides of the room. "My Lord, I beg your pardon, but are you truly going to use him for what's to come? His strength is mediocre, and he seems to know nothing of what is happening," Narc bows before speaking, a sign of respect to a higher power.
"This problem is solvable, it just depends on his will to live and from the looks of that wulver's head, his ability to escape is acceptable as a start," the lord said in a pondering tone. "Test his aptitude, then we'll decide what to do."
Akhil could only kneel and listen to the conversation as his mouth was covered and an invisible force was pushing his body down. He used his eyes to search for the second voice but wasn't able to find it. He suddenly felt the pressure on his body fade away and heard the voice of the man called Narc. Pointing in a direction, Narc said, "Get up and walk towards that orb." Approaching the orb, Akhil was instructed to place his hands on the orb, and without question, he did. "Close your eyes and imagine you are pulling light from your abdomen to your hand on the orb, pull as much as possible or else," Narc stops abruptly, staring at Akhil with a subjective look.
Doing as he was told, Akhil closed his eyes and pictured the light coming from his abdomen, starting as a small ball and a small strand from a section of the ball going up towards his shoulder and then towards his arm and when in his palm, it was directly absorbed by the orb. Unknowing to Akhil, Narc stood there amazed that he got it on his first try, "Even someone who has been practicing since birth would have it hard the first and second tries, but he did it on the first; maybe he isn't all bad, but he's still weak."
Constantly supplying the orb with white light causes the strand to constantly expand in size. Pouring more and more into it, Akhil fell suddenly, feeling weak from what he just did. "Ten minutes, acceptable," scoffs Narc. "Let's see what your affinity is, boy," Narc said. After a while, the white color started fading, showing a bright red, then a blue, then light green, and then in the center of the orb was a dark color mixed with what seemed like empty spaces. Looking at Narc in front of him displaying shock on his face, Akhil felt relieved, thinking he did something above Narc's expectations.