Twisted Light

A dark yet faded plume of black smoke...

no, not smoke...

not as heavy,

more a cloud or mist yet much thicker.

It suspended Citrine above the skyline. She could sense the fear of everyone below, the force behind those trying to help.

"My darkness will consume you child,"a eerily calm voice whispered in her ear.

Sunny knew what she'd have to do. There was so much chaos caused by and hatred for this foe in front of her. Her emotions were overflowing but not overwhelming.

With so much at stake, she seemed to not care about the pressure or the fear of failure.

All she could feel was energy.

From all sources.

The emotions of those being held fueled her own anger into a grimace of rage on her face. The barrier of light surrounding her body increased intensity and started to singe pieces of the air and oxygen around her. The lavender-pale glow of everlasting darkness poured into her peripherals. This was Nifarious. This was the great darkness. This was the one responsible for her entire races new existence.

A little of its power, and they could do incredible things. Change atmospheres, materials, reality, weather, gravity, and appearance. Yet they craved the very energy that these creations secreted. Raw energy absorption, if unchecked or not released properly, has led to

sensory disruption causing an uncontrollable burst of energy harmful to others. Or worse, it emits a toxin that poisons the mind. This curse, this disease, this gift of theirs was not welcomed. The Nifarous had been passed down through dna for centuries. How different would history have been without the Omnifaries around. How changed the lives of the future and past generations.

Despite the negatives surrounding the situation and literally, her Citrine found herself still thinking of the positive outcomes. How her mom is able to follow her passion while helping others through incredible feasts of strength and knowledge.

How her favorite hero, of the Conclave, Vortex, taught her to embrace the powers embedded in her and spread that love and positivity that come naturally to any and everything you make or do or help.

She'd taken these roll models and modeled herself into something uniqe something more. Despite the origins of her power, the nature within her stands true and strong and bright. Plunging her mind deep into concentration, she ignited the light encasing her. An echo of light pulsed from her body, setting the air blaze now crisp with burnt fragments of the shadows around her.

It's almost like snow falling.

The grip around her loosened, and she twisted her hand out towards a small ledge of a nearby building. Using her powers, a familiar mist of magenta clouds begin to swirl on that ledge with whisperes of golden light circling and piercing out from the center. With the time to act now winding down, she summened her winged champion of light, just before the shadows overtook her portal. She watched as her angel swooped and dove dodging spears of dark shadows crackling with a lavender streak of energy throughout. Her summoned friend begins charging towards those captured, buying her enough time to just focus on Nifarious.

Still suspended in air she finally let the darkness engulf her fully she reigned in the power of her light and felt as the shadows moved around her gripping her skin leaving poisonous pools of purple gunk caked all over her. She felt as if she was floating, surrounded by nothingness drowning in darkness.

"Give into your fear and let my darkness forever snuff out the light." continued the voice.

Sunny actually smiled. She truly was a ray of sunshine A

becon for something more to come. She knew her journey did not stop here, only begun.

Snapping open her eyes, the light had faded now, just a hum of dark energy radiated from her. Twisting her hands once more, she began to manipulate the very shadows around. She could feel the control of the Nifarious fighting against her own, but she was far stronger. She began to swirl the clouds beneath her and, releasing herself from them, dropped into the pocket of shadows she'd created.

Inside everything was clear the purple energy encased and guided the shadows showing paths out of this massive dark form she was fighting. It also showed her where the center point of power was she could see a purple shapeless form moving throughout everything. With ease, she brought herself within arms reach of the mass and grabbed it using the thick, cloudy substance to grip what seemed to be a purple apparition. A ghostly frame, everything was intangible except the ooze of toxins leaking from it. Horror etched its visage as it peered up at a smiling Sunny.

"H.. how could you?" Sunny had been captured for housrs they'd had this entire city under their control. One light manipulator was not this powerful. "My darkness is everlasting and to be feared" belowed a now panicked and rushed voice.

As Sunny coerced the shadows back into this lavender pale form, she recalled her winged warrior and sent it back to her pocket dimension. She rechanneled and recharged her natural barrier of light and began to witness the form slowly start to dissolve and disintegrate in front of her.

As she concentrated, her light began to build inside of her, the dark origins of her power yielding to something more something greater.

Her upbringing was the reason she was victorious today. Her mothers latent abilities and unwavering determination may have been inherited. Yet, there was no denying the influence from her step-father Vortex. Controlling shadows was his thing, and she'd been around him all her life. With one final glance at the entity she knew would come back, she channeled the energysurrounding her, forced it into her hand, and gave out one powerful pulse assessment said.

"Luckily, someone taught me not to be afraid of the dark a long time ago."