Light and Darkness

Kai Thanos felt it first—a subtle shift in the air, a change in the oppressive darkness that had been their constant companion. The titan glanced at his young disciple, Lee, and spoke, letting his voice caress the words: "Where there is Darkness, there is also light."

Lee didn't understand the words at first but kept advancing nonetheless. And so, they walked, their feet a rhythmic percussion against the earth. After a few more miles, they stepped into a new world. A world drenched in sunlight.

The change was breathtaking. Sunlight poured down from a radiant sun, bathing a land of vibrant life. Luxurious foliage reached eagerly toward the sky, their leaves a symphony of colors. Blossoms unfurled their petals as if offering thanks to the celestial body above. Trees bore fruits that seemed plucked from the dreams of a god, radiant and tantalizing, as if mere sight alone could satiate one's hunger. The ground beneath them was soft, a mix of velvety grass and rich, loamy soil.

Lee was in awe, but years of training snapped him back to caution. Thanos mirrored his vigilance. Gorgeous or not, any world—especially one so different yet similar from the one they'd left—demanded caution.

"This place is the definition of sunshine and rainbow, I feel bad for the ones who died in here. Poor guys were probably killed by some cute, fluffy little shit."

The voice in Thanos' head rambled on as the titan noticed a few bones from here and there, and from what he could see, their structures had a rather similar humanoid figure.

The contradictive elements made Lee nervous, his mind ready to unleash his Qi at any moment notice. They stopped for a moment above a small hill to observe their surroundings better. Their superhuman senses enhanced by their Stage 3 cultivations picked up the slightest details aroudn them, and there they saw it

A nest of some sort up ahead, unguarded, but filled with...weapons. Swords, staves, shields, each more exquisite than the last. Lee's eyes widened. "P-Primordial Weapons." Lee blurted out from his vantage point. As someone who carefully studied the history of the world as soon as he arrived, Thanos understood Lee's words.

Primordial Weapons were a relic of a bygone era, the Primordial War Era. In the present day, even the weakest of them couldn't be replicated. Their power was legendary, their rarity immense.

They slowly descended the hills, and avoided a few nuisances whose body emanated tier 3 to 5 auras. They would lose unnecessary energy by trying to kill every Stage 5 beasts they crossed path with.

Soon, they reached the source of their curiosity. The large nest was a sight to behold - decorated with giant feathers of various colors that pleased the eye, a size large enough to be considered a living room on his own, and the nest in itself was 2 meters above the ground, the foundation of the mesmerizing building a simple yet sturdy root like extension coming out from the earth, then streched out to form 5 tendrils - like finger that holded everything above the ground.

Thanos' eyes deepened with curiosity. He extended his psychokinesis toward the armaments, intrigued. But then, a psychic recoil—like touching a hot stove. He withdrew, pondering. "Ego weapons? Interesting."

However, Thanos was more intrigued by the resistance he felt when he attempted to use his psychokinesis on them. The weapons seemed to pulse, sending out faint psychic warnings. Curious, he pressed on.

But before he could delve deeper, a weapon lit up, releasing a dark ethereal figure. The man's hair was wild and unkempt, his eyes somber pools of mystery. His body seemed to fluctuate between reality and illusion, as though he were trapped between two worlds.

The mysterious figure's voice echoed, a haunting whisper, "My, my, what brings you here, wanderers?"

"Just passing through," replied Thanos, his tone guarded.

"It's been a while since I last saw people, the last time was around 100 years ago?"

As the figure prattled on about years of solitude, Thanos and Lee exchanged wary glances.

"My apologies, years of isolation made me a little... volatile."

When the topic shifted to the weapons, and the figure's suggestion to take them away, Thanos' suspicion grew. "And what is the price for them?" he asked, subtly signaling Lee to be on alert.

The unsettling smile that spread across the ethereal man's face was answer enough.

"Your Soul."

In the blink of an eye, a massive shockwave burst from the figure. Its power was overwhelming, more than anything Thanos had ever felt. He erected a mental shield, psychokinesis shield and even more defense mechanisms in a splitsecond, enveloping both himself and Lee. Yet, it was futile. The force bypassed their defenses, sending them crashing to the ground.

The world spun and then everything went still. The rhythmic rise and fall of their chests was the only indication of life.

Something slowly seeped out from their body, two ever fluctuating ball of lights, one was a somber blue, while the latter was incomparably larger than the first and was dark with white pigments around it. They slowly floated towards the ethereal figure, and in the blink of an eye, were absorbed inside the man's ring.

The ethereal figure loomed, triumphant yet still emanating an aura of melancholy. "I can finally escape this hellhole," he mused.