The Return

3rd Person POV :

A black blob floated over the ground, pulsing with silver energy as it slowly descended. The time between the surges became shorter and shorter, until a silver sheen seemed to be covering the whole sphere.

It began melting, imploding on itself, forming a small ball near the sternum of a silhouette, before it was absorbed into his body. The blinding white mana core in his chest began losing its glow, darkening into an abyssal black. Lavender clashed with white, and black replaced their place, momentarily flickering silver.

The kneeling figure stared at the ground, his palm touching the floor. He knew exactly where he was, how far he was from the nearest civilization, how much time had passed since his 'death' and how many beings, be it living or dead, were near him.

He slowly stood up, flexing his fingers to test their functionality. They seemed to work perfectly. He glanced at his torso and his back, none of the scars had transferred over. But one thing struck him.

Why the fuck am I naked?

That's when he remembered his circumstances.

Oh…yeah new body, right.

He inhaled deeply, focusing on the sound of his own heartbeat, and flexing all the muscles he could.

He sighed in relief, at least there wasn't anything wrong with this body. With that done, he focused on his core. A pitch black sphere greeted him. He panicked for a brief moment, thinking he had lost his source of magical power. But relaxed when he could still feel the mana and aether in him.

His core had a black exterior, but inside was a whole different story. He was met with a whirlwind of white and purple, clashing into each other and occasionally releasing a nacht particle. It was like a generator, but where was all that mana and aether coming from?

He'd find that answer soon enough when he noticed the lack of said particles around him. Was he subconsciously absorbing all the particles from the atmosphere?

[Yes, that's exactly what you're doing.]

His neck snapped towards the direction of the sound, his eyes focusing on a pale faced man. A mop of silver hair fell down his face, and obsidian black eyes stared back at him.

"What?" was his first word after gaining this body.

[You're wondering how I'm able to physically exist?] The silver-haired man spoke. [It's simple, I don't.]

"What do you mean?" He shook his head, regaining his composure.

[What I mean is, I don't exist physically. Only you are capable of seeing me. Hell, I can't even interact with objects.] To prove his point he bent down to grab a rock, but his hand passed right through it.

"I…see," he closed his eyes. "Are you ready to tell me who you are now?"

[Hmm.] He rubbed his chin in thought. [I am, but do I want to?]

He deadpanned at the apparition.

Markus chuckled, [Relax, I'll tell you.]

"Go right ahead,"

[Alright, for starters I'm not the key as you once thought.] Walking over to a boulder, he sat on its surface, [The key, is a part of me. In all honesty, I'm superior to the key.]

Fayden rolled his eyes, "Don't stroke your ego too much."

[You see, when you first got the key,] he promptly ignored Fayden's comment, [it instantly tried to combine with your soul. And it would have, were you a normal 4 year old, but you weren't. As a result, it was only partly successful. It created a separate entity, an amalgamation of both your personalities and itself.]

"You are that entity." Fayden confirmed.

[Bingo!] He enthusiastically pointed his finger at him. [At that time I was still too weak to communicate with you, it took me nearly a decade to send you my first message. And I only got stronger from that point.]

"That still doesn't explain how you have control over half my powers." Fayden pointed out.

[I'm getting there. As I said, the key is a part of me, or rather it's a part of both of us. When it created me, part of its powers were transferred to me, in essence it split into two. One containing the shadow powers for our resident edgelord, and the other contained the light-based powers for lil old me.]

"What about now then? They key has completely combined with our souls I'm assuming?"

He nodded, [Yes, and since I am a part of you, you now have full access to both parts of the key. Sure, I can obstruct you from using the light based ones but you will overcome it eventually. ]

"What do I call you then?" Fayden walked towards the edge of the cavern.

[Call me…Phanes.]

"'The Lightbringer' huh," Fayden glanced behind his back, "fitting."

________________________

~Somewhere in Losvillion~

Putting his cloak on, Nathan headed out of his room, and the Tavern, heading towards the guild.

"Ah, Phoebus, there you are. I was beginning to think you weren't coming today," the receptionist exclaimed after seeing him.

Nathan, or rather, Phoebus nodded in greeting, "Any quests today, Serses?"

"As a matter of fact, there is," Serses nodded. "You know about the black sun?"

"You mean the black blob you've been keeping an eye on?" Phoebus raised an eyebrow. "What of it?"

"Well, when today's team arrived at the area, it was gone. Not a trace remained."

"That's…strange," he furrowed his eyebrows. "What's the quest? Look for clues?"

"It's far more complicated than that," Serses said grimly. "While the sphere left no clue, we did find a set of footprints. We want you to follow those footprints and find their owner. Whoever it is, he or she is connected with the disappearance of the black sun."

"Got it," he nodded, heading out.

"Be careful on this quest!" Serses crowd out from behind him.

"I will."

________________________

"These are definitely a man's footprints," Phoebus mumbled as he observed the indentations on the ground.

"Judging from their size and depth, he's lithe and agile." He stood up. "But then what happened to the sphere? If he carried it away, his footprints would have been deeper. But they aren't. Could he have come after the sphere was removed? Or did he use some sort of magic or artifact to get the job done."

Dimension rings would have been a viable option, but to store something that big it would need to be a high grade one. Thus, Phoebus thought that he was some rich noble's son. That narrowed down the list of suspects.

"They also seem to be heading towards the capital, which further solidifies my speculation." And so, he began following the footprints.

________________________

"Man, am I glad that Sierra gave me so many clothes." Fayden glanced down at his attire, wearing black combat pants, a grey undershirt and a silver jacket.

"For a moment, I almost forgot my shadow storage existed."

[You're an idiot.] Phanes commented.

"And you're absolutely correct."

Phanes shook his head, [Shouldn't you do something about the one following us?]

"Let him get a bit closer first," Fayden replied, adopting a serious face. "I'd rather dispose of him as fast as I can if he turns out to be a threat."

[Heh,] Phanes cracked a smile. [I like this version of you a lot better than the others.]

"You just like seeing people dying." Fayden withheld rolling his eyes.

[Won't deny that.]

"Psychopath," he muttered under his breath.

[Technically my personality comes from you, what does that say about you then?]

"..."

[Exactly.]

________________________

Phoebus quietly followed the trail, he could sense him now. And it was suffocating. For a moment, he was reminded of the being who gave him his new form, but he quickly dismissed that thought. His aura was different.

He froze when the aura suddenly disappeared.

"Hello there."

Phoebus jumped, turning midair to face the black haired man standing behind him.

"Who are you?" the red-gold haired man demanded, his hands inching closer to his daggers.

"Who're you?" the black-haired one shot back, his fingers twitched, black miasma crawling over his skin.

"I asked first," he deadpanned.

"..." He stared at him weirdly.

Taking advantage of this, he swiftly unsheathed his dagger and lunged on the man opposite to him.

A claw of black met the crimson coated dagger, and a surge of red fire and wispy darkness blanketed the field.

Fayden smirked in amusement, "You're actually strong, good. I need to test a few things out."

His voice sent chills down Phoebus' spine, what did he mean by that?

[Don't get too carried away, we might need him to gather information.]

'Relax, I won't.'

Phoebus leaped back, "Who the hell are you?" For some reason, those black claws seemed familiar.

"I have no reason to tell you that." Fayden's voice came from beside him, but before he could react, he had already grabbed hold of his arm, infusing nacht into his very bones.

His arm began losing its colour and sensation, and before it could spread any further, Phoebus raised his dagger and cut right through his arm.

Fayden was in shock for a moment, he had yet to face someone who would willingly cut off their arm to get away from him.

Pinkish-red flames covered the wound on his arm, but rather than closing the wound, the lames began regenerating them.

Fayden narrowed his eyes, this was too similar to Tartarean Vitality to be a coincidence.

"Now I'm even more interested in you."

With his other hand, Phoebus wreathed his dagger in crimson flames. Clenching it tightly between his fingers, he uppercutted towards Fayden's direction.

Fayden felt something off about the fire as soon as they were summoned, and when the man slashed his way, he was quick to Void Step away. It was good that he did, because everything in a thin line along that direction had been completely annihilated, leaving no ashes behind.

"The fuck?!" he exclaimed, the only time he had seen something like this was during his fight against Maelvon, and that put him out of commission for a few days. But this guy was able to do it on a larger scale with no difficulty.

[Calm down, you haven't seen the limits of your new body yet,]

Fayden nodded subtly, wondering if he still had his Shadowsoul.

Phoebus turned to him, his arm now fully regenerated, with both daggers blazing red.

Fayden took a deep breath in, and exhaled, his silver eyes glowing like flashlights.

Shadowsoul!

But the red runes never appeared, although he could feel something burning in his eyes, and under his skin.

Shadowsoul!

He tried again, but the burning feeling only got stronger.

Shad-

He was interrupted once again as Phoebus threw both daggers at him.

Yet, when he void stepped away, Phoebus still had the dagger in his hand. And a millisecond later, he threw it.

"What?" Fayden whispered, confused. He was sure he saw the dagger coming for him. The whites of his eyes sparked silver.

How did he know I was going to throw it? Phoebus thought. He had moved before Phoebus had.

Fayden saw Phoebus turning towards him, a massive tsunami of blood red flames flowing from his palms, but at the same time he could see that Phoebus had yet to move.

But when he did, it was exactly as he had seen, the very same movements and ame spell.

He Void Stepped away again, as far as he could this time. His eyes burned so much, he could feel hot tears swelling around his eyes. But when he went to wipe them away, he felt no wetness.

Heat abruptly exploded over his back and arms, silver runes engraving themselves on his skin and the knowledge of his first godrune assaulted his mind.

Once the burning feeling disappeared, he stood up, runes covering his upper back and arms, silver electricity arcing in his eyes which fell upon the red haired figure.

And then, he charged.