Volume Three: Dark Peace
Deep underground, in one of the most protected rooms, a sleeping capsule glowed softly in the darkness.
Inside, a young man with hair as black as night slept. His face was handsome, with smooth, flawless white skin, and he lay motionless.
Then, something happened. The young man's eyelids slowly began to move, as if he were waking from a deep nightmare. The darkness tried to draw closer to the young man, to embrace and calm him. However, a moment later, the entire room shook with an incredibly powerful and devastating roar that was felt even on the surface.
The armored door tore from its hinges, slamming into the wall with great violence, leaving the metal dented and bent inward. The capsule shattered into pieces in an instant.
Soon, alarms began to blare with a shrill noise. The lamps switched to a red light, filling the room, only to explode the next instant, plunging the space into true darkness. Within moments, the entire room was wrecked.
A heart-wrenching scream erupted from the young man's throat, as if he lacked human speech. The scream shook the entire room completely.
The figure was enveloped in darkness, the only visible features being its two white eyes, as if they contained an incandescent fire.
The room's turrets immediately deployed, targeting the dangerous entity and unleashing a barrage of bullets capable of wounding nightmare creatures.
Yet, the rain of bullets merely passed through the dark figure as if it were a ghost.
The creature extended its hand. The darkness responded, forming stakes that pierced the hard metal in an instant as if it were paper.
Having eliminated the strange machines, the creature looked toward the door, watching as two groups of Awakened humans entered from different sides, armed with luminous Memories that tried to spread through the darkness. But it was impossible; such a weak, simple light could not dispel the true darkness commanded by its master.
Before the creature could react, a white javelin pierced its body completely. Instantly, another human appeared nearby, attempting to land a devastating blow with a battle-axe.
The axe descended with brutal speed, slicing cleanly through the dark entity until it struck the floor. The dark entity looked at the human before lifting its leg and kicking.
The Awakened's body was sent flying at tremendous speed, impacting the hard alloy of the wall and leaving a deep crater. His armor shattered into a shower of bright sparks.
The Awakened trembled in fear, seeing how a Master was defeated by a mere attack.
The creature turned its head toward them. Its two white eyes fixed on them as if seeing directly into their souls. Fear and terror invaded them.
The creature appeared before a female Awakened. Her face turned deathly pale, her will shattering as the monster's white eyes stared fixedly at her. Unable to resist, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she fell unconscious to the floor. Only twelve Awakened remained.
The creature's eyes began to stream white lines, as if shedding silent tears. Then it looked at the Awakened and moved.
The fight lasted less than a second. The entity was too fast, too powerful, too terrifying.
The fourteen Awakened who had arrived were scattered around the room, unconscious but still alive, as if the entity refused to kill them.
The entity stood motionless in the darkness, then turned just in time to see something entering its territory. It was a young, small man with black hair and pale skin, a look of annoyance on his face at the situation. A suit of lustrous metal armor covered his body. The entity noted there were five shadows with the young man that its darkness could not consume.
...
Sunny cursed silently. He couldn't see a damn thing, which scared him. There was only one thing he couldn't look at, and that was true darkness. Shadows and darkness, though they seemed the same, were profoundly different.
The only thing Sunny could see was two white eyes with lines streaming down what he presumed were tears.
The entity looked at the young man, who didn't move. So it took a step, then another, causing the young man to flinch slightly. He then summoned something—a sword that released the light of the sun, causing the darkness to retreat from the aberrant light.
Now able to see again, the young man lunged forward. A sphere of shadows surrounded the entity.
The creature of darkness raised one of its fingers, touching the sphere and consuming the shadows instantly, astonishing the young man.
The dark entity appeared before the young man, who jumped back, but it was too late. Black tendrils wrapped around him, beginning to crush him slowly. Through the darkness, he could feel the creaking of his incredibly hard armor and bones for a human.
Before the young man could be crushed into a bloody paste, a sword cut through the dark tendrils, followed by white flames that pushed back the true darkness.
The creature looked at the other creature before its eyes. It wore silver armor with seven stars on its breastplate, hair of silver ignited with white flames, and cold, scrutinizing eyes analyzing it with profound depth.
The flames intensified, pushing the darkness back until a kind of division was formed: on one side, absolute black; on the other, illuminated by white flames.
The entity took a step, but the words it heard made it stop.
"Stop, Uriel," said the silver-haired girl. "It's us. Regain your senses."
The creature didn't move. Then it blinked several times before a line formed where its mouth should be.
"Nephis... Sunny," said the entity in a raspy voice. Then, its eyes regained lucidity. Immediately, the true darkness began to recede by its will, as did the darkness covering its body, revealing a human face: black eyes, black hair, smooth white skin, a body full of firm muscles—not bulging, but like those of a functional fighter focused on strength, speed, and agility.
Once the darkness dissipated, the young man took a step forward before losing consciousness completely. However, before he could hit the floor, he was caught by Sunny, who had moved on impulse upon seeing his friend back in the world of the living after nearly a year and a half trapped in the Dream Realm.
Sunny laid Uriel on the floor, then summoned a Memory—a black sheet, which he used to cover Uriel's body. Then he looked at the Sleepers who were recovering.
"Fetch the medics," Sunny said, looking at the Awakened. "Uriel, the Lord of Darkness, has returned."
The Awakened immediately moved, their still-dazed looks turning to shock upon realizing that the one who had beaten them was the Lord of Darkness.