The Challenger

by Harlon Banks

  Hopefully the effects of this infinite darkness were the same as all the other times it'd happened when he were caught within it. Just don't move from the spot he was in and wait it out. Melissa wouldn't be waking up any time soon anyway so it wasn't like he were in a rush to get her to the drop-off zone. Though, he wondered if Kelgard caught Jonath yet. Only time will tell. Either way, he didn't plan to get caught.

  As Jonath stumbled through the darkness, arms outstretched to feel his way through the shadowy veil as he ran very haphazardly, he was rather calm, strangely enough. His earlier panicking faded and now he were focused on merely gaining distance from Kelgard and that skeletal entity over all else. Kelgard was tough, if that thing attacked him he could probably defend himself Jonath thought. Not that he actually cared if he could or not anyway. If Kelgard happened to get brutally murdered by that thing or not wasn't any concern of Jonath's. Why bother caring about a bastard whom talked down on him like he was some filthy weakling?

  Sucking his teeth annoyed Jonath would slowly come to a stop and collapse on his ass at the base of what felt like a rock face. Resting his back against it to catch his breath and focus on what he knew and what he had to do. Raising his hands up to try to look at them to no avail. This darkness was so thick he couldn't even see a few inches in front of him. However aside from that his other senses seemed to work perfectly fine. The riled up chirps of birds and other forest creatures echoing out to him. A plethora of thoughts rushing through his mind as he sat trying to figure out what to do next. It'd be very strange if Min continued to let this training exercise happen, given the situation. Then again, maybe it wasn't outside of her capacity to just let it continue. What should he do?

  "You're finally awake... " A sweetly, disembodied voice whispered in his ear. "Do you remember?"

  Jonath lurched up with so much speed the back of his head slammed into the rock behind him with force. A loud thwacking sound echoing in his ears followed by his eyes widening, stunned from the blow. He didn't even have time to cry out in pain from that as he temporarily lost consciousness. That traumatic hit triggering something within the depths of his mind and deeper spirit. As if a switch had just been switched on after being off for an extended amount of time. His pale eyes lit up with aether, glowing profoundly in the inky darkness as the shape transformation of his irides took form again. Deep within his psyche a plethora of images flashing rapidly in montage while random voices and whispers conglomerated into an incomprehensible understanding of sequence.

  There were images of the full moon, people whose faces were blurry and indescribable, ruins, phantom like spirits, pale fire, that cloaked entity raising its scythe upwards preparing to reap something and someone crying over Jonath's body that he couldn't describe. It was in the forest though... That scenery from the last image looking exactly like where'd he'd awoken. As these images played the voices overlayed them, none matching the images he were seeing. A truly fragmented mess of events... Did hitting his head trigger something more?

  "They're coming! They're coming!"

  "It will drown out all it touches! Be afraid!"

  "The gods have cursed us... Or have they blessed us?"

  "THE DARKNESS IS ABSOLUTE! IT WILL OVERTAKE YOU!"

  "No matter what happens, everyone will reap what they sow. The more you use that power the quicker it shall take you."

  "Take this second chance and forget all you know. You won't be spared again..."

  "You're running out of time... Please remember."

  "Never forget me, please... I love you..."

  "The light shall be no more..."

  Unconscious on the ground, face in the dirt with glowing eyes still open as if under a trance, Jonath no longer was aware of the physical world around him. His mind suspended in a sea of nothing, his consciousness manifested as his flesh floating aimlessly on his back on a sea of blackish energy akin to water. Limbs outstretched and drowsy features staring at the dark skies that were his imagination. Out the corners of his eyes he could see things moving towards him with spindling limbs and humanoid visages... Yet he couldn't move his head to look at them. He just felt...

  Exhausted... Like he just wanted to give up and succumb to it all. No strength at all in his body. The creatures getting closer and closer, swimming through the shadows towards him with outstretched hands to grasp and drag him down under with them. What were they? Why were those voices speaking to him? What did those images mean earlier? Where was he? It was so much to take in and he didn't feel like he had the mental capacity to take anymore of this. He wanted to just be pulled under this sea of shadows and just let it all fade away into the abyss. There was nothing left for him here... It felt like a lost cause...

  Jonath's comatose body began to feel heavy, slowly sinking down into the thick liquid like substance. His pale skin and silver hair slowly being painted with black as he disappeared into the water without resistance. Why did he... Feel so hopeless all of a sudden? Was this a side effect of the darkness? The shadowy apparitions now looking over him, featureless faces blending in with the black sky above. All starting to slowly reach for him and gently push him deeper into the liquid, as if taking him away from everything. Eternal sleep awaits...

  "It'll all be over soon..." Another voice said stoic in his mind, belonging to a man... Jonath's eyes slowly closing, the light fading away from his sight as his eyes reverted back to normal very slowly. It felt so... So...

  Wrong...

  "Get up. Please don't slip away... You are stronger than that..."

  That gentle woman's voice pierced Jonath's descending spiral of darkness like a javelin. His eyes suddenly, brightly, flaring up with mystic energy as life breathed itself back into his comatose body. Pale energy bursting outwards from within, burning away all the shadowy monsters trying to push him into the water as he began to frantically pull himself back towards the surface. Hands breaching the water and reaching outwards at the sky. His breathing intense and his body fueled with unknown strength, a sudden power increase that yet again seemed to awaken deeper emotions within. No, he couldn't go down here. He couldn't ... That voice... It sounded so...

  Familiar...

  "Stand by your convictions... You have the power to resist your fate... You have the power to overcome and subjugate it."

  Jonath found himself suddenly free-falling an indiscriminate height downwards into a chasm of shadow. Plummeting headfirst, looking at his feet with narrowed curiosity. Why was he falling now? The rattling of chains catching his attention, looking down to see his arms having ethereal silver chains wrapped around them from wrist to elbow. The same chains spanning his legs next and then his body. Binding him tightly suddenly which caused him to cry out in pain. These chains were burning him... He had to get out...

  "Don't be afraid... You are strong... Only you can break the seal that restricts you and become something far greater... I believe in you!" That sweet voice rang in his ears again. It was so soothing... It was so motivating...

  As he fell, Jonath stopped screaming in pain. Biting his tongue as he collected his focus and started to, with his supernatural strength, resist the binding of his chains and break free. The ethereal tethers cracking, fracturing, weakening, bit by bit. With every tear that spanned them a flux of powerful aether seared free from Jonath's body. A powerful glow illuminating the darkness around him in beautiful phantom silver coloration. His eyes straining, their glow increasing as his aether kept growing larger and larger... Leaking free as the bindings weakened.

  And then with one final war cry and push... They snapped completely off... Jonath breaking free and twisting around to face the chasm below with a corkscrew spiral. His scythe appearing in a streak of energy into his possession with a new appearance. It looked more sinister than the silver version Jonath had first created. The steel darker than a starless night, the blade longer and more wickedly curved than its silver version and the broken chain at the end was longer and more twisted in appearance than usual. That half
-moon space at the base of the blade where one could fit a person's neck in looking sharper than ever. Black, swirling marks appearing across the entirety of Jonath's body as his silver hair dyed itself completely black. His once pale colored energy now a raw dark that matched the intensity of the very same blackness that overtook Kynerva.

  Cocking his scythe back, it howled in the darkness like a siren... Jonath's pale eyes discharging energy as his blade began to resonate with power.

  "Take that power and make it yours. With thy new strength, swing your scythe and split the very skies..."

  ...

  "Ah... Finally awake are we? Good... The end starts now..." A dark chuckle. This man's voice new, and alien from all the others Jonath had ever heard up to this point.

  Jonath swung his scythe with maliciously force and a powerful, feral scream at the dark abyss he were falling towards. The blade tearing directly into the fabric of his inner reality like a jagged knife that suddenly expanded into a reality tearing cut that purged everything away. In that instant, all the darkness, vanished in a powerful rush of black aether and simply disappeared...

  Jonath's eyes slowly opened next, staring at the night sky beyond the treetops. The cool wind blowing across his flesh, his body feeling rejuvenated, better than its ever felt before. The fleeting clouds that partially obscured the full moon seemed to part as Jonath looked at the celestial rock. Slowly pulling himself to a sitting position again, glancing down at his body in quiet confusion. His gloves charred somewhat, pale flesh showing signs of burns too across the fingers however they didn't hurt. Reaching up to pull at some of his hair to check the color... It was still platinum silver. The markings over his body were all gone too.. was all of that just a bad dream?

  Pulling himself to his feet slowly, Jonath exhaled deep. Eyes closing as he rubbed the back of his head, still a bit sore from smashing it against the rock earlier. He wondered how long he'd been unconscious for. Eyes opening to look around once more, suddenly widening when he noticed that the impenetrable darkness was gone without a trace. That revelation hitting him a bit deeper than it should, coinciding right with that strange internal crisis he'd thought was simply a bad dream a few seconds ago. Shifting his feet, looking all around in silent confusion with narrowed eyes and on edge disposition. Did he...

  Jonath suddenly tensed up, spinning around just in time jump backwards from a series of bloody red spikes tearing their way through the forest floor towards him from the thicket in twisted unison. These staves shredding apart and skewering everything in their wake as if it was intended to actually kill Jonath. The amnesic calling forth his scythe in his hands for defense, the silver hued blade gleaming in the moonlight as he spun it around while still airborne. Hand swiping over the blade infusing it with magical energy before a vicious swing unleashed a wave of cutting energy, pale as the moon, towards the bloody spikes hounding after him and severing them all like a knife through butter. Landing with a skid backwards and immediately bracing his scythe against his back with a slight bend to his knees. Jonath's eyes immediately transformed when he blinked, crescent-shaped pupils quivering intensely on an approaching Kelgard as Jonath didn't say a word. The black-haired blood user casually approaching him, walking through the chaos his wide-spread attack caused with indifference as crimson hued eyes settled on Jonath's figure.

  "We aren't done with this exercise. Let's continue." He said calm and stoic as he approached Jonath. Didn't seem like the amnesic would get a break any time soon like he wanted. Oh well...

  It was time for round three. Jonath planned to win this one. He was tired of this shit.

  It ended now.