I am.. alive?
Where is this place then? Where am I? What actually happen, back then I...
His mind was a whirl of confusion. Chaotic it was, that the pain he got from them was worse than he ever thought possible. His body was rather heavy, like a sick man carrying his weak body around, he felt powerless.
Standing amidst pile of corpses, slain by his very hand. The young man with an otherworldly feature sighed to calm his boiling rage, he know very well, that it was misplaced. In his hand, his fragmented sword dyed by the shade of red continue to bleed, as if wound were present on it. Seeing them, he sighed once more.
He remember what had happen to him as clear as day, actually. He remember that world changing fight, his very last fight with his own nemesis. He remember the entire world landscape that they change, the flattened mountains, the cleaved seas and the crumbling skies, so frightening the scale was that even heaven shook from their clash back on earth.
That just horrifying his nemesis was, and that just how strong the young man was.
Alas, no matter how strong he was, his nemesis, the enemy remain one. And to put a stop into their carnage over the world, he sacrifice it all. Pushing everything, throwing everything, all in one strike and caught him off-guard, defeating him. Killing him. And lastly, devouring his soul.
With that, the young man stopped his nemesis's future reincarnation, putting a stop to everything. Their rivalry, their hunter-prey games, and their bitter clash for thing that only he possessed. Everything stop, literally, including himself. Probably going against the heaven's will, or probably the taboo of devouring an Immortal's soul, the young man was put into sleep, unconscious for so long and unable to know what happen outside, yet conscious enough that he know... he was indeed alive, and were slowly assimilating his nemesis's soul.
"Hah...," the young man sighed once more as he remembered the last moment of his life. Especially on his sleep.
In was indeed a weird experience, after all. As if floating aimlessly in nothingness, in the darkness known not by men, the young man waited for something. A calling perhaps, he wasn't sure about it. But looking at his current situation... maybe it was indeed a calling, but a calling for what, he wasn't sure of it.
With a bit of interest, the young man raised his head high, looking at the blue firmament above with a smile, so warm that it rivaled the bright sun. Silently, he clashed with the sun with his own brilliant golden hues. Being in darkness for so long, it was indeed refreshing for him to see the yellow flare of the sun, who he thought had long since been destroyed by their clash a long time ago. Or maybe it didn't, only shrouded by the crumbling sky that represented by the shade of void, dark-purplish in color.
He didn't care much about it anyway, but still, just to make sure that this wasn't an illusion, wasn't a dream that he had. His eyes flared in flickering light to show him all that he wished to see. Illusion or dream, a single glance from his eyes could easily disclose them, and even if they failed to, with his now enhanced soul, he could easily forced his way out of any mental attack so long as he willed them. But thankfully, this wasn't a dream nor an illusion, but a reality he once wished was the 'dream'.
"Th-thank you for saving Yui's life, master." A crisp, frightened voice suddenly ringed behind the young man, distracting him and pulling his attention to the timid girl, called Yui.
"Master? Me?" confused, the young man raised his eyebrow and looked at the timid girl before him.
With hourglass like figure, beautiful blue eyes and light-blue hairs, though he had seen many fairy and goddess classed beauty throughout his life, the timid girl before him could definitely enter the lowest ranking even without any makeup on. But that wasn't entirely why his interest was picked, rather, it was because of her will power. So strong it was that even with all these bloods and gores smearing the ground around them, she bailed not and never vomited, giving other the impression that she had seen thing worst than massacre before.
If the young man didn't know better, he would definitely think that the girl had ever killed someone before. But just from her pale complexion, it tell the young man all that he need. She was still an amateur in the end, albeit an amateur with great potential.
"Yes, master is Yui's master now. Yui had made a contract, selling my soul and bo-body to master, in exchange for master's protection. And since master had finished the end of the bargain, better, killing all those that wished to harm me, it was time for me to fulfill the other part of the contract," unaware of the young man's thought, the timid girl spoke in a determined tone. Which for once, surprise the young man.
A contract, huh? The young man questioned himself, but then, found thing to be slightly amiss.
Not noticing the change in the young man's expression, Yui kneel to the ground, with a small pocket knife on her hand. Without as much as a groan, she cut open her already bleeding palm, letting out more blood than before, telling the young man that she had perform the summoning ceremony awhile ago; a ceremony that supposed to summon him to her side. And currently, she was preparing to perform the acceptance ceremony; a ceremony that supposed to make her all his and forever his, in other word, contract fulfillment ceremony.
But the problem was... these ceremony only work on creature, other than human. Most specifically, spirits, anomalies, demons and devils. And to put thing even more ironic, the girl had even drawn the magic circle wrongly. With the current circle acting as a teleportation array instead of the supposed summoning array. However, the young man didn't blame her, after all, the two array was almost similar with only a few runes differentiating it function. But just from this aspect, the young man had fully grasped the girl's ability. Simply saying, she was incompetent or highly possible, a rogue practitioner.
The young man looked at the girl who were gritting her teeth in pain, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He wanted to stop her from all this nonsense as he had many more thing to figure out after returning to this world, but part of him wanted to see just how far she could go. And, since she had started to draw the next runes with her own blood under the existing crimson circle, the young man stayed silent and watched her every single stroke.
So painful the scene was, so excruciating her expression was, but the determination waver not as she continue to draw a rune after another, pulling an admired gaze off the young man. Given that a magic array drawn with blood didn't uses primal qi as it fuel, but rather her own lifespan, she 'easily' drawn them all and kowtowed toward the young man, paying her allegiance.
"I, Yui Asagi, pay my respect to Master Umbra," if at first the young man wondered how she was able to summon him of all people, even with the faulty magic array that supposed to serve as a one way teleportation, when his title was called by the girl, his expression changed once more.
Umbra, Sombra, Skuga, Kage, Yinying, Shadow; that was the young man title recognized by those who know his amazing feats. Always the hardest to approach, the coldest and distant, yet the strongest of his peers, many had given him the name Shadow that the young man took without any concern. After all, he indeed think that the shadow and him was alike. Both without a fixed form, always unpredictable, and will exist and rise so long as light exist, all in all, he like the title very much. So much, that he named himself the Sovereign of Shadow as soon as he reached the rank of Sovereign in the martial world.
However, unlike his nemesis, the Sovereign of Wind, the young man was all but popular. With his attitude of always secluding himself off the world, his strength and feats though mind-boggling, it news never spread far and even if they did, would died down as soon as it reach the masses ears. Showing just how unpopular he was.
So for the girl to know him, to know his title and even specifically called for him in the summoning ceremony. He couldn't help but frown. Like mentioned before, the summoning ceremony was for creature other than human, and while he may had go against heaven's will once, the young man remain a human. So how then...
"You know me?" the young man asked. Unable to found the answer by squeezing all his brain juice, questioning the girl remain the only choice he had. Hopefully, she had some insider, unfortunately though, her startled expression told the young man all he needed.
"N-no, I'm sorry master, it rude of me but I don't know. All I know about master was from old tale told by my deceased grandmother, Ria Asagi. Saying that master, the Umbra Lord, the Shadow Monarch of the underworld, William Ashborn was a benevolence lord that had once saved my ancestor and had been worshiped silently by our Asagi family for centuries," Yui replied truthfully while the young man frowned deeply.
'Umbra Lord, Shadow Monarch of the underworld, huh? In other word, one of the ruler of hell? How interesting, how weird, worrying and troublesome as well... but William Ashborn, never heard of it, nor do I ever heard of another ruler other than the nine few.' the young man pondered, but ultimately have so few information about them that he just shrugged it off his back. 'Anyway, it clear as day that she mistaken me for someone else. So for this, she need to be corrected.'
With a wave of his hand, Yui was forced on her feet, standing straight with a startled face yet, the fear no longer ruining her beautiful eyes. Replacing them was reverence, and surprisingly pride as well. But seeing through the real reason for her pride, a sense of pride knowing that the one her family worshiped was someone so capable, the young man was without a doubt amused by her.
"William Ashborn, that was one of many of my allies." the young man lied with his eyes open wide, and though startled, Yui didn't say a single thing. Silently waiting for the big 'revelation', and so it came, "I'm Zed, the Shadow Monarch, the Umbra Lord, the Sovereign of Shadow. The ruler of... myself, my fate, my destiny and I. Am. Back!"
As if echoing his words, blazing flame gushed out of his form and devoured all those he deem unsightly. The bloods and gores, the green grass and huge trees, all turn into ashed upon contact and immediately after, a whirlwind was formed, spiraling, spreading, and forced all out of his way. Leaving him, and Yui alone in the now desolate land.