The sounds of thunder echoed, and the darkness was lit up by a streak of white light. The skies were red, and the oceans were black. There was a feeling of unease in the air as if something chaotic had happened. The trees were dulled, and the grass was dying.
"What is this place?" Sky muttered.
"This is your soul space," Avis said, "or at least, what's left of it."
"Avis?!" Sky jumped in shock as he turned to see the floating body of his companion. "What happened to you?"
"It's all a little fuzzy," Avis replied, "I only just regained consciousness a few hours ago. I know it has been a while, but we have more serious matters at hand."
"What do you mean?" Sky asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.
"Your soul space is in chaos," Avis said as he looked around, "I can feel it. Something is very wrong. What exactly happened to you?"
Sky sat down on the dying grass and explained every little detail. From leaving the forest to almost dying at the hands of the lovers outside of Belvoir Forest. From being captured by the Galfeld house to being sold as a slave on the black market. From being bought by the Nightbride house to being used in a ritual. All of which happened in a matter of weeks.
Avis stared at him in disbelief as he processed everything Sky had just said. "That's... a lot to take in," he finally said.
"Yeah, no kidding," Sky replied, "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it myself. I thought I would surely die when I was caught up in the ritual."
"You were fortunate," Avis said, "not many people survive being used in a dark ritual. Luckily you had me, heh."
"Yeah... lucky," Sky muttered. He didn't feel fortuitous. He felt like he had been through hell and back.
"Well, I think we need to deal with the matter at hand. Take a look around Sky; this is your soul space. It's been invaded by chaos, magic derived from darkness probably used in the ritual. It's corrupting your soul, and you will die if we don't do something about it."
"What can we do?" Sky asked, feeling hopeless.
"It's not very complicated, really. All you need to do is remove it."
"Remove it?" Sky repeated.
"You're as stupid as I remember." Avis muttered under his breath, "You have the darkness attribute. You can manipulate and control it! Just do the same with chaos; it comes from darkness like nature comes from ether."
"You're saying that the darkness attribute has other attributes?"
"Ask your questions later! Just focus on removing the chaos. Reach out and feel it within you, and simply pull it out-"
Just as Avis was saying that Sky closed his eyes and focussed. He had practised with the darkness attribute, so doing this was a trivial task. The chaos within him was easy to find and even easier to remove. He pulled it out of himself as if it were the weeds in the Nightgale garden.
When he was finished, he opened his eyes and looked around. His soul space was no longer chaos-ridden. The skies were blue, the oceans were calm, and the trees were alive.
"Well... you seem to have practised your manipulation abilities since I've been gone," Avis said, sounding surprised.
"I had to do something to keep myself occupied," Sky said with a wide smile, "so I might as well have been useful."
"Well, I'm glad you haven't turned lazy. Now then, let's get out of here. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I'm sure I have a lot of answers. But that can wait until we're somewhere safer."
"Safer?" Sky repeated.
"You'll see," Avis said as he started to fade away, "just follow me. And remember, no one can see me if I don't want them to."
"We should go," Beric said, "if we can get one of the servants on our side, we might be able to infiltrate the Yal houses and find out what they're planning.
"I agree," Matheo said, "but we need to be careful. We don't want to tip our hand too early."
"Right," Beric said, "we'll need to be subtle about it. I'll start asking around and see if I can find anything."
"And in the meantime," Matheo said, "I'll see if I can get my hands on some of their books. Maybe we can learn the why behind all of this."
The two of them made their way out of the infirmary until they heard a commotion behind them. They turned to see Sky floating and emitting a red aura, melting everything around him. From his minimal clothing to the bed itself, even the floor was beginning to melt.
"What the hell is going on?" Matheo shouted.
"I-I don't know," one of the nurses said, "I was just about to feed him some herbs when he just started doing this."
"Get out of here," Beric ordered, "everyone, get out of here now!"
They quickly ran out of the room, leaving Beric and Matheo to deal with Sky.
"What are we going to do?" Matheo asked.
"Just stand your ground. We don't know what this boy has become." Beric said, his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Suddenly, Sky stopped emitting the aura and fell to the floor unconscious. The two of them cautiously approached him and checked his pulse. Sky's eyes, now glowing a light red, opened, making Beric and Matheo distance themselves quickly.
"Who are you?" Sky asked in a croaky voice, not sounding like himself.
"I am Beric Bolgard, the Monarch of Earth, and this is my colleague Matheo Sanrie, the Monarch of Nature. You've caused quite the commotion. Do you remember what happened?"
"The monarch of what? I don't understand." Sky said, rubbing his eyes.
"You don't need to worry about that right now," Matheo said, "how are you feeling?"
Sky looked around, confused. He was supposed to be at the Nightbride estate, so he wondered why he was in this large room that resembled nothing of the estate.
"Confused." Sky said wearily, "What is this place? And why am I here?"
"This is the infirmary within the Central Kingdom's castle," Beric said, "and you were brought here because you were found as a participant in a dark ritual."
"An unwilling participant," Matheo corrected.
"You don't remember anything?" Beric asked.
"No... the last thing I remember was being at the estate and then waking up here." Sky said.
"That's to be expected," Matheo said, "given what you went through. It's amazing that you're even alive."
"So what exactly happened during the ritual?" Beric asked.
"I'm not sure... I was going to escape the place with Damien, but he... never mind. It doesn't matter now."
"Are you talking about the servant, Damien?" Matheo asked.
"Yeah, that's him. He'll have more answers for you. I was only there for a couple of weeks until I was caught up in this mess."
"I think that's enough questioning for now," Beric said, "Have some rest. We'll come back to talk to you later."
"Thank you," Sky said as he wobbled his way to one of the beds that were not melted.
"Guard!" Matheo called, "Keep an eye on him. He could still be under the influence of chaos, and I don't want him running around melting things."
"Yes, Monarch Sanrie," the guard said as he took up a post outside the door.