Twilight Initiator, Zed, Son of the Shadows, Shadow
Imperial Calendar: Year 1596, Month 3, Day ???
Dark Forest, north of the Imperial Territory
A small shadow ran at full speed beneath the enormous shadows of the trees, its movements silent, almost imperceptible, with great skill, as if the shadows themselves were merging with its body. Zed kept his gaze fixed ahead, deeply focused on what he was doing, not wanting to stumble and fall terribly to the ground again...
What he was doing was relatively easy in a certain sense. After absorbing the memories of all the years of the true owner of this body, he understood many more things... the first was that there is magic in this world. The second is that the previous body's owner loved to read excessively... But this was good for him, he received a lot of extremely valuable information. After all, my father always said.
*****
-You know... What is a power game?
-Father... I'm only 6 years old... Don't ask things I don't understand at all, please....
-I know, I'm not stupid, besides you're smart for your age...
-Hmmm... What is a power game?
-It's very simple... Tell me, who would win: an army of 100 men or one of 10?
-In normal cases, quantity far exceeds quality... Considering that, it would then depend on the strategy of each side... I suppose....
-You have a point, but why does quantity sometimes surpass quality?
-There are many factors, but those that stand out are, I suppose, the information each individual has, capability, and mentality... If the army of 100 men, where each individual can think for themselves, then they will have victory in their hands...
-You have another point, the quality and existence of each individual is unique, if each of them is capable of killing three people by themselves then... wouldn't it be a tragedy to have an infiltrator in their ranks... and this individual sends vital information to their captain? What do you think would happen?
-In normal cases it doesn't matter how well prepared the side with 100 men is... if they are under constant surveillance where all their movements, decisions, and routes are being leaked... they will fall like flies...
-Perfect... What is a power game?
-Information
-Taking into account the scenario you established yourself, what would you do in the position of the captain of the 100 men?
-Normally one could realize that something is not right... after all, being under constant surveillance will always lower their chances of victory, one instance is fine, but if it happens constantly, it means there's a mole... If I were in the captain's shoes, the most logical thing would be to deceive each of them, my men, always in a military field there's a group of people who lead a platoon, I would hold a separate meeting with each of them and give each of them false information, and in this case, the traitor will fall by themselves...
-What is a power game?
-Information, deception, and... Strategy?
-You're almost there...
****
Sitting on a stone, I looked at my hands, in them a small ball of darkness was moving, mana... yes, that was the name, I'm quite excited, I feel my heart beating in my chest, I feel alive, mana, magic, fantasy world, dragons, elves, beast men...
A small smile forms on my lips, incredible, fantastic, it's simply beautiful... the small ball of darkness moved between my fingers, it had no shape, it was simply a shadow of a tree leaf that I picked up from the ground...
It's the only thing I can do for now, I can manipulate small shadows of small objects, in the same way, I can somehow be almost undetectable when I'm hidden among the shadows, as if I were just another shadow...
I'm sitting, I'm tired, I can't maintain a constant speed, my mana is running out... How do I know this?
Thanks to my own shadow... looking at the shadow projected from my own body...
-I will be your shadow and you will be me...
That's what he said...
I received a lot of information, however, the most important thing was the manipulation of mana, somehow I could perfectly understand the language, the concepts were somewhat easy to understand... well, for me, but for the original Zed it was total hell.
The most important thing were the affinities each person possesses, this practically decides your path... Water, fire, wind, light, earth, these were the main elements, the secondary ones are variations of these, for example, ice which was the most known or lightning from the wind... But among them there was no darkness, it was as if it didn't exist...
Soul, in this world, the soul wasn't an unverified concept, it is real, very real like I am right now, very real like the water I drink, soul... basically it is the essence of every living being, it is the source of mana that provides you the ability to manipulate mana... soul... it's the place where the level of its strength is represented.
*****
Twilight Initiator
Huge black words were written in the dark sky... they glowed faintly, in fact, sometimes you could see how the shadows moved within them, as if the written words had a life of their own...
Twilight Initiator
Son of the Shadows
Shadow
Manipulation of small shadows
Pre-fusion of shadows...
******
That was written right below, in the dark water... at first, I didn't understand it at all, but the original Zed was standing there, he explained it to me more or less... in the end, he wasn't entirely sure either....
Looking at my own shadow projected by the sunlight on the rock, he made a hand gesture... as if he was waving at me, I have to admit it was a very strange situation, my own shadow was greeting me... well, it was the original Zed who was doing it...
-I will be your shadow and you will be me...
It makes sense... he couldn't speak... the only way to communicate with him was in my... soul? I also have no idea how I manage to enter... I just do it when I sleep...
Feeling my mana fully recovered, I stand up, blend into the shadows, and continue running downstream...
-How long will it take... to reach the city...