A muffled hum drifted through the vast darkness followed by the indistinct chatters and persistent voices of two people beyond the tenebrous space.
Bits of broken conversations fell into place as words flickered in and out like waves, drowned in by the void
A calm voice spoke in a serene whisper, or at least to the unconscious Nox that's what it sounded like.
".... that, you were able to recreate a shadow robe this quick, and with the exact same attribute and effects... It truly is baffling."
"Well, it's for the kid, if it's something that can help him out I'd gladly spare a few of my creation mana to create it " a warmer voice replied with a hint of sadness — just a hint to be precise.
The owner of the calm voice hummed, then lingered for a few seconds before asking.
"How long do you... Being.. form, where's.. original body."
His voice sounded broken, or rather bits of his words were muffled to the point that Nox couldn't make out what it was.
There was a slight stir in the darkness and like an ocean of dark liquids, it pulsed. A distant but familiar feeling enveloped him within the dark, like a mother's embrace, but before he could relish in the strange comfort of the dark, he felt a dull ache around the position he recognized as his heart.
That dull pain acted as a tether for Nox within the dark space and the waking world, and slowly the intensity of the pain increased, nudging at his consciousness like a splash of cold water.
There was an awkward silence and it lasted for an unreasonably long time before the owner of the warmer voice spoke again.
".... People, the only thing I could do at that time was to resort to this."
The conversations weren't as broken as it was a while ago now Nox could hear them a little better, but the conversation between those two was abruptly stopped and that was because Nox had subconsciously groaned in his unconsciousness.
This subtle sound indicated the likeliness of the tenebrous child awakening, but they couldn't have been more wrong.
The crystal clear sky began to wane as a dark cold shadow descended into the lesser realm, atlas, devouring everything in sight, from the trees to the grass to the serene sky and the otherworldly scenery of atlas, everything was drowned into the eerie darkness that covered the plane.
Tendrils of darkness rose from the void, separating into different segments, with each of them diverting towards different directions before connecting at a certain spot.
The dark tendrils twisted and writhed, all coming together to form a huge construct of sorts as various structures rose and connected with each other forming a huge towering obsidian structure
Within seconds the tendrils of darkness all vanished, and far across the distance, a huge temple of obsidian stood, pulsing with a vast amount of divinity and laced with the aura of death, while steps of obsidian shimmered into existence from the entrance of the dark temple to a few miles away from where they stood.
The temple itself seemed like a dark cathedral made entirely out of obsidian, standing within a vast ocean of dark liquids, tenebrous trees and tall cliffs rose from the ocean of darkness as well as dark creatures created entirely out of the divinity of the tenebrous temple.
Some were gruesomely deformed creatures while some were humanoid creatures, some were huge abominations towering over forty feets and the others were relatively small creatures that excluded a sense of dread, similar to the rest.
There were small Islands on the tenebrous sea, filled with most of these abominations, and of course the location where Eren and the fragment of Aries stood was no exception.
The eccentric wizard held the body of the unconscious child in his hands tightly and the fragment of Aries stood up, his cold gaze bore into the eyes of the approaching abominations.
An eerie voice sounded from the dark sea and a sudden ripple appeared at the surface of the dark water.
"It's no use, fragment of the spawn of shadow, your authority and influence over this plane cannot be utilized in the domain of my master, if you were to forcefully use the authority of shadows here it would be devoured by the authority of my lord."
A figure clad in a black suit of armor spoke, as it walked out of the dark sea. Seeing this, the approaching abominations came to a halt and slowly went away.
The ominous purple glow from within the vieser of the helmet of the dark knight settled on Nox before moving towards Eren.
The eccentric wizard responded to the gaze of the void creature with a calm look, despite the overwhelming presence of the tenebrous knight, his mind raced, looking for a solution out of their current predicament.
'Something is wrong, I don't see the exit of this plane.'
He knew the dark knight could have killed him and Aries if he wished, but him not doing so meant that it wasn't his 'master's' will for them to perish, at least not yet.
And if the master didn't want them to perish then it meant that they needed something from them but what?
It was obvious...
'it wants one of us'
The dark knight, as if noticing their unease and Eren's thought, clarified.
"We do not wish to harm you, my lord merely desires to meet her spawn."
He pointed towards the edge of the small island where a small boat was gently floating above the black sea.
"A boat has been prepared for your departure to the temple, you as well as the fragment of the spawn of shadow are welcome to accompany the successor."
Aries, who was listening, stared at the dark sea with a doubtful expression but didn't say anything.
Eren didn't gaze at the boat but instead his gaze fell on the tenebrous temple.
The dark knight saw this and then added in a solemn voice.
"I see, you still have your doubts." He said as a matter of fact." Do not hesitate to ask your questions, I'll answer the questions I am permitted to answer, by my master."
Eren remained silent, contemplating on what to ask, he thought longer than usual, after something he gazed directly at the dark knight and asked.
"Exactly how many questions are we permitted to ask?"
He made sure to emphasize on the 'we' which would give him more room to ask more questions than he was supposed to. He was certain that the fragment of Aries didn't have any question to ask the dark knight, if anything the fragment was tense.
The dark knight raised up four of his fingers, then brought one of them down, indicating that they only had three more questions they could ask.
Eren nodded thoughtfully.
"Alright then, tell me, how were you able to invade a god's plane, one containing the concept of two deities."
The dark knight remained silent, it went on for a short while then he nodded and spoke.
"To be precise we didn't invade this lesser realm, we merely claimed it as the deities who created this plane had perished long ago. And as you are aware or rather as you should be aware, a spawn of a deity possess the attribute of the deity as well as the authority of that said deity, unlike the vessels who are merely mediums for the deities to manifest themselves on the lesser planes, but the spawns of elements and concepts are different, they're born with the elements but not the authority of that element or concept, instead the domain of that element blooms within them and can be manifested within a lesser plane, granting the element an access to a particular place on that lesser realm. That place, where their domain resides will become the source of divinity for that element and for the spawn as well."
He paused, turning his attention back to Nox who was still unconscious.
"My master, Tenebrae, had chosen that child as her spawn from birth, placing her domain within his body and using it as a medium. In other words, it was through the child that my master was able to claim this lesser realm."