As Aish waited for her arrival, he continued the process to control his element. Even with the support of Dress of Ishvar, his body soon started feeling the fatigue of losing mana. The amount of mana that he spent controlling the darkness increased with time, but the supply of that artifact was constant.
His hands had darkened now, and his eyes were shrouded in the form of the void that he imagined in his mind.
The entire mana room was shrouded in the black fog that started to spread everywhere as it consumed the lightning in the room and runes. The magic circles and formations too started flickering in their blue light before dying down and being broken.
Despite the darkness, somehow Aish was able to see everything; he could see the golden barrier that kept his family safe, and his element, which was thriving and consuming everything else in the room, was getting pushed back.
He looked upwards, waiting for her arrival, but that did not happen; there was no sign of her.
'Is this still not enough for you?'
He thought as he looked towards his hands. Not wanting to lose the one advantage he had from the knowledge of the novel, he decided to do one thing that could further increase his elemental awakening.
He tried to take every bit of mana that he could from his surroundings and Ishver's dress; he focused hard on gathering it all in his hands. His nose started bleeding, and the headaches started coming back; he felt like he would lose consciousness any moment now.
But biting his tongue till it started bleeding, he focused on his mana; he watched as the black fog around his fingers turned into sharp nails, and with that he stabbed his chest.
Blood started dripping from his chest, but ignoring the pain, he continued to focus on learning the one thing Aish from the novel was able to do when fighting against the assassins from the Church of Cassandra.
'Aish did it when he was losing the fight, and now I'll show you that I'm better than him.' he thought as he started using the mana infused in his body.
*** The suction of mana from his heart, as every awakened had some mana infused in their blood and bones, they could use it in case of emergency. This was an imitation of how aura users could use their blood fusion or life force.
This technique was found by the Adventurer Association, who saw it used by some monsters in a tower stampede. They later experimented with it and released it. Though harmful to your body, it can save your life in an emergency.
_
Though he never did it, nor did he have any control over his mana like those rankers, with the help of the pura corpus potion, he could feel the mana much better than others his age.
As he tried to fuse more mana from his heart into his element, the darkness started taking a red hue, looking like his blood mixed in. But before he could see what it was, suddenly he felt a pressure that pushed him to his knees.
The pressure felt so intense that when he tried to just slightly move his hand, he could feel his bones getting crushed. A painful scream left his mouth as the hand that was still stuck on his chest fell, broken by that insurmountable weight.
Despite the pain, Aish had a smile on his face as he had finally done it. He got her attention.
He heard the cracking of the glass ceiling; soon it broke, and all the pieces of shards started falling all around him. The black fog that was trapped by the runic glass finally found a way out and spread all around the place.
The sun, which was high in the sky, started getting dimmer as a new darkness started covering all the sky. The day had turned into a night all around the mountain, where mana chambers were built.
'She's here.'
Aish thought as he looked at the changing sky and felt the pressure on him gone. He looked upwards, and he could see the fog turning into a figure of a woman shrouded in darkness; the fog acted as a veil covering her, hiding her from this worldly plane.
Her aura exuded power, mystery, and darkness, making it hard to look away from her. All her features were shrouded in a veil of shadows, with only her eyes visible. Her piercing red eyes were the only thing visible in the darkness.
Aish soon felt his eyes burning in pain, as if just looking at her figure was a crime, and he was not worthy. He looked down as if he felt that if he kept doing that, he really would go blind.
As the pain in his eyes subsided, he noticed the wounds on his chest were not bleeding anymore, as a veil of darkness had covered it. He could see darkness seeping into his open wounds and sealing them.
'Took you long enough.'
'Goddess of darkness and dreams, Nyx.'
'He's the one who gave Aish her blessing and later chose him as her avatar.'
'The one who stood with him against the world, and the one who died by Amelia's hands in a failed attempt to save him.'
'She was the last person who stood by his side, and when she died, Aish had truly become alone. I should try to think of a way to change her ending too. She is far too important alive.' Aish thought.
"Oh Goddess, who resides over the void. One of the Primordial, ruler of darkness and dreams, of shadows and secrets. Thank you for granting this mortal with your presence."
"I, who had awakened your element, your power, beseech you to choose me as your follower. Bless me, my great goddess Nyx."
"And I shall bring your darkness to the ones who follow the light. I shall let the world know the glory of night."
Aish praised the shadowy figure as he bowed down and asked for her gift of power.
His gaze was fixed on the ground when he felt something on his broken hand. He looked at it, but instead of that getting healed like his chest, he felt as if someone was scratching his hand with a hot knife. He looked at his wrist and saw a symbol of a dark 🌙☀️🌙 on his hand. It was her sign, her symbol, and a mark of her blessing.
Aish could feel the power coursing through his body, making him feel stronger than ever before. He looked ahead and saw Nyx's shadowy figure fading away in the smoke. The sky outside started changing colors again as the darkness started going away.
Aish kept his head bowed for some time; after that, he tried to feel his own mana; he could sense it. Nyx's blessing had increased his elemental awakening to a whole new level. He could feel the darkness and the connection he had with it. It felt like it had become a part of him now.
_
Far away from the place where Aish's awakening was happening, in the empire of believers, Neisah, an old man dressed in a golden white coat, looked towards the sun, which was still hidden by some dark skies, and opened his book as he said,
"Everything is just as it should be, my Lord. The last dark spawn was born. We are ready for the birth of the Golden Sun. Hail the originator, the true God of Arcadia."
_
As Aish, who finished his awakening, was finally ready to get up and walk over to his parents, who had a shocked expression, he found himself floating in the air and screamed as he got pulled into the sky.
He squirmed, trying to free himself from whatever held him in place, when he heard a sweet, playful voice: "Why are you trying so hard to run away?"
Aish was confused, as in the original novel, nothing like this happened. Nyx's arrival was already a big shock for the world, as she was one of the strongest goddesses, but this did not even happen in the novel.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Aish shouted, trying to break free.
He was startled and terrified, not knowing what was happening or who was speaking to him. He looked around frantically, trying to see who had taken him, but he could not see anything in the darkness. Fear and confusion gripped him as he struggled to understand what was going on.
He took a deep breath and focused his thoughts on the power of Nyx's blessing. He could feel the darkness within him pulsing, waiting to be unleashed. But before he could do that, he heard that same voice again, this time sounding deeply menacing and sinister.
"Over the darkness, comes chaos, my dear mortal."
"You haven't forgotten that have you?"
Aish's surprised look turned to horror as he heard those words and watched as the surroundings, which were still covered in darkness, started morphing into bloody red smoke. The sun, the dark fog, the sky—everything was taken over by the red.
Chaos erupted all around him as the ground shook and buildings crumbled. Screams and roars filled the air, and Aish could see shadowy figures moving in the distance, their forms twisted and dark. In just a few moments, the empty mountain was now turned into a bloody war zone.
It was then that Aish finally realized who this new voice belonged to, and he could not help but curse it in his head, as he thought
'She's not supposed to be here.'
##