51 the Void

Where am I? Dark thought to himself as he floated in an endless black abyss. He could see nothing, feel nothing, or even sense anything around him. Only endless darkness. Though darkness wasn't the right word. There wasn't a proper word to discuss the infinite emptiness that surrounded him. He simply existed in a place where existence was an impossibility.

And yet despite the impossibility of his existence here, his very being caused a paradox that would blow the most open minded persons mind right open. Did it matter if the chicken or the egg came first, if they did not really exist in the first place?

Perhaps life had simply been a beautiful delusion to help him pass the time in this extreme void. As he looked around the emptiness around him, he realized he was not really looking around, rather he was sending his surroundings with a strange combination of his dark resonance and arcane eye. They had fused into something new, something more. For a lack of a better option he decided to call it his spiritual sense.

In this endless void his spiritual sense eventually picked up on something, a familiar scene that had occurred when he had last died. A large doorway, though this one did not give off any light, rather it was a gateway of pure emptiness, and through it an unknown. However an unknown was far preferable to the vast void that he currently resided in.

The gateway rippled as he pushed through it, resisting his very existence, pushing against him. Dark struck out against it, trying to beat it in. The black gateway struck back, slamming into him as it sent him flying.

Gritting his nonexistent teeth. The formless Dark struck back in the only way he could, using his basic telekinesis he slammed against the portal. A sharp pain entered his being as the portal struck back, a much stronger telekinetic wave striking through his entire being. If dark had a body he would be vomiting from the dizziness it caused.

He glared at the portal, before moving past it. From the other side the portal did not exist, it was simply emptiness. He circled around, floating in front of the portal, the only other existence in this land of non existence.

Determination flashed through his "eyes" as the existence known as Dark stared at the portal, surveying every inch of it. The sleek design was similar but completely opposite the portal from his memories. That portal was different, that portal was white, and had a shimmering light as a gateway. And yet the portal looked familiar, from a memory more distant.

In a time, back on new earth. He was a young man, he had recently graduated from the magic university.

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John enders stood at attention as he received his orders. His unit was to deploy in a week. He had been enlisted into the joint military operation of the five academies. He had graduated with honors from his division, he did not have an elemental body, not like those prodigies from the upper echelon of society, but he had majored in healing magic, and was by far the best in his class. But the other students did not know the cost or his magic.

His healing magic did not use his mana, but rather the mana of the people he healed, and with each healing he would absorb some of the mana into himself, replenishing his depleting mana. He did not have a high amount of mana, not like the other students. He had a grand total of 5 mana, despite the fact that he was level 10. His mana never raised.

His armament was the cause, he was a beast master, a small vampiric bat absorbed the mana from around him, healing him of his injuries, but making the mana around him sparse. This sparse mana was not enough to recover his mana that was constantly fed into the bat.

Unlike his fellow students, and most of the population, his armament woke when he was born, the only other case he had seen was his nephew, named after him, who had awoken the fire element. Due to the massive fires the baby had caused, his sister had been forced to seal the Sprite away, deep within his soul. The cost had been great however, ending his sisters life. She had asked him to prevent him from awakening an armament when he was of age, and he would. For now their father would watch the boy, but when he returned he would take over. But that could take years, years until he was sent back from the war, hopefully not in a body bag.

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Dark shook his head, this wasn't the memory he wanted, not by a long shot. What he wanted was years later, shortly before he died.

His unit had been sent to explore a monster wave, these newly arrived humanoid beasts looked like classic goblinoids. Green skin, pointy ears, ugly as shit. He had learned all about them in the academy. The stench of these beasts was something he would never forget, the closest he could describe it as rotting feet. He shuddered at the thought, just the thought brought the lingering scent to mind.

John took a deep breath, that wasn't a memory, the smell lingered in his nose as a squad of the green little demons wandered in front of him, carrying large wooden spears and clubs. Blood splattered from the back of one of the goblins heads. The soldier in front of him lowered his assault rifle armament, there was no sound from the flying bullet, the only clue he had even shot was the splattering blood from the fallen goblin. He was obviously from the assassin school, probably minored in marksmanship. A natural killer.

The rest of the goblins quickly fell the members of the squad. Bullets took the life of some, and some fell to magic or swords. This is the world they lived in, a world where magic had overwhelmed the technological era, and these monsters came from large abyss like black gates. Just like the large black gate behind those dead goblins.

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That's what this was, that's what this large black gate was in front of Dark. It was one of those damn Abyssal Gates, only this time the gate was inactive, and he was on the other side. That could only mean that somewhere in this paradox of a place was somewhere that those demons that plagued new earth came from. Hopefully, he could find that place. And if he could then maybe, just maybe, he could get out of this god damn abyss.

His "eyes" gained a determined look as he cast out his spiritual senses. Somewhere in the vast emptiness was his answer, and he would just have to keep looking until he found it.