The Darkness Reveals

Zeeth wanted to say something but he saw Sieda glaring at Zafrakos through her pitch-black visor. Despite how dark it was, it couldn't hide the faint glow her eyes leaked.

Ed, still in the nursing ward, was getting bored. The only other person there watching over him was Doctress and she only asked how he was doing, it was rather awkward to have her there. With all this time, he got to thinking. First, it was about how the heat stored within him could be used later, then it was how he could get stronger, and then about how strong Weld was.

In a moment of courage and trying to break the silence, he asked her, "how is Weld so strong? One bolt nearly crippled me but nine bolts that he took to save me and he's able to walk about already."

"I don't know."

"I suppose his slimes helped spread them. But they can't be that big. What is he made of?"

"His slimes could have absorbed more than you think. And your absorption helped."

"Yeah. But isn't his skill a little too… specific? It's like a smaller version of Zeeth's. Do you think Zeeth influenced him? But that feels like a waste. He could've tamed werewolves in their moon state weak vampires. How strong would that have been?"

"Slimes are possibly the most overlooked creatures on our planet, making them possibly the best creatures to tame. They are unexpected in a battle, to say the least, but if you can use them properly, I can imagine their overwhelming strength. The only issue is taming and training them to that point. The amount of effort you must put in is immense."

The glow in Sieda's eyes faded but Black said, 'White just did something. She awoke one of her pets.'

A low roar rumbled through the air.

'What? Where? How?'

'Don't know, to our left, she wipes memories and controls them by acting like the dumb creatures mothers of protectors.'

'Dude, that is cruel.'

'I'm sure you understand. But she just awoke something quite powerful. All out of anger.'

'As strong as Rah?'

'No, but this time you won't have the help of a container, hundreds of hunters, monks, and the openness you had there. This could be a harder battle.'

'Do you think the teachers can handle it?'

'Knowing White, she would've made it just a tad stronger than them, killing both parties mutually. So Weld won't be able to kill it either. But Zeeth can.'

'I can't reveal myself here.'

'People can die. I'm fine with it but if one is Dirt, this could drag on a lot longer.'

A woman's voice spoke to his head, 'please don't interfere.'

He snapped his head to Sieda as it continued, 'it won't awaken, and even when it does, it won't hurt you. Just leave me to my decisions.'

'Your decision to kill?'

'Remember, you were the oppressive lord back in our day. Why do you see an issue with this?'

'I don't. But it could kill someone we're trying to find.'

'Who?'

'None of your beeswax,' Black said.

'Someone named Dirt Diamond. Have you noticed anyone acting differently recently? He can supposedly hide like a shadow.'

'Why are you telling her? She will do anything to stop me, she will probably kill him!'

'I will only hurt those who have hurt me. And I haven't.'

Everyone else looked in the direction of the sound. Zafrakos stood tall, swinging his long robe around him as he twisted and walked towards it. Dan firmly said, "go back to your dorms. Now."

The students hesitated but the severity in his voice told them to listen to him. While everyone headed back, Zeeth was scanning the school to see where he could go. If things got ugly, he wanted to be there.

'The library. Let's go there.'

'Yeah, that's perfect. I can watch what the spider has to show in private while staying in the open.'

He waited until everyone went ahead, acting like he had to run back and grab something. With everyone's back turned, entering the dorm and joining the growing crowd of students who have also been called back in by the other teachers, he took a sharp left and casually walked into the library, sneaking around tight corners and other people with his flexible water suit. He ended up in a dark area against two shelves and a busted light, hiding in the corner until the sounds died down. The darkness comforted him, like a cozy hug from all around.

He pulled the spider out and flashed it against the floor, creating a circular panel that watched its night. It recorded nearly a day's worth of content so he sped up the recording dozens of times, slowing down and speeding up at times when he needed it. With Black help, he was able to watch the video fairly carefully even with the speed and limited view.

The start was the usual thing, the spider crawled into him and hid on his shoulder, moving around to avoid detection. While watching the spider, he marveled at his creation. Frankly, much of the work in the spider was influenced or directly taken from the table but it was a resource he had and he knew how to use. Something so complex was definitely not something he could've done without help. He made it so the spider had a full circular vision and anytime it looked like someone might see it, it sneakily hopped about the shoulder or folded the legs in and acted like a coin hanging off the shirt.

And since it was a single coin, not many wanted to take it off him or tell him about it. A few times, his brother pointed at it but he simply took the coin and stuck it in his pocket, carrying it around with him. Any patch of darkness was sped through and ignored. He went about his normal day, doing almost exactly as his brother did. They headed to the cafeteria a few times, tried out the magic training room for an hour, and then sat and played with magic items for the remainder of the day.

It wasn't until nighttime when he noticed a few things off. The two slept in bunk beds with Krem, one of the brothers, on top and Grem, the other twin, below. The spider mostly stayed on Grem the entire day and watched out there. Several times during the night, Krem got up and used the bathroom. Except for each time, he would do the exact same thing. Close the door with the light off and begin regurgitating into the tree stump that they used as toilets. Each time, the spider would jump off Grem and peek under the door just in time to see Krem wiping away residue with water and leaves and washing the entire thing down.

A few times, when he sped the video down, he could see the skin sag from his throat and stomach just like his own suit being put on.

'Is that? It's Dirt. I can't believe it, I found him on my first night!'

'You do have the necklace. It likely enhances your luck immensely.'

'Yeah, makes sense. But it's still cool to experience. Why is he barf-oh, he must've had to hide all the food he was eating between him and the suit.'

Just as he shut the spider off, two voices began mumbling to each other, one much older and one much younger. They became clearer and clearer, and just as Zeeth was preparing to run away, two heads poked into the dark corner and saw him. It was a skinny boy with bright, red hair and an innocent face below a much larger, square face with blonde hair and a long, clean scar across his cheek.

"What are you doing here? Go back to your dorms," the older man said, "there is an emergency."

"Yes, sorry. Just checking out the," he looked at the book his head was leaning against, "Beauties of Circles and lost track of time."

"Oh, you're interested in Ancient Arts?" The older man perked up, holding his hand out for a handshake, "That's my field! I'm the librarian, Hetio Besnik. What are you learning?"

"No, uh, just reading to see if I was interested."

"And?"

"Still don't know yet."

"Understandable. I strongly suggest that you continue reading, it gets far more interesting further in."

"Yeah, it seems like it would."

"Yes, it is! And just a secret, this stuff could be very helpful in the school tournament. It gives you a leg up on the others. Now, head back to your dorm."

"Okay." Zeeth tried to put the book back but Hetio pushed the book back into his hands and rushed him off. Even through all his thick clothing, he could tell Hetio was extremely muscular. His gloved hands felt rough and calloused yet gentle with his movements. Zeeth awkwardly took the book and rushed off. It was weird for him to deal with such a kind, caring yet strong man. He saw the stats through God's Eye, if he were to fight him, he would struggle, and without the slimes, he would likely lose. It was easy to talk back to arrogant teachers like Zafrakos and Dan was silent and antisocial so they didn't talk much but Hetio was powerful and talkative. He didn't know what to do.

Zeeth headed back to the dorm and sat down with the book. 'How do I approach the twins? They're always together. I've even checked their stats, they're exactly the same. This is unbelievable.'

'Just trap the two into an indestructible room, knock them both out and reveal one twin to the other.'

'An indestructible room. Linda! Yeah, I should tell her.'

He opened the coffin, yanked out a bag, and held a black pearl in a large ball of water. The pearl shone, reflecting lights all around but contained within the ball of water.

In the underground room where Linda was talking with her bosses. A white pearl in a ball of water shone. All three of them stopped talking to stare at the ball. Linda reached her hand in and said, "Have you found him?"

Zeeth's voice replied, "yes."

"I'm coming." Linda took the glass ball with the water and white pearl inside.

Zeeth put the black orb back and decided to sleep for the first time in a while. There was a lot he had to take in and he felt sleeping might help. That night, like it was all planned, he had a dream. A dream that a god in every sense of the word stood in front of him. Its power made him question the power of true gods. It was so large and spectacular that he couldn't fathom its existence in his mind. Instead, all he saw was a fog, but he knew the fog was alive and far greater than he was. One of its many fog limbs reached out, stroking his head. It felt comfortable. He sat down and closed his eyes, soothed by the mere touch of the fog.

It dwarfed Luik or the demons and he knew, with a single movement, it could kill anything he had met so far. Yet it was so gentle and kind. It carefully brought out a closed blanket that revealed a collection of items, all-powerful artifacts, and delicacies he had never even imagined before. It continued stroking his head and when it saw how excited Zeeth was as he marveled at the small heap, it laughed. Unlike any laugh before, it was a jingle, like a never-ending ring of beautiful chimes in the distance. But he knew it was a joyous laugh.

It said something he couldn't understand, like raindrops hitting a window. But he felt what it meant in its heart, "stay healthy, little one. Stay cute."

He awoke in a jolt, with a slime on his face. He picked it up and held it in front of him, noticing the pattern of the blue-green planet on it. It was Alba. 'So, that wasn't just a dream. That's going to happen to me later, in real life?'

He stuck his head into Alba but all he saw was the planet. The ability to tell the future seemed to come and go and it was mostly during his sleep. If God was so against it, why did he allow all this? Maybe it's because he earned it himself. Page's father could sculpt something from the future, maybe there were more out there. He wanted to collect them all into one large organization of future tellers, then maybe he could piece together all of the future and know what will happen. Like Page when he first came back, although that ability now seems less and less useful.

But Page was carefully meditating, leading the mana through a very specific route through his body, creating a fluid path with no rough edges or sharp turns. Nadaho tried to learn from what he did, he began trying a few months before they fought Rah but he had a much harder time progressing, having come to this world very recently. A tiny ring sat around Page, much smaller than the demon's rings. But as Nadaho stepped back, he saw another ring a few inches away, and then another a foot away, and another a few feet away. There were five rings, each with growing distance, creating a circle even wider than the demons.

Elton sat down with the dozen hunters, showing them a paper Page wrote for them. On it, were their plans for the future, taking on jobs in the Hunter Association.

Zeeth awoke in the middle of the night, after hearing banging on his door. Without waiting for him to open it, Sieda burst in, harshly whispering, "Black, you better leave. Now. I kept my pet at bay to allow you time to leave."

"Sure you did," he said sarcastically.

"I'm not joking. I'm going to kill everyone here who has wronged us. Look down on people for their status or uniqueness without trying to find out who we know. Don't you hate Zafrakos too? This beast will kill him and only those like him."

"I don't want him to die."

"Why?!"

"Because I want him to SUFFER!! I WANT TO TRAP HIM AND TERRIFY HIM WITH HORRIFYING MEMORIES, FEEL WHAT OTHERS HAVE FELT, ONLY WORSE!" When he yelled, his voice split into two and echoed each other like a demon.

Sieda looked down and smiled. When she looked back up, she cheerfully said, "you and I aren't so different after all."

"No, we are very different. You want him to suffer in unjustified ways, methods that he never showed. I want him to suffer the way he has made others suffer and then release him. If he realizes his mistakes, he won't make them. And if he does, that's when I send them to you."