Mirage Garden P3: Mirage of unknown (End part)

As Koku and Kurai waited for Yoru to finish her trials, both of them had been thinking of the worst-case scenario and therefore wanted her back as soon as possible. While all that was happening, Yoru was within a black place with no end in sight, yet one thing was in front of her.

And on that thing sat someone. "Greetings, child of the night," this unknown individual greeted her and right after, began introducing himself. "I go by many things; one of those is my real name, a name that carries a heavy burden. Do you wish to hear it?" asked this unknown individual. Yoru stared at this individual intently, as whoever it was, was covered by shadows and asking her a question. "Y-yes…" Yoru muttered, somewhat creeped out by the presence of this individual.

"Very well, my little disciple. My given name is Erebus, the primordial god of darkness and shadows. May I ask for the given name to you?" Erebus asked Yoru. "M-my name is Yoru…" Erebus gave a small laugh as he got rid of all the shadows covering his body. "A pretty name indeed," he mentioned to Yoru.

After revealing himself to her, he sighed, expecting her to at least blush, as Erebus was one who stole the hearts of many by simply laying their gaze onto him. Yet Yoru was looking at him blandly. "Hahaha, it seems my appearance doesn't faze you, not that it mattered anyway. My job here isn't to charm you nor to pick a fight with the Void disciple's maiden," Erebus spoke the truth. It didn't matter to him, though that itself was a lie, since Erebus was basically praying internally for Yoru not to fall under his charm or find him attractive whatsoever.

"My job here is to guide you, and though I can do it alone, my wife is persistent in helping guide you as well. Not only that, but she wishes to speak with you sometime in the coming days as well. Now, as for the start, I guess I'll grant you a gift, so consider yourself lucky, Yoru," Erebus pointed his hand in her direction, and a black light blinded her for a single second.

"There, you'll be able to control your darkness with 20% efficiency instead of 0%. Now it seems time is short, so I'll tell you something important that'll help you and your comrades in the future…" When Erebus had mentioned this last part, Yoru had zoned into what he had to tell her, and after a while, Yoru seemed wary and currently in disbelief.

"Was it too much for you to handle?" Erebus asked Yoru, "I'm sure you couldn't understand it all much since it's the language of shadows. In due time, when you become one with your shadows… or at least come to understand them, you'll know what I said; and in the case you forget… your shadows will never let this message go and will constantly haunt you until you're able to do something about it," Erebus told her as Yoru's field of vision seemed to cloud up.

"Well from this point on, i can't help you for a while, so keep this in your mind, shadows and darkness both play a roll in you're mind and imagination, the shadows will do your bidding as long as you're mental power is strong enough…if not then it'll consume you and hurt the closest ones to you alongside everything~", not being able to finish speaking Erebus sighed seeing as Yoru disappeared. 

When this happened, Erebus looked up somewhere in this very dark space, "Is this really what you want…? to use me for his growth is cruel, do you not think he is well off as is?", Erebus said to seemingly no one, or to someone. 

After Yoru could no longer hear Erebus, she found herself in a forest. In this forest she could hear the noise of two swords clashing, so feeling curious she went towards the direction of the noise, once getting close enough to see, she hid in between a few bushes and watched as she could see a tall man wearing knight armor crossing swords with kid who looked no more than 6 years old. When Yoru looked closely at the kid's hand and sword, she could see a bright'ish purple sword, coming to know what that was, she could only think of one person who could possibly have that sword and aura emitting from it as well.

"Koku? w-wait no, that can't be…unless this is an illusion or some sort of a test…", Yoru muttered to herself as she once again looked at the child and the grown-up after getting lost in thought for a second. When she looked at them, the taller knight seemed to be standing still and began to fade away as if the wind breeze had pushed against smoke. Noticing the child…she could see that his gaze was fixed on her even through the bush. "Where were you... why did you die…why did you lea~", the child faded away as fast as the knight from before in the process of changing the environment. 

Once the environment had changed, Yoru was certain that the kid she had seen was Koku…just younger and in the past. But after hearing the words he had uttered, she had felt a chilling sense vibrate throughout all over her body. "What was he going to say?", Yoru asked out to seemingly no one while she came to it seeing the new setting which was in the twilight of the day; and for some reason seeing this twilight gave her a sense of caution. 

Feeling this, she looked away from the setting sun and noticed that in this new place, the clouds seemed to look different, the air carried a smell of iron and the ground bloody all over. Standing still un-animated in the middle of this bloody field was a man or a teenage boy covered in blood.

His hair slightly longer than Koku's, and although it was covered in blood, she could see the a single strand of hair which was covered in blood spotless in the tiniest spot possible. The fleeing sun shined on it a little, creating this little reflextion showing his hairunderneath the blood might be white or silver, and upon seeing the side of this man's face, Yoru gasped in horror as she could see that it had been Koku. 

Noticing this, Yoru took a step back nearly falling onto her butt; yet when she almost fell, she could feel something grab onto her leg. Looking down at whaever it was, she could see that her ankle had been under an endless red sea of blood, and rising from it, she could see some unfamiliar faces, and the faces of the knights and bandits she had killed while travailing with Koku begin to climb as they whispered, "You did this to me~", "It's you're fault~", "I needed to feed my family~", seeing this Yoru closed her eyes stoping herself from nearly crying out in fear and guilt; but when seh did this she began to think about what she had told Koku, "i've decided to also wrong all those who deserve it, with you, by your side. Koku i won't let you die, so i'll work harder than ever to help you", remembering what she had said, the bodies of the ones she had killed stopped climbing up and then Yoru muttered underneath her breath, "I don't regret it-i don't regret killing any of you…you were in the way." Once she had gotten this out the bodies let go of her and began going back into the red sea of blood. 

After this she remained with her eyes closed until she felt a pat on her head, "Hey…", hearing this voice Yoru knew it was from Koku, she kept her eyes closed not wanting to see this version of Koku…the Koku she knew he wasn't. "Thank you for not giving up…i've lost control over myself, i killed everything in the world, and destroyed everything…even the boundless artifact…the world's will. I'm surpised as to how you're here since i've never met you. Though it feels like i've known you for some time now…it's strange, and the feelings swiling inside me arent those of killer intent, listen to me stranger, whoever you are and wherever you came from, i'm sure things aren't this way yet. Seeing as to how you might know me…theres still some sort of hope for everything", this version of Koku told the scared Yoru. 

"Of course, the sun you see up there isn't actually a sun, it's just the light being consumed by the void…you might not understand this now, but in due time you will understand, so listen up. The void is somehow meddling with time and space itself, even though I've already obtained power far to great…it's unmeasurable. Name it and i've already destroyed, conquered beacme it. it's to great, and through infinite dimensions, i keep on existing, yet not once i can tell who you are, though my body and heart yell at me telling me i know you…nevertheless back to the void.-

-The void is a boundless power full of mysteries and powers that you can't even imagine, and it's even began to form a consciousness, but it's somewhere else, somewhere i can't see into… which is why the void is blocking a section of ininfite dimensions, as to not destory it or have it conquered by me as i've done over and over with other places, fighting myself each time. Of course this doesn't matter to you…look Ms. i thank you for entering the picture, it seems that somewhere out there…wherever you're from, i've turned out different than from a cold hearted power hungry killing monster; thank you…", Once this Koku had finished saying what he needed to say, he began to walk away back into the bloodied battle field and just before Yoru's consciousness left this place too, he mentioned one more thing, "Oh…yea that's right; take care of him.", this older different verion of Koku said clealy talking about the Koku Yoru knew. 

With this Yoru was dragged elsewhere to finish the trial, and when she came to see where she was, she'd seen her old home…and in it where four Demi-humans talking amongst themselves. "Of course we won't intervene, after all we have fame and power to chase on the battlefield." one of them Demi-humans uttered as the rest also talked out their plans and ideas. 

Hearing the things they'd have to say, Yoru's thoughts grew silent and a resentful silent overtook her, hearing the words, "If they don't die soon… in 9 years, if they aren't dead yet... then i'll make sure of it that our old home becomes the battlefield that our unfortunate family dies…", Yoru's father was talking with her brothers. 

After hearing this, Yoru now knew why her home was attacked, and why her sister and herself were taken and put into slavery, "I swear…I'll…I'll…", Yoru's mind went onto grow an inner hatred for her father and siblings, "i swear i'll find you all." Yoru muttered slightly as she felt shadows wrap around her seemingly as if they now accepted her full heartedly. 

After this the shadows that were wrapped around her began to un-wrap themselves, brining Yoru back to her actual senses, which seconds later meant she'd see Kurai and Koku talking. "Yoru, welcome back. Was everything alright?", Kurai asked checking up on Yoru, then Koku spoke, "What's wrong? somethings bothering you…bothering you a lot." Koku said as he looked deep into her eyes. 

"K-koku, i now know why…and who…caused…", Yoru confessed to Koku and Kurai as they listened in closely.