Deadly Light

At his words, the ease that normally accompanied my conversations with these lofty beings disappeared. At the foreboding words, I was suddenly reminded of the massive gap in our power and status. Despite my best attempts to remember that we lived in different worlds, the casual interactions I had with the friendly Greater Dark Elementals and Lord Nightblade had made me let my guard down.

Unconsciously, I straightened up like a soldier when his captain addressed him. I struggled to stop myself from replying, "Yes, sir!", but my expression must have given my inner thoughts away because Lord Nightshade chuckled and told me to be at ease… which further added to my impression of him as some kind of military commander.

Before I could lose control of myself and salute him, he fortunately said something captivating enough to distract me.

"Based on what Nightblade told me, I have my suspicions regarding your nature, some of which I share with her and some of which are my own. Nevertheless, I would appreciate it if you could cast spells of various elements so that I can examine them personally,"

Silently, I started casting once more. From fire, water, wind and earth to thunder and wood, then finally darkness. Despite casting as fast as I could, he seemed able to fully analyze a spell twice as fast as Lord Nightblade, summoning an even more complicated examination matrix to rapidly dissect the contents of each of my spells. He blitzed through them with lightning speed, barely stopping until he guided the orb of darkness into the structure.

Unlike the examination matrix that Lord Nightblade had used, his one seemed to function differently. His structure was not only larger and more complex, it seemed to even send tiny needles of darkness that I assumed acted as probes to inspect the spells in detail. 

Afterward, it even managed to construct an identical orb and separate it into cross-sections which looked… just like how a ball of darkness would be. In fact, all of the other spells had been much the same, pretty much just fire or water condensed into a ball. However, when he saw the cross-section of the darkness orb, I felt the aura around him change.

With a wave of his hand, the replica seemed to dissolve, the darkness seeping out of it - which seemed quite weird, since it was literally made of the stuff - leaving behind a hollow sphere with a shell of mana. He then did the same with the original orb, except that the shell left behind wasn't exactly hollow; there was a trace of nearly imperceptible light within it.

He watched the ghostlight pulsating quietly in the otherwise hollow shell for a moment before he let both spells and his matrix disappear.

"It is as Nightblade said. Your ghostlight, as she calls it, is something extremely elusive and unique. I have not seen or heard of anything remotely similar myself and I must admit I was quite startled when even my own power could not replicate it. I have started to formulate my conclusions, but I need one more thing from you, mortal…."

"I need you to cast a spell of light," he said heavily, "but I might die in the process."