True Forms

When I awoke, I found the two Dark Lords hovering over me. For once, darkness did not conceal their features and I could perceive their inhumanly beautiful figures. 

Lord Nightshade looked the same as the last time I had seen his true form, minus the burning blade in his chest and with a nearly imperceptible sparkle in his otherwise pitch-black eyes. He seemed almost like a perfectly cut diamond, beauty sharp enough to cut… yet his intense sharpness seemed almost muted by the world itself, as if it wished to deny his existence.

Beside him was an equally disturbing figure. At first sight, she appeared to be of similar age to her companion; perhaps around fifteen or sixteen and strikingly beautiful. However, it rapidly became evident that something was not quite right - she seemed somehow impossibly old despite her apparent youth and there was an alien aspect to her very being. Additionally, it seemed that she resembled a sword, elegant and beautiful, but so sharp that it seemed even touching her would cut.

Through parched lips, I croaked, "What happened?"

At my words, the duo broke into what I took to be a relieved grin. Then a serrated voice nearly sliced my mind into a thousand pieces, as I clutched my head in agony.

Abruptly it cut off, returning a moment later in a much more subdued tone that I registered as Lord Nightshade's. 

"Sorry for that. Are you okay?" he asked concernedly.

I nodded faintly.

Suddenly, both of them blurred. A second later, I saw Lord Nightblade had turned to him and her hand was in the air, while Lord Nightshade was far away from her in a defensive position. It took me a moment to register that she had tried to swat him and he had escaped from her blow, both at a speed I could hardly fathom. 

After that, she slowly turned back to me, casually waving a hand to close two black rifts that had appeared as she moved. Lord Nightshade carefully edged closer to her, only relaxing when he affirmed that he was not in immediate danger. 

"Thank you for saving me, mortal. I am much ashamed to say that you nearly died because of my lack of control and only survived due to your presence of mind in channeling the combination of darkness and ghostlight back to me, which cured my ailment and has even granted me strange new abilities. Once again, thank you for your aid," he said humbly.

I waved him off, more curious about what had transpired while I was unconscious. 

"I must thank you as well for your efforts in saving Nightshade, but I hope you do not blame him for the reaction of his mana core. That was… not something any of us had foreseen, and it had completely ignored his commands when it sensed your ghostlight, though thankfully your ghostlight managed to temporarily contain it until it could be released," continued Lord Nightblade.

"Thankfully, the combination managed to restore his strength and convert the light in his body into ghostlight. However, there are a few things I noticed during this process and I will share, seeing that I did not manage to do anything else," she said, sounding a little miffed.

"Firstly, it was very odd that a mortal was able to contain the immense power of a Dark Lord. Even the most powerful Greater Dark Elemental would have failed to hold the amount of darkness that was transferred, but a human below the Lesser stage was able to do so. I believe that we have all severely underestimated the capabilities of ghostlight: it evidently has a much greater purpose than just boosting the capabilities of darkness." 

I had already thought of that, albeit not in as much detail as she had said, and Lord Nightshade seemed to share similar sentiments. However, her next statement drew our interest.

"Aside from that, I was also very surprised that the mana link itself did not shatter by: all rights, it should have broken long before the darkness ever made it to you, much less survived the journey back to Nightshade. However, it miraculously managed to do both, although that does seem to be its limit. I have taken the liberty to analyze it, and I made an odd discovery: it held strange properties that massively boosted its capabilities, much like how ghostlight affected darkness spells… but much, much stronger,"