One With The Darkness

For Michael, a long time had passed since he got into the Void. For Caster, the transformation happened mere seconds after he slit the young man's throat.

He was still standing by the pot, the meal he was preparing boiling behind him; its scent permeating the air. The grin on his face was slowly fading but the satisfaction remained, the gleam in his eyes there too. Michael's body was still falling; his garments were drenched in blood and a mortified expression was etched on his face. Before his body could hit the ground, however, his face came alive and the darkness of his iris stirred.

Caster felt a gust of wind blow at his clothes.

'That was fast', he thought to himself, the grin from earlier fading to be replaced by a look of disappointment. 'So he succeeded' his expression fell with this realization.

The sound of bubbling as food cooked over the fire and the crackling of wood was devoured by an inhuman shriek. Michael's body came alive with shadows that seeped out of his body like a waterfall; flowing to the floor before they rose again like sentient darkness.

His pained scream tore at Caster's ears forcing him to cast a quick spell to dampen the sound and another to reduce the turbulence that came with the shadows.

He watched unamused as the darkness rose and wrapped itself around Michael like a cocoon to a caterpillar. Sighing, he pulled his favorite chair out from his dimensional space in dark blue flames and sat; his legs crossed and back leaned against the chair.

What Caster was looking at was merely a portion of the profound transformation. In Michael's mind, he was still in the void. The pain of the shadows transforming his soul tore at his mind.

It was not just transforming his soul, it was tearing what was his soul and leaving it to hang in the void before him. The pain he felt was excruciating but he forced his mind to stay conscious.

Then he watched in a mix of awe and horror as the darkness, which had a slight tinge of purple buried beneath, surged to attack the flame of his soul. Michael panicked, he felt the overbearing aura of the shadows close in on the lonely flame before engulfing it in a rage of dark purple flames. He was on the ground panting, feeling as if his insides were being drowned in acid.

Akin to how the chords of a harp reflected the artist, his soul possessed a melody that played through the void. Amidst the harmony, there was a feeling of chaos, as if the song was uncertain. It was hard to explain but Michael felt it. Now, covered in the ominous dark purple aura, it's melody begun to change, if it had been serene and homely, now it was rigorous and troubled. It mimicked the panic Michael felt and amplified the terror that came with the flames.

Its harmony changed even more to one filled with discordance and turmoil. This was the essence of awakening for Michael, his soul had to be reshaped to accommodate the power of an emissary. Somehow, he understood that what he was looking at was supposed to happen, it was the only way. He felt a connection to something vast and endless, dark and ominous, potent and overbearing form at the core of his being. He felt the power and strength he possessed rise by the minute, but he also felt his soul get ripped into and reshapen into something much more sinister.

He couldn't put it into words, but the transformation he was undergoing came with an aura of dread that slowly became a part of him.

Unlike before, this time, the connection between him and the void was deeper too allowing him to feel at one with the barren place and to feel the changes it underwent.

Unlike his soul, the void experienced a less tumultuous change.

As the bloodied shadow flames grew and spread, they seeped into the glossy surface slithering both across and beneath it.

The disharmony of his soul flame grew, sounding almost like the pained shrieks of something on the precipice of death. The pain it came with was almost unending. But this was the price, he had expected pain; it would be naive not to, so this time, his mind did not succumb to despair, instead he forced himself to grit his teeth through the process. The process was like experiencing death over and over but never being held in it's cold embrace. Always at it's door step but weighed by the pain of it.

The flames that had been raging in the void continued to sink into the surface, turning it's glossy sheen black with intricate patterns of red dancing and swirling within it. This made for a beautiful sight, the shape of the patterns captivating and mesmerizing. Slowly, the surface took the form of a river of red and dark purple, tossing like a tumultuous sea as his soul continued to assimilate the darkness and Michael felt his body change in response. This interaction deepened the connection Michael felt to the void, the place feeling more and more like a part of him.

Before him, the flame of his soul begun to collapse into the shape of a sphere, inside it, the dance of darkness and the red of his soul raged on growing calmer by the second. The sphere floated above ground and it's eerie light illuminated the area around Michael in it's ghastly glow. The pain of the transformation slowly subsided.

A set of green chains dropped from above passing through the sphere and dropping into the surface like a skewer. The river he stood on rippled and glowed a subtle green which spread across the Void. More chains formed in the air and surged into him, before promptly dissapearing into the air like they never existed. He anticipated pain like was routine only for the green chains to finish their journey without eliciting even the slightest sensation.

He remained there, puzzled and confused; that was routine, however, he forced his mind to not wander. Somethings he would learn eventually, the questions he had pilling up and being thrown to the back of his mind.

After what felt like an eternity, the chaos of his soul calmed down; the shadows no longer danced around him, the flames that slithered across the void disappeared into its surface and the void slowly began to light up in a dull white and his soul maintained it's eerie glow.

Despite the change in melody, the song of his soul was stronger. It was slightly alien to him, but he felt a subtle resonance whenever it roared through the void. He retrained his focus to see what the void now looked like and the song slowly faded into the background. Instead of an endless monotonous void, it was now of shades of purple red and the hanging dull white glow that extended into the distance where his eyes couldn't see.

The surface appeared to him like a river of bloodied purple tar that shifted as he moved over it. The red following his steps like a loyal slave. It was weird, eerie but most of all oddly beautiful. Initially the void had felt alien to him. Now however, he felt at one with it. As if him and it were one in the same person. He also perceived a vast unfathomable emptiness below the surface.

He was tired and glad that It was over, this was the first step to true strength. He felt a slight pull on his consciousness that drew his senses back to his body in Caster's cottage.

He had finally awakened!

[Authors Note: Start of his journey. Enjoy!]