Prologue: Dive to the Heart
At the time, I really didn't know what was happening. It may have been my dream, but at the moment, I didn't even have control over what happened. It felt so real, so life like, so… magical. I felt like I was falling. No, that isn't the right word for it. It was more like, I was drifting downward. Realizing that I still had my eyes closed I opened them to try and survey my surroundings. But to my disappointment I was only met with darkness. I began to question if I really was dreaming. My answer came when the dark void was suddenly lit up by a bright light that seemed to be coming from below me. I turned my body toward the source of the glow, for my eyes to meet with the sight of a platform that seemed to be made of stained glass.
I shifted my body so I could land gently on the platform. Almost immediately after I landed a voice spoke to me. "So much to do, so little time…" This voice sounded neither male nor female. Now that I think about it, it didn't even seem like a voice was talking to me from nowhere, it was more like words were appearing in my mind. "Take your time, don't be afraid."
I was beginning to get annoyed. I didn't understand what was happening. "The door is still closed." I groaned at the "voice's" words. What door what it talking about? "Now, step forward. Can you do it?"
Without thinking I spoke back to the "voice", "You don't think I can walk?" I began a slow paced walk forward.
When I reached the center of the platform I was suddenly halted by an unknown force. A bright light suddenly glowed from an unknown place. When it faded after a few seconds a small ball of light floated in front of me. I felt a faint warmth come from the sphere. If I didn't know any better I'd say that it was alive.
I stretched my arm out so I could touch the strange mass of light. But just as my finger touched it, I felt a massive heat coming from the left side of the sphere of light. When I looked toward the source of the heat, I was met with the sight of a small bluish-black flame. The flame gave off an immense heat unlike the sphere's gentle warmth. It was ominous and kinda scary. But for some reason, I felt attracted to it.
"Before you continue, you must choose your path." The voice said to me. "Do you want to unlock the door with the power of light?" I looked over to the small glowing sphere, knowing that that was the "light". "Or do you want to rip the door open with the power of darkness?" My eyes then drifted to the small flame, guessing that it had to be the "darkness".
Things were starting to really confuse me. It was starting to sound like the beginning of some videogame. It was obvious that I wasn't going to figure anything out just by standing and staring. I had to make a decision. Despite the fact that the "light" felt so gentle and kind, I felt my hand slowly reach for the "darkness". If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the flame was calling out to me. No… that's not the right words for it. This flame, this "darkness", it needed me, and I needed it. I felt like… it was a part of me.
I placed my hand under the flame and felt something "jolt" through my hand. Pulling the flame back toward me I place my other hand under the flame, cradling it in my palms. "Are you sure that is what you want? You may never be able to walk the path the light."
This was starting to feel way too real to me. This ominous flame that I held in my hand, the genderless "voice" in my head. At this point, I didn't know the difference between fact and fiction. The flame grew larger as I said, "Yes. I choose the darkness."
I held the now large flame in my right hand. Without thinking, I held out the hand that held the "darkness". The black flame grew even more before it began to twist and turn. It began to take the shape of something thin. After twisting and turning for about ten seconds, it flames became solid. With gravity taking control of things, the strange thing fell into my right hand. I looked over the eerie object that I now held.
"You've gained the power to fight." The "voice" spoke to me yet again. I was able to put two and two together and realized that this strangely shaped object was a weapon. But I had to admit that it did in fact look somewhat like a falchion sword. The blade was mainly in the shape of a demonic wing. The wings "bone" was a bluish-purple color. The part of that was supposed to be the wings skin was a blood red color. The hilt of the sword was mixed with the red and bluish color. And a strange gem that resembled a blue demonic eye separated the actual blade from the hilt. All in all, it was strange weapon.
None the less, I gave the weapon a few practice swings. "Use this power to protect yourself and others." And there goes the voice again. "There will be times you have to fight." As the voice said this a small ant like creature crawled toward me. It had a large spherical head and had twisted antenna in its head with beady, glowing, yellow eyes. It seemed overly energetic, as it constantly looked left and right, as though it was looking for something. "Keep your flames of darkness burning strong."
Its eyes finally locked on me after looking around for a few seconds. It made a weird noise before it lunged in my direction, swinging at me with its claws. Stepping just in time to feel the claw graze the tip of my nose, I felt myself tremble in shock as muttered, "Oh, shit."
The monster immediately lunged at me again with a look of hunger in its eyes. Taking the offensive, I swung at the monster vertically, slicing it in two. But to my surprise, not a drop of blood came out. Instead it faded into a black smoke and vanished.
My sense of fear suddenly leaving me, I sighed in relief the monsters absence. But then it suddenly hit me, I had nowhere to go. The only thing there was the large stained glass platform that I was standing on. Just how was I supposed to get outta there?
And just like that, as if this "world" had heard my question, a staircase, made up of the same strange stained glass material, faded into existence. Shrugging my shoulders, I made my way up the staircase. To my disappointment, it only led me to a similar stained glass platform.
Tightening the grip on my weapon, I hesitantly walked toward the center of the platform. I stood in the center waiting for something to happen. And right on cue, the "voice" spoke again, "If you wish to walk the path of darkness, you must first conquer the one thing that can destroy the darkness within you, your light."
Suddenly sensing a presence behind me, I looked behind me to see what appeared to be a boy my age wearing armor. He appeared to be your typical knight in shining armor. A light grey armor, flowing red cape, sliver broad sword. All in all, he wasn't anything spectacular.
I soon ate those words when my "light" decided to lunge at me with his sword raised. I managed to block the strike just in time to avoid getting my head chopped off. Leaping backwards, trying to put some distance between us, I couldn't help but feel like this was a natural thing for me. Battling monsters and knights, it almost felt like I was supposed to do things like this. But now wasn't the time to think about things like that. I had to focus or my "light" was going to end my life… if that was even possible in a dream.
As if the knight was reading my mind, he bowed to me, signifying that he was ready to continue, and dropped into a fighting stance. Dropping into a fighting stance of my own I stood my ground waiting for my light to make the first move. Not wasting any time, the knight came dashing toward me, swinging his weapon in every direction possible. I actually shocked myself when I dodged each swing like it was nothing. I shocked myself even more when I followed up with a hard kick to his chest that sent him flying back. Grasping this opportunity, I chased after him, swinging horizontally at him. Parrying my attack easily, the knight countered by kicking my side, followed by an elbow strike to my face.
I fumbled backwards, holding my nose in pain, that strike seemed to hurt a little too much for it to be a dream. I could've sworn that I felt blood drip down my nose, as I thought this, my "light" found it appropriate to knee me in the gut. Not even getting a chance to feel the pain of that injury, the knight followed up with an uppercut that sent me flying backwards. When I hit the ground, I couldn't help but feel like my "light" was toying with me. He had so many chances to end it but he just focused on physical attacks. For and embodiment of light, he was pretty cruel, making me suffer like that.
I noticed that the knight was slowly making his way toward me. When he reached me, he looked down at me, as if waiting for me to get back up. Noticing that his guard was down, I spun my body, delivering a low kick that knocked the knight off his feet. Getting back to my feet, I now looked at the knight on the ground. In that instant the roles had switched. But unlike him, I wasn't going to wait for my opponent to get back to his feet. And just like that, I plunged my wing shaped weapon into chest of my "light", piercing his armor like it was made of wet paper.
Once again to my surprise, there was no blood. Despite the fact that a sword was shoved into his chest, the knight didn't bleed in the least. I pulled my weapon out of his chest. Behind it, a strange white aura came flowing out. This white aura slowly covered the knight from head to toe before it vanished, taking my light with it.
I stood there, in the center of the platform, in silence. Wondering what the hell just happened. First I got this strange weapon, then I fight some weird ant thing, and I kill what was supposed to be my "light", whatever that meant. And to top it all off, I did this on a stain-glass platform in the middle of nowhere. I ran my hand across my head; I was really starting to get frustrated.
But then it hit me, nothing had happened yet, I was still on this platform. Looking to my left, I saw that the staircase from before was gone as well, leaving me stranded on this stain glass island.
Getting an idea, a dumb one, but still an idea, I called out loud to the voice from before saying, "Hey. What am I supposed to do next?"
Instead of getting an answer, a door appeared in a flash of light. Shrugging my shoulders, I opened the door and was met with a blinding light that seemed to cover the whole void. When it faded, instead of being on the same stain glass platform in the middle of nowhere, I was in the middle of a large beach.
"First a stain glass platform, now a sunny beach." I said to no one in particular, but I felt that I needed to say it. Walking down the beach I kept my eyes open for any sign of life. My steady walk turned into a sprint when I noticed a boy my age was standing on the beach.
As I ran toward him I heard the voice call to me, "The door won't open just yet. First, tell me something about yourself."
Walking up to him, I noticed that he didn't look like your average everyday teen. His hair was a silver color and it was long enough to just reach the nape of his neck. He looked at me with his serious blue eyes and said, "What is most important to you."
It was a question that I myself didn't really know. I pondered for a second before saying, "Speaking my mind."
The silver haired teen nodded his head and walked away without another word. Shrugging my shoulders at the teens actions I decided to look around the beach some more. I walked up to another boy, but this one seemed older than me, his hair was brown, in a messy style that consisted of vertical spikes and bangs that framed his face. He also had blue eyes though they held more seriousness than the last teens.
He looked at me for a few seconds before saying, "What are you afraid of most?"
Another question that really had me thinking; this wasn't something that I usually thought about. But after about ten seconds of thinking, I said, "Being judged for something I can't control."
He nodded his head in an understanding way and walked off. What was with these people? They just ask me a personal question then they leave? Walking off again I found myself walking into a small shack that held a stair way. Who ever lived on this island really had skills in carpentry. Walking up the steps, I opened the door at the top leading to a small cliff that was connected to a bridge that led to a small sandy plateau in the distance. Walking across that bridge I noticed an old man standing near a tree that was curved in a strange way with his back turned.
When I approached him he turned around allowing me to have a better look at him. He had dark brown skin and was bald. The most hair he had was the grey beard he had hanging off of his chin. He looked at me with his gold eyes and said, "I have been waiting for you."
I was shocked that he didn't just ask me a personal question like the others. Something told me that I would be able to get answers from him so I asked, "If that's true, than you probably know what's going on here."
Nodding his head he placed a smile on his face before saying, "Indeed I do. But before we get to that, I want to ask you something." I raised my eyebrow in confusion before he said, "What do you want out of life?"
Now that was a head scratcher for me. It was hard for me answer that, I had no plans for the future even though I was halfway through high school. I looked at him with confusion written on my face as I said, "I don't know… I have no idea what I want to accomplish." His smile disappeared as I continued, "I have no goals, no aspirations. I spent my entire life without any type of reason for living."
He looked at me with a serious gaze as he said, "No my friend. You do have a goal. You just masked it as something else." He walked around me slowly as he continued, "Remember what you said your greatest fear was. 'Being judged for something you can't control.' That thing you call fear is really a mask for something you hate."
Now it was my turn ask a question, "How did you know what I feared." Instead of giving me an answer he simply smiled at me. When I looked at that smile, I knew the answer, "The voice, it was you! You're controlling everything here."
The elder nodded his head and said, "That's right young one, I felt that you had a great hatred for judgmental people. Though I don't know why that is, I can assure you that you aren't the only one like this." He placed his hand on my shoulder as he said, "I am here to help you harness the hatred you hold and turn it into power." Now I was really confused, who was this man that was trying to turn my hatred into power? I thought that I would be able to get answers from this man, but instead, I had a lot more questions.
Letting out an annoyed sigh, I asked the man, "You want to turn my hatred into power? What exactly does that mean?"
The elder chuckled at my confusion and said, "All will be answered soon my boy. But now, it's time to wake up." And with that, I suddenly felt my eyes become, droopy. I struggled to keep my eyes open; it was like I was put into some type of trance. The old man chuckled as he watched me struggle to keep my eyes open. "Sleep my friend, you'll know everything soon." And with that, the world around me seemed to vanish.
Slowly opening my eyes again, I was met with the sight of my bedroom ceiling. Slowly sitting up, I scratched my head in confusion. I shifted in my bed to a more comfortable position as I said, "I guess all that was a dream." Only half awake, I slowly got out of bed and walked to the small bathroom that my room was connected to.
As I splashed water on my face, I began to think about the supposed dream I had. It felt so realistic, but at the same time, it didn't. Lightly slapping myself on the cheeks, I spoke out loud to myself. "I need to stop. I'm starting to confuse myself."
With that, I began my morning ritual of showering and brushing my teeth. When I walked back into my room, I began to think about my "dream" again. Mainly, the strange weapon that I wielded in it. "I wonder…" Holding out my hand, I began to focus on the feeling I had when I first summoned it. Feeling something jolt through my arm, a small black flame appeared in my hand. The flame stretched and twisted into the strange blade from my dreams.
I couldn't believe my eyes; maybe it wasn't a dream after all. Maybe the events of my dream actually happened. Feeling something suddenly come over me, I swung the weapon around expertly, as though I wielded it all my life. Realizing what I was doing, I stopped, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
Sitting on my bed, I looked at my sword; at least, that's what I thought it was. Groaning out loud, I scratched my head and said, "Something tells me that these next few days are going to be very interesting." I placed the weapon on my bed and got went off to my closet to get dressed.
