CHAPTER 2
Sophie had arrived at the park five minutes early. She remembered this park from when things used to be normal in her life. She remembered coming here with Josh when the two of them were younger and having contests to see who could swing the highest. Sophie sighed, those times are over now, she thought to herself. With her awakened senses, Sophie could hear her brother walking closer. She estimated that if he continued at the same speed, he would reach the park in three minutes. Sophie had taken the time to learn some battle strategy from Scathach in the past few years. Exactly three minutes later Josh arrived. Sophie sat down on the nearby bench, and motioned for her brother to join her. "So who can help us?" Sophie asked with a hint of eagerness in her voice. Then remembering it was Josh she was talking to, Sophie knew she was getting a history lesson.
Josh replied evenly, "As you know, we have the most powerful auras – gold and silver. But did you know there is an aura even more powerful than our own?" Sophie's mouth hung open a bit. Josh quickly continued before his sister could ask any questions. "I'll give you those details later. I found this out when I fused the four swords of power together. I also learned that the black aura works very differently than a regular aura. There is only ever one person at one time to have a black aura in all the Shadowrealms. When it was discovered, people believed that to acquire a black aura, one must kill the person who has it. This resulted in many pointless deaths, for this is not the case. The black aura simply appears at random, and within a random person, making it almost impossible for anyone to track down." Sophie sighed, disappointed. "But" Josh continued, "I am not anyone. I know where the black aura is, and I asked it to meet us here. It will explain everything you need to know."
Sophie was confused. "It? So whoever has the black aura isn't human?"
"No" Josh replied "like I said it is not a regular aura. It is a living being that simply attaches itself to a host. And if the host is not powerful enough, the aura takes control. Oddly enough, the person who has it now, has had it for much longer than people even thought possible. Mostly due to the fact that the previous hosts went mad because the aura slowly possessed them."
Sophie was shocked. "That's not an aura at all, that's a monster!" she shouted.
Josh tried to calm Sophie down. "That's what anyone else would think. But again, I am not anyone. What I just described is what happens if some with a black aura uses it up."
Sophie was beginning to understand a little more now. "So instead of making the person spontaneously combust, the aura feeds off of the energy of the person to come alive?"
"Put simply, yes." Josh paused... "Ah, here he comes now."
Just a few feet in front of the twins, a cloud of black energy began to form. It grew larger and larger, until eventually a boy looking no older than fifteen, stepped out. Instantly the black energy, which Sophie assumed was some sort of portal, vanished. The boy spoke, "I hope Josh has not scared you too much. He always makes me seem more destructive and out of control than I really am." The boy paused, "Oh, how rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Jeremy, and I am the proud owner of the infamous black aura." Instantaneously Jeremy's aura flared around him, and it was the darkest, and most empty black colour Sophie had ever seen.