My center came back to me a moment later. With my concentration came awareness of our location. We stood in a land comprised entirely of darkness. The lands, the sky, even the air around us were all without color, only varying depths of black.
I knew of this dimension only peripherally. The sword and I passed through it whenever we teleported. Normally, though, I only saw a brief snatch of it before we were gone again. I was in the domain of the demigod whose essence was contained in my weapon, Darkmoon.
The Oni's grip on my shoulder tightened, and he looked down at me. "What is this place, human?"
His attitude and the tone of his voice told me that he was half convinced I had betrayed him.
An edge of my awareness noted that my fighting gear had been reabsorbed by the sword, leaving me in the traditional clothing of a ninja.
I was staring almost desperately at Ryuken, trying not to look at the area around me. I could feel the malevolence of the place trying to gain my attention. The Oni seemed to be completely unaffected by the place's nature, but I could see him looking around with guarded interest. Unexpectedly, he pointed behind me.
With our recent combat still in my mind, I turned, freezing in horror. In the middle distance, I could see my family holding. The warlord's forces were already at the gates. My brothers and sister, my parents and all of my other relatives were cut down mercilessly in the slaughter. The betrayal had been sudden and complete.
I had survived the whole thing by being away when it happened. Knowing what was coming, I still couldn't turn away. The lone figure slipped into the compound, all of his skills at stealth in use, but the warlord had left after looting the place.
Tears streamed down my face, knowing what the scene was about to reveal. As the view changed to the inside of the last place I had ever called home, I watched my younger self find my grandfather. He lay dying in the family hall.
Thankfully, the illusion did not include sound. It might have broken me to hear the old man gasping out his last breaths to tell me of the weapons to avenge my House. The young man I had been had gone to get Darkmoon and the Immortality Elixir, not realizing that his grandpa would be dead upon his return.
In time with the reenactment in front of me, I slipped to my knees, watching as I clutched the last of my family to my chest. All that I had left now was my Sword, the family Crest about my neck, and the family Honor. It didn't matter a bit that the events played out in front of me were over six hundred years in the past. The details displayed made it seem as if it had just happened.