Thanks for the warm welcome back and continuous interest. As for grammar mistakes, you know the drill, let me know and I will fix it when I can. Some times I overlook things. From this chapter on, it will refer to the main storyline of the official MapleStory for important events, but the other details are a quite different.

Thanks for reading :)

When an emotion is suppressed too long, it mutates into something darker.

As Luminous and Lania walk further down the familiar path, his headache advances from dull into stabbing pain. He tries to hide it from Lania by walking in front of her.

"Don't take too long, okay? I know how you like to dilly-dally in town!" Lania stops near the first tree beside the path as per usual.

He turns around, and says gently, "I will return as swiftly as I can, dear Lania." At that moment, he feels compelled to express his gratitude to her for the years of companionship. He must do it, before it is too late. "Lania, since I've started living here, for the first time in my life, I'm-ARGH!" A sudden spike of pain in his heart stops him from finishing his sentence. As his vision blurs and darkens, his whole body burns like it is on fire. On top of that, his head feels as if it is going to split into two. It is a disabling pain that is so familiar, yet unrecognisable. For a split second, the Light that has been protecting him all these years cracked. He finally sees the vast darkness that is residing within him, and is horrified. It makes him physically sick knowing that he housed the darkness in his body. Just like an opened floodgate, the darkness pours out uncontrollably, distorting the atmosphere around him.

"Luminous?" Lania asks, a little confused.

Her voice becomes his target. The crave for destruction is impossible to suppress. That dark side of him begins to emerge. No! The darkness inside! It's..! Luminous's face becomes very pale as he struggles with every fibre of his being to gain control of his body.

Lania walks nearer to him with genuine concern on her face. "Are you okay? You don't look so well..."

"STAY BACK! Arggghhh!" He bellows in desperation. Because of such an intense strain on his soul, it finally breaks and splits into two. One of it merges with the Light and becomes Sunfire, while the other is consumed by the Darkness, and becomes Eclipse. A burst of energy is released, out of control. As he cries in pain and joy of freedom, both of his eyes is visibly on fire. Then, he loses his consciousness.

When he is back in control of his body, he feels different. As the smoke around him clears, he sees what he had done before his eyes. The trees around where he is standing are burnt and obliterated. Traces of dark magic still clings on the burning parts. "What have I done?" Luminous looks around for Lania. He finds her fainted in front of the house, injured and hurt. The house is destroyed as well and Penny is nowhere to be found.

Surprisingly, he feels good about it. "The darkness has corrupted my heart... Finally, I am free! This is the first time in a few hundred years that I feel so powerful." He walks in the rubble of the house and found his Shining Rod under the collapsed cupboard. It is gleaming in the sunlight. As soon as he has his precious Shining Rod in his hand, it reacts to him and the crystals on each end of the rod emits an ominous crimson hue. The small light orb the he conjured is now the orb of darkness, and it follows him wherever he goes. "I can feel it, my power is returning. Hahaha, HAHAHA!" He laughs maniacally and leaves the house and Lania behind.

He is in a great mood.

As he walks into the forest, he sees slimes wondering about care-free. "Time to test my powers." He swings the Shining Rod graciously, and without trouble, he conjures Abyssal Drop. The slimes are crushed like ants. He kills more and more, until he is happy with the fluency of casting. It has been hundreds of years, and the weak slimes makes him wonder what made them so disposable. As far as he knows, the slimes were once strong monsters as well. No matter, as long as they provide me with adequate entertainment, I do not care why. He enjoys the killing and proceeds to demolish all the Eyes in the upper region. Blood splatters all over the vines and leaves, creating the illusion of blossoming red flowers. He can not help but scowl at the corpses of the dead creatures. They are weak, so weak. These will not do. He has to be stronger, much stronger! There must be more challenging creatures around.

His feet eventually brings him to the town of Ellinia. The fairies who knew him are happy to see him at first, until they see the darkness overflowing from his left eye that is crimson in colour. Immediately, they hide in their homes and disappear out of sight. Luminous walks on with a dark presence. Then, Arwen stands bravely before him. "Stop right there."

Luminous laughs coldly. "Ah, Arwen, Arwen, what do you want?"

"You are not the Suon I know." Arwen says sharply. "What happened to you?" She realises he is holding a Shining Rod, and she gasps. "That weapon!"

"Oh, do you know this Shining Rod?" Luminous raises it and looks at it closely. "It is my only belonging from that time. I am happy to have found it unharmed."

"That was the weapon the Zombie Lupin hid away for a very long time. No human knew of its existence here. Suon, tell me the truth. Who are you?" Arwen asks with dread, and she looks ready to defend herself.

He stares at her with a grin, and the orb of darkness dances around him. "I am Luminous."