Hello all, thank you for reading and your encouragement! You have really motivated me to continue writing this.

When there is a common enemy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Before Phantom leaves the town, Arwen stops him. "Phantom, are you going to find Luminous?"

He bows politely, "Yes, my gracious lady Arwen, I am. Would you like me to bring some flowers back to you?"

Arwen blushes slightly, "Ah, no, I mean, thank you for the offer. But I have something important to tell you. It is about Luminous's…. condition."

"Always Luminous, how many times have I heard his name since I arrived?" Phantom grumbles, before asking, "What condition?"

Arwen begins slowly, "Luminous… He is in a very peculiar state now. I fear for his safety."

"My lady, you can be straightforward with me."

Arwen sighs and then says with a determined face, "Luminous has Darkness inside him, and it's eating away at him every second. If you ever meet him and he behaves hostilely, please keep this in mind - his Mode can be tilted to the other side when he expends too much energy from either side."

Phantom takes some time to process the message. "If I am understanding correctly, the Darkness is part of him?"

"It might have something to do with the battle against the Black Mage."

"Great, what a great news," Phantom says sardonically. "Thank you for letting me know, my lady. Your information will surely aid me. Now, I will take my leave." He bows extravagantly again, and then he begins his journey to the place marked on the map.

Phantom stands in front of the entrance to the ravine with his guard up. His hand is placed on his cane, as he stares at the darkened roots overgrowing in the area. The distortion in the atmosphere is apparent. He has a very bad feeling about this, and cautiously turns a corner. That is when he sees the supposedly magical moonlight tree, which is now black and menacing. The leaves are rotting on the branch, and the body is hoarse and cracking. Suppressing his anger and regret for the lost of the last remaining magical tree of its kind, he looks around and finds a dark figure lying on the ground, encased in black roots and covered in a black aura. It appears to be the source of the corruption in this ravine, because the roots are all connected to it.

Phantom stands a distance away from that figure, preferring not to risk being in danger, and calls out, "Luminous?"

There is no response.

Phantom waits for a while before using his Calling Card on the roots of the figure, cutting some away. The separated roots wither and disintegrate almost instantaneously.

Then, the dark figure reacts violently. He jolts up, tearing all the roots that were encasing him and opens his crimson eyes. One of his eyes is visibly overflowing with Darkness.

Phantom glares at the Mage of Light who no longer has any ounce of light left in him. It disturbs him greatly, for he knew the mage would never succumb to the Darkness willingly. Even if he is not in good terms with the mage, this is something far worse than he anticipated, and he has to help. "Luminous… what have you become?"

Luminous stands up slowly, and his black robe falls gracefully in place as he did it. "Thank you for releasing me from that tree's grasp." The orb that follows him is glowing red, giving him an added touch of ominousness. "It kept me from waking up. I have been poisoning it so that it dies sooner." He says nonchalantly as he roughly pulls his Shining Rod that is also covered in black roots from the ground. As he touches the Shining Rod, it transforms into a black rod.

The way Luminous explained it was cold, without any remorse. This cannot be an illusion, or else my Calling Card will have exposed it. This is real, the real Luminous. Phantom thinks while trying to find any familiarity from this mage full of darkness in front of him. What happened to him? "You are very different from that stuffy mage I knew." He understands Grendel's plead now, and he realises that he made a terrible mistake releasing Luminous. "Are you sure you aren't the Black Mage's reincarnation?" He says sarcastically, trying to invoke a response from Luminous like he usually does during their banter.

Instead, Luminous laughs, and replied in a darker voice than usual, "HahahaHAHAHA, we do have something in common, but I am me, I am Luminous. This world is in need of cleansing by my hands."

Luminous's dark laughter really makes Phantom's hair stand, it was uncanny. He does not have the means to seal this dark Luminous if the time comes, he will have to get someone experienced. The only other way, is to trust Arwen's words about shifting his Mode. He says sarcastically, "What a grand plan. As I remember, the last time The Black Mage tried to do that, he was defeated. So, prepare your defeat, Luminous."

Luminous smiles, then without warning, three black spears erupt from beneath the ground Phantom is standing. Phantom reacts quickly enough to evade the sudden attack. He knows Luminous is always serious when he attacks. "Are we finally fighting for real? It is long overdue. I never liked you much anyway. "

"Our feelings are mutual." Luminous says, rather cheerily. "HahaHAHA! I have been aching to destroy you for a long time!" The spells he casts are relentless, but Phantom strikes back with his razor sharp cards and defends himself with the skills he stole from a bishop.

They fight for nearly half an hour. Luminous's barrier is impossible to break. Phantom tried a multitude of ways to best him, but the attacks never connect. Just a little more time… Phantom slowly feels the exhaustion creeping up on him. Some of Luminous's dark magic spells is hard to dodge, and he always barely escape the hits. All the while, Luminous is laughing maniacally, and seems to enjoy the fight.

He is mad. Phantom observes with disdain, as he dashes away from Luminous's Pressure Void that is following him. There is no sign of Luminous's Mode changing, and Phantom is beginning to doubt if he will survive.

Then, Luminous's attack stops suddenly. He kneels down in pain, clutching his chest. "NO! YOU are dead! YOU are mine!" He shouts like a madman, and then cries out in pain. Phantom gapes at him at first, confused, then he calls out, "Luminous! I know you are there!"

"Aaargh! STOP! YOU-!" The pain contorts Luminous's face, as he casts many highly unstable and deadly Moonlight Spear towards the unguarded Phantom.

Before Phantom reacts, Luminous stands in front of him and takes the hit. He used Light Speed at the very last moment to teleport in front of Phantom. The spears puncture Luminous's body and Phantom quickly catches him as he collapses.

The Darkness is gone, for now. Luminous's eyes returned back to the heterochromia eyes, and blood soaks his black robe. "I… am… sorry…" He says weakly before losing consciousness.

"Apology not accepted, and you have a lot to answer to." Phantom says, and brings Luminous back to the town.