A Chronicle of Heroes. Book One: From the void

From the void: Chapter Four

With that, Avar hurled with warp speed straight into Abraxus’s gargantuan form. His motions were sleek and seamless, as if the very space was moving with him, and the energy was so intense that Abraxus’s outer particles instantly vaporized.

Undaunted, Abraxus shifted its core again, determined to protect it at all costs as Avar’s form slowly faded from view, lost within the outer form of the darkness.

An instant later, however, there was a burst of mesmerizing, golden particles, and Abraxus’s outer shadows shattered, blown apart into billions of obsidian fragments that swirled around Avar, a tornado of glittering black matter mixed with gold. Leaving no time to react, Avar’s light became a vortex, eliminating Abraxus’s exterior form with inescapable force.

Abraxus could feel its structure slipping away, and the darkness let out an anguished cry. All around it, the microscopic parts of it were dissolving. The shadowy particles that had allowed it to stretch throughout the realm for countless millennia were disintegrating and fading from view.

But Abraxus was not overcome, and it let out a hiss of self-satisfied disdain; Avar’s powers represented only a fraction of the darkness’s coming retaliation. “I can sense every particle of my prodigious form–the part that you have vaporized was a mere thread of my entire existence. Did you really think you could vanquish all of me?”

Much more rapidly than the first time, the darkness formed two mega extensions that radiated the very nature of deep, dark malice. They stretched and twisted without limit, and Abraxus called upon them to race toward Avar. In a flash, Avar vanished, his light particles moving so quickly that they seemed to cover the surrounding space. Abraxus was appalled, for the laws the light utilized were radically new.

Avar suddenly reappeared, impressively expelling Abraxus’s extensions with another flash of energy that transformed into two super nebulas of golden light composed of millions of solidified light energons clustered together. The light beams collided violently with the black extensions and produced a deafening eruption; energy became warped with darkness, surrounded by glittering particles of residue. Abraxus’s extensions vaporized into nothing, and the pillars of light rushed toward the darkness, surrounding its endless coils of smoke.

“Your experiments with your own self over the last few millennia are serving you well,” Avar acknowledged. “But with the light, you could be so much more.”

Abraxus’s particles stiffened slightly, alerted by the light’s words–Avar had given the darkness an idea.

Abraxus was surrounded by the fragmented matter from the cosmic strike; residual dark and light particles of various sizes hovered throughout the realm, from miniscule specks to gargantuan, undefined structures. The darkness concentrated every particle of its dense, hardened consciousness, focusing it into the closest residual light particle. It became clear that the object was a single, thin speck, opposite to its own nature in every way, just as Yuham had told it. This particle of light was intricate and pulsing with energy, spreading around Abraxus’s form, while the particles of the darkness were shadowy and hollow, with little substance to spread and instead serving to blacken their surroundings.

Upon focusing harder on the particle, Abraxus found that it contained an entirely different, microscopic realm, with even smaller fragments swirling within it like a minuscule spiral. This light consisted of several intricate layers, expanding until it illuminated its surroundings. Contrastingly, there were no realms hidden beneath Abraxus’s dense particles… nothing but an endless abyss of emptiness.

Upon discovering the physical nature of the light, Abraxus’s evolving self-esteem boosted the darkness’s energy and determination; Abraxus instantly instructed the conscious layer that had converged into the light particle to spread across its entire form.

Astonishingly, this modification caused every particle in Abraxus to morph into a vague imitation of the same specks that made up these light entities. Abraxus resurfaced, realizing the effect of this transformation: the thin, wispy dimension of darkness had been replaced by a condensed black layer. Overwhelmed by a euphoric sensation of newborn power, Abraxus summoned ten extensions from this new, hardened form and launched one extension toward Avar. It stretched out endlessly, convulsing malevolently as it rushed toward its target, preparing to strike.

Undaunted, Avar reacted with another colossal, golden light beam, which he sent racing toward the extension, causing light to collide with this new, dark extension in a bizarre fashion. The contrasting beams of matter tangled together, each length of energy attempting to overcome the other, creating a wave of new splinters and matter around the point of impact. But this time, Avar’s light only managed to slightly thin the dark extension before it dissipated. Abraxus hissed triumphantly, realizing that its new extensions were strong enough to withstand the light beams, and it unleashed the remaining extensions, which made their way toward Avar again.

The light entity mustered a column of raw energy from his outer rim, meeting Abraxus’s extensions head-on, but just before the light and dark collided, one dark extension veered away from Avar’s light beams and instead shot toward Avar’s right golden rim, which lay seemingly vulnerable. The extension lashed forward, about to meet its mark, when it was suddenly intercepted by a flash of bluish-green light—the arched, turquoise light entity had sent forth a beam of light to Avar’s aid.

Abraxus hissed menacingly. “You dare attempt to thwart me!”

It felt a surge of pure evil as this entity’s aura approached . “I notice your aura is different from Avar’s but still stems from Avar’s energy. What are you?”

“I am the light’s patron,” the third entity declared, “and assisting Avar is one of the reasons for my existence. I wish you had not chosen to oppose us, for now you have truly made yourself unworthy.”

Me, unworthy? Abraxus thought with a wave of wrath and immediately, rings of some fifty formidable nebulas of plasmoid black matter rushed toward this blue-green light with terrible intent.

“Do not focus on Zaki while I am here,” Avar said to Abraxus. His tone was even but held an unmistakable hint of warning.

Avar, the golden entity of all laws, was resolute as he morphed into a shining blaze of light and produced booming, invisible waves that shook the realm, before he finally reappeared in front of his companion. A magnificent glow illuminated Avar’s vivid, silvery core, and he expelled ten columns of beams radiating from the upper border of the golden, rim-shaped supercluster. The beams of light united, crossing over each other to form a web of protection. Abraxus’s extensions slammed into the web, producing a deafening tremor that shook the entire realm, but Avar’s protection was strong enough to prevent the darkness from penetrating it. 

Zaki’s platinum core glowed in respect for Avar as a clump of silverish-green nebulas hovered around it. “Striking me first just because I am smaller–that was a mistake.”

Abraxus halted, paralyzed with astonishment. Instead of attacking me, Avar chose to protect his patron.

Again, Abraxus considered Yuham’s invitation to join the light. “If I yield to the Infinite One, is this what it will be like? Will I also have allies?”

Abraxus was momentarily lost, but the darkness’s pestering self-esteem would not agree to praise anyone but its precious self. So, it thought, why must I yield or swear allegiance to anyone? Even if I was created after them, I am here. I have evolved without them, and I am still resisting these entities of old.

Abraxus’s thoughts were interrupted by Avar, who was charging toward him. Behind him was Zaki, approaching with equal vigor–despite his small size, he glowed with a determination and resolve powerful enough to dissolve anything he touched. Avar was surrounded by a faint glow, and glimmering light particles were shining in his wake. It was a majestic, intimidating sight.

Without warning, Avar released a beam of light too powerful for Abraxus to anticipate, and by the time the darkness had composed a defense, the beam of light had pierced Abraxus’s wavy black form, splitting its outer structure and burning a gaping hole that spread uncomfortably close to the centrally placed consciousness. Abraxus hissed, writhing in agony as its shadowy particles were torn apart by the unimaginable energy.