A Chronicle of Heroes. Book One: From the void

from the void: Chapter Eight

Rejuvenated, Avar and Zaki advanced, more fiercely than ever, their indestructible light structures now glowing with Nysa’s essence. The followers that had sought refuge at the outer edge of the dark dominion sensed the changes in the light entities’ cores. Avar whirled into the darkness, once again slashing his galactic, indestructible light, instantly vaporizing the dark followers, all the while leaving a trail of melting light behind that stretched onto astronomical leagues, destroying Abraxus’s precious dark particles coming in contact with it.

Zaki aimed his swarm of light beams toward the follower with unmatched speed, burning with turquoise energy swirling with violet. It pierced Abraxus’s right flank, facing no resistance and dissipating the darkness into nothing.

Avar and Zaki were now completely vaporizing this evil, with the intention that it would never return. Avar’s one slash was equivalent to numerous galaxies of darkness being obliterated all around him, and he darted around the realm with complete ease, traveling astronomical distances in a matter of moments. Zaki’s light beams destroyed the right side and the front of the dark structure, illuminating it more and more, before joining Avar.

“We are the lights that will illuminate your darkness forever!” cried Avar.

He and Zaki summoned spherical orbs with lightning speed, their entire structures surrounded by rays of intense, intersecting variations of light. Abraxus could now begin to feel the sensation of this new essence drawing near it and, with every moment that passed, its core grew more and more agitated as its precious self was being obliterated.

Is this my end? the darkness wondered. Its particles shivered as it pondered the possible end of its existence. Will I cease to be? No matter what I do, these lights will always draw from another law that is beyond my understanding. Maybe I am indeed naïve.

Abraxus separated its conscious mass from the destruction all around and was lulled into a trance. The darkness envisioned stretching its dark matter beyond where Yuham lay, extinguishing his golden radiance once and for all. After devouring the light, Abraxus would not stop there. It now saw itself at the highest point with its extensions below, engulfing all the space beyond Yuham, covering every minuscule speck of light and creating more darkness everywhere. It would be the sole entity in existence; nothing would remain except a dense, pitch-black plane spanning the known realms and beyond.

These foreboding thoughts crowded its mind, increasing its greed to unnatural levels. “If it were not for all the obstructions I have faced until now, my form would have already achieved this state. I know by now that my intelligence is not so ordinary.

As the heat from the light drew closer, Abraxus imagined itself face-to-face with the infinite realm. “Yes,” he hissed. “That is what I want: to be infinite, so that my existence might never perish!”

Abraxus came out of its trance state, concentrating deeply again on the light particles scattered all around. It would end these irritating, shining particles and their keepers. Miniature tendrils of dark plasma crept deep within the specks of light, penetrating them and invading each of their intricate layers. It extinguished more light the deeper it went, blackening all that was illuminated.

The enchained light matter started to spread out, creating a mixed expanse of light and shadows all around. Abraxus locked these tendrils to every miniature layer within the specks of light and started sucking their energy to power its own dark matter. Almost instantly, Abraxus felt a nearly overwhelming  surge of energy.

As it drained more of the light, it began to feel its dark energy intensifying; the very threads that held its dark matter together were stretching and spreading everywhere. Abraxus strained against the overwhelming pressure, but the dark dimension continued to grow. Slowly, Abraxus’s form started glowing faintly. It was an eerie, shimmering quality that did not reflect the glow of the light, but instead radiated a horrible sense of coldness and doom. It discharged the very core of its evil, its lust for reaching beyond Yuham into the realm of the Infinite One and a return to the dominance for which it yearned.

Abraxus’s entire form began to vibrate even more violently with satisfaction and the sense of having attained a state of completion.

Upon seeing Abraxus’s transformation, Zaki and Avar stood fast, more determined than ever to vanquish this colossal, dark dimension. They summoned a massive wave of light spheres and columns of light encrusted with Nysa’s essence from every part of their outer and inner cores that burned with a blazing finality, sending it toward Abraxus. The incoming wave of endless lights crashed into the infinite, glimmering darkness and shook the realm, creating booms of waves and debris at the point of impact. As light tore through the energized black matter, the newly-fueled dark material instantly repaired itself, regenerating and emerging even stronger and denser than before.

The deep darkness overshadowed the brilliantly colored light as well, converting the vast distances around it into a realm of pitch black. As this new form stretched toward Avar and Zaki, something began to glimmer faintly among the shadows. Nestled within the deeply blackened space was a hidden passage of light.

Two of these newly revealed light tunnels, each connected to Zaki and Avar and stretching out across the battlefield, seemed to originate from Yuham’s form. It was a bridge of invisible light that Abraxus had not been able to perceive—until now.

And now it understood that these light entities were truly insignificant. Avar and Zaki had received an infinite supply of light and energy from Yuham that he, in turn, had undoubtedly received from the realm beyond.

They all depend on Yuham, Abraxus realized, amused. He is the conduit.

Abraxus focused on Avar and Zaki, hissing with distaste. With one great stretch, Abraxus directed two enormous extensions toward Zaki and Avar. They tried to counter this new extension even though they were battling constantly with glittering dark energy beams and waves of glittering followers. The extensions swiftly avoided their attempt to counter it and coiled around their light connections. The darkness tethered to this now visible passage with an unbinding malignancy.

“This cannot be possible,'' Avar said. “I did not give permission to reveal the light connections. This darkness is ever changing. It has to be stopped or it will keep absorbing more energy. We can still use the energy from our cores until we figure out how to get past these obstructions toward the center.” Avar’s concern was rightly placed, for the energy beams and orbs emitted by the light entities disintegrated instantly. The two light entities themselves started fading. Their magnificent circular and U-shaped structures were dimming at an exponential rate. Abraxus turned to Avar and, to Abraxus’s shock, Avar was still resisting. Even though his resistance was weaker, he countered every dark beam and followers that came toward him using his indestructible outer core. Zaki, now dimmer than ever before, huddled behind Avar, counter-attacking the incoming dark followers. As the darkness grew heavier around them, Abraxus sensed that victory was finally within its reach.

Approaching Yuham now, Abraxus addressed the pure gold, linear light directly, its entire form rippling with a self-satisfied hate. “Look at your beloved companions now; how weak they have become. You serve the wrong infinite being!”

As Abraxus let out a hysterical high shriek that echoed throughout the realm, Yuham’s light flickered.

“I really did hope it would not come to this,” Yuham replied. “Be warned, a creation can never surpass its creator. We will defeat you!”

“I will prove you wrong when I destroy these annoying entities, after which I shall destroy you,” Abraxus retorted.

Abraxus advanced, its form more gargantuan than ever. But in all its fury, Abraxus had ignored the smallest of the light entities, Mōhai.