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2024-10-29 19:42:56CHIAROSCURO
By Prince FirelornDISCLAIMERAll the characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. But the work reflects reality somewhat, which is one of the issues of our society.All Rights Reserved.INSCRIPTION“Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.”— Madeline L’EnglePROLOGUEFor the longest time, all I've ever known was...Darkness.I was born and brought up in a family of royals, in a world of thorns and scorn, hate and greed, lies and betrayal, selfishness and parasitism. It wasn't easy surviving on my own but I found my way, in the shadows where I belonged.Many would envy and seek out my lifestyle because it appeared luxurious, and glorious even but it really wasn't. I was trapped in a neverending fight for control and most of all, my life only to see my death encroach slowly, to the point I started having nightmares about it.I was even abandoned by my own father. Well... It didn't matter.After all, they were all parasites. Every single last one of them. The secrets I found out, the lives that were manipulated, used and later destroyed by my enemies were unbearable. They even found their way into my inner circle and betrayed me.I was struck down by my closest subjects, my comrades, and even my clan. I never saw it coming.It was a nightmare. I thought I had died and gone to hell but no, I had entered a whole new world of darkness, a void that called for my name and my shadow that kept me alive.At first, I thought it must have been a dream, a silly confusing dream, being able to shift between the realms. But I was wrong... It was real, it was all real. Though the world was truly black, and there was nothing but the shadows of the people, it was an honest world where no lies could be made, a place called The Void.Fiction to reality, the imagination now turned to fact. It was all in my grasp, until... I finally merged with my darkness, returning to my realm to get revenge on all my betrayers.I took them all down, one by one, nothing would be left of their souls as I wreaked havoc on my enemies. A year went by and I accomplished something that only dubbed me a tyrant in my kingdom.And as a tyrant, I was banished by my own father and sought the dead lands as a cripple. With time, I found myself imprisoned in the deadliest of prisons by mistake only to rise in the ranks and gain authority over the prison.I found myself some true comrades, even forming a harem along the way only to depart from them on a lone quest for my final revenge. A one-on-one with my one true enemy...I struck them down but at an enormous cost...With my reality gone and none existent to me, I lost myself until... Did I find myself? A doppelganger of mine approached me at my lowest point and offered me his hand.The young man with my face took a few steps toward me as if he was taking a stroll, his steps touch the dark floor, making ripples on the surface, almost as if he was walking on water. He passed through the space that looked like darkness and reached out his hand to me as if to give me a handshake and said...“We finally meet, it's been a while.”With a few words and an outstretched hand, he offered to show me another reality.It was up to me to decide whether to stay or move forward. Would it be best to take his hand?
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Injured in the heart, bleeding from my eyes, and grasping for dear life, I stood at the very edge of a cliff.This was the second time that I was pushed into a corner. I was stuck in a place of peril as I was surrounded by all my enemies and the lifeless bodies of my allies.There was no escape, none at all. Only death remained."Didn't think we'd get you, huh, Your Highness?" a man clad in gold mockingly asked.*COUGH* *COUGH* I spilt so much blood from my mouth, the injury they had inflicted on me was killing me faster than I thought it would.With my bloodied mouth, I mustered what little strength I had and asked, "Why?""Huh? You want to know why!?" The man in golden armour approached me with widened eyes.My chest tightened even more, it was heavy and hard to breathe.The man smirked. "All this time, and you didn't know why we were after your life?"I painfully mentioned, "I had my suspicions.""Suspicions?""Greed, money, power, who knows? It was inevitable that I'd encounter a f
SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO) WHAT MAKES A MAN?
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SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO) HOW DOES A LORD ACT?
Before I could relax my furious expression, I was alerted by the sudden footsteps of Penelope entering my chambers...“Sire! I've found your shoes,” Penelope said as entered my room with my poulaine shoes in her hands.“Ah, yes... I see.” I composed myself and proceeded to wear my shoes, they were of oxblood in colour and had a golden tip on both shoes.Once I had worn my shoes, I took a special glass bottle that I left in my drawers with a golden substance in it.I went to my human-sized mirror and slowly applied the golden creamy contents of the bottle all over my jet-black hair follicles.In a few seconds of applying the golden substance, I witnessed my glossy jet-black hair turn golden almost instantly. I now looked like I had natural blonde hair.I was finally ready, “Penelope!” I called for my maid as I gradually brushed my now golden hair and bangs in place.Penelope approached me and gracefully curtsied while saying, “Yes, Sire?”“I need you to summon for me the lord chamberlai
SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO) WHAT IS AURA?
The silver armoured knight with his loud and smoky voice, addressed the people once more, “Have you all lost your heads!? You stand before a prince of the royal family!”The knight concluded with a loud stomp on the wooden platform, “Do you all wish to have your heads on a pike for treason!!?”After hearing him out, the people's attitude changed from disapproval to respect at that moment. However, once the noise had subsided the honourable knight's words were rebutted by another knight to my left.The knight had a soft yet egotistical voice and spoke like a noble, “And why should they not lose their heads!? These... 'commonfolk' just received a royal decree spelling their demise...!"He walked to the other side of the platform, facing the people as if he was addressing them and not the knight, and he continued, saying, "Why should they not panic? These PEOPLE have been handed with unjust cause to the infamous Incompetent Prince!”The knight stood tall after his short speech, he was ju
SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO) MY SECOND BATTLE
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SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO) MASTER OF AURA
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SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO) MY FIRST TIME?
"Urgh...!” my head throbbed and ached. It seemed that I had too much to drink, even though I dislike it.“Ah!” The afternoon rays caught my eyes once again. I took a moment to take a breath and refresh my thoughts.Then I slowly opened my eyes to find myself in my private chambers on my mattress, naked, disgruntled and hungover from the previous night's feast. I took a glance around, and to my left, I saw a sleeping maiden lying naked on my left arm. I took another glance but to my right, this time and I saw another maiden lying naked sleeping on my right arm.“What in the ass cheeks happened last night!” I suddenly thought as my eyes were glued to the Maximus Gluteus of the sleeping maidens that slept beside me.I looked to the ceiling of my bed and softly uttered, "Damn..." while imagining how I had just lost my virginity just last night, at the age of 17 and to two dames at that.It wasn't much of an achievement but I was kind of impressed with myself, actually, proud in fact. But
SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO) WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A LORD?
“Sire...?” Sir Ferdinand watched as I stood up from the bed, folded my arms behind my back in a regal manner and walked to the window, watching the people working around the estate."Tell me, Sir Ferdinand. In all this time of being the lord of the state, what have you accomplished?""Sire?""Tell me!" I demanded in a loud tone.The old man nervously rubbed his fingers together as he said, "I-I gave the people more work, which means more workers for the state, and with more labour, there comes more revenue."He paused, waiting for my response but I kept silent and continued to watch the people work through the window.Lord Ferdinand was still nervous, but he continued, "I-I gracefully offered to the old farming jobs so they could meet the town's taxes quota, I-I r-recruited the young men to work honourable jobs in town. I even established a district for the young women to work and provide for themselves in these trying times..."He added with confidence in his voice, "I have done a lo
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AURA ABSORBER
The illusionist had us trapped in between walls of the garden labyrinth; two walls blocking the paths towards the outer layers of the labyrinth and one wall, blocking the very centre of the labyrinth where the source of all the aura illusions, the illusionist dwelled. I observed the two other walls, and I raged, "Damn it! They're solid illusions as well. That bastard's got us just where he wants us!"*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*A resounding clash of fists against the centre wall was heard, over and over and over. It was Sir Dustin.He was using all of his might to punch that illusion wall, however, no matter how many times he punched the wall, he couldn't even make a dent on the wall. It was made stronger than any other illusions so far.After a few minutes of non-stop punching, he finally stopped. His knuckles were cut with some of the skin peeled off, the edges of the fingers were bruised and the cut areas were bleeding a bit.Feel
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TRAPPED, TRAPPED LIKE RATS
I reached for Sir Dustin's arm and yelled, "Run!" And we sped away from the area, speeding through a few corners.Once we came to a stop at a dead end along a long path, we took a long moment to catch our breaths. I was on the hard floor, with my knees on the floor and my back to the wall. Sir Dustin was still standing tall, his excalibur still in his hand and his other hand on his waist.We were now sweating, dehydrated, starving and exhausted from the long run. We made sure to run through five different corners and changed paths a few times to get to where we were.While gasping for air, Sir Dustin questioned, "Do...Ha...! Do you think they'll appear again, I mean the lightmen, sire?""I...I couldn't say. But I think...Ha...! Ha...! I think we lost them for now. Right now, we need to recover what little strength we have left."The moment we dropped our guards, a flash of blue light struck the unsuspecting Sir Dustin on the back and he f
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AMONGST THE HUMANS
Sir Dustin's eyes widened at the truth that I exposed his ears to. Conflicted, he stood up from my side on the wall and took a moment to think to himself. He walked aimlessly around me which was annoying and somewhat dizzying to watch.I thought as I watched him stressing, "Where does he get the energy? I'm gasping for air down here and he's busy speed-walking left to right repeatedly!"He even began scratching his head and rubbing his chin in deep thought as he speed-walked around me.While moving erratically, Sir Dustin muttered to himself silently, "Poison to humans, life to aura benders... How? Why?"I could see it all from his body language, he was very intrigued, curious and maybe a bit afraid."Is it too much information to handle?" I said, stopping his random erratic movements."But sire, that...just doesn't make any sense," he stated with doubt in his eyes.I sighed for a bit then rubbed my eyes, I felt like telling this truth to someone as dimwitted as Sir Dustin was coming
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THE POWER OF ILLUSIONS
Sir Dustin and I ventured back into the labyrinth abandoning any thoughts of escaping the labyrinth but instead, finding the culprit that trapped us here.As we followed the illusion deeper and deeper into the maze-like labyrinth, we found ourselves being attacked, psychologically."Hmm... We're getting closer to the source of the illusions, I can feel it." I said.Sir Dustin mentioned, "Sire, from the looks of it we seem to be going to the very centre of the labyrinth.""Indeed," I replied.Navigating our way back into the labyrinth was not as difficult as finding a way out, we were making good time as well. But then..."Sire, look out!" A sword made completely of just aura appeared and tried to strike me down.I fell to the floor, weaved and dodged the attack, accidentally hitting my back on the labyrinth wall that was behind me, I was a bit injured from the impact.As I looked up, I saw the aura sword that struck
- SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO)
LABYRINTH MIRAGE
At the garden labyrinth, Sir Dustin and I were navigating the path of the garden labyrinth with haste for hours on end...I caught sight of an opening. “Over there! There's Come on, man! Pick up the speed!”Sir Dustin was right behind me, we ran as quickly as we could speeding through all the corners to reach the exit.As we sped through the labyrinth, the paths behind us began to exponentially grow in vegetation, closing up the paths we came from.Some may have wondered, why couldn't we just climb over the wall of the labyrinth? And they wouldn't be wrong for asking such, but there were three problems to even attempting to climb the walls; First of all, the walls were at least 9 ft tall, which would be difficult to climb in the first place.Secondly, even if we tried to climb the tall walls of thick vegetation, there were sleeping vines growing in between the walls. These were thick strong vines that had prickles all over them and each prickl
- SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO)
RATS IN THE MANOR
Sir Dustin stood there, dumbfounded and somewhat confused as to what I meant. I turned to him and gave him the rose, instructing him to hold onto it. His brows immediately furrowed with confusion when I gave it to him.He just kept staring at the peculiar wild rose as if he was trying to solve a puzzle with his eyes. I, on the other hand, was trying to solve a bigger puzzle.Once the rose was in his hand, I turned away from him once again and marched along another path away from the dead end.As I marched along the new path, I ordered the confused silver knight, “Follow.” And he did with the rose delicately in his hand.As he obediently followed me, Sir Dustin's expression changed from confused to intrigued...“Sire—"I immediately interrupted him, “—Quiet! Just follow.” Once we got to a corner, I stopped and ordered, “Pull out a petal from the rose.”“Pardon, sire? I don't understand.”I sighed, scratching my head i
- SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO)
SURVIVAL AND PROTECTION
Sir Dustin looked at me with a confused expression.“Excalibur?” he uttered a question.I answered, “Yes, that shall be the name of your sword from this henceforth.”He retrieved his 'Excalibur' and sheath it. He stood up to me and asked, “But what exactly IS Excalibur? I don't think I've ever heard of such a sword before.”I tucked my hands behind my back, holding that stance as I walked away and gestured for the silver knight to follow me. As we strolled through the winding labyrinth of the garden I began to explain the origins of the name, Excalibur...“The sword known as Excalibur is an old tale of a medieval time”“Medieval time, sire?”“Yes, well... It's a time long before the great world war, a time of simpler time kind of like this one but less... Evolved.“Evolved? Sire?"“Well... We're not savages, we do have some knowledge of science and technology."“Why yes, sire. You do have a point, but didn't we lose all that during the great world war?”“Haha, you would think...”“Pard
- SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO)
EXCALIBUR
I stood there dumbfounded by Sir Dustin's request, no, his life wish. This wasn't a game, this was life or death. And he was betting it all on me. I was seriously stressing out. so much that I began to retreat from the scene.“Master?” Sir Dustin looked at me slowly retreating with such sincere eyes.I was perturbed, I stopped myself and stood still. I began to think but no matter how I thought about the situation I couldn't reach a better conclusion.The more I saw him on his knee with his bleeding hand, it made it even more difficult to decide if this was the right course of action or not, I couldn't just trust him but...his conviction to serve me made me think otherwise.At the moment, all I could do was...“Fine...!” Menacingly, I rolled back my golden-dyed curly bangs back as I said that. My expression had suddenly changed from calm to thrilling.“Pardon, sire!? Did you say...?"“I said I'll do it but you're going to have to
- SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO)
BLOOD KNIGHT
“I... I... I'm not,” Sir Dustin was speechless and demoralized by my questions. He couldn't even muster any rebuttals. His expression had become that of a defeated man, utterly sad.I left his head to fall, and his other knee fell with it. He was quiet after that, it made me think, “It seems that I may have broken his will and pride. That's unfortunate. I'd have thought he was stronger than that.”I pocketed my hands and began to step away from the fallen silver knight. As I did, I also thought, “No matter! If he wasn't able to handle a little criticism, then he would never be able to handle the burden of staying by my side. My path, after all, is a treacherous one.”As I slowly walked away, my ears caught some noise from behind me, it sounded like a deep inhale and...“Is he... Still...?” I turned back only to witness Sir Dustin, still on his knees inhaling the cold air around him.“What is he...?” I couldn't finish my thoughts.With