"Enough talk," Noctharion's voice cuts through the stillness, shaking the very stones of the sanctum. "We begin."
I nod and let my eyes fall shut. My breathing slows, each inhale a quiet, deliberate act. The air itself hums, alive with an unseen pulse, a low thrumming vibration that I feel deep in my bones.
Darkness presses close. Not suffocating, but steady, like a patiently waiting tide.
And I reach for it.
Instantly, it answers.
It doesn't flow in, but surges, a silent, cold tide that wraps around my body. It feels both frigid and strangely warm, like a shadow given substance. There is no resistance, no fight; it simply accepts me, a homecoming I never knew I was waiting for.
Noctharion's deep chuckle rumbles through the chamber. "As expected. Darkness accepts its own."
The shadows coil around my arms, twining through my fingers like wisps of smoke given shape. With a single thought, they ripple and shift, obeying me as naturally as my own breath. A solid sphere forms in my palm, pulsing with raw, contained power.
It feels right. Almost too right.
My eyes snap open. The darkness lingers, a second skin floating just a hair's breadth from my body. My chest tightens, not from effort, but from the sudden, chilling weight of realization. This power… I didn't have to force it. It came to me because it knew me.
But beneath the ease, I sense its depth—a vast, bottomless ocean. This is only the surface of a boundless well. The more I touch it, the more I feel how much lies beyond my grasp.
Noctharion's gaze sharpens, a predator's careful study. His voice drops low, a quiet command.
"Good. But remember, Kael… affinity is only the first step. Darkness welcomes you, yes. But to master it? To command it as I do? That will take more than acceptance. It will take understanding. Resolve. Will."
The shadows around me pulse faintly, a silent echo of his words.
I nod, clenching my fist. The sphere dissolves instantly into a cloud of smoke that vanishes back into the air.
"Then I'll go deeper."
For the first time, it's not just a belief. It's a certainty. Darkness is mine to wield.
---
Noctharion's voice remains calm, but the approval in it is palpable. "Good. First, you must know the difference between darkness and the other elements."
He pads slowly around the perimeter of the sanctum, his claws whispering against the cold stone floor with each step.
"Fire, wind, water, earth—those were self-explanatory. You already understood them well enough. They were bound directly to the physical world. A fire user manipulated flame. A water user commanded liquid. Their power was visible, predictable. They obeyed a set of magical rules, like laws of physics."
The darkness in the room hums, a low, resonant note, as if listening intently.
"No," he continues, his voice dropping to a near whisper. "Darkness was more primal than that. It was not bound to physical matter. It was its own concept. No one could fully define it. No one could generalize it, because it was bound only by the user."
He stops abruptly, his eyes flicking to mine. "It was boundless, limitless, vast, and fundamentally unpredictable. The only true limitation was you—never the element itself."
I swallow, feeling the immense weight of his words settle on my shoulders. The darkness around me feels alive, ancient, and patient. It is not a force to be controlled, but a being to be understood.
"To command darkness, you had to understand it deeply. That understanding came not from lectures, but from time—time spent with it, inside it, becoming part of its flow. You could not force it to obey; you had to learn to belong to it."
Noctharion's gaze grows harder, a challenge in his eyes. "It could destroy anything in your path or it could protect you. It could be your salvation, or it could be your doom. Use it wisely, Kael."
The warning hangs in the air, a silent command. The sanctum seems to lean in, holding its breath, waiting to see what I will do next.
"So I have to spend most of my time trying to understand it?" I ask.
Noctharion nods. "Yes, Kael. The more you understand it, the more your control over it will increase. From now on, every day you will spend all your free time here in my Elemental Sanctum, where the darkness is most potent."
"Okay," I say, a wave of resolve washing over me, cool and heavy.
He simply nods in response, a silent dismissal.
Once again, I close my eyes. The Sanctum fades, and the darkness begins to envelop me. I feel it moving, not through my hands or my mind, but from my breath, into my veins, and all the way to my very core.
It is fundamentally different from the other elements. With fire or water, I feel like a conductor, commanding them to obey my will. But with darkness, I do nothing at all. I simply let it be.
Just as Noctharion said, I am letting it get familiar with me. Now, it is everywhere, a second skin over my body, moving freely.
It feels as though it is observing me. I let it happen, not stopping it, not even trying to guide it. I can feel it, the passing of time marked only by a deepening sense of familiarity.
With that familiarity comes a profound sense of calm, a peace I have never known. So this is what Noctharion meant. It's an addictive feeling, a whisper I don't think I can ever stop listening to.
Just like that, another month passes. My days are a blur of training under the commander, pushing my body to its limit, sharpening my reflexes and response time. My evenings are spent with Noctharion, honing my bond with darkness.
Every day is a step forward, a new layer of progress.
With the commander, I feel my power increase, my body becoming a finely tuned weapon. But with Noctharion, it is on a level entirely of its own. Once again, I am reminded that he is a peak existence in this world. His teaching methods are so brilliant that my control over darkness is soaring, reaching heights I never imagined.
I am also training with other elements, but my darkness has already surpassed them in just a month. Now, I can effortlessly command it, ordering it to take different shapes and perform different tasks.
I can make it form slashing blades, or materialize it into a solid, jet-black sword. The sword holds its shape, an impossible weapon of solidified shadow, until I run out of mana.
The more I see, the more I feel that darkness is the most versatile element out there.
It can destroy everything.
"Good," Noctharion said in his deep voice.
"Your progress with darkness is satisfactory… but you still have a long way to go."
His words echoed, reverberating through the entire room like rolling thunder.
I nodded silently.
"The application of darkness is limitless," he continued. "So keep practicing it."