Rain looked bewildered at the young man who was looking at her with black eyes holding a mixture of amusement and mild analytical interest. He was beautiful, almost as handsome as the former idol Kai, whom she had met a few months ago. The young man wore a black t-shirt under an open black and red hoodie; his night-black hair fell over his forehead.
Rain also felt something; it was like a kind of supernatural aura and calm radiating from that young man. Suddenly, she felt nervous, her heart beating strongly, and her cheeks burning—not that she would ever admit it, of course.
She watched as the young man smiled and greeted her.
"Hi," he said in a calm voice.
Rain raised a trembling hand, pointing her finger at the stranger's head.
"You are... you are... you are..." she said, unable to complete the sentence due to astonishment and shock.
The young man smiled, amused to see her reaction.
"You are the Lord of Darkness, Uriel," she finally managed to say those words.
...
Uriel looked at Rain with amusement in his eyes at the girl's reaction.
'Adorable,' he thought, truly entertained.
"Yes, I am. The Lord of Darkness, the monster among monsters, the one who breaks common sense. Yes, that's me. You must be Sunny's student? Rain, right?"
Uriel saw the girl nod timidly.
"Y-yes."
"Wow, so he really became a teacher. Well, let me tell you, I defeated your master and the great Changing Star even while being a Sleeper," said Uriel, making Rain's eyes widen.
"I also killed a Corrupted monster and survived two death zones completely alone, with a single leaf that served as clothing."
Rain felt her world spin. Although she had seen the movie Dark Salvation, she never really took it seriously.
The protagonist, Uriel, was literally every child's dream—being very strong and overcoming nightmare creatures with powerful abilities sounded too fantastical.
Then there was the protagonist's carefree, serious, and almost comical personality in different situations, as well as his words, the voice in his head making him utter strange and comical comments, giving him a charismatic air. And then there was the ending where the tower collapsed and he slowly abandoned it, injured, whispering moving words. And now, she was facing the real Uriel.
"Hey, Rain," said Uriel, snapping the girl out of her reverie.
"Y-yes," she responded nervously.
"Do you know how this thing works? I've tried turning it on, but I just don't fully understand it yet. And the manual isn't helpful."
"I do. It's quite easy," she said, looking at the projector.
"Oh, great, you're very smart. Will you help me put on the movie about me? I want to know if I cheated that director well or threa—... ahem, I mean, to get a bigger profit," he corrected himself quickly.
Rain nodded, and so, in some strange way, she ended up sitting next to one of the world's most famous people on a large sofa, watching the movie about the Forgotten Shore.
Uriel watched the black screen, and the first image that appeared was a group of Sleepers escaping from a well-recreated CGI nightmare creature. The Sleepers were desperate; the monster was about to end their lives when something landed on the beast, raising a cloud of dust.
As the dust settled, it revealed a teenager with black hair and red eyes that seemed to pierce the soul of anyone who stared at him.
And then he uttered some words that made Uriel raise an eyebrow.
"...Darkness guides us, protects us on our path of life. But it is up to us to succumb to it or use it to become stronger."
"Crap," said Uriel, facepalming. This would be two very long hours of his life.
Uriel watched the movie with a calm face, not showing any emotion.
The movie continued, showing how Uriel had met Caster, completely changing the context and adapting it so that the two met while fighting a nightmare creature.
Then, both fighting together to feed the Sleepers, who, motivated, joined the hunt.
Under the guidance of the movie's Uriel, they challenged powerful monsters, and the only phrase that seemed to repeat was: "You're crazy," and he would respond: "I'm not crazy; the world is the one that's crazy," all while a mystical wind moved his hair and clothes.
The movie continued with the encounter with Tessai and his words: "Go to hell, you and your castle. These are my people, my town. If you dare attack them, you'll know why they call me the Human Monster."
The movie followed its course with Nephis's arrival, who was played by a woman very similar in physique and appearance; Sunny, who was played by a child, to his amusement; and the actress playing Cassie being a bit mysterious as the Seer who told them about things that would happen soon, so they prepared, fought, and won.
Something interesting was that "You're crazy" was Sunny's iconic phrase when he heard some crazy plan, like killing a demon or a devil.
As the second half of the movie passed, things changed. In a fun way, the director devised a kind of romance between Caster and Nephis, having one or another moment of deep camaraderie while the protagonist continued to inspire everyone, being the hero who illuminated their hearts.
Since the Sleepers didn't know what happened on their journey to the Hollow Mountains, the director took creative liberties to reach an ancient ruined city and fight a powerful nightmare creature where everyone, injured and exhausted, barely managed to win, with Sunny being the one who killed the beast, shouting:
"I'm crazy for doing this!"
Honestly, Uriel laughed at that; even Shade was dying of laughter inside his head.
Then, when they returned, the castle battle occurred between the Dark Hero and the Golden Lord.
The battle was intense, well-choreographed with incredible effects and good background music to add more tension.
In the end, he adopted his monster form, reciting Gunlaug's sins while brutally eliminating him—something he thought they would cut but surprisingly left in.
"Die on that throne you so desire," said his actor in a tired voice with visible wounds on his body, in a cool way, before fainting.
Immediately, Tessai gave the order, and the castle exploded.
The tension focused on Nephis and Tessai having an intense duel where Nephis won, killing Tessai, saying: "Better you die in my place."
The third act had Uriel giving his speech, which he felt proud of since it sounded cool. Then came the siege of the Crimson Spire, being a huge devastation where the Dark Hero became the spearhead, blocking an entire front to relieve the pressure.
Effie, Nephis, Seishan, and Caster took the lead, fighting bravely until the storm began and then disappeared before the sun started to damage their souls.
Upon hearing a bell, everyone ran to the doors of the Crimson Spire where they hid. Then came Nephis's words to Sunny to guide him, to which the young man nodded.
In the end, Uriel, injured and pale, told them he would open a path to the Spire as much as he could, and so he did. While Nephis dealt with the Nameless Sun, Sunny guided the army, and Uriel handled and drew the attention of the monsters. They reached the gate; Sunny entered first, then everyone else followed, very badly injured.
In the end, Caster carried Nephis in his arms and stayed to fight with Uriel until the end, being how everything began and would end.
Of course, Uriel frowned upon seeing this, as it was a total lie and creator's liberty.
In the end, Caster sacrifices himself to save his friend from a mortal attack, while saying it was a pleasure to fight until the end.
The actor cries while the tower collapses.
The final scene shows a bloodied, badly injured Uriel looking at the destroyed tower and the black world of the Forgotten Shore, saying: "As long as there is light, there will also be darkness. My duty as the Lord of Darkness is to protect the light of humanity. As long as there is light, there will be hope for the future." And then he advanced into the unknown, and the screen turned black, beginning the final credits.
...
Rain was a bit nervous not seeing any expression on Uriel's face; his expression was hidden by deep darkness, but Rain felt cold, a cold that slowly felt like it was freezing her soul.
She observed the powerful Ascended's face, feeling a bit of fear. Rain did the best and most important lesson from her master: simply escape. And so she did.
...
Uriel sighed, then stood up. A transcendent soul shard appeared in his hand; he squeezed it with a devastating grip, turning the shard into nothing but fine dust. Then he summoned another, and then another.
In the end, he crushed thirty of them until he managed to calm down.
His image, his wonderful image that he had worked so hard to create, had been severely damaged.
"To hell with this. I'll kill Griffith."
Uriel prepared to summon Suoul, Gunlaug, and the Fallen to burn the director, who was stuffing himself with money over that crude movie, to the ground. Everything was wrong, except for the action; that was its only good point.
"Hey, calm down. Better start meditating a bit," said Shade, looking amused at Uriel, who was pacing from side to side.
"They ruined our image. We were supposed to be cool, dark, not some kind of messiah with an air of grandeur."
"Come on, it can't be that bad," said Shade, dodging a chair thrown by Uriel.
"You think it's not a bad movie?!" he shouted furiously.
"We're talking about a movie that's hard to watch, barely enjoyable, tiresome to the eyes, tedious, slow, bland, far-fetched, ridiculous, absurd, mediocre, absurd, mediocre, crude, silly, foolish, improvised, sloppy, patchy, scammy, smoke-selling, wasted, unbearable, disastrous, vile, vomit-inducing, ill-intentioned, patched, venomous, corrupt, hideous, clumsy, backward, nauseating, screwed, disposable, troublemaking, deflated, unfortunate, deficient, disrespectful, stupid, subhuman, filthy, discredited, tasteless, insipid... and above all... a bad movie."
Shade blinked, bewildered, hearing the venom in Uriel's voice as he described the movie.
"Damn, and I'm the sick one." Shade wisely took control of the body, leaving Uriel alone for a few hours; he doubted Uriel would snap out of his furious trance quickly. He just hoped he wouldn't destroy everything; he didn't want to rebuild from scratch again.
Sitting in front of the tablet-shaped communicator, he put on some Night and Gale music, which had a good pop rhythm. He continued drawing for a few hours; after adding the colors and dialogues, he archived everything in a folder, sending it to the agency by email. Now he just had to wait for a response.
For a moment, Shade entered his mental space, seeing how Uriel was already tired and asleep. The exterior had been recreated as a city that ended up destroyed and unrecognizable by Uriel's rage.
In the end, he simply returned, watching videos on the internet about Mongrel and opening a discussion forum that ended in chaos of haters toward him.
One of the biggest defenders was called: "The Mongrel's Flame," who responded to his biting comments.
Shade had fun with this and continued throwing hurtful things about their ideology, gaining more hate until he was finally banned. He created another account to continue hating.
...
After a few hours and creating ten different accounts, Shade laughed like a maniac, throwing sarcastic comments, inciting more chaos. Even streamers and followers of Mongrel went live to defend their inspiration, and Shade sent a video call link, of course using a Memory mask that hid his face as well as his hair color, making him appear bald.
The debate was long, where Shade mocked, destroying every argument with evil comments, attracting thousands and thousands of people to watch the discussion.
"So you say you can beat Lord Mongrel!" shouted Noobmaster69 furiously.
"Pfff. I can beat him without even lifting a finger. Bring him, and I'll make your idol surrender to me and say he doesn't want to fight you." And after saying that, he left the call, seeing the final result of all the chaos he had created and the thousands of furious comments.
Shade began to laugh like a maniac before stopping and looking at Sunny, who was leaning against the wall.
"Did you hear all that?"
"Every word. So you would beat me without lifting a finger? Aren't you very confident?"
"Oh, come on, it's on the internet. Besides, look." Uriel threw the communicator to Sunny, who caught it, looking at the thousands and thousands of comments from furious Mongrel followers demanding a duel in the DreamScape.
"Seems you were quite entertained."
"Yes, I think a certain 'The Mongrel's Flame' became my virtual number one enemy. Swearing she would find me and eliminate me and all that."
"I never thought you'd use a Divine Memory to act like a celebrity and all that."
"That was a miscalculation. It just got out of control very quickly," said Sunny.
"Oh, are you crazy?" said Shade, making Sunny freeze.
"Did you see the movie?"
"Yes, it was fun, in my opinion, but let's say for Uriel, not so much. He was very angry. He even wanted to send a dragon to destroy Griffith."
Sunny blinked, bewildered.
"A what?"
"Dragon. A transcendent beast and all that."
"Shouldn't have asked."
"Do you want to know how..."
"No," Sunny interrupted, refusing to hear anything else that would shatter the common sense he thought he knew about the world.
For the first time, he didn't want more knowledge coming from Shade, Uriel, or whatever those two were.
"Oh, by the way, I met your student," Shade commented.
"Really? I thought I told her to come in a few days?"
"She's quite a smart and fun girl. She helped me with the projector."
Sunny nodded.
"Are you hungry? I can make something," said Sunny.
"What do you want?" asked Shade.
"Well, you caught me. I need some transcendent shards; I want to try some things."
Without saying anything, Shade left a pile of glowing shards on the synthetic wood table.
"Can you make ramen?" asked Shade, looking at Sunny, who thought for a few moments before nodding.
"Sure, I can, though it will take some time."
"Alright. I'll continue watching all the chaos I caused online and all that," said Shade, grabbing his communicator and starting to read the hate comments he was receiving.