Novaris: Adventure in the Shattered Fang Continent

Elegnos watched as his dark chains melted away into the darkness, and his spell came to an end. Then, the girl rose from her bed as the darkness in the room became real and lifted her body, turning it into a detailed humanoid mass of darkness enveloped in black energy, almost akin to abyssal flames.

As he watched in shock, Elegnos saw how her eyes turned dark purple and gushed out dark purple darkness, along with her once silver hair turning as black as his lady's realm.

The power emanating from the being in front of him made Elegnos feel like he was staring at one of Setiel’s Dark Celestial Angels while they channeled her energy and became her avatar in the physical realm.

Elegnos was pulled out from his shock as the being in front of him motioned its palm outward, and Elegnos was pressed against the back wall with a blast of darkness. Elegnos felt the darkness holding him change consistency as he was glued to the wall. Now facing real danger, Elegno's sharp mind became focused as he dropped the silence spell and started his body enhancement at full power by channeling his mana.

Whatever this thing was, it was still only at D rank and had merely surprised him. There was also the fact that his body hadn’t been enhanced, and he had been holding on to another spell. However, now things were going to change. So Elegnos began pulling his lady’s power from his soul without bothering to dilute it much. Luckily, his adrenaline-filled body lessened the burn as the mana channeled through him. Then, feeling his lady's blessing, he began wrestling for the control of the darkness all around him.

And, of course, he was a C Ranker, and whatever might have happened with Jasmine’s body that allowed it to become a D ranker wasn’t normal, and Elegnos could feel as the body in front of him sustained minor damage from jumping ranks.

So Elegnos quickly took control of the darkness and shoved it back at the creature in front of him, causing it to stick to the wall.

Sadly, that's when things took a turn for the worse.

Jasmine had been knocked out, and she wandered in the realm of darkness. She didn’t know how she was conscious while knocked out, but it was better than nothing.

As she wandered in the void for what felt like an eternity, she finally felt something. At first, she thought it was her consciousness coming back, but when the bright dot of white light appeared in the distance, she knew it was something else.

Having nothing else to do, she began her journey to the small speck of light that seemed to be growing. It was an odd sensation because she did not feel she was moving fast enough to explain the light's progress.

So curious, she decided to stop her journey, and sure enough, the light itself was growing and coming closer to her. Wanting to learn what this mysterious light was, she ran towards it as fast as she could.

She ran and ran until she finally closed her metaphysical eyes to avoid the brightness of the approaching light. The light eventually rushed past her, and she opened her eyes, finding something, but she was unsure what.

A Soul, something told her—their soul.

It was an interesting sight.

The soul was round, and from what she could tell, it had three separate sections, a guess that was confirmed a few seconds later as the knowledge entered her mind.

There was an empty round section at the center that she now knew was the core. The core was empty, but she knew it was the most important part. It was what held the entire thing together. This core's walls were made of swirling multi-colored light. The walls separated all three sections but were also what connected them and kept the other two in check.

Something else that she instinctively knew was that the walls were hollow and would act as pathways for mana. She couldn’t feel this mana but didn’t know any better and decided not to question it for now. So, she moved to inspect the other two sections.

What could be considered the inner section was made of swirling darkness, and somehow, Jasmine knew that it was her brother’s. She couldn’t feel much from the darkness but a cold, uncaring presence that lashed out at the multicolor walls. This darkness attempted to consume the walls and even managed to make pin-sized holes in them every now and then. However, the repairing walls and the searing light of the third section quickly burned and resealed the darkness.

The third section was hers. She felt a connection to it, and through it, she felt yet another connection to the goddess Luxana. Where her brother's area was cold, dark, and uncaring, hers was one filled with emotions, warmth, and light.

As she felt her energy, well hers and the goddess’s, she felt something else as the light burned the darkness. It was faint, but in the deepest part of the swirling darkness came a feeling of love and affection, and she knew that-that was her brother.

While she stared at their soul in awe at the power they could command, she felt a pull, and suddenly, she rushed through space and was launched back into consciousness.

Coming to was an odd thing. She was in her body and could see through its eyes and feel the world around it, but she could do nothing but watch.

Jasmine felt her brother’s anger at the elf in front of them. She could feel his need for revenge. Her brother wanted to rip this elf apart. Sadly, the elf seemed to outclass her brother's current strength, and as their body was attached to the wall, the elf approached them, dagger in hand.

And that was when Jasmine’s anger reignited.

Being in the metaphysical place had dulled and confused her, so much so that her consciousness was still playing catch up when she was brought back to reality.

However, now, now, she felt all the anger and misery hit her like a wave of force. However, unlike her brother, who consumed emotions to fuel his power, she was the complete opposite. Jasmine tugged on her emotions, increasing their strength as she reached for the power within her.

The spark of light within her grew to a bright burning flame she would use to burn the intruder to dust.

Elegnos saw the purple darkness within the entity's right eye be burned away with a blinding silver light that fluctuated like flames. The energy seemingly turned to light and back to undulating flames as its presence lit up the dark room.

Then, the shining light morphed the body as part of the abyssal hair fluttered to light, gaining a bright white silver-like appearance.

Elegnos watched as the darkness gluing the body to the wall burned away, and the entity floated in the air as darkness and silver-white flames of white light intermixed to create a new existence. He then felt as his body began to slowly be devoured by the darkness and burned away by the light. He felt the entity's anger directed at him, and he felt like a bug in the presence of a god.

However, even as a bug, Elegnos struggled as he channeled more of his power, mixing it with his goddesses. Sadly, it wasn’t enough, and the darkness was quickly removed from his control or burned away.

As he lay on the ground, slowly fading away, his only consoling thought was that he knew that to achieve that level of power and transcend ranks, the brother-sister duo would pay a high price.

As they watched the last pieces of the elf be devoured and burned away, they knew their task was done. And in unison, they returned the borrowed power to their souls.

However, with the power gone, they fell onto the bed and took a look at their withered body.

They saw how their left side was filled with dark spots that seemingly ate away at them without care. Meanwhile, their right side showed severed burns that would take months to heal.

However, even with the damage taken and their now skeletal body, they wouldn't have chosen any other path.

And with a shuddering breath, they surrender their minds to the warm embrace of unconsciousness.

Emeline woke to screams coming from upstairs and was the first to rush up, only to find most of the children outside Jasmine’s door. With a gut-wrenching feeling, she made her way past the kids, telling them to go back to their rooms.

Walking into Jasmine’s room, she was met with a scene she would never forget.

She first noticed Jeremie's body lying lifeless on the floor. The scent of burning wood and smoke followed this sight. A closer investigation also showed an ash pile on the ground and clear burn marks all over the room. She also noticed how some parts of the room seemed darker than others while some were being eaten as if by all-consuming termites.

Looking for Jasmine’s body, she quickly found it and was shocked and appalled by it. Her body was skeletal, as if she hadn’t eaten in months. The right side of her body had severe burn marks, while her left side was covered by dark spots that seemed to melt her flesh. As she watched the child she had raised all these years, worry overcame her shock, and she began inspecting her to make sure she still lived. And thank Zefree, she still lived, her heart pumping with the rhythm of her chest slowly rising and falling.

Just as she inspected her body, Harps rushed into the room.

Looking over at her speedy caretaker, she yelled for him to go and find a cleric any cleric.

Hearing Emeline's distraught voice, Harps did not hesitate before rushing out of the orphanage towards Sol’s Temple.