The Story of One Greater Than The Rest

## Prologue

I'm confused. What am I? I don't even know anymore. I used to know, but that knowledge has been lost. Lost like the fading memories of my family. My parents, my brother. It's been too long. I don't even remember my brother. Did I have a brother? It was too long. I long for those forgotten memories, the sweet joy of my old life, but alas, those memories will keep fading as long as he's in the way. Him. The man who ruined my life. He has successfully found a way to not only ruin my old life, but ruin the memories of it. I want it back. It's not fair. I'm too young for this. My life was not my own. I'm past that now, but I have moved on to another stage of life. A stage where I can't always make the best choices. Some of these choices

## Tuesday

Well hello there, friend. I am Phoenix Longstalk, a Darkager. I know, I know, it sound stupid, but it was the only thing I could come up with that included both Dark Dwarf and Villager in the name. And yes, that means I am half villager and half Dark Dwarf. That means that I just look like a blue villager but I have all the Dark Dwarf abilities. Nothing super complicated. Anyways, welcome to my diary, the place where I will write about everything that happens in my life.

So, to catch you up to speed on who I am and all that junk i'll just tell you my "origin story".

I was once a simple blacksmith's kid who lived in the Eohunian (is that a word?) village of morningvale. I had a nice life, had friends, enjoyed kiddie school(this was approx. 3 years ago, so I was 5 years old), and had great parents. One day, the mayor of my village told us about the war between the villagers and herobrine. I was too young to know what it meant. I was too young to understand how much this war would affect my life. After this, my parents decided to move our house underground, for safety purposes, and took much more safety measures to ensure that me and my brother (I don't remember if I had one, if I did, he was older. I was too young, it's hard to remember) were safe. Unfortunately, those safety measures weren't enough. Herobrine attacked just a couple weeks after the mayor's speech. Not Herobrine himself, mid you, but his minions. It was pretty early in the war, so he didn't end up sending a ton of troops, and thank goodness the highest ranking mob there was a zombie miniboss. Our village fought well, and we succeeded in pushing the mobs back far enough that they retreated. But unfortunately there were a few casualties. None of my family was among them, luckily, but I was a prisoner of war. The likes of my race had never been seen before, I mean a Dark Dwarf and a Villager, that's an unlikely couple, so naturally, Herobrine would want to experiment on me, so, I was experimented on. I was held captive for 30 months, or 2 1/2 years. Finally, one day, a pigman from lavacrest (a city of good monsters in the nether) helped me escape from Herobrine. After that, I took off for my home village, only to have Herobrine's minions stop me. They chased me away from my home, I only just escaped with my life. After that I got on a boat to a continent called Nemract, on which boat I met Gravel Stonecube, an aspiring villager-turned-warrior and I also met ~~a stick named bob~~ an insane pirate captain who tried to kill me but I defeated him. Yup, definitely happened. I would give you the details, but you probably don't wanna hear about a crying pirate captain. After we arrived in Nemract me and Gravel parted ways.

Now you're all caught up. Relatively short origin story, I know, but It's not like I can just totally make up my own origin story that ended here that would change the way I look at things for later plot. No, that would just be weird. Anyhow, this is my first day on nemract, and it's been quite boring. It seems like this continent is a lot of open space. I haven't seen any structures of any kind. ugh. Frustrating.

### Tuesday Update I

Well, I spent a whole day exploring and I haven't seen a thing on my journey. What I would give to see a dirt hut. Well, diary, it's getting late, going to set up camp (by 'camp' I mean a hole in the ground) and go to sleep. That's all for today, Goodnight, my diary.

## Wednesday

Hello, diary. It is about 6 am right now, according to my clock. I am just cleaning up my camp, I wanna leave this place as clean as when I got here, after this I shall continue on my journey.

### Wednesday Update I - The battle

It has been so long since I just appreciated nature in it's raw beauty. my whole life I was just stuck in my village, then running from Herobrine, then was stuck on a boat for a couple weeks, too seasick to notice anything around, and I just got here. Hey, there's a village. Eh, i'll ignore it. Right now, i'm too focused on nature. I don't want to ruin the serenity. Ooh, a rose. Might as well stop to smell it, i'm not in a rush. Talk about stopping to smell the roses. Hmm, it smells, uh, UGH. What kind of rose smells like THAT?!?! That's disgusting! It smells like.. like smoke. Wait. That's not the rose... THAT'S THE VILLAGE! Aw crud, I was just getting the zombie stench out of my nostrils. I gotta help, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't. I approached the wall. There seemed to be no apparent entrance, but just in case I scanned it with my earthsense ability (yes, I know about my Dwarven abilities, I didn't come out of captivity with nothing), and there it was, a button just under the wall. I dug down to it and pressed it. Pistons pumped, redstone activated, and part of the wall had opened to reveal a burning town, with villagers running back and forth, wielding various different weapons, the majority of them being axes and swords. I rushed in, wielding my wooden sword and ready to fight. I had only just entered the village when a zombie approached me. It was wielding a battleaxe about as big as me. I looked up at it, but as soon as I did, the zombie let out a guttural laugh. That laugh triggered something inside of me. I stared at the zombie. Suddenly, all the memories from my past flooded in, knocking away all senses. I remembered my village being attacked, being taken, separated from my family, inprisoned by the fiend Herobrine, being experimented on. I remembered it all. I looked at the zombie. "You fiend!" I yelled. The zombie stopped laughing and gripped his axe tightly after I said this.

### Wednesday Update II

It was all a blur in my eyes. I don't remember much. It was all instinct to me. I teleported right in front of the zombie, launching myself right at him. I smacked into him, sending him into a wall. With incredible speed, I ran at him, Then laid my full power into him, slashing him left and right with my wooden sword, giving him no time to react, and I finally defeated him. Three onlooking villagers gasped at the sight of what I had just done, but quickly turned away after a human showed up. I don't even know how I did it.

"A child cannot fight against the mobs." said a human.

"Eh, well, I'm not from this village, so you can't really tell me what to do, can you?" I replied, annoyed that yet another person underestimated me because of my age.

"Oh."

"How can I help?" I asked.

"We could use a few scouts." The human replied.

"A couple mobs have been trying to sneak through the battle to the east part of the village, you could go there."

"On it." I said, and with that I took off.

As I ran I saw some random items scattered around, most likely mob drops, so I decided to pick some of it up. There was some leather armour here and there, some rotten flesh, but nothing seriously useful. Until I found an obsidian sword. I equipped it and took off again for the east part of the village.

### Wednesday Update III

I had just reached the east section of the village when I spotted a skeleton sneaking along the road. I teleported to him, dealiong with him like I dealt with the zombie, quickly. I won't go into detail, I basically just beat him up and took his bow. Nothing special. I think i'm going to stop writing today, if I want to help save this village I have to focus on the battle. Until tomorrow, goodbye diary.

## Thursday

Hello diary, I am writing this while the battle is slowed down for now. I have been fighting for over a day now, and it's definetly showing. I have Exhaustion I, my obsidian sword is half broke, my armour is in shambles, and I'm almost out of food. That's pretty much what everyone else looks like too. I just don't think this battle will be won by us.

### Thursday Update I

Nightfall is in ruins, but we're still fighting (by the way, Nightfall is the name of this village). There doesn't seem to be any hope. We're not winning the battle, but we're not really losing either. The opposite army seems to be losing numbers at a greater pace than us, but they have more warriors. I'm scared. I don't want another village to be lost to the mobs. I know how heartbreaking it is to lose a village. I can't let that happen to these people. I just can't.

## Friday - The destruction of Nightfall

We seem to have the advantage today, we're pushing the mobs pretty far back, but I don't know how long we'll hold up. I myself am barely holding on. My health is almost always around 1/3 of the max. Wait, what is that in the smoke? It's large. This is not good. Oh crap. It's an underlord.

### Friday Update I

Four things just happened in the past minute, and I am extremely scared.

1. My sword just broke
2. An underlord just showed up
3. He powered up the mobs with his aura abilities
4. A zombie just gave me an uppercut that was so strong I took fall damage.

I think that this would be a good time to start panicking.

### Friday Update II

I ran so fast that I thought I might outrun my torso. I was too scared to think, so I just panicked and started running. I've always been good at running, I always loved it, so this was instinctual for me. The fire in the village had massively sped up spreading, so when I ran into a dead end, the fire blocked my way back. I was so darn scared. I luckily found an alleyway and ran in it. The wall of the village blocked the end of the alley, so I built up and climbed on top of it.

"Goodbye Nightfall." were my last words before sliding off the wall.

### Friday Update III

I feel so bad for the village. I didn't want it to end that way. I didn't expect it to end that way. I don't know what to say. I'm sorry diary, I can't write anymore today, I'm too upset. Goodnight.

## Saturday

I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. I didn't even try. I just sat on my bed underground thinking about the village. On one hand, I know I need to stop sulking, but on the other hand, I can't stop thinking about what I could have done. I know it's not my fault, but I can't stop thinking about it. I think i'll pay a little visit to my good friend Gravel. To try and take my mind off the village. (This is future me writing this FYI: I might start rambling here, I do that to take my mind off of things) When we parted ways he gave me a slip of paper that had the coordinates of his future base. On the way I think I will stop at a village to restyle myself. I'm thinking I should stick with my Dwarven heritage and keep my skin blue, but I wanna look sort of odd as well. To blend in. Yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense, now does it? Well, you see, in the big cities like Aetheria city there are all different kinds of people there, from dark dwarves to lupins (wolf humans), you can see anything there. So, if I want to blend in, I have to look different from everyone else. I think the best choice to fit the criteria I have chosen is to look like a human. Why am I restyling myself, you ask? Because I am being hunted. By Herobrine. You see, I am a Darkager, the first of my kind, or that's what he told me. Which probably means that (spitballing here) I may have resting power or something like that inside of me. If Herobrine somehow found put how to harness that power, and there was much inside of me, he could create an army out of my kind, and it would be extremely powerful. Therefore, he's probably hunting me down. But he can't find me if he doesn't know what I look like. Aw, golly my brain hurts (LTM here, my IRL brain is in serious pain after writing all this).

### Saturday Update I

I have finally found a village! It took a couple hours, but I did. It appears to be a decently large village, I guess the bigger the better. I'm currently looking for a fashion shop to restyle myself. I'm just hoping it's not a noobtown with a bunch of iron armour for the fashion shop.

### Saturday Update II

I walked into the fashion shop, eager to see all the cool designs that were waiting for me. I found something different instead.

"Well hello again." A human leaning against the counter said. He was the one from Nightfall.

"Hello." I said

"Your sword will be ready by tomorrow, Mr. Lucifer," The shopkeeper said.

"Thank you." Lucifer said.

"Good luck, kid." The human said as he walked out of the shop.

*That was cryptic*. I thought to myself.

"How much would it be to change my entire appearance?" I asked the shopkeeper

"I'd say 200 emeralds, for a specimen such as yourself." The shopkeeper told me.

"Alright thanks, i'll be back later." I said, and walked out. I literally had 20 emeralds. There was no way I was going to get that much emeralds before I left. Unless I found a quest. Hurgg. I set out looking for a quest, asking everywhere. I finally found one. A shopkeeper told me that if I brought back 6 stacks of oak logs he would pay me 500 emeralds. I staked out a forest ourside the village and headed there. This was going to take a while.

### Saturday Update III

As I swing at tree after tree I pondered wether Herobrine was still after me. I don't know anymore. Maybe all this is just for nothing, and he's not chasing me down, he's not hunting me. What do I do then? I never thought about this. What do I do with my life when Herobrine's not chasing me? Maybe I should start thinking about that.

### Saturday Update IV

That's eight stacks! Finally, let's go! Alright, i'll head over to the materials shop (that's where I got the quest from) and collect my emeralds.

### Saturday Update V

I've just collected my emeralds and i'm heading over to the fashion shop. It's almost dark out now, so I figure i'll get my order in and come back tomorrow to get it on.

"Ah, you're back again? Got enough emeralds for your new look?" The shopkeeper asked.

"Yes."

"Here's what I want to look like," I said, putting a sheet of paper down onto the counter along with 200 emeralds.

"Oh, goodness. Going for one of those 'retro human' looks, eh?" The shopkeeper asked me.

"Sure."

"Well, this is a complicated design, this is gonna cost more."

"Here." I answered, pulling 50 more emeralds from my inventory.

"Alright, i'll have all the stuff ready by tomorrow afternoon."

"Ok." I said, and with that I turned and walked out the door. I would show you my future look, but I want it to be a surprise for when I actually get it. Now I need to find an inn to stay in for the night. I'm sure there is at least one in town.

### Saturday Update VI

I walked into the inn, *Angel's Haven*, and asked the innkeeper for a room. He gave me the room number and I walked into the main dining hall. looking around, I saw a knight in the corner. I walked over to ask him if I could buy a sword.

"What's a block tall child doing asking me for a sword? Scram, kid."

Needless to say, that's more or less the answer I got from the other people I asked, with some exceptions asking me where my mommy was. Hurggg. I went up to my bedroom and turned in for the night. I figure i'll go look for a swordsmith in the morning. Curse this janky old wooden sword. Well, it's been quite the day for me, goodnight diary.

## Sunday

I walked up to the blacksmith's shop with energy at the thought of a newer, more powerful, sword. I walked in to be greeted by a grumpy dwarven blacksmith.

"Hey, is there any chance you might have some swords for sale here?" I asked the blacksmith.

"Not for children, no." The blacksmith said.

"I am an experienced warrior."

"Sure ya are."

"I can prove it!" I said, a little upset.

"Alright then, there is a training dummy out back, let me see yer ’skills’." The blacksmith replied

The blacksmith led me out back and showed me a dummy. I drew my wooden sword. I used my ability **[[Instant Transmission]]** and teleported toward it, then used my speed boost to launch myself at it. I then crashed down upon it, sending pieces of wood and pumpkin flying.

"Let's see what kinda swords you got inside." I said, walking in the back door. The blacksmith offered me an emerald sword enchanted with sharpness II. I bought it for 250 emeralds and left. I checked my clock, it was about noon. I started walking to the fashion shop. When I got there the shopkeeper (whose name I found out was Cassius) took me to the back room. I won't go into detail (it was kinda awkward), but I came out of there looking brand new. Here, i'll include a picture now.

I asked Cassius for an enchanted name tag.

"Yeah, I got a couple. 75 emeralds though."

"Aw, golly, I only got 50." I said.

"I'll tell you what, since you're so nice, i'll give one to you for 50 if you refer me to a friend." Cassius offered.

"Deal."

### Sunday Update I

I walked out of the blacksmith, feeling like a whole different person. This... this didn't feel like me though. I never wanted to be a warrior in the first place. I was cool with being a blue villager kid, I didn't want to look like a human. But this is the life I have to live now. I am no longer called Phoenix Longstalk, I no longer look like him, and I no longer am him. I am now Cobbel. I can't go back, they'll know me if I go back, and they will kill me.

### Sunday, Update II

I resumed my journey to Gravel's, feeling like a whole new person, which I really was. I had changed my look, and my name, so I am still Phoenix on the inside, but outwardly I am Cobbel, a human seeking adventure. I trudged on and on until I came to a mountain. *Slightly odd. Why would you build a house at the top of a mountain?* I climbed up the hill to find a walled-off base. I walked inside to find a group of humans huddled around someone. One looked like a mage with a purple robe, while one was half black, and there were two regular-looking humans. One of them was standing behind while rest huddled around the other, who was unconscious, but no sign of Gravel.

"This is not what I expected." I said.

"Hey, we just fought a wither and climbed a giant mountain." The mage guy said, picking up the unconscious body. He then hesitated and looked back to me.

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

"A friend of Gravel’s. A better question is who are any of you?” I asked, confused as to why there were random people in my friend's base.

“Oh no. He doesn’t know.” Said the normal awake human.

"Uhh, we're Gravel's friends, or more like were... until he revealed himself to be a supervillain glitch named Entity303." Mage guy said.

"Is this some kind of joke?" I asked, confused.

"Don't believe me? How about you go looking for him now? He tried to kill all of us, just because we're terrarians..."

"Terrarians? What's that got to do with anything?"

"Well, basically anyone who wasn't born in Aetheria, rather we came here from.. Earth, a different world, where we made a bridge with this world."

"Well, yeah I know tha-" I said, but was cut off by an ear-piercing howl

"GOSH DARN WHAT IS THAT?"

I drew my sword, I didn't know what it was, but it couldn't be good. The ground then turned black all around us, and suddenly, a giant weird black abomination jumped onto the wall, crushing it. There appeared to be someone riding it, though I couldn't be completely sure. Then suddenly a figure jumped off the beast and attacked Mage Guy. Then, someone clothed in white robes suddenly attacked me, wielding an emerald sword, which I thought was odd, since he was clothed like The White Shepherd, I would have thought he would have a weapon like him. We exchanged blocks for a minute, but he was a much more skilled fighter, and he eventually got through my defence.

He destroyed me with blow after blow, brining me to my knees. I was super low. There was no way that I would be able to defeat this guy alone. Suddenly, Mage guy ran into my opponent (i'mma just call him Entity because he was dressed like him, which begs the question, why is he dressed like some fairytale character?), and he was knocked down, but he lifted his hand, and Mage guy flew up into the air, hovering over the ground, but then went flying into a wall. I watched as all around me a giant dome of stone rose high above our heads, seemingly coming out of nowhere, but then I saw a figure hovering high in the air, it looked like it was raising the wall. I watched as the other humans attacked the shadow figure. Then corrupted guy tried to escape the hole in the roof, but was unsuccessful when the dome closed over him. Then the whole base was shrouded in darkness. Luckily I didn't have a problem with it, since I am part dark dwarf I have shadowsight, but I didn't know about these humans. Just then Entity was hit by... a splash potion of healing?!?!

### Sunday Update III

Both me and Entity looked up to see a stunned corrupted guy holding out his hand as if to throw a splash potion. While Entity was distracted I decided to help Mage guy and Other Human fight the shadow person. As I approached, the shadow did a swing kick off their greatsword and sent Other Human flying into a wall. Then a giant blaze thing (I would later learn that it's called an inferno) appeared and starting shooting off fireballs, but was quickly dispatched by Mage Guy. I leaped into the air as Mage Guy and shadow person, and charged at the shadow person. A wall appeared in front of me mid-air, and I teleported behind it and shadow person, I flew forward and kicked off the dome and launched at shadow person.

They charged off after Mage guy, and I fell to the ground. I noticed that Other Human was fighting Entity, so I decided to help him. We both duelled him, Hacking at both of his sides, but he was extremely skilled, and blocked all of our attempts to injure him. Then everything around us went silent and we turned around to see Corrupted guy being engulfed in shadows and sucked into the ground. He tried screaming but everything around us had gone completely silent. Then, Shadow person Created a ball of energy in their hands. They looked up at Mage Guy. I have no idea how I knew, but I knew that he wasn't about to survive that. I teleported in front of him, and lowered my shield.

### Sunday Update IV

My shield smashed with the force of the impact and Mage guy and me went flying through a rock and hit the dome. Shadow person then started teleporting around, and then Corrupted guy showed up again, struggling for breath. Mage guy then covered for the weakened corrupted guy, standing in from of him as shadow person ran a him. Then, the giant beast jumped on him, but then he used the ability **[[Roar]]** and the beast went flying and the Shadow person broke a tree with the force of the impact. I looked over at Corrupted Guy and saw that the red eye on the black side of him was glowing brightly. Then, a bunch of giant black creatures appeared and dragged away Mage Guy. Both Corrupted Guy and Other human started attacking Entity. He then teleported away and I looked around to try and find him and that's when I saw shadow person suddenly disappear into the ground.

I ignored them and swivelled around to see Mage Guy blowing up Gravel's base, and then I saw Entity appear behind him, wielding a scythe like the real Entity. He then ran into an old shed just outside of the broken wall.

"What is he doing?" Other Guy asked Mage Guy

I ran into the shed to find Entity hunched over an enchanting table. I swung my sword to try and stop him, but it phased right through him. He then turned around, wielding what looked to be The Scythe Of Entity. Was it really him? Why was he attacking us anyway? My questions were interrupted by Entity as he smashed me with his scythe. I went flying out the door and skidded across the ground, and I blacked out.

I woke up to the sight of Gravel in front of me. I couldn't tell if I was dreaming, and I rubbed my eyes, but lo and behold, he was still there. I almost hugged him until I saw what he was holding. He held his scythe out and was talking to Corrupted Guy. He responded by running at him to attack him. Gravel's face dropped, it was almost comical. He changed into Entity and attempted to block, but was blown back. Corrupted Guy attacked Entity again, bringing his sword down upon him from above. It hit him and knocked him back, and he then raised his scythe in preparation for another attack. He ran at Corrupted Guy, and jumped up, then a block appeared under his feet and he leaped off of it onto Corrupted Guy. He knocked him back and I could tell that Corrupted Guy was seriously injured. He swung at Entity, and he tried to block to block it with his hand. I could tell he wasn't phased a bit. Corrupted guy, on the other hand, was extremely injured, though he tried to hide it. He ran through sound and that's when I finally realized that Entity was the thing that these guys said Gravel turned into.

"Wait, that's Gravel?!?!" I asked Mage guy, not realizing he was laying on the ground. I guess the other human didn't realize that either, because he ran over with a health potion and shoved it in Mage Guy's face while he gave me a thumbs up.

I stood up and looked over at the battle to see Entity look through a hole in the dome, then Corrupted Guy pinned Entity to the wall using his sword. As I watched I considered which side I should be taking. Could the people I just met be lying about Gravel being Evil? Maybe they attacked him first? I watched as Entity/Gravel's eyes turned red. He grabbed corrupted Guy by the neck, pulled the sword out of his shoulder, and tossed it to the side. As Entity/Gravel punched Corrupted Guy I watched him hit the shed door, some ten blocks away. He charged towards Mage guy, anger clear in his red eyes.

I knew which side to join.

### Sunday Update V

I flew through the air after Entity. I knew what the humans had told me, but I trusted my best friend more than some humans that I just met. As we flew through the air, I looked back towards the top of the mountain where we had just come from, and there he was. Corrupted Guy cut through the air, surpassing both mine and Gravel's speeds (btw I'm just rotating between calling him Gravel and Entity because I have no idea which is right). As I looked back at him, a flaming lance appeared in his hands. He reared back and launched it towards Gravel. It pierced his chest, and he turned around, anger obvious in his glowing red eyes.

Entity Violently ripped the flaming lance from his bloody chest and drew back. He launched the lance back at Corrupted Guy, who blocked and did the same. Gravel blocked the lance and flipped over mid-air. I looked down to see the fast-approaching ground. I waited as the ground got closer, and I teleported forward. I teleported a couple blocks off the ground and landed safely, negating all fall damage. Entity had done the same. I looked around for Corrupted guy, but didn't see him. As I looked around I heard a **THUMP** behind myself. I turned and saw Corrupted Guy face-down in the ground. He teleported away, presumably to the top of the mountain.

"Take me with you." I said

Entity303 turned into Gravel.

”Ayla, let him on the horse with you, and make sure he’s welcomed at the base.” Gravel said to the woman standing a couple blocks away. I had failed to notice her before because of the action.

"I know who you are." Gravel said to me. I had forgotten that I changed my appearance.

"Where are you going?" I asked Gravel.

"I have some... business to attend to."

After an awkward silence, we exchanged farewells and I got on the horse with Ayla. We rode away.

### Monday Update I

I just spent the last 12 hours on the back of a horse, and let me tell you, the back of a horse is not the most comfortable place to be. I travelled all night with some random stranger, only stopping to feed the horse stamina potions. I mean, I trust Gravel, but this is a bit...odd. Wait, we're coming to a stop.

We approached a huge hill, almost mountainous, and stopped at the base of it. We climbed off and Ayla placed a redstone torch beside a flat dirt wall. The wall opened, revealing a doorway. We entered into a long hallway, filled with all sorts of different races of people, but I could see no humans. Ayla closed the door behind her and then led me down the hallway past the swarm of people. The hallway was enormous. Past the group of people, there was a huge room at the end of it. Ayla led me in there. The walls were completely black, and the floor lined with soft black carpet. The enormous room appeared to be empty. The ceiling was decorated in a beautiful red and black swirl pattern made from concrete. One one side of the room was a long black table, with decorated black and red chairs seated around it. On the other side was a black podium, made from a material I didn't recognize. Hanging on the wall next to it was a large black greatsword. Ayla led me to the podium, which I climbed on top of. She picked up the sword from it's hanging position on the wall.

"Are you an aetherian?" She asked

"Yes, and proud of it." I replied. I thought this was a bit of an odd question to ask.

"Do you swear to help all aetherians in need?"

"Yes." *Why only aetherians? This is weird, Gravel, you better have a good explanation.* I thought to myself

"Will you always treat all aetherians equal, no matter their race or culture?"

"Yes." *Ok, that's weird, why does she keep saying aetherians?*

"Do you swear to treat all aetherians kindly?"

"I do." *I already do anyway, so whatever.*

"And lastly, do you swear to give all you have into serving your clan?"

"Yes." *Finally, a normal question.*

Ayla handed me the sword. I gently took it. I grabbed the handle, and suddenly the sword started emitting a pulsating black light. It spread to my arm, and soon completely covered it. I was unable to let go of the sword, and my arm was in unbearable pain. I bent down and grabbed the edge of the podium with my free hand. Soon, the black light dissipated and my arm felt much better. I looked down, the sleeve of my disguise was gone, leaving my bare blue arm. What I quickly noticed, though, was that there was a black tattoo on my arm. The tattoo was of a completely black shadowy face with white eyes. I looked up at Ayla.

"Welcome, to the Shadow Warriors."