Darkness

“What’s the Darkness?” Sometimes, Richard was very stubborn.

Ferlyn didn’t answer immediately, waving her hand to form a web of pale gold that turned into a galaxy of beautiful diamond-like stars. Some were bright, some faint, some red, some blue… It was a mix of everything, with old stars constantly dying and new ones being born.

“Every star you see here is a cluster of planes big and small.” She waved once more, pushing the stars to the centre and adding new, dim lights along the periphery, “Those you can see are the worlds the Eternal Dragon controls. The dim ones on the edge are not completely under his control yet, but his power has taken hold there and is starting to grow.

“The Darkness is what lies outside these, it is the collection of uncountable planes that we cannot yet see, that the Eternal Dragon does not yet have any control over.”

[6;65]

Logically speaking, even the known void was vast and near-boundless, and countless researchers believed that it was only a small fragment of the myriad planes. The Darkness was definitely larger than the area under the control of the Eternal Dragon, something that made intuitive sense to many.

## Overview

Only those with power greater than the Eternal Dragon could break the barrier, but Norland had never come across such a powerful being before.

However, the Darkness was an enigma that the Eternal Dragon could not control. It wasn’t primal chaos like the Outlands, nor elemental like most other primary planes. It was just… an unknown. Richard had put a great deal of research into it ever since Flowsand went there, hoping to follow and look for her when the time was right, but he hadn’t found a single way to enter it. Even Sharon was clueless about the place.

Even for the Eternal Dragon, teleporting someone to the Darkness was a huge responsibility. One had to establish the order of time there before they could return, only able to form a portal back once a Lighthouse of Time was established. Of course, this wasn’t for a lack of desire; throwing someone outside one’s domain was one thing, but finding them afterwards was difficult. Even the old dragon would need a beacon of some sort to be able to track the person once more.

### **Timeflames**

Only Chosen had access to tinder that could light timeflames naturally, and this ruthless method was perhaps the only other possibility. The method being to burn the souls of those trapped in the Darkness. These are the only way to create veils of order that could help alleviate the area of the Darkness' distortions.

## **Laws**

This was a strange world, and he hadn’t yet found any means to replenish his mana. Strangely enough, he didn’t feel particularly hungry either, even as his stamina was slowly depleting as well. The old man who’d dropped him off here had left moments after, and there wasn’t anyone else nearby either. This place had no birds, beasts, or even bugs, and the sky was always that unchanging grey without a day-night cycle or even a weather system to speak of.

About one day later, he had finally analysed one more law, giving him a clearer perception and steadying his movements further. Once he’d gotten used to the extra step of negating the distortion before analysing the laws, he had managed to establish an analytical model in a few days.

It would take sixteen fundamental laws to align his perception with the Darkness, and sixteen others to take control of the laws here. Richard had already finished with six, so basic movements were no longer a problem. It was only with this confidence that he decided to explore the town, specifically the tavern that seemed to be the only special place here.

Space was distorted in the Darkness as well, and spatial equipment suffered as a result. It didn’t lose its effectiveness, but upon activation the release point could vary significantly. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to draw a sword and have it come out at one’s neck. Thus, if one didn’t understand enough of the surrounding laws, the sword case was indeed just a stick. As a spatial expert himself, Richard naturally knew this. However, this exchange made it clear that the people in this tavern weren’t simply good-for-nothings either. No simple people survived the Darkness.

Ever since he had arrived at the Darkness, he hadn’t seen anyone with a truly precise grasp of time. Even epic beings couldn’t necessarily build a precise model to understand this place, and he had only done so because of his titles and momentary grasp of timeforce from when he had been teleported here.

### **Awareness**

The 32 laws of distortion were his greatest gain in his journey, but those were pretty much useless in Norland and there wasn’t a significant leap in his power otherwise.

Nasia seemed to know what he was thinking, and she quietly conjured a mirror for him to see himself in. Richard was surprised by what he saw; everything around him was distorted by wisps of black energy that constantly emanated from his body. Only now did he realise that he hadn’t completely shaken off the influence of the Darkness, and was subconsciously using the strength of the distorted laws. He had returned in a hurry and barely stopped over in his eagerness to make sure the family was safe, and as a result he hadn’t even paid notice to the fact that Norland itself was suppressing him.

Seeing himself in the mirror, he momentarily felt inclined to just leave things as they were. However, he slowly adjusted his body to fit back into the domain of order, letting go of the distortion and feeling his body relax as the invisible pressure eased off. He was once more an epic being that belonged to Norland, a child of the plane that it cherished.

Sixteen laws

### **Control**

Over a hundred days had passed in this time, and he had analysed all the laws of awareness and fifteen laws of control. Only one law was left, and even after tens of days working on it he felt like he was an unknown distance away from an epiphany. He could solve things in the next moment, or it could take months.

Richard had the faint feeling that the Darkness would present itself differently to him the moment he finished analysing this last law. Even now, he found it difficult to describe just what this place was. This wasn’t a solitary plane, nor did it seem to be connected to any powerful mainland. This place was supposedly just outside the Eternal Dragon’s control, ringing the void, but from his experience the void was an incredible expanse. Just how big did a place have to be to surround it?

At the same time, he finally finished his analysis of the final law of distortion, gaining a complete understanding of the Darkness. An understanding that he had just slaughtered three villages of civilians.

## Food

In the Darkness, anything that could be ingested represented strength, energy, and mana. That in turn meant increased combat ability, and a chance to survive.

### **Food**

Richard continued to cringe at the thought, but he picked up the soup and drank a mouthful to test it. He was immensely relieved to find that it had almost no flavour to it, but as the contents entered his belly they turned into threads of pure energy that replenished his mana. He immediately drank a gulp of the alcohol, and despite the bitter taste it disintegrated in the same way. His expression changed as he realised that this was how one regenerated their energy in the Darkness; neither the tavern nor this woman were simple.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that not all of the food and drink was turned into energy. As much as two-thirds turned into a residue that remained in his stomach, and the rate of disintegration slowed down. It would take ten days to exhaust everything, and some analysis revealed that the lost energy was mostly due to the distortion. It, too, would get better with his analysis of the laws here.

Richard now understood why almost no one in the town seemed to possess any internal energy or mana. Their grasp of laws was far below his own, so the food barely gave them anything. They gathered at the tavern every day, but it only gave them basic sustenance.

He returned to his tiny hut, sitting down to analyse the two souls he had just captured. Both had legendary strength and controlled a number of laws, but their memories were too twisted and fuzzy for him to be able to decipher anything. This was another side-effect of this place; one slowly lost all of their original memories, forgetting where they came from, what they were, and even their own names. Once enough time had passed, they would regress into a feral state and live a life of instinct.

Still, there were some things to be gained from these souls, namely their own perceptions of this wretched place. Richard began working on the laws of the Darkness once more, using their experiences to further his analysis. The laws of this place weren’t too difficult to decipher, only at the level of Norland, but that was predicated on a fully recovered perception and clear recognition of spacetime. In this regard, things only grew more difficult as one adapted to the place, with their senses being permanently warped by it to the point that even recovering would be more difficult than analysing the fundamental laws of this plane.

He shivered at the thought. The Darkness was a place where differences in power were amplified. That reptilian that couldn’t grasp the laws of this place had been toyed with by people that should have been far below his level.

## Butchers

The creature looked like a disgusting garbage-filled pile of sludge, but its surroundings were actually filled with an alluring fragrance. These strange creatures were called butchers, and it was said that few had ever won a fight against them before. With personal experience, he understood why; his killing seemed simple, but had he failed with his ambush the creature was strong enough to threaten even him.

Butchers couldn’t be eaten, so humans all fed from the same source. Other people.

### **Core Black Oil**

The biggest use of this liquid was its ability to increase one’s adaption to the Darkness. It could raise one’s control over the distorting laws, directly boosting their battle capabilities.

This was almost the same as the origin energy of this plane, so its value was inestimable. The main requirements for a Lighthouse of Time were the materials to build the lighthouse itself, the brazier to hold the fire, fuel for the fire to burn, and the material to ignite it. These requirements were also in ascending order of importance, so the fuel was second only to the tinder.

This oil was fuel to light the timeflames in the Lighthouse of Time, allowing for a powerful surge of orderly laws that would encompass the world. These oil lumps could be found in the wastelands as well, but the quality was best when obtained from the land’s creatures themselves. It was just that the natives of this plane were rarely seen and abnormally powerful; even legends like Nanook would turn from hunter into prey in the blink of an eye. The garbage was actually the remains of powerhouses that hadn’t been completely digested yet, including their equipment.

Can be taken from the sludge-like monster.

### **Clamskin**

Analytic showed him just why they could suddenly appear next to him; there was a strap on their wrists that could distort the laws around them to conceal them entirely. This was better than most stealth arts, and without a complete analysis of the distortion it was difficult to see through. The leather would make him near-invisible in the wastelands and defend him against the distortion, while the oil could increase his control. Most people in the city would kill for these things, forget traversing the wastelands.

## Veil of Order

Richard followed the old man to a windowless room on the second floor, with a brazier in the middle that had pale gold flames burning within. The flames swayed feebly, but they were emitting strands of timeforce. He was a little surprised by the familiar sight; this was the same kind of brazier that was used outside teleport points in the Eternal Vortex.

So the veils of order were supported by timeflames… Lost in thought, he slowly walked into the room only for his entire body to freeze up and shiver. Barduch seemed to have been prepared, pulling his clothes tightly around himself before he walked in, “This room isn’t empty. Many deceased souls here refuse to dissipate, and just reside for an unknown length of time. The vicinity of the timeflames is the best for these wandering souls, so more and more of them squeeze into this room. I don’t know how many there are.”

Richard’s expression changed for a moment; most people that could come to the Darkness were legendary or close. If he could use the power of Issa to redeem them, he could pull the laws from their souls without even needing to tear them apart. His eyes immediately glowed as he activated the Field of Truth, revealing hundreds of points of light all around. One had to remember that these were all legends or close, with powerful wills to match. A normal person would fall sick simply staying here too long!

## Wastelands

The wastelands were a monotonous biome that remained deathly quiet in the perennial twilight. Ordered life was not welcome here, the distorting laws pushing everything towards destruction, but the world itself refused to change. As he headed deeper in, Richard grew increasingly curious about the lack of any need for food; it seemed like a simple question, but the answer could grant enlightenment on this world’s fundamental laws. His intuition told him that this wasn’t the true face of this world, but a farce that he could only see through once he could eliminate this distortion completely.

The wastelands also seemed endless, the barren lands only broken up by the occasional soul tree. These frighteningly twisted trees could each power a small town for a century, but chopping them down required strength that few could muster. After walking for what seemed like forever, Richard suddenly turned around and inspected the tracks he had left behind. He couldn’t see all the way to the start of his journey, but even towards the end of his vision the traces of footsteps remained impeccably straight. Were it anyone else, the track would have curved or at least wobbled.

## Lifeforms

All of the creatures that enter the Darkness are those that got lost in the void, entered a spatial slit, and became lost outside of the realm of order. Those who could venture the void are those at the legendary realm or nearing it, losing their strength once they enter.

One had to be careful of meeting others in this forsaken place. The laws here distorted even personalities, sometimes to the point that members of the same race would view each other as food.

Why didn’t this world have any creatures of its own? He recalled the diary that Martin had given him, and a comment about this very quandary. The man who had returned believed that there was indeed an indigenous race, and that finding them would be the key to unlocking the secrets of this world.

### **Natives**

Richard closed his eyes before slowly opening them once more, able to see the true side of the Darkness at last. The natives were no longer incorporeal, but living beings that were about a metre tall with four legs and two arms. They were clearly intelligent, with altars, houses, and all sorts of tools within, but all three villages were dead quiet with their populations dead.

Of course they couldn’t handle the full power of Norland’s strongest being. All this while, Richard had subconsciously treated the natives the same as he did nightmare creatures, cutting them down as he saw them by pure instinct. However, now he realised the truth of this world; even if he hadn’t dirtied his own hands, the removal of the distortion node was effectively like removing the veil of order from a normal town. They wouldn’t last very long in the environment that had mostly adapted to order.

### **Soulwood**

Ther are soul trees in this place. Richard recognised the wood as the same kind he had seen regularly in the wastelands. He hadn’t thought it was worth anything, but from the looks of it this was a valuable treasure. Anything that could store soul power and keep timeflames burning was extremely valuable in the void; just a bit of this firewood could be traded for a top-tier offering.

## Truth Beneath the Myst

The truth of this world was indeed the opposite of what one saw when they arrived here. This was a bright world full of life, not an empty wasteland. It was outsiders like him that actually distorted the laws of the Darkness, and the Eternal Dragon was the worst offender of them all. Its Chosen worked tirelessly over many generations to successfully destroy the places they arrived in, forcing the land to accept the laws of order so it would separate from the Darkness and join the old dragon’s domain. In the eyes of these inhabitants, the Chosen and people like Richard were no different from the reapers.

And were they wrong to feel that way? He sighed, understanding that the truth wasn’t always pleasant. Sometimes, knowledge was a burden and nothing else. Flowsand certainly wasn’t the only one who had realised all this, but it was difficult to tell what they thought about it. Was this any different from Norland conquering other planes? Would the same logic they justified themselves with even apply here?

The apocalypse had descended upon the Land of Dawn, with countless natives being forced out of hiding and flying around in despair. Unfortunately, there was nowhere for them to go; the black tide enveloped the place, turning even the butchers to dust. A momentary blink into the world of order revealed the black tide as the golden current of time, but from the perspective of the Darkness this was a flood of destruction.

## Trivia

* Moonlight was showcasing its continued worth; even with the distorted laws, its toughness and sharp edge weren’t affected in the slightest. In stark contrast, the holy sword lost its sharpness while the Judge had turned into an ordinary weapon that could break on impact with even the common daggers here.
* Fearlessness was a quality that the Darkness beat out of everyone within. The survivors tended to grow more cautious and reserved.
* Anything that could be used had a thousand times its normal worth in this god-forsaken place, and even epic beings couldn’t be picky with where they went looking.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Book 8, Chapter 124
2. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 123
3. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 114
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Book 9, Chapter 115
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Book 9, Chapter 128
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Book 9, Chapter 123
7. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 124
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Book 9, Chapter 121
9. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 122
10. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 117
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Book 9, Chapter 118
12. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 125
13. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 126