(Ch 10)The Emptiness that Fills Him
It didn't take long for Faith too get down the 10 basics forms of hand to hand combat, but still he wasn't taught anything else other then the 10 basics form. He spent more then an hour in the training hall in front of Ervis his master simply Repeating them over and over again. It would have been frustrating if not for the fact that every time he preformed one of the three stances that accompanied the forms, his body motor functions seemed to improve.
The gain was more then any exercise or Stretch he had preformed in the past so he slowly lost himself in practicing it. His shadows also seemed to lend him a hand, informing him if he ever where he was going wrong and when he slacked on a form. Time seemed to become irrelevant as he simply repeated the forms over and over further refining them each time.
At first he thought they were nothing but the basics but over time he was able to see how each form could slowly be improved the better you got at the other, going hand in hand with each other. He could also begin to understand how they were weaved together. They weren't different forms like he originally thought that all served different purposes, but rather they were all conjoined. It was a dance of battle that could start and stop at anyone of the forms for the given situation, making it impossible to be caught off guard.
The further he went the more mistakes his shadows would point out, like the closer he was to perfection, the harder it was going to get. He only stopped when his body physically gave out on him in the middle of nowhere sending him crashing to the floor in the middle of the seventh form. He tried to get up only to realise that his four year old body didn't seem to have an ounce of strength in it. He turned his head to notice Ervis starring at him in a stupor.
"Honestly I knew you were a bright kid, but that was ridiculous. I've seen all types of students practice these forms and seen all types of reactions. The longest to train the forms before bursting into anger for not understanding why was 12 hours, divided over three sessions. The shortest was 5 minutes. The purpose of them is to teach disciple and they're nearly impossible to improve on without guidance. Yet you, you damn monster, stood there for 10 days straight practicing like it wasn't even a bother. Not only that but you actually enhanced the forms past their basics on your own. Seriously what the hell are you?" - Ervis seemed to ask in half joking.
'Ten days, I'VE BEEN HERE FOR TEN DAYS!!?!? HOW? WHAT? AND WHEN? I THOUGHT MAYBE AN HOUR HAD GONE BY!?!?'
Faith thought to himself, yet it was true. Faith had stood there for ten days straight practicing nothing but those ten forms over and over again, He'd skipped the slow process of engraving them over Time by Brute forcing his way through it in ten days instead of ten months. The reason his body couldn't move is because even with the high level enchantment of the room to restore stamina, it just couldn't keep up.
Faith noticed royal guards who seemed to have been placed there to watch him while he was in his trance hurry away, most likely to inform his mother and sapphire.
"Does that mean I missed my birthday?" - Faith asked, even exhausted beyond comprehension he was still concerned.
"Relax my student, I'm sure that monster you take after will simply throw you a celebration after you wake up" - Ervis reassured
'Wake u..'
Faith thought as the exhaustion finally took over sending him deep into sleep. The moment Ervis confirmed Faith was knocked out his expression changed from a grandfather like smile, to the one he wore as a ruler. Serious and now very, very concerned.
When Eshir and her servants saw Faith lying on the ground asleep, they quickly rushed to escort him to his bedroom. Before leaving however Eshir took a slow stop next to Ervis and his still strange expression.
"If anything and I mean, Anything, like this happens again. I will have my armies, Raze, ****, and burn your people till there is nothing left. Is that understood?" - Eshir said without a hint of hesitation in her gaze, she meant every word after all.
Ervis just gazed back before chuckling out loud enough for everyone to hear. All those including Eshir were enraged by his chuckled just froze after what he said next
"If you really think after watching that monster practice for ten days straight I'm afraid of you at all, Eshir darling, you're surely mistaken. That thing isn't a boy, its a monster beyond anything I've ever seen. Just because it takes the appearance of a boy doesn't mean it is one" - Ervis said his, earlier chuckle forming into a grimace.
"You.. really do wish for Death don't you?" - Eshir said yet this time the rage was evident in his voice.
Ervis took a few seconds to compose himself after that. Normally he'd be shivering in his boots from a threat like that, made so blatant, but when he heard it he was far less fazed then normal. It was simply a matter of comparison. If someone had their leg broken a cut wouldn't hurt as much and vice versa if you met a dragon, meeting anything else would become far less intimidating. The second he heard it he had nearly thought back to what had spooked him so, making her threat seem like nothing, because in front of 'That' it was nothing.
He slowly thought about how to explain what he needed to without getting killed before he could finish. He didn't want to fear his student, but after what he'd seen he felt it was a natural reactions. Everyone would feel fear if they saw 'that', while maybe not Eshir, but she wasn't really a normal case. Being the mother equivalent of a yan-dere, just much less violent, to Faith at least.
"Let me answer your question with my own. Are darkness and light even, or is one greater to the other" - Ervis asked.
In this world Darkness and light were holy things, both seen as a core parts of the universe. They were this words concept of ying and yang, two things that couldn't exist without the other. Eshir stopped her guards from attacking Ervis for insulting the crown prince as she heard his words. From anyone else the answer would be merely a theory of religious like practice, but Ervis was a elf with the rare light element. He had a far greater understanding of the two simply being able to practice one so anyone of his answers to this question would be at least informed, unlike the common religions of either light or dark.
"Of course they are equal, there wouldn't be six races of Light-dark and six races of Dark-light if they weren't. Why ask such a simple question" - She responded with her own question
Ervis simply chucked before he continued, his face and eyes gaining increasing fear by the minute.
"You are right, but you are also wrong. Light and dark are even if you simply consider them as two parts of each other, but as a light user I can tell you with absolute conviction that they are not. Light is a element constantly trying to grow and evolve, becoming stronger and reaching a wider level of people in the process, this is why its more common then its counterpart. It grows like a child learning, always seeking the means to become an adult" - he paused before continuing with the next part.
This was something that only him and a few other Elvish elder knew. You had to be an aged light user to even get a glimpse at the truth of this world, and it was something that not everyone could handle to understand. No most couldn't.
"Darkness is different though. Light always cast a shadow of darkness, but darkness itself has no shadow. It is the emptiness and the absolute of this world. The thing light strives so hard to become is a element like darkness, but darkness doesn't stop and fight it like most think. It simply leaves it be, like a father watching over his child going through his faze of rebellion. Darkness is the outcome everything will Achieve, so it doesn't need to worry. Its position in existence is always going to be the absolute, the end. No matter how much light there is, there will always be more darkness, thats simply its nature. The only reason we view them as equals is because unlike Light who is always growing and evolving more then anything else, darkness is completely stagnant, with no goals or motives. Darkness in it self including its what could be called personality, is simply the embodiment of the empty. It is the emptiness everything comes from and the emptiness everything will return to, so it needs no purpose or goal" - Ervis finished his sentence at this point a little bit recovered, his speech had somewhat reassured him.
Most of the guards and even Eshir herself were surprised at these word, and more then a little. It was a commonly accepted fact that light and dark were equal, but now someone actually informed on the subject adamantly rejected it. If the church of either light or dark had her this, the two biggest religions, they would've been shaken to their core.
He had spoken it like the truth and most fundamentally law of their world was put together by an ignorant toddler. Like the whole ordeal was simply a laughable mess to begin with. This was actually true, at least in Ervis's mind. Darkness and light weren't equals but rather a child angrily attacking his unconcerned father. He found the 'Crusades' the two churches had on each other stupid at best and disgusting at worst.
"But if what your saying is true, then why does it even matter that we know. Why tell us something we can do nothing about, nor have any relationship to" - Eshir asked, clutching Faith even tighter then before.
Something on this level shook even her.
The only hope her and her royal guards held on to was that the man was simply lying. But in response Ervis just shook his head resolutely.
"You don't, but he does" - Ervis said pointing to Faith.
"Dragons are always born the element that they match the most, deviants are born when that match is even stronger. Because of their natures Shadow dragons like Faith should be impossible, as I said Darkness is stagnant permanently while dragons are the complete opposite, the two simply don't mix. Yet due to Faith's demon lineage it seems they had a chance to, and thats why I was able to see it properly. The thing that fills that boy, the thing that drives him so far as to go ten days straight on exercises that are made to be awful to do in repetition" - Ervis said walking closer and laying his slightly wrinkled hand on Faith's hair, ruffling it like a loving grampa would. Yet nothing he said held any love for Faith, only fear.
"I saw it while he was training, the thing inside him, or rather the lack of anything. This boy is filled with nothing but pure emptiness. no emotion, care, will or thought. Only the unending Darkness, the personification the empty. I can understand how the Dark element likes him so much now, before I simply thought it was his lineage as a demon, but the boy simply is a walking embodiment of darkness, when he shows it that is" - Ervis said nervously chuckling through his words
This was thing called Faith scared him far more then anything had in a long time.
Eshir was absolutely appalled at his words though. Her Faith, her adorable little champion who always held a smile was. The little boy who constantly sought his mother's approval and affection. Someone like that couldn't be empty, right?
'This lying old bat may be right about his theory, but this is just bullshit. The mans clearly just jealous of…'
Her thoughts were interrupted by a memory becoming clearer and clearer in her mind. It was the first time Faith cried. He had tears coming out of his eyes as he was tossing and turning everywhere and it had sent Eshir into a panic, too desperate to appease and comfort him to notice something very, very wrong. Even though Faith had tears coming from his eyes they didn't seem sad at all. They just looked distant and empty like someone completely cut off from the world around him, feeling and caring for nothing.
Ervis's final words before he left for the elf kingdom were the last nail in the coffin. 'I don't know why he hasn't become like it yet, but please don't give that kind, naive boy a reason to embrace the emptiness. I fear for the day something pushes him that far, indeed.'. If Faith really did carry such a feeling inside him, then Eshir would simply have to replace that feeling love. And if he embraced it, so would she. Faith much like darkness was a Absolute in her life, so she would always accept him at his best, and whatever the gods decided his worst was.
Meanwhile.
The shadows and by extension the darkness itself had heard what the elf called Ervis had said, scoffing at even the notion. They weren't the master of Faith, he was the master of them. The fact that he could do that was why they had chosen him among other reasons. The elf would have an easier time mastering darkness itself, then having an inkling into their master.
He was a living contradiction, and yet he wasn't at the same time.
That was Faith Exodus.
That was Noah Hugh.
That was the master of darkness itself.
Understanding him wasn't something a mortal should deign to do.