5 waking up stronger
my eyes burst open, the view forcing my eyes downward as I found myself standing upon a large pillar of black, a raven-haired woman before me in a complete white space.
"interesting, the being known as Granularr is dead, replaced by a strange child, do not worry child, I am only here to aid you, I have been storing power and knowledge for years now, all of that I will share with you, I will also communicate and aid you."(woman) spoke, her body floating closer to me, her face one of curiosity.
"time to work together current pillar of dark magic."(woman) said with a wave of her hand, my vision yanked from the white space and into reality, Natalie's room expanding before me.
the encounter had just left me stunned, leaving me somewhat alone, many questions buzzing about in my mind.
"the fuck was that?!"(Granularr) I accidentally let slip audibly, grabbing Natalie's attention.
"sorry child, the dream I'd just bore witness to was very odd, varying wildly from what I normally view, my apologies."(Granularr) I corrected, falling back on memories for an excuse.
something within me was screaming not to tell her the truth, screaming not to tell anyone the truth, I'm willing to bet it served a purpose I was not aware of.
and believe me, I was not about to fuck with something that seemed to know more than I did, a lot more.
"wise strange child, that was I, we mustn't allow a mortal to know secrets of god and the pillars."(old pillar) her voice rung in my mind, her tone serious.
I wonder if this is what it's like for Natalie?
"focus, we must grow stronger, you must learn combat, relying on fading images is not wise, we need an excuse for me to teach you."(old pillar) ordered, her words giving me no room for protest as they were sound and logical.
damn.
I really wanted to protest too, why'd she have to go and make so much sense?
"I have abandoned emotion, that is why, now, standby while I break the seal, we will only have a few days to train so we must make it count."(old pillar) spoke, energy circulating throughout me, bursting forwards before I was in Granularr's body, Natalie nowhere in sight.
---
hours later...
with sweat dripping down my face, I shifted my stance, circulating more and more energy through me, condensing it, centralizing it in my body, closely following the words of the old pillar.
and wouldn't ya know it but the lady was right, sure enough a large ball of black seemed to form inside my body as I felt power course through me.
"you have formed your core, the central part of a pillar, now you must move yourself into it, doing so will crystalize it and make it indestructible, as long as no one absorbs it you will be immortal."(old pillar) instructed, continuing with more detailed instructions, it did take ne quite a while to understand them but eventually I managed to do what she was telling me to, the core inside me taking the shape of a somewhat large diamond, all black in color.
"it will not grow but you can increase its power, you will do that on your own though, now....time for combat training."(old pillar) said as the sky darkened and clouds swirled, leaves littering the forest floor began to shift and flee, yanked upwards by the wind.
"I will simply observe, giving small corrections, when necessary, after this I expect life to be quite calm for you, giving us ample time to improve your cultivation of power."(old pillar) said optimistically, I could almost hear the smile on her face, a twisted one, but one nonetheless.
"get ready, this will not be easy, I have summoned your second strongest undead, the legion."(old pillar)
"fuck."(Granularr) I couldn't stop myself from saying aloud.
---
young dark mage Samantha pov....
it had been hours since I entered the woods in search of that large source of dark energy, of course I'd found it, but that wasn't the problem, the problem was that it emanated ominously from an imposing man dressed in shadows, currently engaged in vicious combat against an entire army of armored undead soldiers, controlled by one massive floating brain in the distance, those that fell were used to strengthen the ones still standing.
"enter oblivion!"(man)[in ancient and dead language] shouted, in his hands was a swirling ball of purple energy, brimming with evil intent, soon blasting forth towards the large brain, a mass of skeletons taking the attack, vanishing entirely, unable to be used to strengthen the others
"that's some high-level dark magic, really high level, way above us."(dark mage) my friend Connor spoke, shooting me a curious glance.
"he's the source of the energy, its strange, dark magic only returned a few hours ago, how is he so powerful in it?"(Samantha) I directed at Connor, hopeful he's have some insight.
"no idea."(Connor) shrugged, leaving me to figure it out on my own as we observed the strange man.
---
hours later...
these fucking undead!
I roared in my mind as I slashed through them with my bare hands, we'd moved on from magic training and were now on hand to hand.
magic was easy, both the memories I was given and the old pillar both made my mastery over the dark immense, no longer posing any issue for me to strategically cast the right spells.
"pillars possess great physical strength as well as magical, those who waste it are weak."(old pillar) rung in my ears as my fists soared through chest cavities of zombies.
"maybe save the lecture for when I'm not busy!"(Granularr) I asked as I dodged an incoming dual wielded axe, the blade just barely passing by my face.
too close.
"you must learn multitask, focus on what you're doing and allow me to fade into the background, just enough to where you can talk to me and fight efficiently.
that's a lot easier said than done.
of course it would help if I was taught some sort of martial arts or something but no, all she taught me was the most efficient ways to throw devastating punches and kicks, the best ways to block, and then told me to follow my body for dodging, it didn't seem like I was being trained to fight at all!
"LOOK OUT!"(old pillar) screeched, forcing me to realize I'd lost focus, my eyes jumping towards an incoming sword, my body too late in acting, its sharp metal biting deep into my stomach, forcing a grunt and a cough from my throat.
I sure wish that was the end of it, no, the second I found myself rooted in place by this one undead a massive surge of them raced towards me, panic growing in my chest.
"this is why I'm training you."(old pillar) spoke, her voice condescending in nature, something I really didn't need right now!
