Dance With Darkness And Light - Chapter 30 The Labyrinth Iii

The shadow slowly floated toward Bazuul.

“Sinned?” He asked before breaking out into laughter. Hylion thought Bazuul had become crazy, apparently unable to see nor sense the shadowy apparition in front of them.

“Believe me, I’m speaking from experience here. Ending my life is harder than it seems!” Bazuul added as the whispers around become louder the closer the figure got. Then it turned into a flash and rushed toward him, entering his body. Before he could react to what had happened his consciousness faded and he dropped on the floor.

Hylion, still unaware of what was going on stood there stunned. He was unable to make rhyme or reason as to what had happened. He could see that Bazuul’s body twitched from time to time as his skin slowly turned darker.

The apparition appeared within Bazuul’s inner world and announced proudly. “Within the myriad of options, your fate has already lost all possibility to survive. Yield, and I will make the consumption of your soul less painful. Your body, on the other hand, will make another good avatar for the lord to roam the world and form it to his will.”

A light chuckle traveled through the dark side of his inner world, “Well, then come on then, eat me!”

The shadowy figure looked around and could see the young prince stand beside another dark silhouette. Slightly bent over, Bazuul provokingly slapped his own behind.

Unaware of the meaning and disregarding the provoking intent behind it, the apparition raised its elderly voice once more. “Very well, it is good to know when one has reached his limit.” It said and started moving toward him. The dark smoky essence around the apparition started expanding and formed a huge mouth with long barbed teeth. Inside the growing maw, a red glowing light shone through the smoke of dark essence.

“I wonder, where have the whispers gone that surrounded you earlier?” Bazuul asked before he continued. “Have you not noticed that” he began the next sentence and paused shortly as he lifted his hand. “this is my world?”

The apparition paused its advance for a second, as it realized this anomaly. Nonetheless, a moment later it accelerated its movement toward Bazuul, which could feel suction pulling him toward this maw of shadows. That’s when he began yelling.

“The second Doha of the fifth chapter. Light of the moon, binding the dark, binding all evil in this world. Cleanse this demon and shatter the wicked will grasping onto this tortured soul.”

The moon within his world started growing and its silver light filled the entire space. As the light touched the shadowy figure, fume appeared as it burned away its essence.

“The light of the traitoress!? Impudence!” It roared half shocked, half angered. “The master will know of your return! Neither you, traitoress, nor your husband is capable of stopping him. We will hunt both of you down and torture you for eternity.”

“What are you yapping about a female traitor? I’m obviously a man. So shut up and yield already! Then I will make sure that, when he consumes your soul, it will be less painful…not.” Bazuul said as he appeared in front of him, returning part of the sentence the apparition threw at him earlier.

Bazuul then stretched both his hands toward the maw of shadows, forcing his will onto it, taking over control of its essence with the assistance of the silvery moonlight. The essence struggled initially but Bazuul used the moonlight to completely subdue it and shatter its will completely. Afterward, he slowly guided the essence toward the resident of the dark side in his world.

“Consume it and strengthen my world!” He said to his dark side.

~~~

Outside, Hylion was still dazed as he was not sure what had exactly happened. He could see Bazuul’s skin turn darker and black spots slowly spread through his body. So much so, that at one point almost all visible skin on his body had turned black. Eventually, though, it turned back into its normal complexion. Shortly after, Bazuul regained his consciousness.

Out of reflex, Hylion helped him up. “Thank you, big bro!” Bazuul politely said even though he himself knew full well that there was no need for help. He felt invigorated and extremely powerful after his world had consumed this dark apparition. The dark side of the plate, that made up half of his inner world, grew upwards again.

“No need to thank me! Are you alright?” Hylion asked.

“Yes, I feel wonderful. Good beauty sleep is always the most rejuvenating!” Bazuul answered jokingly with a grin on his face that only curled up on one side.

“Beauty sleep?!” Hylion thought inwardly. Wondering how one could be so shameless as to call a situation like this a beauty sleep.

“Looks like my third brother has left already.” Bazuul casually remarked.

Karon had left with the help of the three commoners while Bazuul was still in the process of opening the Will of Noxae.

“Well, I’ll be leaving too. There are still things for me to do. See you later!” He said. Before Hylion could react Bazuul had vanished into the shadows.

Once again he raced through the cave-system, creeping within the shadows. The path in front of him kept on twisting and turning as he was looking for the other one, Hugo Dias. Unaware of where he was he kept on going further and further. When suddenly another vast space opened up in front of him.

This time no one was around but there were old structures everywhere. Moss already grew on the old stone bridges and the balconies on the walls of the cave. As abruptly his mind dazed and his body paralyzed in shock. This place reminded him of a vision he once had while cultivating. The winds dragged him off from his chamber and into the cave of a mountain range. Once within this area, the winds pulled him down one of the many paths in here, where he eventually landed in front of a huge blue crystal with a silver hue. Through this crystal, he heard her voice. Giving him hope that she had also been reincarnated into this world.

With still five hours left, he threw the thought of wasting his time with an insignificant individual such as Hugo away and focused on finding the crystal.

It took him about two hours but eventually, he did find it.

As he physically stood in front of the crystal he could feel the might within. It was imbued with the light of the moon. Thus the silver hue. The power that emanated from it, the might of the moon, was one of extreme cold and Bazuul had to rotate the energy of the little sun within him in order to resist.

Subconsciously. he touched the crystal with his bare hands, and could actually hear and see Elanar. It was just the same as in the vision he had seen weeks earlier. After finding that he could focus as much as he wanted and was still unable to clearly hear or see her, he stopped.

He sat beside the crystal and crossed his legs, rotating the energies within him. Slowly drawing the force inside the crystal out and infusing it with his own. As he did that, the light side of his inner world which had yet to react to anything started to grow. Just like the dark side, it first grew outwards before curving upwards. More than two hours passed, the vivid silver hue had vanished and most of the might of the moon did too.

Bazuul exhaled as he opened his eyes and cold fog left his mouth. The effects of becoming the host of all this energy had been immense. It turned the world he once called a yin and yang plate into a yin and yang bowl. Yet, he still had to convert all of it into his own. Most of the energies he consumed were still laying around within his inner world unattended. Clouding the whole of it with mist much like the time he met Velamar in his dreams after reincarnating.

Bazuul, not knowing how much time was left, stood up and finally intended to exit the labyrinth.

Once more he merged with the shadows and raced through the cave system. Every time he came into contact with the ground, walls, or the ceiling the light shockwave somewhat created a map of this labyrinth in his mind.

It was something he also noticed when he first reincarnated into this world and always thought it was extremely useful.

By now he, of course, knew that this had to do with his connection to the earth element. Yet, in the beginning, his view inside this labyrinth so to speak, was very limited. Now, on the other hand, it was just the same as outside and a pattern toward the exit became visible to him. These must be the perks of breaking through to the seventh stage of the true qi realm he thought, as he felt fortunate to have found the crystal.

Like this, he would surely find the exit extremely fast. Filled with anticipation and excitement of passing the second trial made his speed surge to an even faster degree. All the while he passed many other participants. Among the corpses, some were still alive but seemed lost or trapped in their mind and others were too injured to go on further.

Bazuul was quite shocked at this, what were they thinking of participating in such a trial with such weak fortitude. Losing their minds over a couple of corpses

~~~

Outside, on the military training grounds, the everlasting rumbling of thunder remained unfaced even as the veil of night slowly enclosed the city of Leizyr. In thirty minutes time, the second trial would end. Yet, less than half of the participants were outside, anticipating to finally pass the second trial and advance one more step toward their goal.

Shu Huang had left the cave almost two hours ago and grew anxious as his friend had not yet emerged from the labyrinth.

Karon gloated at the thought of Bazuul failing to clear the second trial. Though injured, thanks to his little brother, he intended to keep competing. Luckily for him, the commoners he chose to accompany him in the second trial carried him out of the labyrinth when he was still unconscious. With the help of pills, the swelling on his face had receded and so did the concussion.

Hylion, on the other hand, was talking to his little sister. Idriel had also passed the second trial and that even faster than her older brother.

Hugo and Emilia stood together in one group with the other participants of their nations, waiting for the second trial to end.

Ten minutes passed and Bazuul was still nowhere to be seen.

Another ten minutes passed and nothing.

Meanwhile, with each passing minute, Karon’s heart beat faster in excitement.

Shu Huang, on the other hand, had long become restless. This showed how – in his core – loyal he was toward his friends even though he appeared to be a no-good silkpants.

Suddenly a hand grabbed onto his shoulder which startled him, showing how nervous he really was.

“My, my, brother Shu, are you waiting for someone? You look terrible.” A smug sounding, but familiar voice said from behind.

Unexpectedly, as Shu Huang turned around, it was none other than Bazuul that stood in front of him.

Perplexed he exclaimed, “When…How…When did you exit the labyrinth brother?”

His sudden bellowing also attracted the attention of the other participants. Many unaware of what was going on. Yet others, like for example Karon, Hugo and Emilia felt disgruntled upon realizing that this thorn in their eyes had made it in time.

Hylion also noticed that Bazuul had returned and simply nodded at him before turning his focus back to his little sister.

Jian Zhen, much like the others, became aware of Bazuul due to the commotion Shu Huang had created. Whilst looking at him, his face slowly covered in a pensive frown.

Indifferent to the prying eyes Bazuul answered casually, “I exited the labyrinth just a second ago.”

At this Shu Huang looked at the remaining time and suddenly started pushing Bazuul toward another direction whilst saying, “Then go, go, go! Register yourself to one of the elders, there’s not much time left!”

Not even a minute after Bazuul registered himself as someone who had passed the second trial the voice of grand elder Efyr from earlier that day reverberated through the military training grounds once more.

“Congratulations young heroes of the Seven Kingdoms! One hundred and twelve of you have made it out and advanced to the third trial. We have seen the path you took in the second trial. We have also seen the struggles some had within. Some have gained experience, others treasures. Some have gained both, while those that gained nothing, just as those that lost everything, still remain inside! Cherish this moment and engrain the lessons learned in your soul! In honor of the young heroes that have fallen.”

Grand elder Efyr paused at this moment to let his words sink into the young crowd in front of him. Whilst Bazuul wondered why his words sounded so heavy. Personally, he thought the trial was rather easy. On the other hand, not everyone had the luxury of merging with the shadows and thus evading all sorts of traps and tricky mechanisms.

The voice of the grand elder on the elevated stage rose once more. “You may now go back to your inns or wherever you stay and rest. The third trial will begin at the same time as today, the day after tomorrow. See you then!”

The moment grand elder Efyr finished, he and the other elders from the Directorate behind him vanished.

Slowly the military training grounds emptied as more and more participants left. Bazuul and Shu Huang also turned to go back when they suddenly passed a familiar-looking young man. It was none other than Hugo Dias. Noticing a gaze locked onto him Hugo looked around and saw that Bazuul looked at him mockingly.

“I was looking for you and your diasians, yet I was unable to find you. I sure hope to receive your people’s special care during the third trial! Bazuul jeered and walked on whilst laughing as he referred to Hugo’s threat before the second trial.

Hugo gritted his teeth at this ralunian brat’s sarcastic remark. Yet, unable to do anything at the moment, he could only hope that he and his diasian people would be called upon the same battle platform as him. If that would be the case, he wouldn’t mind shutting this annoyance up once and for all. After all, sometimes accidents happen.

Indifferent to Hugo’s thoughts, Bazuul and Shu Huang had just separated as their inns were in different places in the capital city. As he entered the Yamino Inn he didn’t bother eating anything right now. All he cared about was consolidating his foundation and then getting some well-earned rest.