Nightblade (Darkest night)

Directing the void is a fool’s errand," Velagrew said softly.

"Even you know that."

Behind him, a slick spine of obsidian tore through the shadows pooling at his feet.

Inky darkness clung to it, slowly coalescing into hollow throne.

A faint shiver of light pinched the air in front of him weaving the light into translucent white porcelain.

Ribbons of liquid gold pooled along the rim of the porcelain, setting into delicate, floral filigree as the teacup materialized, hovering seamlessly before settling into his waiting fingers even as he sat down on the nebulous throne.

​"Perhaps," Alsterius conceded, stepping forward.

With each step he took, the brilliant light around him gently pushed back against the inky black boundary of Velagrew’s encroaching shadows.

Velagrew spared him cursory glance.

"And yet, strange ripples cross the boundaries of late."

He paused awhile, somberly staring at the Lord of the Realm Between.

"I hear you’ve acquired another one of mine."

​Velagrew’s dark eyes narrowed slightly, though his posture remained completely relaxed.

​"I have," Velagrew acknowledged quietly.

"Though ’acquired’ implies I stole something. One of yours walked into my domain of his own free will, carrying a weight your light could no longer cleanse. I simply helped him out."

Alsterius sighed, a faint, melancholic sound. "And the other, he has remained in your realm far longer than he was meant to. You hold him to a debt, Velagrew."

​"Not necessarily. He remains because he chooses to," Velagrew countered, his voice dipping lower, carrying a quiet, terrifying authority.

"And the child?" Alsterius asked quietly.

Velagrew remained motionless for a few moments then eventually raised the porcelain cup to his lips.

"He trespassed into my territory. He killed one of mine. You should keep a better eye on what’s yours otherwise it’ll be snatched out from right under you." He shrugged, his eyes morphing into two bottomless pools of nebulous darkness.

"I tire of this game," Alaterius murmured.

Velagrew offered him a dark grin.

"Oh, but it’s your move my dear Lord of Light."

"As for the first, it’s simply because deep down, he understands what you continuously choose to ignore. Light creates shadows, Alsterius."

"The brighter you burn, the deeper the pit beneath you becomes. He belongs to with me now."

​Alsterius’s smile faded slightly. The atmosphere within the grand terrace shifted instantly.

Neither Lord drew a weapon. Neither of them raised a hand but Morgan was suddenly felt a dreadful sense of foreboding.

In the space of breath, the true nature of their existence pressed down upon the dreamscape.

The light on the terrace intensified.

The gold grew so bright that the white marble became transparent, revealing deep, swirling vortexes of incandescent white fire surging beneath the floor.

The clouds below the terrace ignited into brilliant orange and white, the inverted mountains casting impossibly long, razor-sharp shadows across the sky.

​Morgan felt a wave of absolute, soul crushing terror ripple through his helpless consciousness.

"Ah...what the hell?! Come on!"

He desperately tried to move but his invisible body refused to budge despite his considerable efforts.

The harrowing pressure the two Lords exuded was akin to standing on the surface of a star while remaining entirely unburnt.

"Damn it..."

​In response, Velagrew simply set his black porcelain cup down on the air itself.

​The cup remained floating in space.

Around the Lord of the Realm Between, the light pulled away.

The space between the two Sovereigns stretched violently.

The gargantuan marble pillars didn’t move and yet they suddenly appeared miles apart.

The golden radiance of Alsterius’s domain was abruptly pushed back by an absolute, terrifying emptiness.

Morgan felt a cold chill crawl down his spine.

"Of all the the times and places to have a lover’s spat, you choose now..." he thought, gritting his teeth.

​The thought that his body was blissfully unconscious elsewhere, and it was only his mind that had been transported to the nebulous plane was not particularly reassuring.

Especially considering the fact that this was a show down between Lords.

Morgan watched as the space between the two Lords eerily began breathing in and out.

"Ah.... fuuuu...crazy! They’re both crazy!"

The space around Morgan contorted violently, slowly folding in on itself and smothering him in vortex of unnatural centrifugal force.

The lightfilled void where they stood seemed to have paused in time to catch its breath.

​For one terrifying heartbeat, Morgan understood what Velagrew governed.

"This guy..."

He ruled the boundaries. The space between life and death. The silent, immeasurable distance between worlds.

The display lasted for less than a second and yet to Morgan it seemed to have stretched on.

​Then, the terrace snapped back together with the quiet rustle of silk.

The white marble hardened, the clouds cooled into pale gold, the distance between them closed to a few paces.

​"Be careful what you keep in your house, Velagrew," Alsterius said softly, a faint, polite smile touching his lips.

"Some things still remember where they came from. The light you try to contain will eventually burn through the shadows..."

​"Let it burn," Velagrew said smoothly, picking his teacup back up.

"A house made of stone does not fear a match."

Alsterius closed his eyes briefly, the blinding gold hiding beneath his pale eyelids.

When he opened them again, the unbearable pressure on the terrace had eased.

Morgan let out a relieved sigh.

While the pressure had been unbearable, in this form, he’d withstood the worst of it. Waves of the two Lord’s power that would have obliterated a physical body, had harmlessly washed over him in his incorporeal state.

​"Keep what is mine safe, Velagrew," Alsterius murmured, turning back toward the golden basin.

​Velagrew raised an eyebrow, a flicker of quiet amusement in his cold eyes.

"You came all this way to tell me that?"

​Alsterius paused, his silver hair catching the ambient light.

​"No," Alsterius said quietly. "I came to remind you that even the Realm Between has boundaries."

​Velagrew’s expression hardened. His dark eyes narrowed slightly, the shadow beneath his throne shifting restlessly.

Alsterius didn’t wait for a response.

He took a single step forward, and his form simply dissolved into a column of pure light that shot straight into the golden sky, vanishing without a trace.

​The terrace fell quiet.

​Velagrew sat alone beside a jade table, the dark wind off the inverted mountains tugging softly at his coat.

After a while, he turned, staring at the spot where the Lord of Light had been standing, his face entirely motionless.

​Then, slowly, deliberately, Velagrew turned his head.

​He looked directly at the exact, invisible point in space where Morgan’s consciousness was.

​His dark, bottomless eyes seemed to lock onto Morgan.

​"He knows,"Morgan’s mind screamed in silent panic.

"This guy..."

For a while, Velagrew simply watched the invisible observer an unreadable glint flickering in his dark pupils.

​"Interesting," Velagrew murmured to himself.

​Then, he snapped his fingers.

​And the celestial terrace tore apart like wet paper.

"Huh! Wait...wait wait wait WAAAAIIIIIT!!!!!"

​Morgan fell.

His scream echoed through the hollow silence around him.

​He plummeted through a suffocating vortex of grey stone, burning gold, and pitch-black void, his lungs suddenly violently remembering how to gasp for air.

The excruciating pain returned all at once with a vengeance.

His chest felt like it’d been carved in by a literal sledgehammer hammer.

His arms, his face, everything hurt and then, a blinding, white-hot agony screamed through his shattered right leg.

​"Gah!"