Chapter Text
Long before time had a name, the first witches roamed the earth: a family of them, a mother who had light powers (powers of life and resurrection), a father who had dark powers (destruction and death), and two siblings, a sister and a brother, who got the powers. The sister was the lucky one, but the brother, on the other hand, was not. As they got older, those powers became stronger and harder to control, especially for the brother. When he grew up into a formed young man, he became much larger than his father, and so were his powers, and here comes the most unfortunate part: darkness got a hold of his mind, and one night when the family was having a nice dinner—a deer that he and his father caught during a hunt—they were all sitting around the table outside of their cottage; the night was warm, stars were visible, and fire was flickering and sending warmth to their bodies. That moment was calming, and they were happy until he felt something was deeply wrong. He felt dark matter and dark thoughts rising inside of him like he needed to puke to get it out of his system. He snapped, but it didn’t work, and that’s when he snapped, not because he was angry; on the contrary, he was really happy during the dinner, but he couldn’t suppress the darkness in him, so a wave of his powers similar to a black scythe burst out of him, and with that, he killed his family. He closed his eyes when that happened, and he didn’t want to open them, so he stood there, eyes closed, his whole body trembling, with that gut-wrenching feeling inside of him. With that, he fell to his knees—he was well aware of what had happened, but since the first stage of grief is denial, he sure as hell was in one—he could smell the already decomposed corpses; by the tips of his fingers, he could feel the once slightly wet, soft-to-the-touch, and bright green grass now dead, gone, grown hard as a rock and black as the void; he could feel everything beside him was dead, the forest around him no longer rustling, no longer alive, their dinner rotten, and the smell unbearable. Finally, after a well-passed time, he opened his eyes gently, but the horror he saw—he couldn’t describe it. He couldn’t know what was worse, the smell or the sight, so he just left. Something inside him clicked, and he stopped feeling anything after that, so he became the worst threat humankind ever witnessed.
“I know he’s evil and all, but I feel bad for him. I wouldn’t wish this even upon my worst enemy.” A young boy's voice broke the silence; his dark irises—large and round like pools of ink—shined faintly in the glow of the lantern. Strands of his dark hair fell into his face, one lock brushing against his left eye.
Beside him in a cozy armchair sat his father. The man carried almost the same features as his son but with age and wear. His hair was shorter with a few gray strands, and his eyes—his eyes showed a lot more than the ones of boys; his eyes were filled with the burden of worry but also happiness for his family, especially when he looked at his boy. The man shifted in his seat and came closer to the boy. “That is because you have more empathy than any other living person in the multiverse, and it is more rare since you are so young.” The father leaned back, giving him a smile in return, and continued, “So as I said…he became the worst threat humankind ever witnessed; he destroyed almost all of growing life on earth. Everything that had color, everything that breathed, and everything that created life was now dead, and he didn’t even bat an eye. Human beings, as wicked as they are, managed to survive. only by hiding, but most were not so lucky.
When he ended everything on his earth—well, not everything, I suppose; the only thing left alive, which he didn’t think of, was the earth’s core—he started thinking of a new way to conquer the universe, and he thought of it. A necklace that holds great power to open up portals to different Earths, and the necklace he named the multiverse. With that, he managed to successfully travel the multiverse from one earth to another, and he conquered a dozen earths with it, but one day it finally all stopped. A powerful, bright hero stopped him—a life builder, his sister.
The boy gasped, his eyes wide. He kept looking at his father. “Dad, do you mean his dead sister?” The boy was so confused his mouth wouldn’t close right away. His father smiled and took a sip of his tea that was by the counter near his armchair. The cup still warm in his hands, he began to speak again.
“She escaped that night in the nick of time. Moments right before it happened, she went to the well to get some fresh water. As the well was two hundred meters away, she didn’t get struck by the darkness, but she felt that deathly breeze and decomposing stench that came after. Once she returned to the scene of the crime, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Her family was dead all around her. Dead. It took her a while, but she noticed her brother was missing, and that’s when it clicked. She knew it; this was his doing, but she couldn’t put all the blame on him since she knew what he kept hiding inside and that he was unable to control it. If so, she blamed herself as well. Her brother was so devastated he didn’t even notice; he didn’t count the bodies, so he thought even his sister was dead. That day when he saw her alive and breathing, her beautiful long white hair brushing against her body to her knees, the wind blowing her scent slamming against his face, that smell when it rains after a long time and everything is damp and wet, that smell of pine forest and blossoming flowers. When he saw her standing there in front of him, he stood frozen on the ground, unable to move an inch. Wind brushed against their skin, slightly blowing and playing with their hair. The full moon was so bright and shiny that everything around them was visible; it was like the sun was shining but on a lowered level. He didn’t know what to do; his mind was a blank sheet of paper. It was like his emotions tried to surface slowly, but they struggled, and it was too slow. His sister got the advantage; she knew her brother was consumed by darkness and that waiting or taking and trying to reason with him would just be a huge risk for the universe, so she lashed right at him—she had built a special weapon, a metallic fan. It was colorful, just like she wanted to represent life; it was made by her to block his darkness and his powers and for him to be sent to a deep, endless sleep. She lashed right at him, her bright blue eyes watery with all emotions, short and heavy breaths as she ran to him, wind hitting her face and the moonlight showing her the path. When she was fifty feet away from her brother, she sent three of her needles flying at his chest fast. It hit his chest, and as it went in, it also disappeared into his Haversian canals, whose blood cells were not red anymore but pitch black, and with that he fell to his knees feeling weaker, like he was ready to sleep, but the darkness was too powerful. He waved his hand at her, aiming for the fan, and he sent the fan through a few portals; each needle was sent to another multiverse to never be found. The needles she forged were bound by ancient life magic, and their power obeyed one brutal rule: all ten had to pierce his body within a single moment, in one breath of time, for the seal to become permanent. The three she managed to drive into his chest were never meant to be used alone—they were only meant to weaken him just long enough for her to strike him with the remaining seven immediately after. But she had miscalculated. Even weakened, his darkness surged, and before she could land the final blow, he tore the fan from her hands and scattered the last seven needles across the multiverse. Without the full set of ten, the seal was broken before it ever began, and the magic she unleashed could only drag him into a temporary sleep. Her plan was not destroyed that night—only postponed. As he closed the portals, his hands fell on his knees; he was weak. “What did you do to me?” He lashed out like an angry dog as darkness still controlled him deep inside, but his sister didn’t respond; rather, she was just staring at him and that necklace of his with her watery bright blue eyes. He noticed her look was on the necklace, so he responded. “Only I can wield it, so your plan to kill me has failed.” Her eyes jumped to face his, and she gave him a smile. “My plan was just postponed, but I still managed to successfully get those tree needles in you, so you will be asleep in no time, for a while, just long enough for me to find the other missing parts to put you down for good, and as for the necklace,” she smirked at the thought, “i don’t need it, you see i made my own a better one.” As she finished her sentence, he passed out in front of her. She stared at him for a while, her emotions jumping all over in her head, but she gathered her thoughts and picked him up to send him to a secure facility she made herself. He could only be asleep for a couple hundred years, so time was of the essence to collect the other pieces. She was as smart as her brother, and she figured out the way to make more multiverse necklaces so she could have more people looking for the missing pieces. She only had his and her own so she got to work to make more.
The man got up from his armchair and stretched his hands above his head. He pulled the blanket on the young boy’s bed to his chest to keep him warm and placed a kiss on his forehead. “That is why, my son, the Luo family are the successors, and we are keen to help the life bringer assemble the fan once and for all. That is all for tonight’s story my boy, good night.” The boy sat up in his bed, eager to hear more. “But Dad, I want you to train me to be like you. I want to have your knowledge and fighting skills so I can help our life bringer like you do by your side.” The father turned around to look at him; he smiled, giving him a reassuring look. “You will, my boy. I have a plan for you; just wait till you’re old enough. So now enough of this; you need sleep, and so do I.” The young boy lay down again, and so he put his blanket to his neck, snuggled in and closed his eyes. “Good night, Dad. I love you.” “Good night, my boy,” and with that he closed the door of his son’s bedroom.
꧁⎝ 𓆩༺✧༻𓆪 ⎠꧂
Over the years the boy grew taller, stronger, and smarter, and as his father promised him, he taught him everything he knew. He got his multiverse necklace when he turned nineteen, and that’s when he started doing fieldwork, going out on finding missions with his father. His father kept going with him as long as he could, but the man was getting old; his body was overworked, and age had caught up with him, so the once a boy, now a man, was heading to his mission alone without the support of his father to a new earth for the search of a mission piece of the fan. “You need to be careful, Wuchen; there are a lot of unfamiliar things out there—anomalies that could harm you, people that could kill you, animals you have never seen before, deadly bugs, and viruses.” Wuchen put both hands on his father’s shoulder and looked deep into his eyes. “Dad, don’t worry now. I know everything that you know and more. I am more prepared than anyone here. You need to let me bear my own burdens, and most importantly of all, you need to rest yourself. Mom and Sister will help, but you need to cooperate and listen to them.” His father put one hand on his shoulder as well. “Oh, Wuchen,” he shook his head while talking. “You are my most precious; your ways with words beat me a long time ago.” Father smiled briefly, and Wuchen came closer to hug him. “Dad, I will be fine; don’t worry,” he signed. “I have to get going now. Send kisses to mom and my sister.” Father hugged him one last time and tapped his shoulders for encouragement “Will do.” We both waved at each other, and I opened a portal and passed through it. I was stepping onto the earth, maxi972766, as my dad said it. The first look I got from this earth was dreadful; the ground is black and hard like rock. There is no nature, just pure darkness. It feels like I stepped onto a meteor but larger. I pulled out my
transparent table and looked at the map. “Just a few days walk; it should be fine,” I said as I started walking to the location. The ground was so hard, and in some parts sticky like oil, I almost lost my shoe. There was no sun, but the stars here were much larger than the ones back at home; it was like they were coming closer, like I could touch them, bit still too far out of my reach. They shined like small versions of the moon, so visibility was great. For now I didn’t encounter any living creatures. ‘I can’t jinx myself now.’ Since I was walking for a good six hours, I decided to take a break. With my tent folded, I decided to light a fire, temperature here was lower, it flickered and I came closer to warm my hands. I sat there for a while reading about the, now forgotten by the people, destroyer of life. It says after he was put down for sleep, his followers, or more correctly, supporters, raised a cult in his honor where everyone believed that what he was doing was correct that his actions helped humanity bring new life, and without the sacrifices their lord made, there wouldn’t be new life if he hadn’t had done those. Now that cult has grown in numbers, and they have become vicious; they want their masters back, and with that, they also have been doing ritual ceremonies and significantly more black magic than any normal human can indulge. Some even tried to get to him but failed, of course. So even in his sleep he still has followers who he hasn’t even met, but they are already loyal. I closed the book, not wanting to read it anymore. The fire was burning away, so I put it out for tonight, and I went to sleep. Two hours later I heard rustling and a quiet shimmer of voice two hundred metres from me. I went to check it out; there were eight people all in black capes swirling around a circle on the ground. ‘It has to be some kind of ritual’ I thought as I got closer. Now I could hear them better. They were all saying in unity, “He who saved our future lives shall come back now and awake from his long-lost slumber.” They stopped at their place on the circle. It was a ritual; every member had a spot on a star, and in the circle was a moon and a meteor representing their master. They each stood in their place and said, “Our prince of darkness shall rise again.” They had their hands brought together, then they said his name, “Our lord Anhun (“dark dusk,” twilight of doom) shall rise above us and bring us new life, as we are the sacrifice he shall hold”. I was shocked out of my mind when I heard the name; they are his followers, and now I know he will be awake anytime soon. I got up and went straight to my tent. ‘I need to tell my father and warn the light bringer.’ Through my tablet, I called him. “Son, what is the matter? Is everything alright?” I spoke my mind right away “Dad, the dark lord will soon be awoken from his slumber; you need to warn the light bringer.” His voice dropped dead serious. “Wuchen, how do you know this?” with a flash i responded to his question “His followers did a ritual, which I remember was a future-telling ritual, a dark and a real hard one, so that is how I know he will rise again.” I stayed serious, and my mind was focused and calm, but my father, on the other hand, was worried, and his brows furrowed. “I will warn the light bringer right now, but you, my son, need to finish your mission because if he awakens, we need to have that last piece of the forbidden fan.” I packed my things, and I opened my map but hesitated. “But what if you need help? What if I’m not there in time?” “No matter what, you need to finish your mission, do you understand me?” He spoke harshly now, but with a slight worry in his voice. “I will finish it and bring the last piece to you, Father .”his dad’s voice softened and he spoke again, “Be careful, my son.” “I will, Dad.” And with that, I finished the conversation. I was stressed and worried, but I needed to stay calm, so I did. “I need to finish this quickly.”
·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·