Malik stood atop the corpse hill, the weight of death now feeling strangely light beneath his feet.
His senses had shattered their mortal limits.
He could see so much more now. Every tiny detail was painfully sharp: how blood slowly dripped down the face of a young woman before seeping into the darkness below, how a small rat navigated its way between two bodies.
It was like a blind man seeing for the first time.
Or perhaps like a deaf man hearing for the first time.
"Blind my entire life?" Malik murmured, his voice carrying new weight. A ripple of darkness clung to him now.
"Do not presume mastery," Abaddon's hiss echoed. "This is but a splinter of true sight. The Abyss beneath your feet laughs at your dawning."
Malik nodded, his eyes gleaming red as his fingers traced the tattoo on his chest. It was a serpent-shaped pattern that coiled from his right upper arm across to his chest. "Then tell me the path. I've seen them, monsters who bend the heavens, commanding nature itself."
"Those you call monsters are Aeterni," the serpent began, its voice suddenly filled with fury.
"Humans whose bodies resonate with the world's primal currents. They are rare among you humans."
A translucent head of Abaddon materialized before him. "Our fusion has reforged you. Your body is now a vessel, perfect perhaps, but since I am a vessel of Darkness and Death, you shall wield only these."
Malik's gaze narrowed. "Explain."
"Primal energy fractures into distinct elements and metaphysical forces," Abaddon answered, his voice vast. "Pyra commands fire. Aqua masters water. Gaea manipulates earth and nature. Ventus wields the wind."
The serpent's presence filled the air. "Glacia governs ice. Voltis unleashes lightning."
"Beyond the elements," Abaddon continued, "Pathos binds to soul and emotion. Umbra is darkness incarnate. Mortis, the magic of entropy."
"And me?" Malik asked, intrigued.
"We wield only the last three," the serpent replied, almost pleased. "Umbra. Mortis. Pathos, if you dare."
Pyra, Aqua, Gaea, Ventus, Glacia, and Voltis reject the Abyss. Light, flame, and wind slip through your grasp like water through dead fingers."
"So you've sacrificed all other elements for absolute affinity with these three?" Malik asked, his voice low.
Abaddon's crimson eyes gleamed, his coils tightening subtly in the air. "Sacrificed? No, child. You've been stripped to your truth. Dark magic, always the most powerful of them all. A dark Aeternus's combat strength has forever surpassed that of a light one."
Malik chuckled faintly, the sound low and filled with defiance.
"Dark magic, huh? It doesn't matter to me..."
He began pacing a slow circle around the serpent's spectral image. "I have one last question, Abaddon. Do these magicians, these Aeterni, normally have a spirit like you residing in them?"
The serpent's crimson eyes narrowed, surprise flickering through them at the sudden sharpness in its host.
"No," Abaddon answered coldly. "I am... no, was... a magical creature. More precisely, the remnant of one. My soul sought refuge in yours when death came."
"From an Aeternus?" Malik asked, halting mid-step.
"Indeed." Abaddon's form vibrated, a terrifying pulse of energy erupting from its image, ancient malice slamming into Malik like a storm, nearly driving him to his knees.
"So what is your intention now? Do you want to use me?" Malik groaned, fighting the crushing pressure, his voice crackling for a moment, before he got a grip again.
"Revenge," the serpent hissed, maw curling into what looked like a smile.
"Upon the Aeternus who slew me. True revival is beyond me now, so I forge it through you. You were born into the world of the Aeterni, and already, people will hunt you down simply because of me. That is something you must accept."
The aura receded slightly, leaving Malik with only a shiver along his back. Abaddon's gaze bored into him, vast and unyielding.
"I will guide your path to power among the Aeterni. Though I am Abyss-born, I have endured hundreds of thousands of years, watching, learning their methods, their weaknesses. All that knowledge is yours, if you help me."
Malik straightened slowly. A grim smile touched his lips.
"Show me."
The Serpent withdrew for a moment before closing its eyes. When it opened them again, they shone with a new resolve.
"You must first endure what humans call the baptisms of the primal current," Abaddon said.
"You will need to absorb Umbra and Mortis into your body," the serpent hissed.
Malik gave him a questioning look.
"Sit in a meditative state," Abaddon commanded.
Malik immediately lowered himself into a cross-legged position atop the mound of corpses.
"Now try to feel the energy in this chamber," the serpent instructed.
Malik's forehead creased with concentration.
Time passed.
And passed.
Malik remained in place for hours, perhaps even days. The loneliness and the dreadful surroundings pressed in on him, yet he never stopped focusing.
Then, after an unknown stretch of time, one of the rats scurrying through the sea of corpses suddenly froze and turned its head toward the human at the center of the chamber.
Malik opened his eyes.
"I think I can see it," he said quietly.
Strands of energy flowed through the air, visible to him now. It was a marvelous sight. Especially prominent were the currents pouring endlessly from the corpses: threads of pure black and dark green energy.
"I see Death and Shadow. Mortis and Umbra," Malik whispered in astonishment.
He reached out his hand.
The black strand touched his fingertip instantly and flowed into his body. The green-black energy followed.
Below him, some of the corpses began to rot faster, their skin loosening from the bone.
The sensation that spread through Malik was beyond words. It was a strange mixture of comfort and cold satisfaction. The moment the energy coursed through his body, he craved more.
More.
Energy continued pouring into him until his legs lifted slightly from the ground. His tattered clothes fluttered wildly, along with his black hair still soaked in crimson.
"Enough," Abaddon finally intervened. "There is a limit to how much your body can store without a center."
Reluctantly, Malik stopped.
The serpent was right. He felt full. A subtle pressure had begun building inside his body.
"A center?" Malik asked.
"Yes. That is how the Aeterni store energy," Abaddon replied. "But you can only begin that process after your body has fully transformed. Only once every single one of your cells has tasted the primal current and changed can you attempt to create a center."
Malik stood in silence for a moment, trying to digest the ancient knowledge Abaddon was pouring into his mind.
Then he nodded and stepped forward.
"Let's find out where we are."
He stretched out his arm.
The spectral serpent first coiled around it, then expanded around his body, lifting him smoothly toward the wooden platform above.
"I sense magical signatures within this castle," Abaddon continued as they rose. "Awakened Aeterni. Beginners. One or two weak spells at most."
A sudden murderous aura flared from Malik, whose body had already embraced the power of Mortis.
"Denrar," he muttered, clenching his fist before placing his hand on the door before him.
At last, he stepped out of the suffocating chamber.
After what felt like an eternity.
He stood in a dimly lit hallway, the stone ceiling low. It looked like a cellar of some sort, but the faint lanterns placed every dozen meters revealed more than expected.
This is no ordinary cellar, Malik thought, stopping before one of the iron bars separating the main hallway from the cells to either side. Yet it wasn't merely that this was a prison, it was what he saw inside. It made his skin tingle despite all he had seen already.
More corpses. Dissected. Some missing all extremities, others their heads. From a few cells drifted a violet mist.
"The Aeternus responsible for this has been quite lively," Abaddon observed.
Suddenly, light flared from around a corner, followed by voices. Two of them.
Malik leaned against the cold stone wall, tilting his head carefully. In the distance, two guards descended a wooden stairway, heading directly toward him.
Malik ducked back, thinking of how to slip past them.
"What are you contemplating?" Abaddon asked. "Although you haven't learned a spell yet, your body has already begun its baptism. You are physically stronger than most mortals now. Did you not notice? Your muscles, your blood vessels, everything has expanded."
Malik's eyes widened.
Once again, Abaddon was right.
Somehow, he truly did feel stronger.
Bigger, too.
"So how many should we get this time?" the taller guard asked, left hand resting on his sword, right hand holding a lantern.
"Lord Denrar said around a dozen," the other replied, a hint of unease in his tone.
"A dozen?" the first began, when suddenly he saw something in the corner of his eye. He turned back to the front, raising his lantern.
"What is it?" the second asked, following his gaze.
"Mhm, I thought…" He stopped.
A pair of red eyes had appeared in the darkness, staring directly at them, right at the edge where the lantern's weak glow ended.