Lone: The Wanderer

Book 1: Chapter 96: Blue Orb and Losing One's Mind

Far, far away from the small and mildly isolated kingdom of Milindo, in a desolate abandoned ruin that somewhat resembled a temple nestled away in the depths of a forgotten forest of 300-meter tall trees, energy stirred.

In this forgotten recess of Altros something was happening, something both extremely unique and something incredibly odd.

Cloud-resembling runes which covered the temple's crumbling walls were spurred to life as a sky-blue essence seeped out of them and began coalescing towards the centre of the ruined temple's central shrine.

Several minutes passed before it seemed like whatever power the runic clouds contained had all been drained.

Atop the central shrine of the temple now floated a bright ball of light sky-blue energy. This ball expanded and contracted a few times before a voice as old as time spoke.

"The moment to perform my duty has finally come... The wait was as long as you proclaimed it would be, My Lord..."

The ball of energy seemed eager to do as it had seemingly been instructed to so many, many years ago. Without any further delay, faster than any mortal eyes would have ever been able to perceive, the sphere of power rushed out of the temple and began flying across the continent.

Its destination was unknown to it but it knew only that it must go west. Far, far west...

"What do you think you are doing?!" Duke Malik yelled down at the arena, specifically at Lone. "You are reported as not being able to use magic! Illegal use of magic of any kind is a capital offence without first having a permit from the crown, adventurer or not!"

Lone - still holding the back of Daisuke's head - turned to look at the furious SS-ranker. "A weakling dares speak to me like that? My avatar may only be an E-ranker, but that's more than enough strength to deal with such an insignificant pebble as yourself. Be silent before I remove your mouth from your face, yes?"

Up in the grandstands Gilbert's face paled. "Avatar? No... That can't be possible... The compatibility needed for that is simply impossible for him needless to say his rank is too low... But all of his hair and fur changing colour... Can he really have been chosen to become the avatar of a Primal? But which Primal is that? Black isn't a colour of one of the 8!"

Lone whipped his head around to smile at the distant Gilbert. "8, huh? Can't control me so you choose to write me out of history? Foolish Ancient wench."

"If you do not stop what you are doing this very instant, Beast," Duke Malik yelled as he pulled out his wand resulting in green lightning coiling around both it and the arm holding it, "then I shall kill you where you stand for high treason!" he finished.

Lone rolled his eyes. "Like to be theatrical, do you? Well then, how's this for high treason?"

Lone moved his free hand to point at Duke Malik. With his armoured index finger fully extended, he drew a circle in the air where the duke's mouth was in his line of sight.

"Perfect," Lone cackled upon noticing he'd been successful.

Duke Malik tried to shout out once more only to realise in horror that he couldn't voice any of his thoughts. 'Some sort of magic to silence someone?! I certainly have no resistance to such a thing since it's so rare. This is crippling to a mage like me! I can't quick-cast anymore!'

"D-Daddy..." Emma Malik who was sat at his side nervously watching the going-ons of the arena was now trembling in fear as she pointed at her father's mouth.

'What? Is there something wrong with my face?' He brought a hand up to his mouth and nose just to check but he instantly recoiled when he felt his fingers go through his own face.

Suddenly, his hand stung. Bringing it up to eye-level he paled upon seeing that all of his fingers had been cleanly cut as if something had simply sent then to another dimension.

"Hahahaha!" Lone belted from below. "Never gets old. C'mon, is the Void really that scary? Sure, you don't have the prettiest of mouths now but at least it's unique! Hahaha! I thought I'd need a few more seconds to do that to you given the rank difference but I guess even several hundred-thousand years can't put me out of practice, eh?"

Lone turned away from the panicking duke who now had a black and lifeless hole for a set of lips and he instead returned his attention to Daisuke who was struggling his best to free his head from the vice-like grip holding him in place.

"Well, unlike some of my 'family members' I'm actually not that gruesome, though they'd have you believe otherwise," Lone said with a short cackle as he tightened his grip on Daisuke's scalp, forcing his bone armour gauntlet's fingertips to pierce his skin and start scraping against his skull.

"I'm so much more methodical than them. It's what led to me being the black sheep, so to speak, haha. Oh, listen to me bleating on and on. You don't care. Well, to work then, yes?" Lone asked as a wicked grin consumed his face under his helmet of black bones.

"M-Mercy... P-Please let me g-go..." Daisuke stuttered to the best of his ability.

Void shook his head softly. "Sorry, buddy. A shitty unique skill like that won't work on me. You really didn't win the lottery on that one, did you? I mean, people can do waaaay better with just a few well-levelled social skills, haha."

All hope escaped Daisuke's body upon hearing that. If even his trump card of a unique skill didn't work then all he could rely on was the king at this point. Lone, on the other hand, couldn't care less about Daisuke's thoughts or worries.

"A little Void essence right into the cerebrum, a splash of evil into the cerebellum... And just for good measure, a bit of accumulated rage right into the entire systema nervosum. Ah, lovely. I do excellent work if I do say so myself, hahaha!" Lone laughed as he let go of the now lifeless yet still breathing husk of a man that was trying to kill him only minutes ago.

The king could watch no more of this farce. He was wary, of course, especially after seeing what had happened to his kingdom's strongest mage, Henry of House Malik, but he would not allow a mere beastkin to act so arrogantly and so blatantly disrespectfully towards his kingdom's hero!

A fool Tamiko Daisuke may be, but the king's fool he was. "Foul beast, whatever you have done to that boy, undo it. Do not test us. You and your guildmaster may think us afraid of Divine Persistence but there are worse fates than death, and watching this insult to our glorious name during such a festive event while simply doing nothing is one such fate!"

"Undo it?" Lone looked down at Daisuke and then held the bottom of his black bone helmet with his hand ponderously. "I'm a generous being, so sure."

With a wave of his hand, Daisuke exploded into innumerable chunks of flesh and blood that scattered to all of the corners of the colosseum.

"Ah!" Lone exclaimed in realisation. "I forgot that removing Void Essence from, well, anything, destroys it. Oh well, I did do as you asked, hahaha!"

He took in a deep breath and said ecstatically, "Well, with this little order fulfilled, I think I've earned a little reward, no? I mean just look at all of these materials waiting to be turned into juicy Void essence! So many fleshy... warm... living materials..."

Gilbert's face was almost as white as his hair and dragon tail at this point. 'This is bad. I need to stop him! I don't know what's going on but it's clear as day that his awakening has somehow warped his mind! He may even be possessed for all I know! No matter how strong he is right now his body can't endure such tremendous power, surely. It's only a matter of time before he self-destructs!'

Gilbert had made up his mind. Even at the risk of his own life he'd try his best to save Lone from both himself and the nobles and royals he'd antagonised beyond redemption.

He felt he owed the boy at least that much after what he had been through. 'He's a moronic foxkin but Primal's damn it, he's my moronic foxkin! He's basically my son at this point! I'll be bloody damned before I let him kill himself or get murdered by these foolish aristocrats!'

However, just as Gilbert was about to jump down into the arena, a blindingly bright blue ball of light slammed down into the centre of the colosseum.

Gilbert was barely able to see this ball of light enter Lone's body before his vision was filled with nothing but sky-blue and void-black rays of light that seemed to be fighting each other.

'Forget about seeing anything, I can barely move... This energy is so thick... I've never felt anything like it before... Could it be... But that Primal hasn't blessed any beastkin with its awakening in a million years if the myths are to be believed!' Gilbert was annoyed to no end that he couldn't do anything for Lone right now.

Whatever battle was being fought, it was one that no one could interfere with.

Slowly opening his eyes Lone was confused to be greeted with the sight of a sea of black waves clashing harshly against a torrent of blue rays of light.

"What the hell?" he mumbled.

He moved his arms to stretch since he felt extremely lethargic and it was only then that he noticed that he was entirely naked and floating in the middle of what seemed to be space.

"Okaaaay...." He, quite frankly, had no idea what was going on.

"You cannot best me, Void! Behave or risk annihilation!" a powerful voice boomed from the side of the blue light rays.

The black waves rolled as if they were laughing. "Combined you 8 couldn't erase me! Trapping me with you all in this pitiful form was the best you could do! You've never interfered when I've chosen other avatars, so why now, Sky?! Why now?!"

'... What the fuck?' Lone never thought he'd see some water and some light arguing with one another but here he was. 'What the hell happened? Just a second ago I was getting pissed off at that scumbag pedo rapist and now I'm, what, in limbo with some weird shit going on?'

"Your mistake, Void, was choosing this very soul to inhabit! Here you have no power! I am your equal in this place! As time flows onward more of my brothers and sisters will join and your end will only be but an eventuality!" the being whom the black waves had called 'Sky' claimed with confident elation.

"'Choosing'? You think I had a choice in this?! After I was trapped in a fucking ball for over 400,000-years I was happy to make a fucking goblin my avatar! This guy was kind enough to release me from that fate and to not deny my consumption of his anger and rage! I was doing him a favour. Ask him yourself. The kid has no love for the ant I squashed and he wouldn't have cared if I had some more fun either!" the one seemingly known as 'Void' yelled back.

Lone held his chin as he worked over the information he'd been given. 'Okay, so, the black waves are, what, some sort of really old being that was trapped in my black sphere? I did wonder why it calmed me down... So it was consuming my anger, huh? Sophie was right. That thing was bad news... I should've listened to her... I wonder what it means by 'ant I squashed' though? Daisuke, maybe? Oh, God, I hope so.'

His eyes shifted to the blue rays of light. 'Sky... Sky... Sky... Isn't that a Primal's name? One of the few ones that don't hand out awakenings to beastkin anymore? Who were the others that didn't do that too? Radiance and... was it Life? Though those two are recent if my information is correct, Sky hasn't awakened a beastkin in ages...'

Lone didn't really know much about the Primals beyond what the Church of the Primals publicly taught. The local library didn't seem to like the topic much since the Primals had deep ties to beastkin but still, he knew enough.

To his knowledge there were 8 Primals in total; Land, Sky, Darkness, Radiance, Death, Life, Illusionary and lastly, Reality.

'... Are those blue rays of light legitimately a Primal? So, like, a god? In the flesh? If so then what the fuck is Void? Have I stumbled across a religion-shaking discovery or am I just going nuts or something?' Lone thought.

"I care not for your complaints! You will not control this mortal!" Sky proclaimed.

The brightness of the light rays that made up the apparent Primal's body grew and expanded seemingly infinitely, wrapping around the pitch-black waves which struggled to no end.

"Exchanging one prison for another, am I?!" Void screamed in defiance but there was a layer of resignation in its tone. "You had best be a fitting warden, Sky! If not I fear for the safety of your precious mortal!"

Lone watched in awe as both forces of energy shrunk until they were no larger than a bean. They then flew straight into Lone's chest and disappeared, leaving him in this peculiar space.

'Yup. Definitely going nuts...' he concluded as he felt his consciousness drift off.