When Scarlets vision was cut Rain and I were still in the astral plain. After witnessing what just occurred we both fell to our knees. Am I crying? I touch my face and look at my hand to see the glossy black blood of mine. I then look at Rain it's the same thing. I feel so weak. Am I experiencing an after effect because of what I just witnessed. I end up falling face down and my blood starts coming out of my mouth and I start seizing; my body begins to weaken. I'm not sure what is going on but I don't feel like I'm going to die so what then. There's got to be a solution think Oni, think every problem has a solution whether physical or spiritual. Cause and effect you got this. "Im not human!" I say and roll over I then took my hands and slammed it onto my chest so hard it stopped my heart for 3 seconds. During which time I stop seizing. As soon as my heart stopped I was just standing in this black space. "You seriously killed yourself? Like I understand that it was the only way someone like you could achieve that but I didn't think you would go through with it. Though you do realize even though you don't need the tears this time this will still affect your soul and your will to survive."
"Is it going to weaken me?" I reply not even shocked that he pulled me in here actually was expecting it.
"Not in the slightest by the way your progressing your going to be stronger than me in my prime and I am the strongest. But I want you to know even as a demon you will eventually hate to be alive because everything you worked for has been destroyed. During this time you must stay true and strong everybody has their demons."
"Are you saying that because you went through something similar?"
"Every "hero" has their fall Oni. With that being said I have 2 things to tell you then I'll let you go. You are going to get a power boost from dying and being brought back without the tears. The second is the Mark of the Beast. Only one of the candidates get to possess this power. I hope you aren't afraid of pain." He says with a smirk. Then walks towards me with a smile. Suddenly he sprints towards me the only thing I see is his body change into some kind of jacked cheetah he lunges, strikes and bounces changes forms back to do it again. I try to dodge but I don't have any idea how I could dodge him. Eventually I'm just standing their all torn to pieces. "You'll understand tomorrow."
Darkness…
1
2
I sit up gasping for air. "What is with today? I'm confused what does power mean in this world how strong do I have to get?"
Vadamire walks towards me and says, "The only way you can learn is by experience for today your just going to go rest. We will discuss everything tomorrow. And don't worry about Rain he will be fine just like you. Your both strong insanely so for your age."
As I go to lay on my bed I think about everything that's happened so far. It's just so confusing I'd love to know more about this world. It can't be a coincidence that both my best friend who I've considered my brother, and me; have ended up on the same planet. The two must be connected somehow. But there's another thing I still don't get yet and thats the power system. If someone can simply die and come back then why isn't everyone super strong. Theres got to be something that stops them. Is it the government? Nah there's no way they would intentionally try to make their people weak. With that I went to sleep.
Later that night I sit up and start coughing up blood. "What the fuck." I say to myself then go to the bathroom to clean myself up. Once I look in the mirror I jump back a bit because I seen that my body was changing. I could see different kinds of teeth in my mouth, my vision started changing. I stumbled out of the bathroom and headed out to the balcony thinking that being outside might be better because I have no idea what I can do yet or how to control it. Leaning on the edge of the railing I started seeing blood and feeling tremendous pain and pressure on my bones. All of a sudden I fall straight to the floor trying to push my self up with my arms. Then suddenly my bones and body completely shifted into a demonic creature. My vision was insane. I take a few steps in this new form and I like it this is something I could get used to. I put my paws on the railing and jump off the 5th floor. I land perfectly and continue to run and jump around my front yard getting more and more comfortable with this new body. I lay down for a bit thinking about what Raphata did to me in the astral plain. The way he bounced perfectly off those walls attacked and then swaps forms instantly. It was majestic all I could do was get torn to shreds. I want to be able to do that but first i would have to perfect the movement of how he did it. I would also need a really good spot to set this up for practice. I stand up and stretch. Man this body is amazing I can smell everything. I take a deep breath and smell darkwood trees and moss. I looked in that direction and ran. It took about 45 minutes for me to get to the forest of darkwood trees once I got there I was trying to learn the technique of jumping tree to tree. 732. That's how many times I failed. On the 733 try I succeeded with jumping perfectly off of 2800 trees by this point of time I have no idea how long I have been out here in this form but i know I am completely exhausted. With that I called it a day and went back to my house I was even able to scale it with ease. Once back in my room i realized something crucial… I don't know how to change back into my demon form! I sat down on my bedroom floor trying to think up a solution. I start to imagine my bones going back to normal my teeth forming. Eventually my body was back to normal except one thing… when i looked in the mirror again I had scars all over my body except for my face. I walked to my parents room and knocked on the door. My mom looked at me and screamed "Ray! Come here right now!" Once my father came to the door he asked why I had all of these scars and I told him that it was a gift from Raphata. I then looked at mom and asked her for the demon core I'm supposed to eat. As soon as i touched it I was tossed into the astral plain. But of course I knew this was going to happen. "Raphata we need to talk."
"What do you want child!" He says
"I need some answers. What exactly is this power you gave me? Why did I suddenly change forms? And where do I go to train like you."
He starts walking towards me in his menacing armor and says, " Listen here boy you will not demand answers from me. Do you forget that I am the strongest being on this planet? Shall I remind you?" As he says that the astral plain starts to change. It becomes hot and the floor starts to crack lava rising to the surface. I back up and Raphata lunges towards me grabbing me by the face when he did, he snapped his fingers with his other hand opening a portal throwing me into the air, kicking me in the stomach sending me to the other side.
Raphata then walks through the portal and says, "Get up we have somewhere to be." I look around to see that I'm back in my house. Eventually we walk into the dining room and see my parents and Rain sitting at the table. "Welcome Oni I am aware today is a very important day for you boys. Welcome in Raphata would you join us for our meal?" We continue on to eat breakfast. When we finish eating Raphata says, "We will be going on a journey to get stronger. They will be pushed beyond any normal 7 year old, I plan to see these boys grow immensely. Now can you boys leave us for a minute while I talk to your parents."
Once we leave the room, Raphata looks towards my parents and says, "Jezeray Reverant how did you know today was a important day for the boys?"
"It's easy look at them they look like diamonds ready to form the just need the right pressure. I'm sure that this is what you were leading up to talking about so what kind of crazy training do you have planned out for them." Replies Ray calmly.
"I'm going to send them to Pangaea." Raphata says with a smirk.
My dad sits up with shock and terror. "You mean that place is real?"
"Oh it's real alright and if the 2 of them survive then they might just have a hope of survival in this war that we are about to face. You see the people of Jaruke has formed a army that's calling themselves the AA alliance. They want nothing more than to eradicate every single demon. I've spent my whole life trying to prevent this but. Now it's time for the next generation. The boys will be gone for 4 years you will be able to spend 1 month with them before they have to go to school."
"Okay boys get in here!" Raphata shouts.
We shuffle our way back to the table and we just get stared at I mean like to the point it's just awkward for both of us. Raphata broke the silence and said, "We are about to leave say your goodbyes then when your done(he snaps his fingers)meet me in the astral plain."
With that he left.
Rain and I turn around and look at my parents knowing that for us it'll feel like 2 years and for them it'll be 4 years. "I hope you are excited for my return." I put my hands on the back of my head waving bye as I walk through the portal. Rain looks back at our parents then says, "I will harness this power for you as I promised!" He says with a grin running into the portal.
The Plains Of Pangaea
Once I reach the other side of the portal I see Raphata leaning on a tree. Rain jumps out of the portal and leans on me. Before we take a step Raphata says, "Do you feel the difference yet? Maybe try walking towards me. The first one here gets an award." Rain and I look at each other and sprint as fast as we can. But to our surprise we were moving in slow motion and we were out of breath yet we haven't moved 10 feet from where the portal was. While we continue struggling Raphata starts explaining why we are struggling. "There are 4 things stopping you from reaching me. Demon bodies are designed for a 1G environment. High gravity greatly impacts the cardiovascular system, forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood against the increased pressure. This can cause G-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC). Blood pooling in the lower extremities can also be a significant issue. Your bones are pushing harder then they have ever done before which can cause extreme muscle and bone pain."
"No offense Raphata but why are you telling us this?" I ask with a shaky voice as I continue struggling.
"Well this place here has 4 times the gravitational pull then what we are used to. So if you weigh on average of 50 pounds currently your pulling 200 pounds at least. I'm very shocked to see you guys still standing yet here you are standing in front of me. Rain looks like he might win first. You got 20ft man you got this."
I've finally caught my breath but once I did I looked up to see Rain had reached Raphata.
I look at him with a grin then walk very slowly towards Raphata. "Woahhh. This place looks magnificent but it feels like I'm going to die of a heat stroke." As I look more thoroughly I see a vast flat land covered in forests and small rolling hills there was one particularly creature that stuck out to me. It was laying in the sun about 400 yards away. I've only ever heard about these in fairy tales in my old life I never in a million years would think that I would actually see one. It's body was completely white almost glossy. The creature looked like a normal horse at first glance but this creature has wings. Rain looks at me and says, "There's no way we are looking at a real pegasus." Suddenly we see a smaller creature lunge at the Pegasus. It kind of look like a smaller version of a hell hound but it had spike like hairs sticking out of its back. As soon as it lunged forward the pegasus stood up and reared its feet. But something unusual happened next a small flash of light appeared then as soon as the hoof made contact with this creature it exploded. With that the pegasus jumped up into the air and disappears.
"Rain this is your reward." Say's Raphata as he pulls this old piece of parchment out of thin air. " this is a map passed down from every person who's been here only one creature here remains to be transformed into although this doesn't necessarily apply to you putting the map in your possession is actually the best for everyone. Plus, you earned this. The first creature that you will have to overcome is the Pegasus but first you must learn the keys of nature and strengthen your body mind and soul. But this is where we must part ways for now. I will come to check up on you every once in a while, but do not expect me to be helping you out." After that he just disappeared.
"We have a brand new world to explore. Bodies we have to train to survive admist these beasts. The first thing Raphata said we got to learn, is the keys of nature what do you think he meant by that? How are we supposed to learn something we aren't even aware of?" I say slowly pacing in the blazing heat.
Rain looked at me wiping the sweat off his face and staring at the vast land in front of us, then says,"How did people do it back in our first lives? The monks I mean. They were able to connect themselves to nature. I read some monks discussed how nature "holds the key" to aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and spiritual satisfaction. I believe this is a start."
I look at him in agreement and think about the monks the naturists and others that devoted their life to finding out how to reach a higher level. "This training is about to be hell. We have entered the animal kingdom and right now we are nowhere near the top of the food chain."