Shades of the New World

A brief silence ensued in the cavern. At some point, Ssatsko and Rith had come to listen to the tales of the old. The Vulpine Mother's true body had also come near Evin, lying on the ground with its head perked up towards the little group. The World Sprite she was using to speak continued.

"Perhaps she was titled so, because she was so adept at denying the efforts of the various Empires' advances? Or was there a list of unfortunate men who were captured by her beauty, but could not quite achieve their desires?" The Beast Lord joked.

"How do you know about these things in the first place? I thought Beast Lords couldn't leave their place of origin," Evin asked.

"It isn't as if we absolutely couldn't leave. We simply start dying rapidly if we do so. But it is possible to leave for a few weeks. And besides, I was just a normal spell caster before I became a Beast Lord, albeit one very interested in the applications of the Dark World. The tales of the Empress are one I found when I was searching information about the Empty Knight"

"What?"

The things that the Beast Lord was saying didn't quite add up.

"I suppose I'm what you would call a Cub of the Empress. Though, I was quite a proficient mage in my previous life," the Beast Lord joked.

"You've reincarnated into a fox?"

'Can I write a novel about this?!'

"Yes. I was shocked and fearful at first, but how could I know that whatever happened to me was the best thing that could happen to a mage at the time? I wandered the forest as normal fox for a while, before I stumbled upon a lodestone mine. The rest of the story is quite bland, with me simply staying near the lodestones while hunting for food occasionally. After I became a Mana-Beast after a few years, I started to familiarize with my new body that could channel Worlds."

"Although it was much more crude and out of control compared to humans, with my years of experience of working with the Worlds in my previous life, I could easily control the mana inside my new body. Eventually, I found this area filled with Dark World Sprites. I thought it was fate, so I didn't hesitate to devote my time to become a Beast Lord... though, I severely underestimated the time needed to become a Beast Lord. I believe it almost took me two hundred years to finalize the process. I remember taking holidays from all that assimilation by traveling to various places occasionally," The World Sprite said with melancholy.

The group was too shocked to make comments, so the World Sprite dispersed the group with a clap from its little hands.

"Story time's over. Let's go to sleep"

Evin and the rest went to their tents to sleep, but Evin was thinking about what kind of darkness will he have if he decided to focus on this path. All the unique aspects of different mages seemed extremely powerful to him, but he felt that they didn't fit him. He understood that the Vulpine told him about these knowledges, because she wanted to let Evin have a head start when he was creating his own unique darkness.

It didn't really have to be darkness in the first place. All the Worlds eventually led to developing one's own uniqueness.

Evin was pondering about what certain Worlds meant to him, but he soon fell asleep in the dark caverns.

…

The next morning came and Evin was woken by a bunch of World Sprite tugging at his body. He groggily got up from his bed and started changing.

The mornings were still his biggest weakness. After finishing his needs, he went on to a table that was set by whoever woke up the earliest and started munching on breakfast alongside a group of completely dark children that stared at whatever he was doing. Evin then went to meet the Vulpine Mother and receive the World Sprites from her.

Noticing the little boy coming towards her, she nodded and ordered the World Sprites, who were willing to go with the boy to assimilate themselves within him.

There were hundreds of World Sprites in the room, and almost one third of them went towards Evin. Most of them were the ones that were following him from the morning.

"Open your Shadow Storage," one of the World Sprites said.

Evin did as ordered and the World Sprites started falling into his shadow one by one. He could then feel all of them inside him. He counted exactly 98 World Sprites that went inside his shadow, and after they went inside of him, he could start hearing stray thoughts inside his head.

"Dark…"

"Safe…"

"Away…"

"Home…"

"More…"

"Mother…"

The thoughts didn't make sense to Evin, but they were told in such a melancholic tone Evin couldn't help but try harder to understand them. His task was doomed to fail from the start, so he could only give up after a few minutes.

"Seems that everything is fine. Sometimes the World Sprites start rampaging inside their new host, so if you ever get the chance to assimilate more World Sprites, make sure to do it in the presence of the Beast Lord or someone else capable of solving the problem," The Beast Lord explained.

"Thank you for your help…" Evin replied.

"Thank the Empress' will," The Beast Lord shrugged.

Evin immediately tried out his most used Dark World ability, which was to merge himself into the shadows. The process was much easier compared to his previous attempts with the help of the World Sprites. He decided to spend some time alone in the future to properly experiment with them.

The group's little detour gave Evin so many benefits, so everyone was quite happy with the situation. Arza was a bit jealous, but he knew he would never have a chance with Dark World Sprites.

Evin then asked Ssatsko about how he found out about the spot.

"It was actually my father who told me about this place. I don't know how he found it, but he told me to bring my descendants here to see if their luck was good enough. I was planning to leave the information about this place to you, so you could teach your descendants as well… But how could I know that you would be the one to receive its benefits," Ssatsko explained. The old man didn't bother telling Evin to keep the matter secret.

He knew that Evin wasn't dumb, so he knew that the boy wouldn't wantonly reveal its locations.

The group continued their ascent, but this time with Evin walking up the stairs like the rest. While they were ascending the fog surrounding the area was suddenly cleared with heat and the group could see the scenery from above the cliffs.

A beautiful landscape of the kingdom entered Evin's eyes and for some reason, it moved Evin greatly. Evin felt like teardrops were going to fall from his eyes if he kept looking so he decided to look at the people who cleared the fog with the familiar scroll.

Evin could also see another group of travelers at the bottom of the waterfall. He then noticed that they put all of their inventory and carriage inside a spatial storage ring and actually set the horses that were carrying the carriage free.

Rith took care of storing the items, even the horse, so Evin didn't really know how normal people went about their business. Well, calling them people would be a bit wrong, since they were obviously mages.

Evin noticed a child between them, staring intently at the magnificent full view of the Third Cataract. It was a boy, about the same age as Evin, and he reminded Evin of himself a day ago, staring at the Cataract with awe and shock.

The boy seemed to notice the group climbing the stairs and happily waved his tiny hands, while shouting something. Arza shouted a "Hey" back, but it was much louder than the boy.

The boy seemed to take that personally as he shouted back even louder.

'Fucking idiots…' Evin cursed in his head and closed up Arza's mouth before the situation could devolve into a shouting contest.

Arza gave Evin a pleading look of betrayal and pain, but Evin ignored it and walked upwards the stairs. He glanced back at the boy and found him standing in a triumphant pose, content with his victory. The people surrounding him were fussing over him, so Evin realized that it must be a young master of some family.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and the group finally reached the top of the Cataract.