Legacy of Darkness

Over a year and a half ago, after Lumina had passed out, and the tear in the sky had appeared above Lumina Academy...

Lumina awoke in a long corridor, the walls were covered in wooden panelling and the carpet along the floor was red.

"Benevolence?" Lumina pondered, the word still echoed through her mind. Along with the words, a migraine filled her head. One of the panels on the wall creaked open a few yards away.

"Huh?" Lumina approached the panel and looked inside, inside the room was a desk, and walls lined with bookcases. Lumina stepped inside, and the panel closed behind her. She walked calmly over to the bookshelf. On the spine of each book was a name, none of them seemed particularly relevant.

Lumina sighed and walked over to the desk, it was a grand oak desk, polished, without even a scratch on it. Atop the desk sat a contract, with Lumina's name on it. Lumina picked up the contract and began to read it, it seemed to be an ownership deed, but instead of being for a building, or a plot of land, it was for the whole of Crystalla.

Malevolence.

The word had changed. In the chair across from the desk, sat a 'shadow' with red eyes, they had not been there when Lumina had entered the room. The shadow lunged over the desk and placed its hands on the temples of Lumina's head.

A terrifying vision filled Lumina's mind.

She saw the birth and death of a galaxy, the event horizon of a dying star, a planet dying, cities burning, screaming, a dragon falling from the sky. The very end of existence itself. Treleva, standing over Araneia's corpse.

"NO!" Lumina roared, she snapped out of the vision and threw the shadow figure to the floor.

"This future will come to pass, little one" The shadow spoke, with a thousand voices.

"No! I refuse, I bend to the will of no God!" Lumina seethed with anger.

"I am no mere God, child, though they may have sealed the veil, they no longer exist to protect it, once more we have come to claim what is ours, and in lieu of a God to excise our will, we bequeath the right to you. We are not yet powerful enough to enter the domain of the mortals" The shadow's voices boomed.

"I don't care what you are, I'm not going to help" Lumina stated.

"We know that you are half of the one who tore down the Palace of the Gods, and for this, we offer you... a deal" The shadow grinned.

"A deal?" Lumina asked.

"If you unbind the elemental prisons, we will save the one you call 'Araneia'" The shadow replied, it's voices chittering away for seconds after speaking.

Lumina frowned.

"At what cost?" She sighed.

"You know the cost, how much are you willing to sacrifice to save the one that you love?" The shadow continued. Lumina screamed until her throat was raw. While it was true, she had fallen a long way since the death of her city, this would mean sacrificing any chance of ever going back to who she was.

"Yes, your home" The shadow's voices sounded almost gleeful at the mere mention. "We will restore your city, and it will remain as the last bastion of mankind, once our work is done" The shadow offered.

Lumina knew she had made up her mind, and seemingly, the shadow did too. Lumina picked up the pen and stabbed the back of her hand. Completing the deal.

Malevolence.