There was once a man who stood against hatred itself, he made the ultimate sacrifice of fighting a friend, who had fallen victim to darkness, in hopes of getting rid of it for good. But hatred doesn't just vanish- It lingers, waiting for the right moment to rise again.

  Takou Ayaru, also known as Gold for his golden powers stood in the rainy battlefield surrounded by forests. This was an unavoidable battle, he was against Isey Houa, a member of The Legends, a group that was founded by Takou himself.

  "Why did you take the darkness?" Takou asked loud enough that if anyone was within this circular shaped field could hear it. Those were the only words he could think of in this situation, unsure if that person was even Isey anymore.

  "It's too late, Takou. Your friend is long gone and thanks to him I have finally awakened," The Darkness that had taken over Isey said before letting out a chuckle that echoed throughout the area they were in. There were purple lines that came out of his eyes and covering the face, compared to normal Isey he looked unrecognizable.

  Takou didn't respond, to him the words of The Darkness were meaningless. Instead he did a couple of hand signs and a golden colored aura appeared around him, the power of it was so immense that The Darkness had to be careful not to be pushed back by the force it created.

  "You're planning on sealing me in here again, aren't you. Unfortunately it won't work, I've learned about majority of your moves you used last time," The Darkness got excited, "I'll finally take you along with the other legends down."

  Takou's eyes narrowed while gathering up his power to seal The Darkness, he had to get over with this fight before the others came to try and help him. No one except for Takou is strong enough to go against something like The Darkness.

  "Last time I wasn't ready to sacrifice my own life but now that I've grown I'll give anything to make sure you won't win," Takou got slightly irritated by recalling their past encounter.

  "Hmph. Is that so? I remember it going down way differently, nonetheless I am hatred. You can't get rid of me and you know that, eventually someone will find me and I'll break free once again from your seal," The Darkness gave Takou a wide smile to hint that he's undefeatable.

  Takou let go of his hands that he had been holding against each other the entire time and was ready to put an end to this. "Eternal sealin-" Those were the words that Takou said out loud before he was cut off.

  The Darkness appeared in front of Takou holding him by his throat, his speed was so fast that it could've been considered as teleporting.

  "How did you... No how did I... underestimate you," Takou said while struggling to breathe while The Darkness was choking him out, The Darkness then threw Takou on the ground and got ready to finish him off.

  "Isey!" Someone yelled behind The Darkness, the voice echoing throughout the field.

  The Darkness turned his head slightly towards the voice, "The Legends, a group formed to unite the strongest people in this universe, yet you people are no match against me, you may come at me but just know you'll die."

  Akylu Sierd, the person that controls sand and who yelled out Isey's name completely ignored what The Darkness said and started running towards him.

  The Darkness appeared behind Akylu as he was running and knocked him down by his feet. Akylu groaned and struggled to get back up, almost as if something was pushing him against the ground.

  The Darkness raised his hand wanting to finish off Akylu when Kajo Tamta who has nature powers got ready to attack. He showed up behind The Darkness, wanting to attack his weak point, however The Darkness turned around and severed Kajo's head with a single strike of his hand.

  Pire Lasta, the last member here who was able to do something gathered up his ice powers and turned them into a bunch of icicles and sent them flying towards The Darkness. The Darkness reached his hand in front of him and a shield-like purple wall appeared in front of him that once the icicles made impact with it, they melted instantly.

  As Pire was creating more of these icicles, he didn't notice the small hands that were slowly crawling out of the ground grabbing him by his feet making him unable to move. Once Pire noticed that however, it was already too late, The Darkness once again had the wide disturbing smile on his face and by moving his own hands, the smaller ones responded to the commands, what seemed to be an endless amount of them, the small hands covered Pire and cracked his neck.

  The Darkness then, without looking towards the direction, severed Akylu's head just like he did with Kajo's. The rain got heavier and at that moment The Darkness felt a presence of someone possibly even stronger than Takou.

  Without being able to react in time, he was sent flying across the rainy field by that mysterious someone. The Darkness was looking around in desperation, hoping to catch whoever it was when suddenly he was sent flying away once again by someone in the opposite direction he was looking.

  When The Darkness raised his head from the ground, he noticed someone standing in the heavy rain looking at the dead bodies. The person turned their head towards The Darkness and at that moment The Darkness felt excitement he hasn't felt since his first battle with Takou, there was someone that was able to challenge him- no, there was someone that was able to have an advantage in this one-sided battle.

  The Darkness started laughing, "I like you. Someone like you will be of perfect use for me, I won't let a chance like this pass by," His laughter became quieter as he was talking and he tried to catch the person who was going to most likely attack him.

  Suddenly The Darkness felt a surge of energy hit him and he grabbed the person who appeared on his left by the foot they were attacking with and pulled the person down, "You've made me surpass my current limits and this is exactly why someone like you will be the perfect host."

  After that, the darkness made its powers burst out of Isey's body into that person.

  ###

  "Yamikuro?"

  "Hey, Wake up..." A voice kept on saying while also slightly shaking the sleeping boy's body.

  Yamikuro Asaki, a second year high school student, slowly opened his eyes and seemed to look around in confusion until his eyes met a girl with a brown haired ponytail, a school uniform, and an an annoyed face expression who tried to wake him up. "Oh, hello, Elara," He said calmly until he realized where he was, "Damn it, I fell asleep in class again, didn't I?!" He jolted himself up from the chair.

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  "You always seem so full of energy yet you keep falling asleep. How is that even possible?" Elara sighed and started searching through her bag, "Here, you can copy off my notes."

  As Yamikuro was about to thank her, his legs suddenly felt weak and he fell back on the chair.

  "Are you okay?" Elara got worried.

  "Yeah, just feeling tired, that's all," Yamikuro lied, in fact, everything around him started to feel weird- distant yet unrecognizable noises, objects moving around slightly, and a ringing headache that started to get stronger.

  "Alright if you say so, just take a picture of my notes and copy them to your notebook once you get home, I really have to get going," Elara put her notes on Yamikuro's desk and waited.

  "Thank you," Yamikuro said after taking the pictures and trying to stand up again. This time he managed to stand on his feet but even so he still struggled to move them.

  "See you monday, Yamikuro," Elara turned her back to Yamikuro and started walking.

  "Monday? You're not coming to school tomorrow then?" Yamikuro got curious.

  "No, my dad wants me to help him out tomorrow so I'll be skipping classes, you'll have to get by on your own," Elara replied while looking over her shoulder towards Yamikuro and giving him a smile.

  "Oh, sure, good luck with it," Yamikuro also smiled and waved. After that, he picked up his bag and walked out of the class, using the support of the desks while trying to keep balance.

  He managed to get through the empty halls due to the after school hours but when he walked out of the school building, he had more trouble walking because of the open space. His head was still ringing but it started to slowly get better and the noises were barely hearable compared to before.

  It was a cool afternoon where the sun started to slightly set, creating a beautiful atmosphere that covered the empty streets. But as Yamikuro was stumbling around the streets, he bumped into someone and tripped over.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't see you walking towards me," The tall man with a suit said giving Yamikuro his hand to help him up.

  Yamikuro looked up to him and was shocked, "You're Lucian Maléfique, the head of the government. I'm really sorry, sir," Yamikuro apologized and tried to get up on his own but couldn't.

  Lucian laughed a little, "No no, it's my fault really. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, here take my hand."

  Yamikuro's expression changed from being sorry to having a slight smile on his face. He decided to grab Lucian's hand and got up, "Thank you, sir."

  "Get home safely," Lucian then patted Yamikuro's shoulder and kept walking. Yamikuro nodded in response.

  After their meeting, Yamikuro made his way to the train station, using the support of things like walls and railings. By the time he got on the train, the sun had set even more.

  Yamikuro then leaned against the train window, the calm ride helped him think over everything a little easier. This was one of the strangest days for him. The headaches that kept bothering him, alongside the weird dream and the weird whispers of what seemed to be from multiple people, even if there was no one around.

  Today was also the morning when his parents randomly disappeared. They have never left this early without mentioning it to him and there weren't any notes around to let him know where they might be and the phone calls didn't go through to them. Yamikuro didn't want to overthink it, they could've just had something important come up.

  He glanced at the window's reflection and saw a few people around him, way less than what he expected. Yamikuro took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "I've most likely caught some sort of a sickness," He thought to himself, "When I get home I'll-"

  His thought process got cut off by the train that activated its emergency brakes out of nowhere. Everyone on it almost fell down and Yamikuro wasn't an exception.

  The people were woken up from their half-asleep state and started chattering. Yamikuro tried to get a look on what was happening but he wasn't able to.

  Suddenly the train was abruptly split apart by what could only be described as a slash of a massive sword cutting through the middle. However, the people who happened to be in the middle exploded into pieces.

  The chatter from earlier turned into panic and people started trying to escape until someone who stood in front of the train yelled out loud, "Anyone who moves will be killed. I'm only here for the darkness wielder!"

  All the passengers were confused on what to do and those who didn't listen died one by one as that person was walking inside the train. Yamikuro decided to stay still, hoping he wouldn't get noticed this way. His heart was racing like never before and he couldn't fully process what was happening in the current moment.

  The person kept looking left and right, looking for the darkness wielder. One of the people he passed tried to attack him but suddenly disappeared after touching one of the four orbs that were floating around his head, "You humans really think you can damage me, a god, by throwing a punch. Don't make me laugh," He said and kept on walking.

  When the god approached Yamikuro, he stood in front of him for a bit and then smirked, "So it's you. He was right after all, you really are a kid... But how are you able to still be yourself?"

  Yamikuro didn't say anything but he was breathing heavily and he started sweating from the pressure. "Well, it's not like that matters to me," He said and kicked Yamikuro through the back of the train, onto the railing.

  Yamikuro felt antagonizing pain but he somehow managed to stand up. "Why me and who are you?!" He yelled.

  "I am a god called Sphairos and I'm here to capture you. You see these orbs around me? Each of these orbs have different properties, Nullity, Entropy, Gravity and Eruption. Remember me and my powers well because this will be the first and last time you'll see a powerful god like me," He said while walking out of the train.

  Yamikuro didn't say anything in response, instead he started thinking on how to escape from him. The only logical thing for him was to turn around and run.

  "Stop right there!" Someone said as Yamikuro was about to turn around. But when he did, he saw the entire railway being blocked by people in futuristic looking hazmat suits.

  "We are the hunters and we're here to take down people with powers! It is forbidden for your kind to run around freely!" The one in the front yelled, his suit was red colored while others were green.

  "Hunters? What is this?" Sphairos tilted his head and grabbed one of the orbs from behind him. He then threw it at the crowd of hunters and it caused a massive explosion, taking down around half of the hunters and making Yamikuro fall on his face.

  "Now then, darkness wielder, let's go about this the easy way. I'll just take you and bring you in front of them," Sphairos started walking towards Yamikuro.

  Yamikuro was conscious but wasn't able to move, he accepted defeat when suddenly his heart started racing again and his vision turned black.

  Yamikuro's body was now covered by a purple aura and his screams echoed through the entire area, Yamikuro seemed to be in pain again, his screams lasted for about half a minute when he seemed to stand perfectly fine. The hunters from behind him stood back from fear. Yamikuro was looking around him until his eyes met with Sphairos, instead of being light blue, they were shining purple this time.

  Sphairos was confused, "So you are able to use the powers of the darkness-," He cut off his own sentence, "No. This isn't the darkness wielder anymore, you're The Darkness itself aren't you."

  The Darkness possessing Yamikuro didn't say anything, instead he jumped towards Sphairos. The clash between them shook the train and pushed down the people around them.

  The Darkness seemed to overpower Sphairos and he was kicked through the train. Sphairos got up and started thinking if this fight was worth continuing.

  "Why am I doubting myself," Sphairos thought to himself and grabbed two orbs from behind him to use as weapons. When The Darkness caught up to Sphairos, they continued and their battle was consisted of avoiding each others attacks and trying to also land them.

  Both The Darkness and Sphairos seemed to be getting excited as the fight went on, when suddenly The Darkness felt Yamikuro's soul trying to fight back which allowed Sphairos to land an attack on him. It was with the orb of Eruption and The Darkness was sent flying from the impact.

  Yamikuro's soul kept fighting back against The Darkness and Sphairos took it as a opening chance and jumped towards him. The Darkness reacted quickly and made purple shadowy hands appear from the ground which grabbed Sphairos by the legs and forced him still in place. Sphairos took the orb of gravity from his back and threw it towards The Darkness.

  The orb picked up hands and pieces of the railway as it flew, making the bridge they were on even more unstable. The Darkness made a purple see-through wall appear and blocked the orb.

  When Yamikuro gained more control of his body, he started to back away from the fight. At first he was slow but as he kept going, he got faster and faster. He ran on the railway, being watched by Sphairos who was still dealing with the hands that kept appearing from the ground. Yamikuro made it over the bridge and took turns through the city until he passed out completely.

  After an unknown amount of time Yamikuro opened his eyes to see himself in an unfamiliar room.