Chapter 91 The Dark Cloud

Ethan's POVThe horizon stretched endlessly, a sea of dark grasslands unmarred by any sign of life. As I began to move or drift, I adjusted my focus and soon spotted other clouds in the distance.

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They varied in size, some small like me and others massive but all were seemingly frozen in place like statues suspended in the air.

In one direction, I noticed a cluster of clouds that were gathered together as if by some unseen force. The sheer density of them made it appear as though a massive storm were brewing on the horizon.

Further away, I could see isolated clouds, standing alone like dark blemishes against the sky. The larger the cloud, the higher it seemed to float as it loomed above the smaller ones.

Then, in the farthest reaches of the horizon, I saw a humongous cloud dominating the landscape.

It stretched across the sky with its vastness almost incomprehensible. Black lightning roared within its depths, striking the ground with deafening force. Each bolt ignited fires of black flame that danced wildly across the dark grasslands and cast an eerie glow.

What is this world? How do I leave this place?

I glanced away and thought about these questions as they persistently echoed through my mind and I tried to make sense of my predicament.

After what felt like hours of pondering, I arrived at a tentative conclusion that I must have been trapped in a perilous realm, mostly likely in a space caught between the real world and the astral world.

I had read a little excerpt about it from a worn-out book in the Black Tower's library.

I focused on that giant cloud again but this time what I saw left me both stunned and horrified. It was moving slowly but its direction was undeniably towards my position.

An instinctive sense of crisis surged through me and I willed myself to move forward. Surprisingly, the cloud form that I existed in drifted in the opposite direction of the colossal Duskwither.

I pushed myself to the limits as I was desperate to escape it but every time I glanced back, the all-encompassing dark cloud with its black lightning seemed to devour more and more of this dreary world.

It was relentless and I felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness creeping in.

Just as despair began to take hold, I remembered something and a glimmer of hope surged through me and I focused my sense deep within my soul.

I transmitted my thoughts to the seven-colored glowing hexagonal crystal that I could still sense within me even in this disembodied form. Its colorful and bright presence calmed my desperation a little and I waited for its response while I continued to move away from the dark cloud.

Moments later, the familiar old but monotonous voice of Auralis Prime echoed through my mind.

[Duskwither: A unique soul entity commonly known as an Astral Wraith. It is a colossal manifestation of despair and malevolence that is formed exclusively in the Astral Realm.

Its formation occurs when fractured souls of beings who died prematurely and experienced great despair or immense shock at the end of their lives converge after their death.

An unknown insidious and unseen force facilitates the birth of these unnatural entities]

The voice continued in its usual monotonous tone while my mood and thoughts were heavy after listening to its narration.

[These souls consumed by hatred, greed, and sorrow in life, meld into a chaotic storm of spiritual energy that births the Duskwither.

Its essence is an insatiable hunger and it feeds not only on souls but on emotions themselves. It drains hope, joy, and determination wherever it passes and the only thing it leaves is emptiness in its wake.

Whenever it nears the material world, it siphons away positive thoughts of beings replacing them with negativity, violent impulses and destructive tendencies that are the extension of the amalgamated souls.

The black lightning crackling within its depths is a destructive manifestation of the agony and anger it absorbs. It is said to annihilate even the strongest astral constructs or souls of lower worlds.

Legends whisper that the first Duskwither was once a lone and wandering shade but as it devoured more, it grew vast and branched out into infinite selves that continue to multiply even now.

Its presence is both physical and metaphysical. It moves through the Astral Realm like a storm while also invading the minds of the beings of the material world.

Living beings' dreams turn into nightmares, courage becomes fear and even the most steadfast ones crumble in its wake.

Fragmented obscurities cannot evolve when encountered by a Duskwither. Instead, they are consumed and devoured.]

Successor's soul essentia is currently trapped in a dimensional gap within the Astral Realm. This region is a crack between planes, and successor's soul gravitated here when yow were returning to your soul anchor.

The Duskwither roams this crack, and its pull ensnared successor that drew you into its personal domain. Immediate escape is advised to ensure survival.]

The influx of information overwhelmed me and left my already tethered consciousness reeling even more. The weight of it all bore down on me, and I could feel the Duskwither's pull growing stronger.

My tiny cloud form was drifting toward the storm and this time I was powerless to resist it.

Why is my luck so terrible? How did I end up in this cursed place in the vast Astral Universe? My thoughts raced. What is this soul anchor, and why was I away from it in the first place?

I struggled with all my might, but the pull was unrelenting. My tiny cloud moved as if it were a droplet being pulled into an infinite dark ocean.

The last thing I could recall before everything went black was the raging black lightning threatening to destroy me and the tumultuous waves of darkness that pulled me into a whirlpool with that black lightning following me inside.

My being twisted and turned and was spinning uncontrollably like a leaf caught in a violent storm.