The Tales of the Shadows

18. n_ture

The wind swept the little nature left in the chaotic land away. The Shadows put up a good fight - Issac's shadow was almost invisible to Vlad - but they could never keep up with them. Soon he would acquire the stone, and balance would be restored. He wondered why those beings had to fight anyway. His methods wouldn't affect them at all, maybe affect life a little by gradually wiping it out. Entropy would reverse for a bit, but life would be restored again. It would be as if no time passed for the Shadow Beings. They can just exit now and enter at a later point. Why were they being such a nuisance? Even the Shadow of Nature? Grace too? And especially Chaos - he surely understands how much pain they're causing the Demons?

"You are causing them pain, Vlad. Do not blame this on the Shadow-Trappers."

The heavy voice scared Vlad. So weak, so frail, yet so confident. That could only be the true Demon Lord.

Then what am I?

"It is for their own good. With the ways of the shadow-trappers, the demons will have to be the nonsensical idea of what living things think is true. Demons are bad, angels are good. As if the world is that simple."

"But we are using their terms. Chaos, demon, land, these are all their words."

How did higher existences borrow terms from the lower ones, terms that existed in a time yet to pass?

A thunder of noise rang around the entity. He did not expect the Shadow-Trappers to hold their own for so long. He was convinced they were lucky because of the chaos in his mind. He just had to calm down, and all would be his.

Could Rage ever calm down?

He could feel the cold sharpness of the wind. The feel of the destructive land. The despair of life. The inevitability of nature. The inevitability of his nature. Emotions. Thoughts. Logic. Feelings. Life's mind. Unsettled. The downward spiral into the abyss of rage.

Then came quietude. Something drummed in the entity's mind. Taunting, threatening, angering, until Rage found the pattern. A nice beat to calm him. Just follow the beat and all will be well. Follow the rhythm and all will be well.

Then he saw her.

Darkness trailed behind her, a calming darkness that only Vlad could see. The drumming stopped, becoming the entity's heartbeat in the cavity that remain in its vessel. It was as if the world melted away, and only she was there. The intrusion of sanity left, the need of understanding was gone. The cavity felt hollow, so devoid of hope, yet everything was okay. The world was raging, yet everything was silent. He was raging, but at least in that moment, he understood.

"It is okay, Vlad.

"It is okay."

Perhaps he wasn't so alone.

- - - - -

What am I doing?

Blink. The entity's reality came into focus as it waged war on it, unleashing rage.

What good will it do by unleashing this? You can't let the emotion escape, keep it under control.

What do you mean? I am Rage. I have infinite Rage.

It will run out and this hybrid being will come undone. Stop before you make things worse.

Before you make things worse? One component of the 3 speaks to another. The three of us make this being. What are you talking about?

Who am I? What am I? What are we? The name Vlad, what does it imply? Who does it point to? Who knows about us? Who understands us? Who understands us? Who are we?