Chapter 35: A World of Eternal Darkness
In a dark alleyway, unseen by passing eyes, the air began to tremble. A faint hum, like a charging sound resonated through the narrow space as loose debris floated upwards, paper, dust, fragments of glass, all began to blow away due to formation of Negativity curling into a single, invisible point in reality.
Negative Strands of energy began to condense, coiling and folding over itself until it erupted into a dim, swirling mass of black light. From that vortex, a shape began to form, first an outline, then faint features, though it was no human figure, not truly, and more like a ghost, a sit had no legs, just a ghost like tail, although a human upper body, with no features whatsoever could be seen.
What stood or rather floated there was a body sculpted from pure Negativity, its edges flickering like smoke struggling to hold form. A silhouette. A shadow of something greater, wrapped in the faint echo of despair, anger, lust, basically anything from the Negativity spectrum.
Of course this was none other than Dante who began using Spiritual Manifestation for the first time, to appear in the human world.
"Ah... what is this?" Dante muttered, lowering his gaze to study the faintly dark translucent fingers of his new body. They pulsed with dull pure dark colored energy, almost fluid in motion. "Not what I was expecting, but okay... Still, why do I look like this?"
The moment he spoke, asking this question, as if on que, a soft ding resonated through his mind. And a notification window blinked into existence before him, a HUD identical to the one Beatrice saw whenever she gained a level or trait in Sunderland. Except this one had to form of an online chat, you typically see during PVP games.
Of course it was Virgil, and like the guide it was, it began to explain, why Dante looked the way he does.
[That is because you are an Outer Spirit. The sheer amount of Negativity required to fully summon your true form would drain this entire world dry infinitely over. Outer Spirits typically manifest through the use of Faith due to their god like existence, as a stabilizing energy, anchoring their essence beyond their domains. The Negativity within your current environment is insufficient to sustain an Absolute Form. As such this body is like an lesser avatar or a puppet of sorts, making your current vessel a limited, unstable, and significantly weaker form than your true form within your personal Domain]
Dante blinked once, then twice, his brow twitching mentally of course. "Wait... so I am weaker here because this world doesn’t have enough juice to handle me? Like, if I showed up in full form, I would literally burn the planet’s battery dry?"
Another message came in the chat in front of him, as Virgil answer his question.
[Yes. The human world doesn’t have a way to create infinite Negativity like the Spirit World, or a means to simulate that absolution like your Domain, or the means by which Vampire where able to do it. For that reason the spiritual density here is minimal, barely enough to sustain a low-level manifestation for an Outer spirit like yourself]
"That... makes sense, I guess." Dante said, scratching the back of his neck. "Still, that is kind of depressing. I go from practically omnipotent to... half-transparent ghost in the human world. Love the downgrade." He said sarcastically.
He sighed, glancing at his flickering hand again. The silhouette wavered faintly, as if the body itself was breathing with each pulse of ambient Negativity around him.
"Sigh... I can’t complain then." He muttered. "At least I am able to interact with the physical world to some extent. But damn... minus fifty Negativity per hour just to exist here? I still think that is highway robbery."
His words hung in the air, carried by the faint chill of the alley’s stillness. Above him, the city lights bled faintly through the day mist, and somewhere in the distance, a church bell rang.
Dante tilted his head, a slow grin forming. "Still... this means I can finally see the world my Player lives in with my own eyes. I suppose that is worth a little energy loss." He said to himself, from there he began to move or fly, it was a weird feeling, like flying came to him naturally, as he phase through the building of the alley and float to the roof and looked down.
Dante wandered out of the alley and into the open streets, his ethereal form flickering faintly beneath the neon lights that lined the roads. He could see people moving about...humans, mostly, walking along the sidewalks, clutching bags, chattering on phones, or rushing toward vehicles with half-eaten breakfast in hand. The sight of life buzzed around him, made him feel nostalgic as his own former life as a human.
"Heh." Dante chuckled softly, his voice carrying an echo like effect or reverb for some reason. "Some things just don’t change, huh? Even in another world like this... people are still in a hurry to get somewhere."
He paused, glancing upward. Though the air smelled faintly of smoke and city rain, what caught his eye wasn’t the noise or movement, it was the sky itself. The world above him was swallowed in darkness, a thick canopy of black, and red clouds that completely blotted out the sun. It was’t nighttime, not even close. The streets were lit, but there was no dawn, no sunlight, only the distant sight of artificial street light’s straining through the city.
"Still... Dante murmured, tilting his head. "It feels weird. I know it is supposed to be daytime, but that sky... that thick black and red cloud that stretches as far as I can see. It is like the whole world is trapped under a giant blanket."
He narrowed his eyes, curious now. "I wonder how shit even got like this."
[It is the work of a single Vampire. You see they feed on humans more than any other race. So to protect themselves from sunlight, they use vast-scale blood sorcery to shroud the skies in perpetual darkness. It has been this way for over six hundred years already]
"Six hundred years? Damn." He looked up again, the black ceiling of clouds stretching endlessly across the skyline. "They must be seriously powerful to pull that off. Controlling the entire atmosphere, blocking the sun itself... and keeping it active for this long is definitely an insane feat of power for sure."
[Vampires are indeed powerful. In the World of Purgatory, they are considered the strongest race, known as sovereign predators above all others of the seven race of this world, they are basically at the top of the food chain]
Dante let out a low whistle. "The strongest race, huh?" He smirked faintly in his head, both hands sliding to his side. "Still, I can’t help but wonder what kind of vampire could change the sky itself. Going off cliches like the shit show that is Twilite. There is most definitely a leader vampire that did this."
He said to himself, then in that moment, a heard loud explosion in the distance.
BOOOOOOOM!!
"Hmmm." He turned his head, up ahead, smoke and fire bathed the streets, as people began to run for their lives.