It's funny how the mind can get used to practically anything. Specifically in terms of the environment it finds itself in. There are people who live in extreme cold, and others who live in extremely hot environments. But no matter how tough living in such places is, the brain always ends up getting used to it. That also goes for darkness. Most people are used to being out in the light, surrounded by the people they know and love, however, that isn't the case for everyone.

There are people who are so used to resentment and abuse that they'll retract into the deepest, darkest corners of the world, even though it scares them. However, as years go by they'll learn to live with it. They adapt to their new reality, and it turns them cold. There are many reasons to find your way to dishonor and darkness, but like many other things there is a most common way for that to happen. Betrayal, the act of shattering the reality of another.

Betrayal breeds distrust, which in turn breeds darkness. Darkness leads to despair, and despair leads to desperation for connection to other people. In most cases, this will be a phase, but what applies to everyone is the lingering fear of being betrayed again. A fear that may leave its victim unable to bond with others ever again. But for such people, there is a way to return to life, so to speak. To overcome their fear by facing it over and over again, until they're left without the ability, nor the need to depend on others. These are the people who cause wars, death, and destruction.

These are the people who forces mankind to progress, however, the uneducated and the stupid fail to appreciate this phenomenon, branding it 'evil' rather than recognizing it for being the great driving force behind technological progress.

'Evil, the mother of progress.' Thought the misguided soul, who was sitting on the non-existent ground in the void.

That phrase sat well with the young, deceased elf.

He had just finished a lecture with his master, who had taught him the importance of evil, and how it is necessary. His master didn't believe in useless things like 'necessary evil', since all evils were necessary in one way or another. Serial killers brought about closely knit communities of people who knew they could trust one another, while war resulted in advancements in various fields of science, due to the need to be superior to one's enemy.

This had been one of over a hundred similar lessons, Ash had received in order to pass the time he was spending in the dark void he found himself in. If there was one thing he never grew tired of, it was acquiring new knowledge.

Ash stood up from his spot on the ground, as he had grown tired of sitting still. That had become quite a habit for him - pondering. The elf, whose mental age was becoming quite high, had developed a tendency towards sitting still and reflecting over things he had heard, said, and done during the time he had spent being alive. There were so many things he wished he had done differently, now that he looked at it in retrospect.

The young elf walked through the ever-changing darkness that had become his home. He kept walking for a while until he reached a spot where the blackness appeared brighter than the rest of the dark void. It was strange to look at, but Ash was used to the way the empty space seemed to defy all logic, after spending so much time there.

In the middle of this strange clearance was an undefinable cluster of shapes and colors that shifted by the minute. At one moment, it was a purple square, the next, it was a mix of angles and colors that could only be described by the word 'madness'. That was how it looked on the outside, but it had another function. If one were to gaze at it for a while, it would show moving images of people. Bad people.

According to Evitagen, this ball was the only existing example of Negative Energy in a solid form. One could touch it, but they would have to have completely given up on their well-being and sanity. But if the person who touched it was already a catalyst for darkness, they would be able to touch it without any repercussions.

Ash put his palm on the shifting lump of energy. His hand sank into the maddening mess of colors, and his vision started to fade. The young elf was used to this, because he had done it many times before. He knew that the feeling of being about to faint, from being in contact with the energy, was only temporary. Therefore, he kept his shaking hand on the undefinable mess of shapes, until his vision was clear again. The shape before him had stopped defying the laws of logic, and had become a dark-purple ball.

The young elf gazed into the ball of energy, which had begun functioning as a mirror of sorts. Except it did not return Ash's own reflection, but gave a clear view of a forest from a top-down perspective. The forest in question was one the former slave knew very well. It was the forest that had become his resting place, for the time being.

In the middle of the clearing, that was being shown to the elf, sat a person dressed in a black cape. This was a person whom Ash had come to appreciate, a person he had indirectly created. The being that sat leaned against a tree trunk was a creature called a 'lich'. Originally, the young elf had thought that his death was going to be the end for him, but this creature, this savior of sorts had presented an unexpected opportunity to return to life. It didn't know it was being watched, but the young elf had been watching it on its quest to revive its master, Ash.

What was even better was the fact that it wasn't even a long-term plan, but one which was one the verge of success.

The lich knew of a way to revive Ash, but unfortunately it didn't possess the means to resurrect him just yet. It needed Negative Energy, the power that kept the undead alive. That was exactly what it planned to do with the young elf who the lich saw as its master. Turn him into one of the dead.

Of course, there were the easy way of resurrecting a dead person; turning them into a skeleton, but by doing that Ash's power would dissipate, and he would be nothing but your run-of-the-mill undead. Weak, powerless, and unintelligent. No, there were other ways to raise the dead without taking away their power of old. If one gathered enough wrath, fear, and regret into one spot, the chance to conjure an unimaginable terror presented itself.

Ash had fought the dead before, however, he had been limited to skeletons and wraiths, because they were the only undead in the area around Elcrada, so of course he had thought that the undead were the only type of creatures from the underworld. Evitagen had proved that idea false. But before the young elf could hope to understand how that worked, the dark being had spent the eternity with Ash, teaching him the theory behind Negative Energy, which had proven to be so much more than a tool for reviving the dead.

The undead could be seen as the lowest of the low, in terms of creatures born from dark magic. Above the undead were another race of dark beings, known as demons.

While the undead sustained themselves, using Negative Energy, demons were a product of the very same dark energy. They were concentrated evil that fed on the suffering of others, which they turned into more Negative Energy. Demons were monsters on the battlefield, and often even more intelligent than they were powerful. They were a race whose power-level only few mortals could hope to match.

And for the purpose of creating such a being, Ash's servant in the world of the living, the lich, started a small war with an entire town. It had been successful in slaying both adventurers and priests alike, giving them hope of victory by sending a small army, before crushing that hope with an even larger one. Like that, the lich maximized the amount of despair felt by the victims of its scheme.

The young elf looked at his servant, who had dragged the corpse of a priest with it. The lich was switching its own clothes with the extravagant robes of the missionary priest.

'A disguise, huh. That's quite crafty.' Ash thought to himself.

Even though his aide was one of the dead, it still possessed a great amount of intelligence, which made it an extraordinarily fantastic servant. Ruthless, cunning, and blindly loyal to its creator, Ash.

An ominous feeling filled the dark space around the young elf, who knew exactly what was closing in on him.

"Empowered Negative Bolt!" Shouted the still stagnant elf, whilst pointing his palm over his shoulder.

Following that, the young elf turned around to see his teacher and sparring partner, Evitagen, who had blocked the seventh-tier spell, Empowered Negative Bolt , with a Negative Burst , which was a measly tier-one spell. But such was it with magic, a weak spell in the hands of a powerful user could easily do away with a much stronger spell. It all depended on the magician.

"Still not quite enough, my apprentice." The dark being nonchalantly said.

Even though Evitagen had just been attacked with what could be considered an extremely lethal spell, he didn't seem angered or shaken by the fact that his apprentice would make an attempt to kill him. That was most likely for the same reason that a lion wouldn't tear out an ant's throat if it dared bite the lion.

However, the creature that functioned as Ash's teacher and master didn't let it go so easily. His face was covered by a mask, but the young elf had become quite good at noticing when Evitagen's sadistic smile appeared on his face. The demon-like being wore exactly that expression on his obscured face, the young elf could tell from the stretching sounds that came from his master.

Evitagen snapped his fingers, and as a result, both of Ash's arms broke simultaneously, as they had done hundreds of times, when the young elf had tested out his spells on his master, who always responded by breaking the former slave's limbs with some strange kind of magic. Living with Evitagen was quite different from when their relationship had been that of salesman and customer.

But exactly because he was so used to the pain of breaking his limbs, and getting hurt, the young elf didn't stop there. He kicked the air in front of him, which sent a burst of darkness flying towards Evitagen, who responded with another Negative Burst , followed by a Negative Lightning Bolt that went straight through Ash's entire body.

Finally, the young elf fell to the ground, admitting defeat. In reality, the two of them could keep going for many more minutes, before Ash would finally need to recover for a bit.

That was another marvel of the space, its inhabitants' incredible regenerative capabilities. The former slave would often have to wait many weeks before the wounds inflicted, back when he was a slave, would heal themselves. Here, it was quite different. No sleep, nor food was required in order to sustain oneself, and wounds would disappear almost as quickly as they came as if they had never been there. At one moment, they would be there, hurting like hell, and the next they would be gone.

'If being good to others means that I have to suffer, I'd much rather be evil and enjoy benefits such as these.' Ash thought to himself, as his wounds closed themselves, his bones fixed themselves, and his internal organs regenerated.

He turned to look at the ball of energy, which had grown dark and reflective. His scarred face showed quite clearly on the glass-like surface, and in that moment the young elf was filled with regret. Why had he ever attempted to fit in with people whose sense of justice lead them to wrongfully kill the innocent? Why had he let himself get killed, when so many opportunities to escape had presented themselves?

"I'm sorry to disturb you, now that you're uselessly questioning life, dear apprentice, but we appear to be ready." Evitagen said.

The dark being had been standing still, exactly as it always did. It was as if the being, who Ash regarded as his master, was unaffected by the flow of time, disregarding anything that didn't pose a direct threat to it.

"I'm ready whenever you are." Ash said.

The young elf pushed himself up, using his arms which were no longer broken. He didn't know for how long he had been waiting for this moment - the moment where he would finally return to life. All the former slave knew was that he would never let himself be betrayed again.

"Well then, dear apprentice or should I say Ash now that you are no longer in my care, it has been a pleasure to host you." Evitagen said.

Ash didn't know exactly what he was going to do, once he was back among the living, but he knew that he would never again suffer for the sake of someone else. Never again would the well-being of another person mean more to him than his own.

"I suppose I'll be seeing you soon, you demon." The young elf said, smiling slightly.

Evitagen didn't immediately answer Ash's farewells. Instead, the smile that had apparently been stuck on his face widened.

"I'm quite offended to be compared to the likes of demon scum, but I suppose I will take your bygones for what they are. Let us do lots of business in the future, dear Ash."

And with a snap of the masked man's fingers, it was as if the dark world that surrounded the two tore apart. The twisting shades of blackness that made up the space, the young elf had been spending so much time in collapsed, leaving the young elf with a strange empty feeling. The void, in which he had spent what felt like a millennia, had dissipated, leaving Ash wondering whether or not he truly belonged anywhere.

Many minutes passed, and the former slave started to wonder if something had gone wrong. It took a few moments before he realized that his eyes were simply closed, and the darkness, which should have disappeared along with the space was simply the inside of his eyelids. Even more minutes passed, as Ash tried to gather the courage to open his eyes. To face the world.

'This is stupid.' The young elf thought to himself, over and over again, but still without opening his eyes.

After many more minutes passed, Ash finally found the energy to bare his eyes to the light of day.

Searing pain hit him, as the sunlight that he had so yearned for caressed his eyes with what felt like needles. It felt horrible, but in a way it served as confirmation to the fact that the young elf was truly alive.

For a while, all that Ash could see was white. A color he hadn't been reckoned with for a long time. But as time passed, the former slave started to be able to make out shapes around him, and after an even longer while, he could clearly make out his surroundings.

To his surprise, the young elf was lying on the cold, hard, and uncomfortable floor of a cave. He hadn't noticed because of the fact that his eyes had been, and still were, hurting like hell. But now Ash could clearly feel his back, which was aching, his head, which was pounding, and last but not least, the multiple puncture wounds on his torso. The wounds that had ended his life.

The former slave tried to sit up, but came to the horrifying realization that his physical strength was a mere shade of what it had been before. He tried forming a fist with his hand, and found out that it was indeed much harder than it should be. As shockingly inconvenient, and downright scary, as it was, the young elf did not despair. He could feel the same power he had felt during his days in the dark void.

'What kind of monster needs monstrous power to back the fact that it's a monster?' Ash thought to himself, as a twisted smile spread across his scarred face.

Using that as his resolve to rise from the rock-hard ground, the young elf finally succeeded in standing up. His muscles ached, and his body felt as if it was on the verge of decomposition, but that didn't stop the elf whose heart hurt more than his body ever possibly could.

'See, that wasn't so difficult." The young man reassured himself.

Now that he was standing up, Ash realized that he was wearing pure white robes, identical to the ones the priests had been wearing. He knew they were the same, because his face had been glued to the sphere of energy back in the other world.

'Must I wear these disgusting excuses for clothes?'

The young elf reminded himself to thoroughly punish the lich, whose name he still hadn't caught, for dressing him in robes that had been worn by the people Ash despised the most. Priests.

But then again, was he really in any position to complain? The young elf had been reborn. Maybe he hadn't returned in the most glamorous and fashionable way, but nevertheless, he was alive and somewhat well. No, the situation definitely wasn't a bad one. Everyone thought he was dead, so there was no-one to screw up his life, since no-one was stupid enough to start hunting down a person who had been killed and left to rot in a forest.

Ash looked at the cave's opening, and was bathed in the sunlight he had been yearning for. His eyes started to hurt.

'Meh, I suppose death has changed a lot of things for me, but it would seem my lack of appreciation for the sun remains.' The young elf thought to himself, as he flicked down the hood of his robe.

Once again, Ash's twisted smile spread across his face. Looking like a serial killer had become sort of a bad habit of his. But he didn't need to care; what do monsters have to be sorry for anyway?