Chapter 42: The Entry into Shadows

When Ojero stepped into the dark gate, he immediately lost all sense of balance as he warped between realms. He lost his sense of direction and felt himself twist in all sorts of strange ways. The warmth of the academy practice room vanished at the same time, and a strange cold yet welcoming feeling enveloped him.

Suddenly, it all stopped. It was so sudden Ojero almost fell over, and had to balance himself while waving his arms around to keep himself on his own two feet. As he stumbled around, he finally managed to stop the swaying motion of everything around him caused by the teleportation.

As his vision cleared, he looked around, and was shocked at what he saw. The room looked almost exactly the same as the room he was just in, except everything was darker with large spots of pure darkness randomly placed around.

It looked like a horror painting Ojero once saw called "Darks Light." It showed a gray wall with a ray of pitch black shining on its center, supposedly to highlight how shadows and light are the same in many ways. The Shadow Realm reminded Ojero of that in many ways, just the dark opposite of the normally light world.

He started to look around the room, trying to see if there were any other differences, but he could not seem to find any. One thing he did notice though was the echo his footsteps made. They were more pronounced and deeper in sound, while also being louder, than footsteps made in the main realm.

This thought sparked a question to Ojero, who decided to ask the Night Demon.

'Why is it that this is called the Shadow Realm and not the Shadow Domain?'

"They are different, master. A domain is a completely different plane of existence where things are altered, while only sharing a few basic rules between them all. A realm, however, is similar to a mirror image of a specific domain, and follows most of the same rules with only a few exceptions. We call these exceptions the Fundamental Breaches."

This gave Ojero a strange thought, one that could be very beneficial.

'So if there is a Shadow Realm, is there a Realm of Death?'

The Night Demon did not answer immediately unlike the last question, which raised Ojero's curiosity even more.

"There is, master. However, there are very few beings throughout all of the domains that could last very long in that realm. Unlike the Shadow Realm which is a simple dark mirror to the main realm, the Realm of Death is full of entropy and would rapidly destroy any material that enters it that is not a pure reflection of the main realm. It is for this reason even undead creatures dare not enter this realm without the proper items."

'Proper items? So there is a way to survive the Realm of Death?'

"Indeed, master. However, they are rare artifacts made by ancient Necromancers wishing to grow their armies. It is nothing you should worry about just yet."

'How would they grow their armies there if everything died?'

"The Realm of Death is home to numerous ghosts, master. They lack true substance that can be eroded, with their ectoplasmic bodies being unable to rot or decay. This has allowed the realm to play host to numerous of these undead creatures, however more can often be found in the Ghostly Domains."

'This is something to note for the future, ghosts could be very useful in my armies.'

As Ojero was talking to the Night Demon, he had been slowly walking around his dorm room, seeing how different things were. He noticed that while everything was definitely darker, he could still make out objects. He assumed that the light was just mirrored from the main realm.

Remembering the purpose of entering this realm, he walked out of his room, down the stairs, and across the long hallways of the academy. Soon, he arrived at his destination; the arena room.

He opened the door expecting to see the portal that led to the main arena area, but instead there was nothing. This confused Ojero, who quickly asked the Night Demon where the portal was.

"Magic is not reflected in the Shadow Realm, master. This domain draws on shadow mana, rendering most other mana types unable to be transferred into this area from the main realm."

'Does that mean I won't be able to use Necromancy here then?'

"Mana can not be reflected into this realm due to not being called, master. However, you are still able to directly channel the mana to manifest here. This also gives us the benefit that what you are doing here will not occur in the main realm, allowing you to practice without worry for now."

'For now?'

"Yes, master. There is a possibility that this academy houses another shadow student with a high enough tier to gain entry. I have felt shadow mana fluctuations outside of yours from the upperclassmen dorms numerous times. You must be careful not to be caught by whoever they are."

This planted a seed of fear in Ojero's mind, knowing what would happen if people learned that he practiced the dark arts of Necromancy.

To clear his mind, he began to walk to the gym, deciding that it would be the perfect area to practice his Necromancy magic.

The gym was a large circular building that was mostly used by the second and third years, since that was when students trained their bodies more. It was made entirely out of some kind of metal, with floating spheres of light made by light mages illuminating the entire building.

The right half of the building had numerous weights, benches, pull-up bars, and various mats of all kinds. This was mostly used for upper body training. The left side, however, was a large ovular track for sprinting and racing.

It was this left side that Ojero went to, due to its openness allowing Ojero to practice more.

Once he was near the center of this area, he breathed deeply a few times to calm himself from the excitement creeping up his spine.

'Ok, so what do I do first?'

"Very well, master. It is time for you to begin your training in the arts of Necromancy. Now, listen very closely…"

***

The Book of the Known Undead

Chapter 14: Shadow Snake

This entry is not an undead creature, however on my journeys in the Domain of Death I have found quite a few. Further research has led me to include them in this journal. I will also include other creatures found in the Domain of Death, undead or not.

Shadow Snakes are small reptiles of similar shape to a typical viper, usually being three feet long (About a meter). They are pitch black in color, with most having either red or gray eyes. They have long fangs that can inject a special poison called Death's Bite. Death's Bite causes the area around the bite to quickly rot and decay, usually taking less than five minutes before the entire area turns to dust. The poison, however, does not spread more than six inches from the point of impact.

These snakes are often released in mass quantities into cities to cause panic and severely limit the amount of able bodied warriors that can be rallied when fighting occurs. These undead take very little mana to summon, and are commonly found in the Domain of Shadows. They are also uncommon in the Domain of Death.

Element: Shadow

Class: Hunter

Family: Snake