Capítulo 2: Aric Dayrise
2 years since the death of Loht.
---
A lone human figure had woken up from his slumber finally.
He was clad in a priest's black robe and was sitting firmly atop a throne. But just as he stood up, the throne seemed to vanish.
Afterall, the throne was a shadow of him.
He spent the past years releasing the shadows captured inside of him. He had apologised to each of them.
Nobody forgave him, naturally.
With the death of Loht, his powers had decreased by half. So he would have to release a portion of his shadows now or somewhen soon. Otherwise they might revolt...
Although there was no need to release each of them, he did it just for the sake of his redemption. Just in a trial of his atonement. To him, he failed with honor.
He was coming out of the dark cave. His beards and hair did make a terrible mess for him, but he could cut them whenever he wills, so he only cut the moustache and some of the side hairs and decided to keep his 'friend for two years' for a little longer.
The sunlight seemed to be terrible for him, though. Light was his only enemy afterall.
"Mayhem mountain range..." Salaric murmered.
Two years ago, from when the Nameless Hero enlightened him about the existence of the Vitaflora, having it was his only goal.
"Three aims. Get the Vitaflora, die and..."
He did not consider the third aim yet. Having redemption, after death he would go to heaven afterall. What's the point of having more aims?
Leaving the cave at last, he took a long breathe.
Birds were singing, and trees were green. In front of Salaric, a massive and black shadow stood firm.
It was his personal knight. Both his most trusted existence and... pet.
"How are you, Mahibu?"
His knight, the giant black armored shadow shrunk his size to to an inche below that of his master. He had been guarding the cave for the whole two years.
Mahibu formed a sort of smile in his shadowy body and bowed gently.
"Perfect tonight, master."
'It's day, stupid.'
Mahibu was a colorblind shadow.
Salaric did something unbelievable after this response from him. He took a deep breathe for the second time, and smiled back.
It was his first smile. A forced and a creepy one at that.
Mahibu's shock could not be any more obvious. It was as though his whole body suffered from a jolt of electricity all of a sudden.
Salaric expected such an outcome. But it was necessary!
'Bear with the shame, Salaric...' he consoled himself. 'I have to act more human. And compassionate, and righteous, and religious!'
"What's the closest city?" he asked then, maintaining his creepy smile.
"There's a village named Golan within one hour's distance. And master, are you okay?" amidst the gentle question, there was clear fear and concern.
"I am. Why?"
Mahibu did not dare to reply.
'Is my smile that creepy...'
Then, Salaric moved past Mahibu. Under the bright sunlight, the grasses beneath his feet were almost reflecting the light back to his clean robe.
Miraculously, the light started to turn black as Salaric stared at it. Almost as though he had cursed the light to turn into a shadow.
Quickly, the shadow materialized into a solid form. In fact, it turned into a van even. Who would drive it?
...
Mahibu helplessly sighed.
Before going to slumber, Salaric gave him a long lecture as to why evil is bad and good is what should be done. In a sense, he was 'preaching' to his pet.
But that did not change the fact that he was his slave and would still receive the same treatment.
The thin shadow in a knight's armor moved in front of the black van following a dominating gaze from Salaric. Then, he ascended to the van's seat and made his pet pull it through.
Salaric had several plans for his new way of life.
He wanted to create an alias for himself, keeping his powers low-profile, and blending into the common human society to learn about what human values really are. He also had intentions of visiting the churches often.
As Mahibu pulled the van, Salaric asked him out of nowhere, "Hey, do you know who the Nameless are?"
"Master, I don't know what you do not." he replied like a loyal servant.
'You know the location of Golan village, I don't...' Salaric immediately refuted him in his mind.
"Well, do you like my name?" he asked again.
"Master, of course!"
"What if I were to get a new name?"
"Master, no doubt that would be a terrible name!"
'Why really...? I shouldn't have asked that.' Salaric sighed.
"The point of the new name is to hide my status."
"I see, master. Do you want suggestions?"
"Yes." he replied instantly.
"What about Willain Bensor?"
"Who the hell is he?"
"I don't know, master."
"..."
The two did not talk for a few minutes. Salaric had been thinking about different names.
What is a name that sounds good and not suspicious?
Suddenly he had a thought. He should choose the name as an anchor! The name would constantly remind him of his true goal, so that he never deviates again.
'I am so poetic!' he complimented himself. 'Since I am about to live an opposite life from before...'
He had a 'brilliant' idea.
'Since my lastname is Nightfall...'
"Call me Dayrise from now!" he shouted in a low-voice.
"Master, as for your last name?"
'Oh.' he was shocked.
"Dayrise is the last name, of course! Are you stupid? What should the first name be..."
Mahibu had to focefully admit his 'stupidity' and answered him, "What about Aric from Salaric, master?"
"Eh? Doesn't half bad..." he thought for a while. But before he could reach any conclusion, Mahibu spoke up again.
"We seem to have reached our destination, master."
"Didn't you say the distance was one hour?"
"Master, I told you the highest amount of time considering that we may need to overcome obstacles that might come on our way."
"..."
Salaric was not sure if that was a sign of efficiency or stupidity. It barely took them ten minutes to reach here afterall.
"Alright." Salaric descended from the van, and the van vanished in the sunlight before him. "Stay in my shadows."
The latter command was directed at Mahibu. Following it, Mahibu's solid state deformed quickly and he turned into a real shadow. Then, it merged with Salaric's shadow and became entirely unidentifiable.
"Here I come, humans... as a pacifist this time." Salaric tried not to smirk and walked the rest distance between him and the gate of the village.
Of course, his spiritual intuition confirmed him that no human had seen him midway, so he was unconcerned about getting tailed.
He walked through the greenery, which turned slighty darker as he passed by.
He passed by little flowers, which seemed to almost lose its life because he passed by. It was not his powers, rather it was for his sins that were so extreme that its effects could be witnessed up front...
The village he came upon had no gates. It was sorrounded by weak but large wooden fences that were hardly effective if some slighty stronger monsters happen to attack it.
He had no concerns however.
He confidently entered the village as a new person who totally cares about morality. Not as a mindless psychopath who had killed thousands of humans with and without any good reason.
"Love and peace, Salaric, love and peace..." he reminded himself of a motto he just thought of few moments ago.
One of his desires were to keep a low profile about his powers in this new life of him. Unfortunately for him though, right as entered the village leaving the fences behind, every single soul before him stared at him.
As though he was either their long lost brother or the grim reaper...
"What?" he asked out, blatantly.
'Don't tell me they know who I am? My demon face and my human face has a world of difference...'
The jaw-dropped villagers did not reply to him. So Salaric had to think and figure out the answer himself.
The first thing that came to his mind was his dress up. Everybody there were wearing rather poor and average clothes. In contrast to them, Salaric's robe was a high quality noble's dress.
'Uh... guess I will have to change it.'
At that moment, a man in his thirties approached Salaric. He had a broad shoulder and had a sword in his back.
Salaric assumed that he was a guard.
"Who are you?" the mature man asked him coming face to face.
Other people had already either returned to their work or gathered around this man in hope of earning the answer.
Salaric thought for a moment.
'Is it normal for a traveler to wear robes? Well maybe I am a man who can rely on his magic alone? No! This will suggest that I am a strong mage...'
He replied, "I am a priest. Aric Dayrise."
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