C4 From the void:Chapter Four

Abraxus was surrounded by the fragmented matter from the cosmic strike: residual dark and light particles of various sizes hovered throughout the realm, from miniscule specks to gargantuan, undefined structures. The darkness concentrated every particle of his dense, hardened consciousness, focusing it into the closest residual light particle. Now, it was clear that it was a single, thin speck, opposite to his own nature in every way, just as Yuham had told him. This particle of light was intricate and pulsing with energy, spreading around Abraxus’s form, while the particles of the darkness were shadowy and hollow, with little substance to spread and instead served to blacken their surroundings.

Upon focusing harder into the particle, Abraxus found that it contained an entirely different, microscopic realm, with even smaller fragments swirling within it like a minuscule spiral. This light consisted of several intricate layers, expanding until it illuminated its surroundings, abraxsus thought. Contrastingly, there were no realms hidden beneath Abraxus’s dense particles…nothing but an endless abyss of emptiness.

Discovering the physical nature of the light, Abraxus’s evolving self-esteem boosted the darkness’s energy and determination; Abraxus instantly instructed the consciousness layer that had converged into the light particle to spread across its entire form.

Astonishingly, this modification caused every particle in Abraxus to morph into a vague imitation of the same specks that made up these light entities. Abraxus resurfaced, realizing the effect of this transformation: the thin, wispy dimension of darkness had been replaced by a condensed black layer. Overwhelmed by a euphoric sensation of newborn power, Abraxus summoned ten extensions from this new, hardened form and launched one extension towards Avar; it stretched out endlessly, convulsing malevolently as it rushed towards its target, preparing to strike.

Undaunted, Avar reacted with another colossal golden light beam and sent it racing towards the extension, causing light to collide with this new dark extension in a bizarre fashion. The contrasting beams of matter tangled together, each length of energy attempting to overcome the other, creating a wave of new splinters and matter around the point of impact, but this time, Avar’s light only managed to slightly thin the dark extension before it dissipated. Abraxus hissed triumphantly, realizing that his new extensions were strong enough to withstand the light beams, and unleashed the remaining extensions which made their way towards Avar again.

The light entity mustered a column of raw energy from his outer rim, meeting Abraxus’s extensions head-on, but just before the light and dark collided, one dark extension veered away from Avar’s light beams and instead shot towards Avar’s right golden rim, which lay seemingly vulnerable. The extension lashed forward, about to meet its mark, when it was suddenly intercepted by a flash of bluish-green light: the arched, turquoise light entity had sent forth a beam of light to Avar’s aid.

Abraxus hissed menacingly. “You dare attempt to thwart me!”

It felt a surge of pure evil as this entity’s aura approached near it. “I notice your aura is different from Avar’s but still stems from Avar’s energy. What are you?”

“I am the light’s patron,” the third entity declared, “and assisting Avar is one of the reasons for my existence. I wish you had not chosen to oppose us, for now you have truly made yourself unworthy.”

“Me, unworthy?” Abraxus thought with a wave of wrath, and immediately, rings of at least fifty formidable nebulas of plasmoid black matter rushed towards this blue-green light with terrible intent.

“Don’t focus on Zaki while I am here,” Avar said to Abraxus. His tone was even, but held an unmistakable hint of warning.

Avar, the golden entity of all laws, was resolute as he morphed into a shining blaze of light and produced booming, invisible waves that shook the realm, before he finally reappeared in front of his companion. A magnificent glow followed that illuminated Avar’s vivid, silvery core, and he expelled ten columns of beams radiating from the upper border of the golden, rim-shaped supercluster. The beams of light united, crossing over each other to form a web of protection. Abraxus’s extensions slammed into the web, producing a deafening tremor that shook the entire realm, but Avar’s protection was strong enough to prevent the darkness from penetrating it.

Zaki’s platinum core glowed in respect for Avar as a clump of silverish-green nebulas hovered around it. “Striking me first just because I am smaller–that was a mistake.”

Abraxus halted, paralyzed with astonishment. “Instead of attacking me, Avar chose to protect his patron.”

Again, Abraxus considered Yuham’s invitation to join the light. “If I yield to the Infinite One, is this what it will be like? Will I also have allies?”

Abraxus was momentarily lost, but the darkness’s pestering self-esteem would not agree to praise anyone but its precious self. “So,” it thought, “Why must I yield or swear allegiance to anyone? Even if I was created after them, I am still here. I have evolved in such a short span, and I am still resisting these entities of old.”

Abraxus’s thoughts were interrupted by Avar, who was charging towards him. Behind him was Zaki, approaching with equal vigor–despite his small size, he glowed with a determination and resolve that was powerful enough to dissolve anything he touched. Avar seemed to be surrounded by a faint glow, and glimmering light particles were shining in his wake–it was a majestic, intimidating sight.

Without warning, Avar released a beam of light too powerful for Abraxus to anticipate, and by the time the darkness had composed a defense, the beam of light pierced Abraxus’s wavy black form, splitting its outer structure and burning a gaping hole that spread throughout its entire structure, mere lengths away from the centrally placed consciousness. Abraxus hissed, writhing in agony as its shadowy particles were torn apart by the unimaginable energy. Immediately, Zaki unleashed a column of light that shot through the hole and crashed into Abraxus’s core, generating a blast of overpowering energy that radiated shockwaves, expelling gushes of light and dark matter to the very outskirts of the tangled dimension.

Abraxus’s entire form vibrated and rippled until finally, the vibrations dimmed. Tangled masses of blues and greens melded with smoky shadows, but once the realm was clear, Abraxus was still brimming with pain and wrath; a wave of pitch-black energy traveled throughout the darkness’s entire structure.

Now, all traces of Abraxus’s disdain were gone, replaced by a burning hatred. “Do they mean to wipe me out? They mean to obliterate my existence simply because I will not yield to the Infinite One. I am fortunate to have instinctively saved my core. Well, if I have evolved in such a short space of time, I must be a threat to them; that must be a reason for their haste to eradicate my existence.”

With this thought, Abraxus abandoned what was left of its prior hesitation. The darkness no longer resisted the light, but embraced it, inviting it into its constantly churning structure and allowing its shadowy particles to consume millions of these scattered fragments. Simultaneously, Abraxus consolidated the particles to form a dense cloud and attached it to its own structure, caging these glittering fragments within layers upon layers of blackness until they completely lost their shine. With this process, the darkness felt its form stiffening, transforming into a hardened, crystalline structure of pitch-black plasma, an unknown material that covered its smoky, shadowy interior and, most importantly, its core.

Flickering with confidence, Avar summoned another beam of light and shot it towards Abraxus, who did not attempt to resist it this time; the instant it contacted Abraxus’s crystallized form, the light exploded into harmless fragments of blue and green. Zaki attempted to strengthen Avar’s second beam with a light of his own, but it met the same fate, bursting into multicolored nebulas of residual particles.

“You say he is infinite?” Abraxus mocked, “Look how I have overcome your energy in a matter of moments. But I shall not stop here–you cannot comprehend the full extent of my resistance.”

“Nor have you seen the full extent of ours,” Avar countered, and they both continued to advance.

A particle of light detached from Avar’s outer rim, drifting in front of the light entity and condensing into a huge, spherical structure. It sizzled with intense heat, vibrating with a quiet yet massive attraction. The reddish orb continued to expand, growing larger, brighter, and radiating more heat than the light entities themselves. Once it had reached an impossibly enormous size, it began to slowly rotate, with a layer of burning energy emerging around this fiery ball. As if it was the most natural thing he had ever done, Avar directed this massive supergiant towards Abraxus’s form at a dazzling speed, sending the blazing comet hurtling directly towards Abraxus and preparing to deliver ultimate destruction.

As the orb careened towards the right side of the outer portion of this dark, crystallized dimension, Abraxus’s specks filled with energy and began to vibrate and hum rapidly. The closer the orb came to the murky, dark form, the more the particles sizzled violently, until light and darkness, heat and coldness collided with an echoing boom.

The fiery sphere shattered with a piercing strike, bombarding Abraxus with wave upon wave of internal energy that blasted through each layer of the black, crystallized substance. The light’s energy shot down the structure, forging a line that split the very fibers of the darkness, crackling and splintering into oblivion.

The agony Abraxus felt at that moment was unimaginable; an intense burning sensation exploded from within its structure, gushing out masses of dense shadow and smoke as the spasms of searing energy consumed the darkness. Millions of particles were smoldering away, and with each one, Abraxus felt an excruciating sting that coursed through each layer of its consciousness. The darkness’s entire form was being incinerated, and all Abraxus could do was twist and writhe in anger.

As the overwhelming sensations consumed the darkness, it sensed a swarm of Avar’s red spheres hurtling towards Abraxus from the right side, bending the space around them just as Avar had done. Astronomical distances away from Avar, on the left side of Abraxus’s dark dominion, Zaki expelled smaller, bluish-green orbs that spun even faster–so fast, in fact, that they seemed to generate a different force that surpassed that of the spheres that fueled them. They flew towards the shadowy mass, orbiting and blurring around each other with such intensity that Abraxus dreaded the impact before they had even hit.

The orbs made contact, and this sensation was more incapacitating than anything Abraxus had felt before. The darkness’s entire structure reeled as all the smoky particles were replaced with flames and struck with raw, burning energy, producing a heat of such an intensity that not even Abraxus’s cold nature, combined with the frigid environment of the realm, could alleviate it. Blistering fragments of substance detached from Abraxus’s burning form, and flying specks of ash disappeared into the depths of the realm.

Abraxus’s entire structure shuddered as the spheres were embedded deeply within the mass of shadows, exploding its very essence and shrinking its form. Now, a new feeling arose from its core, a sense of everlasting dread–a dread of being vaporized into the tiny small speck it had been all those millennia ago. Abraxus had never before felt the sudden surge of hopelessness and desperation that emerged within. Already, the darkness was shrinking and inverting from the light's attacks.

Abraxus’s consciousness swept a black wave of eternal despair across its body, nudging the darkness’s determination once more. Abraxus paused, momentarily stunned when it realized that its consciousness was still very much intact. With its core undamaged, the darkness could remain–in severe agony, yes, but still as conscious as ever.