Kamikaru and the Adepts finally reached Shanwa. Loho Min planted her hand to the ground and, through her control of the earth, confirmed the existence of ruins deep beneath the mansion. Before they could enter Shanwa, however, all turned to witness a massive black cloud moving towards them. It soon became clear the cloud was actually a mass of flying darkling; bats, birds, and the like all led by scores of Garuda. The adepts quickly noticed that the mountain range below them, the forest, all was covered in darkness as darkling of all shapes and sizes surrounded the mansion. Min and Omurai waved Kamikaru on, with Sensei, Baura, and Hong Long in tow, leaving the rest of the adepts to hold their position.
"They better hurry," Min muttered to herself.
Omurai grabbed Rui-Yi and Wei Kun by the collars and, with a burst of wind, flung them onto the roof. He then signaled for Lien-Hua to follow him as he too took to Shanwa's roofing. The flying darkling were already dropping vats onto the mansion, and it soon became clear with the appearance of a dark adept that the vats contained dark water, which quickly began eating away at the structure. The dark adept himself dove from the Garuda he was riding, surrounded himself with dark water, and crashed into the mansion, where he disappeared out of sight. The adepts had to take down the flying darkling before they caused Shanwa to collapse!
By the time Kamikaru and the rest made their way into Shanwa, it was clear they had a visitor with them. The dark adept known as Nagi was already tearing through the mansion, using his dark water to burn away at the structure's integrity. They searched frantically for a secret entrance to the ruins below. As if her clairvoyant powers were derived from her being a light adept, Kamikaru was soon able to derive the location, and a swift hole-making by the two earth adepts had them within the ruins, which were dark, cramped, and musky. Following the only path before them led to a more open chamber, which seemed like a sort of depository that was fairly empty. Most of the ancient scrolls and tombs had been pilfered long ago, likely by the mansion's owner, but a single scroll shone out to Kamikaru, and she headed straight for it.
Just as Hong Long was about to exit the tunnel into the chamber, she could hear the sound of rushing water behind her. Thinking quickly, she spun around and closed off the tunnel with a wall of rock, but almost immediately cracks began to form as the dark water ate away at her wall. She had to hold off the dark water, and Nagi, while Kamikaru examined the scroll!
Sensei stayed close to Kamikaru as she began to read the scroll while Baura inspected the room for an exit strategy. The light adept was immediately engrossed in the text, teaching her truths about the elemental adepts, light and dark adepts, and the Adept Stones. Soon, however, the walls began to quake as the structural integrity of the mansion above them was starting to give out, and the dark waters of Nagi corroded away the ruins around them. Realizing the danger of collapse, Baura had to use his earth control to somehow reinforce the ruins long enough for Kamikaru to learn what she needed to.
Omurai saw Lien-Hua fall and quickly went to check on her. A quake rocked Shanwa; it would be long until it collapsed. He could only hope that Kamikaru and the others made it out of there in time. He flagged down Rui-Yi and Wei Kun and convinced them to take the injured Lien-Hua to safety. He would stay and continue the fight. More darkling were making their way up the slope, and Min shouted out as she took down yet another victim. Her praise was short-lived, however, as the darkling numbers seemed to double.
"Hurry, my friends..." Omurai sighed.
Kamikaru was nearly finished reading the scroll when suddenly it erupted in a flash of light, knocking her to the ground. Information bombarded her thoughts; words and teachings that could only be learned through years of practice were being impressed on her mind. She knew what it meant to be a light adept. And then, a small group of figures concealed by white robes surrounded her. One spoke up, a wizened old woman from the sound of her voice, and expressed the following:
We have committed a great wrong, and now we must suffer for it.
Long ago in ages past, light and dark were at balance in the world. It wasn't until the emergence of some unknown evil, born from outside the darkness, that the scales were ever tipped. This being, this evil, molded the darkness into puppets, which it used to attack and destroy, consuming our world. We light adepts did not understand this evil; we acquainted it with the darkness and retaliated until at last we were able to seal the darkness away permanently. A Golden Age ensued where light adepts flourished, and a new breed of adepts, crafted from the very elements of the world, was born.
But soon we realized that our world was falling apart. The balance between light and dark was broken, leaving our world to crumble. The only way to restore the balance and save our world was to release the darkness, yet that would mean the return of the evil. Therefore, we crafted a device that would allow the darkness to enter the world, but under our command: a mask generated by light that would infect any manifestation of darkness and bring it under our will. For the device to work, however, it needed to be placed at the heart of darkness, where the evil resided. In order to protect whoever was chosen for the task, we also created a stone directly infused with our light. Even with these tools, the moment the darkness was released the evil would try to consume anything and everything. There was no guarantee that the mask would work, or that the stone would be enough.
One brave soul was the first to volunteer, a particularly powerful light adept named Voyse. If anyone stood a chance against the darkness, it was he. With mask and stone in hand, Voyse broke the seal on the darkness and made his way to the core, where he placed the mask. The evil manifestations of darkness began to form with masks; it appeared to be working. But it failed. We...failed. The evil overpowered the mask, consumed it, became one with it, and although its creations now possessed masks, it now had more control over their form.
Realizing what had happened, Voyse seized the mask and put it on, hoping that with the aid of the stone he could take control of the darkness directly. But he was not strong enough...we were not strong enough. The evil consumed him, and he became its first acolyte. No, he became its vessel. The Voyse we knew was gone. Only evil was left, and now more powerful than ever.
Darkness is not inherently evil, just as light is not inherently good. We learned this the hard way. We had performed a great wrong when we sealed up the darkness, and an even greater wrong when we tried to control it. We erred in our ways, and now we suffer. Voyse concealed the stone from us. It still possessed the majority of our collective power so that when the darkness came we were not strong enough to stop it. One by one we have fallen. Now, only a few of us remain. There is no hope for us. In time, we too shall fall to the darkness. But, we can still give these new adepts, these elemental beings, a fighting chance. We have crafted a second stone, infused with what little power we have left. It will contain the darkness for a time, but eventually it too shall be worn away.
When that time comes, if that time has already come, please learn from our mistakes. Light and dark cannot be destroyed. Do not seal away the darkness as we did. Destroy the stone, destroy the mask, and destroy the evil. Bring light and dark to balance.
