A Sunless Dream

The man sitting before her looked at Revel with a mildly confused expression. Although he understood the words out of her mouth the term 'human' was entirely foreign to him. He had heard people use the word; he had seen people interact with one another, but his mind was too focused on the art of murder to be able to analyse their actions.

"Human, what am I missing that doesn't make me human?" he repeated the term human back to himself quietly a few times before looking at her with a confused expression beckoning her to continue. "Well for one, you don't even have a name" she commented, he looked almost shocked at her revelation.

As though she had revealed to him a secret that he had never particularly understood. His reaction was strange, he grabbed his head in silent pain before allowing a jagged grin to split his face like a chasm. "Why are names important? Aren't they just used for identification? If so, then my name is lord of shadows!" he exclaimed to her with a smug expression on his face.

Revel sighed at his naivety 'How can someone be so strong yet this stupid' she thought to herself internally before replying to him "That is a title, not a name. Your title could be given to anyone who could control shadows like you can. But your name, is given from birth and allows you to distinguish yourself from the rest of the world."

The lord of shadows stared at her with a dumbfounded and confused expression, taking a few seconds to internalise the words that had been said to him. 'This is so strange; combat is much simpler' he thought to himself. "A name..." he repeated back to himself before pointing at Revel. "If what I need to become a human is a name, then how about you name me!" he exclaimed to her, with his volume levels being unnaturally high in comparison to the mundane activity that took place.

Revel stared at him with wide eyes, he wanted her to name him. 'What an odd request' she thought to herself. She took a few seconds before looking him over, although she did have ideas for names in her mind shouldn't he be able to decide one for himself? "Orion" she replied, the man looked at her for a few moments with a puzzled expression upon his face.

"Orion? Who's Orion? Wait, is that my name?" he uttered to her, however it seemed as though he was speaking to himself more than the woman who was sitting before him. 'How amusing' she thought to herself before continuing "I mean, it fits you right? It's a constellation back in the real world and means rising in the sky. A name relating to the night would fit a man of shadows like yourself, right?"

To her surprise, the shadows started shifting beneath her as the table also began to change shape ever so slightly. The man before her, who she had granted the name Orion held his head in silent agony before taking baited breathes and letting out a stifled scream. She had half the mind to attack him, however risking a potential ally over mere conjecture of his true intentions would not end with her in the good books of her mother.

Revel waited for a few minutes, allowing the man to calm down. Slowly, the table as well as chairs they were seated on regained their usual shape as he raised his head towards her shakingly. "I can see, it might not be much, but I can see. I see your colour!" he exclaimed, the smile placed on his face was one that was foreign to even himself.

It wasn't a smile expressing a thinly veiled desire to destroy, it wasn't a smile representing humour found in causing harm to others. Rather, it was an emotion entirely foreign to himself that he would have to investigate more later.

Slowly standing up from his chair, he muttered back to himself "Orion, Orion, Orion. I am, Orion" as though he was willing his own existence into the world. The smile never left his face as he closed the distance between them before taking his hands in her own and shaking them vigorously. "Thank you!"

And on that day, Orion was born.

Revel looked at him with a surprised expression, even she hadn't predicted that simply giving him a name would have such a positive impact upon his mental state. The feeling she got from his presence, although just as menacing and spine chilling as before. It seemed more, focused, and sharp.

"I still want to spar with you if that's fine. I'm fine with leaving you alone for now, originally, I came here to evaluate my abilities and maybe kill you but..." he took a moment to pause, placing his hand on his chest. "This feeling is better than anything I've experienced in combat."

Revel smiled at the man before her before nodding "I'm fine with sparring with you, as long as you make me a deal" Orion nodded quickly in anticipation for the upcoming deal that was about to take place "If I win, you swear your loyalty to Song domain."

Truly, that was all she needed. From the looks of things if he did come along with her, he would prove to be an invaluable asset especially considering his defeat over Changing Star. In the upcoming war, he could be the one to tip the scales between the two opposing domains.

Orion nodded once more before dismissing the shadow furniture and jumping back to create distance "I'll try not to...hurt you if I can" he said, the warm feeling that radiated through his chest caused him to feel an emotion he hadn't as far as he remembered. Hesitation.

He was still quite sure he was several orders of magnitude weaker than he was, but still he had no intention of playing with her like his other opponents. He'd much rather fight the bearded man in the Sword domain if he wanted someone fun, instead he'd much rather keep talking to her.

But who was he to reject her wishes.

Revel nodded at him, noticing his hesitation she shrugged it off giving herself silent advice 'If he's hesitating, that will make him weaker. I doubt extremely even he could defeat me in the headspace he's in right now.' And then, without anyone to tell them when to start, Revel took the initiative.

She released darkness like a pitch-black cloud all around her, absorbing the light from the sun and leaving the entire field covered in darkness embrace. She could still sense Orion standing still a hundred meters away and covered the distance in seconds. Summoning her sword, she swung at him intending to finish the fight quickly.

However, he ducked below the blow before grabbing her by the wrist and slapping the sword out of her hands. Then, he grabbed her by the waist and slammed her to the ground, mentally wincing as he did it. Revel increased the distance between them once more, before closing it again and sending a kick to Orion's chest.

He grabbed the blow before swinging her foot upwards, causing her to spin and have her face directly before his. They made eye contact for a moment before he grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her away from him. "Do you not use a sword?" Revel's question echoed throughout the darkness "It's too dangerous" was all the reply she got.

Before she could shoot back another response, Orion was before her sending a kick to her ribcage causing her to bend due to the blow and fly off. "No this isn't it" he muttered to himself; he threw a punch at her despite her far distance from him only for a white ball of incandescent light to fly towards her at high speeds.

The light devoured her darkness with ease allowing for a moment of visibility before she jumped up to dodge the ball of flames. "How can you use flames? Aren't they changing star's aspect?" she questioned once more, only for her to be met with another curt response "There is no aspect that is out of my reach. I also had a good teacher."

With that, a net of flames was sent in her direction once more, she jumped up and twisted her body to fit through the gaps between them and winced as the heat of the flames passed over her body. If she wanted any chance of winning, she needed to figure out how he was able to find her so easily.

Revel wasn't gaining any ground as he kept her at range by firing one flame attack after another, eventually he shot out three insidious shadow arms empowered by the light given from the flames and caught her with them. He quickly pulled her towards himself before sending a punch at her stomach, she blocked with her sword hoping to cause him to bleed with her blade only for sparks to fly as she contacted his skin instead of blood.

She sliced off the shadow arm that was firmly grasping onto her body as she rushed towards him once more, manipulating her darkness into the form of spikes to stab him from all directions. He countered however by releasing shadows from his body to form an immense dome around himself, "It seems like your darkness isn't potent enough" he commented before a sigh could be heard escaping from his lips.

"Now I just need to fulfill the conditions" and with that, his entire presence had disappeared. Revel was quite frankly getting irritated at his continuous display of overwhelming strength. This wasn't normal. A saint shouldn't be able to pull of what he was doing and yet here he was doing it anyway.

Before she knew it, he was in front of her once more. He sliced off her arm in one smooth movement as she let out a scream of utter agony, she managed to use the opportunity to kick him away however he was upon her once more. Orion sent a punch to her stomach before hitting her square in the jaw and knocking her out.

After some time passed, Revel found herself slowly waking up. The pitch-black hair of her opponent waved in the wind in front of her as he sat with his back turned to her. She was lying on the floor in what appeared to be a room in his citadel and observing her condition she had noticed that not only were her clothes changed, but her arm had also returned.

"What did you do to me?" she asked, the thought of a man stripping her body down and changing her clothes caused her to go bright red as she looked at him with silent fury. Her body ached too much to move although she knew she would get over it quickly. "I changed your clothes and healed you. Sorry about your arm by the way" he said, turning back from whatever he was looking at to face her.

Noticing the expression on her face, he looked at her with a confused expression before shrugging "I'll take you back to wherever you came from before. Song domain you called it. I have something to prepare for, I'll be back to talk to you later" he said, slowly she noticed she had began disappearing into the shadows of the citadel. Her eyesight became blurred as Revel only remembered his last words.

"Thank you, for the name."