[Corven Umbrovante]:
The first thing Corven did upon entering the Shadow Space was check in on the griffons and the egg the were guarding.
One of the griffons — the adolescent one — was growling at Corven, its fur and feathers were mostly developed, though not matured, were all standing on end as though its hackles were wary of Corven still — It would not let Corven any closer than a quarter of a meter before the egg, which Corven found annoying.
As Corven approached it, it started growling. Corven, summoning a chunk of the Great Snake meat he 'd saved from before, threw the griffon the meat.
The griffon could only tilt its head in confusion, sniffing the meat before sharing it with its younger sibling. The two began chomping down on it together.
Corven then approached the griffon, slowly, careful of its retaliation. He managed to get a few steps away from it before it looked up at him, growling, hackles raised aggressively once more.
A sudden screech came from behind Corven and Corven found himself shocked to see Eclipse landing before them, releasing its Peak level Tier B aura, completely suppressing the griffon, who was only at the beginning level of Tier B. the griffon, whining, bowed its head down submissively.
Corven reached out and touched the griffon's fur-feathers, before channeling an ability he had yet to use before. "Taint," he commanded, as a powerful aura of darkness seemed to come from within him, even more powerful than the shadow energy he had been training with himself recently in.
This energy of darkness felt so primal, so old yet so powerful, its source must have been primordial. It came from within Corven's deepest, most innard self of being, likely from the energy he'd inherited from his father, he deduced, an aura of darkness took over his body, like fire to oil, yet he felt no discomfort. He felt no pain, no fear.
Instead, the darkness felt like an old friend that he's yet to meet in this lifetime —- Like someone he knows he knew in a past life. So familiar, so safe, like a father's embrace. It felt similar to how Corven would feel at night, outside, looking at the night sky, only with this, it felt slightly different, like the feeling came from a different source, Father of Darkness's embrace rather than a Mother of Night's loving kiss.
As the darkness concentrated onto Corven's hand that was touching the griffon, slowly latching onto the griffon like metal to magnet. Corven watched as the griffon immediately began writhing on the ground, obviously in pain. Corven just watched, expressionless, as the process took its route, inwardly eager to see what the ability did exactly. And what he saw in the end could only be described as a complete metamorphosis.
Corven watched as the griffon's aura increased to that at the Peak of Tier B in an instant, before turning into the beginning stages of Tier A, as its furs and feathers began turning into pure darkness, with tips made of blue fire that radiated a an azure darkness that was cold to the touch, but also, so very, very hot. It's eyes turned to fiery azure irises with black scleras and the tip of its long griffon tail was an azure flame. Its wing feathers were black as knight and its fur a matching blackness. The feathers on its neck had a gradient color of azure blue and black to it, and were like feathers of the Abyss itself. It also seemed to have matured a little, though it still possessed some adolescent traits, it grew in size and its beak, before lesser developed, now was razor sharp and had a downwards curve at its tip.
Corven knew this process was different than his Shadow Extraction ability. He knew this process had a lesser chance of working in a lighted environment, unlike his Shadow extraction ability that could pretty much work in any. He knew that this Taint ability, though having that initial drawback, would be considered leagues more powerful than his Shadow Extract ability, even though Shadow Extract allows him to work on living or dead bodies — He knew this because Taint allows his target to evolve a few levels, which would make this ability a Divine grade ability. When he couple this with the fact that these Tainted or turned by his power is sired to him, well, it's a cheat ability in every sense of the word. He knew that when dealing with the shadow extract ability the shadow soldier would have to eat something of same power or similar rank in power to become solid and to be saved as his shadow summons, but other than that, there was hardly much drawbacks when dealing with this ability.
Corven also knew either abilities had a lesser chance of working on targets with a higher power gap than himself, so he couldn't turn just anyone into a shadow soldier nor could he Taint just any being. No, to be able to do that, he had to be strong.
Still, that does not change the fact that he had way too many hax. He was pretty broken, for real. And when you add he had shadow manipulation abilities as well as likely more abilities he has yet to discover… Corven was was certain he was basically a god at this point. Everyone should bow before—."
"SCREECH!" a sudden screech knocked Corven from his narcissistic thoughts, and he looked at the griffon before him and was in slight awe at its transformation. He honestly would have liked to finished his thought process, though.
Still, as he watched the griffon successfully evolve through the powers of boundless darkness, its metamorphosis as beautiful as the great darkness itself, Corven could not help but grin as the new griffon bowed its head to him in submission and reverence. To say Corven was pleased with the result was an understatement. He was esctacic. Oh, he had such plans for this ability and, to see it work on a creature like a griffon, had Corven wondering if it would work on a beast like a dragon, or a phoenix. Oh, the ideas just kept coming!
Then, a sudden idea pop into Corven's head. He turned towards where the little griffon was guarding the egg — Though guard may be an improper, considering the little cub was fast asleep against the egg, its belly stuffed from eating the snake meat Corven had given them earlier.
But that wasn't what had his attention. No, what had Corven's attention was the egg said cub was laying on.
"I wonder…," Corven walked up to the egg, and tapped it. "Taint," he gave the simple command.
Corven watched as the golden egg began trembling, shaking from where it rested in a nest of twigs and grass and straw. The shaking began trembling the ground around it. Thankfully, the adolescent griffon did not gnash its beak at Corven, its demeanor observant and subservient even as she watched her sibling tremble in the egg before her, more keen on observing than rashly reacting like before.
Then, the egg suddenly stilled. The vibrations stopped. The ground tremors went silent. Corven waited, breath baited, thinking the process may have actually failed. He was just about to consider his endeavor a failure when he saw that the golden egg began turning from a white and golden hie to a dark black and azure blue color, radiating an aura of darkness, similar to the first griffon.
He knew instantly it worked, as it began absorbing surrounding darkness, it aura rising ever so slightly, gradually. Corven waited more time, eventually deciding to name the two griffins he had with him: the adolescent griffon he decided to name "Azurez" and performed the same "Taint" ability on the young griffon cub, whom he named "Dark Gryphon 2". It evolved into an adolescent at the middle stages of Tier B when Corven finished the process.
Eventually, Corven decided to leave after deciding to order Azurez and Eclipse to protect the egg at all costs.
He saw that Night Viper was bathing in the dark river as he was leaving, silently watching the whole encounter…
Corven eventually met Cimon in the Portal Chambers, preparing to head out, talking with Celeste and a handful of noble youths in their age group from across the manor. Corven counted three of them outside of Celeste and Cimon, and two of them were boys, barely Corven's age, while the girl was around 16 from the brief glance Corven gave her way.
He ignored their existence as he made his way over to Cimon.
"Has Achlys still not returned?" Corven asked Cimon.
"No, she's still on her mission," Cimon shook his head. "She will meet us there, though, I am certain… Eventually, anyway. The Shadow Conclave will be meeting on the Winter Solstice and there are many noble families and houses that will be attending. She will be delivering the news personally. She may be late, but she will meet us at school within the coming weeks, I'm sure."
Corven nodded his understanding before turning to Celeste, who was watching him intently. "Princess."
"Corven…," she said, slightly breathless.
Her father told her about the marriage proposals he talked about to Corven, but he had yet to share it with the general public. He was keeping it under wraps, she realized. She would try her best to not let it slip into public knowledge, but she was not entirely sure how she felt about being punned off, even if the person in question she was being punned off to was the heir of House Umbrovante. She was not an object to be sold or traded and bartered. She was a person, a princess and a demigod — And a powerful one at that.
That said, there could be worse options to have found herself in. and she was not blind. Corven was quite attractive… And quite powerful, if defeating a chaos sphinx was anything to go off of. If anyone was worthy enough for her, he meets a number of the boxes to be checked. And, since her father was so adamant of the marriage, she had no choice but to accept it, especially since it was being done to ensure her succession as heiress of House Luminaris.
A brief exchange of glances passed between the two of them. Corven eventually turned back to Cimon when Celeste gave in and looked away. "Cimon, what are waiting for now?"
"We were waiting for you to arrive," Cimon stated simply, chuckling to himself. "We should be able to go now, though Celeste will have to wait for Sean to arrive, of course."
Corven thought for a minute. He did not trust Sean, nor did he care too much about him. That said, him being along with the princess was not a good idea, if he really was involved with whatever infliction Peter was suffering from like Corven's instincts were telling him he was. Corven eventually made up his mind.
Instead of leaving right away without Celeste, Corven took Celeste and her cousins — the three other youths she had with her upon Corven saw when he entered the room —- and Cimon and the seven of them used the teleportation platform and disappeared.
[Sean Luminaris]:
Upon entering the teleportation hall, Sean was not happy to see that his sister hadn't stayed waiting for him like he had told her to.
A guard who was guarding the room said that Corven had taken her along with himself and a handful of others through one of the teleportation arrays. Sean was not happy to learn this.
"Corven Umbrovante…," gritting his teeth, Sean motioned for four of his student guards to follow him as he used the teleportation platform next.
He was going to have some words with his sister when he saw her alone next. Of this, she'll have his word.
[Corven Umbrovante]:
The portal dropped Corven and gang off into a very busy Hub marketplace in the Mythos Isles.
"This is…," Corven began.
"Mythorus Academy is a few hundred thousand miles northwest of Mythos Isles," Cimon said, leading them out the Hub, and onto a busy street where he began leading them towards a massive trainstation Corven hadn't noticed was there his first time. "This entire realm is looked after by the 8 Great Houses, albeit the Dark Forests surrounding the core cities and places of influence are hundreds of thousands of miles vast and just as uncharted and dangerous, the academy itself is under the protection of the eight great houses and their corresponding lesser noble houses. The domain of the Dark Forests is outside of their reach and domain as it belongs to very dangerous monsters, some of which has reached Tier Z status, but the these railways are built on alleviated platforms that allow high speeding hypersonic trains to pass over the large swaths of lands at a time — Their enchanted by Lesser Godly magic that protects it from monsters seeking to cause harm to its railways or event the hypersonic trains themselves. You can also choose to fly over these lands via mount or on your own when you become Demigod ranked beings, but you're not there just yet, so the train is the fastest option to get to and from major cities in this continent of Mythos."
Corven tried to remain calm at the mention of flying on his own, but the inner image of him becoming a Superman-like being, capable of supersonic flight made him smile creepily, causing Celeste to worry if Corven was alright in the head. Still, Corven knew it would be a minute before he could achieve that level of power — Even when there was a certainty to the fact that he would achieve that level of power — It just required time, and, man, was Corven a patient snake.
As they made it before the train station, Corven couldn't help but grasp internally. This palace was magnificent. Stationed on a raised platform, multiple hundred feet in the air, the Train station was at least the size of a football stadium, with futuristic architecture and railway lines on raised platforms made of flawless marble columns and futuristic metallic platforms — It was like it was made with a futuristic image in mind, mixed with an ancient civilization feel to it. The "Train Station 3" lettering was seen in big, bold, silver lettering in front of the building.
The hypersonic speed train itself was a 13 mile long, aerodynamically shaped, futuristic train with silver, high-tech feel to it. The tracks it hovered over were silver and glowing blue with energy slightly pulsing like a heartbeat. Numerous families, both nobleborn and commoners, could be seen boarding this train, some with suitcases and belongings, others without anything but themselves and their space rings and space bracelets, which most likely had their belongings inside, Corven even saw a few kids — teenagers — bring animal pets — Familiars, Cimon corrected —- on-board with them.
He watched as one boy —- likely a nobleborn, from his fancy clothing — was arguing with his mother about bringing a winged snake on board without his cage with him.
"But Betty doesn't bite, mother, and who would care if she did?" the spoiled noble brat argued.
"It's about the principles of things, Gerard," the mother stated flatly. "You're of House Gilbersh. We can not afford to lose face in front of noble houses. You will store Betty away in her cage inside your storage bracelet until you reach the Academy, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, mother," Gerard Gilbersh relented.
There were various families and groups giving their farewells and well wishes as youth and youth boarded the train. Corven ignored them and board the trained, ready to go even before the warning HONK! sounded, signaling their last few minutes until departure.
He found a room inside where he, Celeste and Cimon decided to hold up. It was a compartment that had three minor bedrooms and a shared restroom inside, so they would spend their ride in the compartment, which was enchanted with space laws to be wider than it appeared on the outside by a huge stretch.
Unexpectedly, barely five seconds after Corven and crew had gotten settled, a familiar face was shown on-screen on Cimon's phone. Corven saw Achlys' familiar face on video call, as she began explaining why she was late.
"I've got about four or five more noble houses to go to on my mission, so I will most likely be late arriving at school. Thankfully, Peter already made an excuse for me, and my mother has backed it up with her own word and statement," Achlys released a heavy sigh. "I've spent most of the last three weeks right after I left in House Ausar territory. For the last week or so, I have been going to various Shadow houses, alerting them secretly of your confirmed existence and the upcoming Shadow Conclave during the Winter Solstice in which all the former Shadow houses will be present this December. It is more draining than I initially thought it would be, honestly.
"In other news, my mother has officially betrothed me to Prince Jabari of House Ausar. I'm wary of the boy-prince, though, from what I have seen, he's not the worst person to be around, I supposed…"
Corven, ignoring Achlys' rambling off about whatever it was she was rambling off about, contemplated this for a minute. All the Shadow houses who escaped the Sealing of the Shadow Realm, in one place, for him? He could hardly believe it. And, according to what he learned from Peter's archives, these shadow houses haven't been called together in one place for over 250 years. They stopped gathering together for awhile because they stopped getting along with one another and constantly bickered with one another/ the only few houses who still did attend it every 10 years were House Luminaris, House Ausar, House Keresa, House Morpheus and one or two minor houses who would attend once every 40 or so years.
But they were all attending the one this year due to Corven being of House Umbrovante. It made Corven wonder just what being of House Umbrovante really meant. Was it really so great as to get old houses whom hated one another to get to gather together? To unify them all under one banner, even after thousands of years post the Sealing of the Shadow Realm?
The reality of the situation was jarring to Corven. If someone had told Corven he was the son of a powerful, forgotten family, with extraordinary powers a little close to a month and a half ago, he'd laugh in your face. But it was fact; it was real. This was real. All of it.
'So much has changed,' Corven hummed, lost in his thoughts for a second. 'And there is so much to do. I need to get stronger. I need to prepare. From what I know, there will be enemies coming pretty soon. And that snake figure will be a problem in the future. I need to become strong enough to handle anything that comes my way.'
"I regret i won't be able attend your Avouching Ceremony," Achlys's voice brought Corven back from his head to the present. "But Cimon will tell me how it goes – Take vids, bestie. I'm sure this one will be one for the books."
Cimon just nonverbally nodded his agreement. Celeste grinned mischievously and Corven just kept his poker face blank, giving away nothing.
"Anyway, I've got to go. You might not hear from me in a while. Apparently, the house I'm going to next is one that frowns on the use of modern technology for some reason. They still get newspapers and refuse to allow technology like phones and computers inside their territories. I will likely be going radio silent, just letting you know now — If you don't hear from me in two weeks, send someone," Achlys groaned, evidently not too happy being separated from her phone for that long. "Corven, let Cimon show you the ropes, and behave. The last thing we need is for you to piss off a great power before the Shadow Conclave, and Mythorus is full of powerful nobles. Mythorus Academy is a very prestigious and competitive environment. Considering your personality, you will more than likely make enemies, so try not to be yourself, for once in your life and be less of a shameless bastard and asshole, won't you."
Corven looked genuinely confused, his eyes blinking in puzzlement at Achlys' words. Cimon seemed like he was holding back laughter and Celeste was very clueless, having not had to deal with Corven's shameless side.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm a perfect saint, Achlys," exclaimed Corven, a bullshit expression shameless worn upon his face. "I'm fucking awesome. I'm exceptional, the fuck."
"Gee, narcissistic much," asked Celeste to which the other two laughed; Corven gave her a wounded look. "Don't worry, Achlys, we'll look after this idiot."
"Hey I don't need babysitting," exclaimed Corven, narrowing his eyes.
"Celeste, thank you for looking after this idiot — you, too, Cimon," Achlys said, completely ignoring Corven's disgruntled opposition.
"I'm literally right here!" exclaimed Corven, annoyed, his brow twitching slightly.
"Good luck, the both of you," Achlys continued to ignore him. "I'll see you all soon… Or eventually, I guess."
And Achlys hung up, completely ignoring Corven, just in time for the train to blow its last horn as an overhead speaker announced their impending departure.
"Now Leaving Railway Station 3. Next Stop: Mythorus Academy Station in Lucid Dream Meadows!" an overhead voice sounded.