As though immersed in a depthless pit of gloom, Astravan found himself straying deeper into what seemed like a forever stretching fog of a murk of pure darkness.
His face remained static, his eyes emotionless, and his body insensate as he impassively went through the darkness, the aura around him getting progressively darker with each step the Machiavellian Trickster took.
His mind fell, plummeting into a benumbed state, unfeeling to the outside world.
Yet, even having his senses deadened, even though his mind was exiled from the outside world, to be fully immersed in pursuing the hidden darkness he had locked away within the confines of his soul.
He could still make out one faint noise…
The pleading calls of Trick.
Astravan stopped mid journey, he couldn't quite make out what the child voiced at him, though Trick's voice seemed to be visibly yelling with all he had, to Astravan it was nothing more than an inaudible whisper.
With a slow turn to where the child seemed to call him from, Astarvan continued his journey, his travels to the submerging oceans of the melovalent gloom that laid etched into the heart of his soul.
'That voice…' Astarvan paused his motion into the Void, his insensate mind doing its best to make out a thought.
'It's the kid's, isn't it?' His eyes creased in remembrance as his face still maintained its emotionless demeanor.
'Is he worried?' Astravan turned back to where the loud sounds of Trick's voice echoed loudest.
'There's nothing to worry about kiddo.' Astravan gave one more cold look into Trick's direction, moving past his echoing voice to become fully numbed to the outside world.
'It will only take a moment.' Astravan was now before another dark cyst with darkness that bubbled with a dark purple essence within it.
This was the second door to the second level of darkness which loomed within Astarvan's soul.
'Destroying the Void beast isn't the problem.' Astravan stated into the ominous ball of darkness with a resolved gaze.
'I just feel the burning need…' Astravan placed his left arm into the cyst of darkness.
'To offer him the most brutal death possible.'
'For the calamity he and his foul kind rain down on humanity.' Astravan's hand became fully swallowed into the dark cyst as he continued in thought.
'For the sickening death they subjected Nicolas to. And—' Half his body now seeped into the dark cyst which acted as a gateway to an even greater, and more atrocious level of darkness.
'For every tear they made you shed.' In that instant, Astarvan was lost, to become fully swallowed up by the ravaging darkness that stood in the heart of his soul.
He was now plummeting into a never ending drop, the heaviness in his heart growing greater and greater with every depth he sunk to.
The darkness was encroaching his being, at a gradual rate, as he fell deeper with each passing second.
'Yes, in order to cause him the most suffering… I must take this step.'
'I must hold onto the darkness, if I want to cause him the highest amount of pain—' Astarvan took a pause, before opening his lips in speech.
"HUMANLY POSSIBLE!"
Calamity was all that awaited if the darkness fully crept into Astravan's heart, a senseless destruction would be all that loomed if Astravan entered into the third passageway to the greatest level of darkness he bore within his soul.
It was within here that the Machiavellian Trickster buried the melancholic feeling he bore that day, alongside the painfully depressing memories that followed that feeling that very dreaded day.
He was finally there, his descent had become increasingly faster as he went into the innermost parts of the second level of gloom.
Like an obsessively lustful bride, a myriad of dark hands embraced Astarvan with their mollifying arms of darkness, dragging him deeper, even as he fell into the pitch black darkness.
Astarvan then shut his eyes, letting a single thought roam loose.
'Yes, I'm almost there.'
FLASH!
Astravan's eyes immediately flickered open as an encompassing feeling hit him, his eyes now raced through the darkness as he felt a presence he had longed to feel, now hover around him.
In pure perplexity Astarvan found himself mumbling one word in question.
"MASTER?"
A bright light of radiant splendor shone within the darkness, its blinding lights stretching into the dark Void to liberate it of its darkness.
However the obsessive hands of gloom held Astarvan ever so tightly in envy of the new found light.
Astarvan's eyes shook frantically as the light condensed to form an image that almost brought tears to the Trickster's eyes.
The image of someone most dearest to him.
She wore a suit much like Astarvan's, but her's was dyed in a bright red hue, with the trouser of her suit being tighter to her skin than his.
But perhaps what was most strange was that she donned the same mysterious hat…
As Astarvan.
"Champ…" Came the consolatory voice of the woman.
"No matter how bad you feel." She added with a smile at Astarvan.
"No matter the urge you feel to go to that dark place."
The mysterious woman's bright lights shone with even greater splendor as she uttered her words.
"Remember—" The woman's dark purple hair flowed behind her as she spoke. Her light purple eyes glistening with a bright shine of hope.
"To always keep on laughing." She reached her hands towards Astarvan, who stared in bewilderment at what was currently happening.
"Remember to always keep on smiling." Astravan held onto her hands, as she gave him a heartwarming smile.
"Because laughs are contagious." The obsessive hands of darkness that grasped Astarvan in an obsessively envious fashion burnt off, immediately Astravan held onto the woman's hands.
"And they make both you, and everyone around you…" The world suddenly shone with her golden aura of light, the darkness which lurked around, being transformed into a white light as she held onto Astarvan, withdrawing him from the gloom of his soul.
"Feel more at ease." She finished with a soothing smile at Astarvan, releasing him from his world of darkness. And sending him back into the surface world.
But right before Astarvan left the dark inner confines of his soul, he saw a joyful smile etched onto her lips, just before leaving the realm of darkness within his heart.
Yet, that depraved darkness, though he had left its holdings. It still lurked heavily in his heart, the third stage of gloom still ever present for the day he would surely need it.
"MASTER!" Trick yelled in the air as he watched the vicious Ogre approach his Master wildly.
Just then, crowded by a flood of panicked thoughts, Trick felt his heart burn with resolve, his crimson red eyes glistening with defiance as he felt his legs suddenly jolt forward, in hopes of catching up to the beast before it reached his master.
THUD!
Trick staggered backwards, his face aching in slight pain as he looked around to find himself concealed in a light purple barrier.
"Calm down kid." Came Athan, whose eyes still remained firmly locked onto Astarvan.
Trick then placed his hands into the air, his arms stopping immediately they touched the surface of the defensive barrier.
It was almost like a bubble that locked both him and Athan within its protective insides.
"Don't go interrupting him" A wide grin then spread across Athanasios' face as he watched the monster charge madly towards Astarvan.
"Because right now—" Athan watched as the monster brought one of its large wooden clubs down with wrathful strength, trying to crash it into Astarvan's head.
"YOUR MASTER IS FUCKING ANGRY!"
BOOM!
A thunderous shockwave blasted across the hall, billowing dust and heavy gusts of wind around the room. However Trick and Athan remained untouched, the winds moving swiftly past them as they were fully protected by Athan's barrier.
The walls of the castle cracked in desecration at the monster's crashing force, planting a wide grin across the monster's face as it huffed with a fiendish chuckle.
The dust which filled the air then finally settled, a jovial voice resounding across the room as the dust fell.