Chapter 28 – Struggle for Control

The alarm clock woke me up and I still felt pain all over my upper body. I remembered that Lucian and I were supposed to have a training session today in order to control my darkness affinity. I got up from my bed and I went over to my closet to get dressed properly for today. It was a day off so I had no business wearing a uniform today. I slipped on a fitting blue colored shirt with an emblem of a dragon on it while I wore my signature black slim fit jeans and a pair of white sneakers. I went over to the side of my bed and got my sheathed katana as I held it on my left hand. I was looking for my beanie when suddenly I had heard a knock on my door.

"Wait a second." I had said as I wondered on who would be knocking at my dorm at this time of day. I should just forget about wearing a beanie today. I went over to the door and opened it afterwards. To my surprise I saw Yue standing at the doorstep. She was dressed in a short skirt with boots and she wore a shirt that actually made her look like a woman. What the hell did she want with me today?

"What do you want ditz?" I said to her

"Who're you calling a ditz? I just saved your life the other day you know!" Yue had shouted at me. Crap so noisy this early in the morning. It was already 10:30 am by the way.

I had remembered that Dr. Lett had told me that she was the one who actually saved my life in the infirmary. My wounds were life threatening the doctor had said because Lucian's techniques were actually meant to kill. I know I would get a rematch with him someday without this darkness inside me interfering for a change.

"Please help me…"

I remembered that those were the exact words I said to the darkness in me. I pleaded for it to help me. I was disgusted at myself as I remembered that happening because in the end, it was right. I needed its power. The darkness in myself had shown me how weak I was and the fight with the prefect of Block B had just insisted that further.

"You okay?" Yue had asked me. She probably noticed that I was thinking again.

"Yeah I'm fine." I replied to her coldly. I looked around the dorm area and saw Elle's dorm. The door seemd to be shut tight as I went over to it to examine it further; it seemed that she's not in her dorm today.

"Elle's back in her house at Aldwin. She said to me yesterday that she had wanted to go back and see her mother and the dayoff today seemed to be just the right time." Yue had said to me.

"Oh…" I had replied to her. That figures. Elle was the type of person who cherished her family. I had remembered her telling that to me when we had talked at the roof.

"So, shall we get going?" Yue had asked me.

"Go where?" I had asked her in return. What the hell is she taling about? I'm supposed to be training with Lucian today.

"Lucian had asked me to pick you up for training. He asked me if I could accompany you guys and I agreed." Yue had said to me.

"What?!" I had said in surprised. Now I actually have a huge distraction while training. "Great, how am I going to focus now…" I said afterwards.

"Why do you always have to be such a jerk?!" Yue had said to me in an outburst. Great she's pissed again and I haven't even done anything.

"Because you're always being a ditz." I replied to her coldly.

"Stop calling me that!" Yue had said to me. She was already annoyed.

"Make me." I replied to her.

"Fine, if you don't then I won't tell you where Lucian is. You don't even know where you guys are going to train are you?" she had said to me as she was trying to annoy me.

"Like I care" I replied to her again in a cold manner.

"I think you should." I had heard a familiar voice say to me and I faced towards it afterwards. I saw Lucian walking towards to where Yue and I were standing. He wore a white turtleneck long sleeve shirt and black slim fit pants with leather black shoes.

"Lucian, I thought you were going to wait in the fields." Yue had said. Great it was a nerd fest right in front of my dorm.

"No need Miss Yue. I had a change of mind, and besides on my way here I had picked up a book about Mission Parameters and Ethics." Lucian had said to her. "I'm sure Seiryu could use this book am I right?" he said as he faced towards me afterwards.

"Whatever." I replied to him and Lucian just smiled.

"Anyway, shall we be on our way then?" Lucian had said to Yue and I as we had walked towards the Treyah Academy back gate.

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Moments later, we had made it at the rear gate of Treyah Academy. It had been a familiar sight to me when we had gone out to the fields because this was the exact place on where I had fought Melfice. The damages and craters were still here. It had brought back memories for me, especially when I had summoned Bahamut.

Eternal Flare

That was the move that had caused this huge crater that the three of us had been looking at. It was pure darkness in its prime. I noticed that Lucian was looking at me now.

"What?" I asked him.

"Bahamut's Eternal Flare is surely destructive." Lucian had said. Why am I not surprised that he actually knew about Bahamut? Was he able to summon it too?

"I can't summon Bahamut." He replied to me. It was useless to hide thoughts from this guy. "I have a different summon though, but there's no need to show it here. We have more important matters to attend to" Lucian had said to me as he had made his rapier appear from darkness energy.

"Meditation is an important tool in utilizing one's innate affinities." Lucian had said to me. Great a skill that was pretty useless to me especially because I haven't been attending my MEDFOC classes. I aced the exams but that's all they were, exams. "You may not know it but you actually meditate sometimes, but you just don't know it." He added.

"Like how?" I said to him.

"Sleeping is a form of meditation." Lucian had replied. "You should know these things, I mean don't you have MEDFOC as a prerequisite to ADVSWD (Advanced Swordsmanship)?" he had asked me.

"I do, but it's not like I go to class or anything. I've only been in class five times." I replied to him and Lucian sighed helplessly.

"Well now you know." Lucian had said as he conjured up dark spirit energy from his left hand. "Do you see my hands now? It's glowing with dark spirit energy." He added.

You have to admit though; it was kind of amazing that Lucian was handling darkness like it was nothing.

"Now you try." Lucian had said to me.

"But I can't do that" I replied to him. Hell I can't even control it yet and he expects me to try that trick? Some teacher you are.

"I heard that Seiryu." Lucian had said as he was trying to be patient. Fuck I keep forgetting that he can read minds. "Okay let me rephrase what I said, try to conjure up some spirit energy onto your hand." He commanded me again and I did as he told.

Spirit energy had begun to flow through my right hand and I held it up in front of me afterwards. It had a faint grey color and no sign of darkness anywhere. It seems like the darkness only comes out when I surrender myself to it or so I think.

"So I have some now. What do I do?" I asked Lucian.

"It's still the suppressed form. Your affinity seems to not respond in regular times. Try to focus Seiryu." Lucian had said to me.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I replied to him. I was focusing as much as I can, but it really won't come out as dark spirit energy.

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General POV

Lucian looked at Seiryu's mannerisms and he deduced immediately that he still had fear of the dark power inside him.

"You're scared because of the dreams…" he had said outloud.

"It might take control of me again…" Seiryu had replied and Yue had noticed the facial expression of the katana wielder change.

"Darkness is aggressive, but with proper focus and channeling, you can control it." Lucian had said to him. "Just try now, let your self be engulfed by the darkness, I'll guide you." He added.

Seiryu had again attempted to focus his spiritual energy in order to make dark spirit energy come out of his hands. He conjured up huge amounts of spirit energy and it begun to surround his body with a grayish color of energy. He was breathing in and out as he was pacing himself. Lucian was just looking at the long haired student and he saw he was really trying hard to make dark energy come out of his body. He then noticed something odd when he had looked at Seiryu's eyes.

His eyes were flickering and switching colors repeatedly from its standard brown color to a more red color. He also saw that the energy that he was letting flow out was getting darker.

"No good…he's starting to lose himself again…" Lucian had said

Seiryu was now beginning to be engulfed in dark spirit energy. It had looked like black flames burning around his body. His eyes were still shifting colors in an unstable manner. Switching from red to brown alternately; this indicated the battle for control that was going on in him.

"You need to fight it, don't lose to it Seiryu!" Lucian had said to him. He could see that Seiryu was trying to fight the darkness that had engulfed him, but it was no good. The pulsating colors on his eyes were beginning to slow down and if it stops in the red color, he knew that he would end up hurting somebody.

The dark energy was getting stronger by the minute and it was raging like black flames. Seiryu was standing in the middle of it all for he was beginning to succumb to the darkness that was buried inside him.

"Compose yourself Seiryu!" Lucian had said as he was preparing to cast a dark based magic called Gravity Forcefield. It engulfs the user in a black sphere shaped form of spirit energy which serves as a powerful barrier. "Miss Yue, prepare to strike him down just in case." He said to her and she nodded immediately.

"It can't be too soon for me to lose like this…" Seiryu thought to himself as he struggled to fight the darkness inside him.

Face it, you can't control me, but in my case, I can control you whenever I desire. It is useless to resist…

"No… I have to fight…I can't be manipulated … You're not going to use me for this!" Seiryu exclaimed in his thoughts. His eyes were still flickering with the clors alternately changing from nrown to red.

Why do you fight?

"I fight…to be stronger…for my brother…" Seiryu had thought to himself and he's still attempting to control the darkness.

What about bloodlust?

In an instant, Seiryu fell down on one knee as he clutched his chest. He felt a stinging pain inside him, a sensation that felt new to him. He had his share of wounds in this Academy so you could deduce that he was almost pain resistant, but in this case he wasn't. The color on his eyes was becoming more constant as it slowly reverted to a red color. His brown eyes still tried to gain back its color, but he was slowly being engulfed. Lucian took notice of this and he acted immediately.

"Gravity Forcefield" Lucian had said as he cast a huge orb of darkness at Seiryu's direction.

"I'll help" Yue had said. "Gravity Forcefield!" she had said as the orb increased in size.

The long haired student was now engulfed in a huge forcefield of darkness. The purpose of this was if he ever went rogue again, they could contain his force and strength.

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Seiryu POV

Am I going to lose again? Back then, I was suppressing this power unconsciously, but now I am actually attepmpting to control it. I was still slightly myself when I had seen Lucian and Yue cast a forcefield on me. I was still on my knees desperately trying to struggle against the darkness.

Had enough yet?

It was the same voice in my dreams and in the time I surrendered myself to the darkness. Maybe it was meant to control me and not the other way around. Maybe I can't control it. In the end, I was weak after all. All the efforts I had made to be stronger was just a façade after all. I felt myself being sapped out of energy as I fell to the ground face first.

It is futile, you cannot control me.

"We'll see about that…" I had said outloud as I unsheathed my katana and gripped the blade with my left hand and I had felt a cut form on my palm. I had learned atleast in one session of my MEDFOC class that pain increases concentration and focus. "Urghh.." I groaned in pain. Atleast I was slowly snapping out of it and getting out of the darkness's control.

I began to feel strong again as the pain on my chest had slowly faded away. The dark energy around me had begun to settle down a little bit.

Very resourceful, using pain to focus your mind; I guess I have to play my cards close to the chest this time.

After the voice had said those words, I then felt the stinging pain in my chest again. It felt like my heart was being squeezed tightly as I clutched my chest again. I was being caged again, like the last time. Lucian had told me that once the body surrenders itself to the darkness, it does the fighting for the user while the user was trapped in a void of eternal cold and nothingness.

I tried to stand up from the pain I was experiencing, but it was too much effort just to move a small part of my limbs. I got up to my knees as I grabbed my katana with my right hand and then did the unthinkable. I stabbed my left hand and the katana had impaled it throught the ground. I was in a lot of pain, but it didn't matter. I would do everything just to control this darkness, no not this darkness, MY DARKNESS!

"Ruaaaaaaaagggghhhh!' I had shouted in pain and I can feel the dark energy pulsating through me. My left hand was bleeding badly as it was still impaled with my katana. "I won't… go back to that place…again!" I had shouted as I pulled out my katana from the ground and felt the pain of my left hand intensify more. To my surprise, the dark spirit energy that had constricted me earlier now flowed freely outside my body.

Your dedication amazes me. Perhaps because you have seen the void and do not want to come back and in the process you have accepted your darkness as a part of you.

I panted heavily as blood dripped from my left hand. What was going on? It seemed that the darkness which was assertive before had now calmed down, but why? I felt pain and at the same time, the pain in my chest had disappeared.

You amuse me Seiryu

It knows my name?

I'm willing to see how far you will go with the darkness at your side.

The voice had said as it seemed to have disappeared. I had a feeling that it wouldn't bother me again. Have I learned to finally control it? I got curious and then I stretched out my wounded left hand as I try to conjure spirit energy and to my surprise it was dark spirit energy.

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General POV

"I think it's just about time" Lucian had said as he made the orb forcefield disappear and Yue did the same. They were surprised at what they saw after they had made the forcefield disappear.

Seiryu was actually controlling dark spirit energy on the palm of his left hand which had a stab wound in it as blood continued to drip from it. His katana as well had dark spirit energy swirling around it and this had amazed the two prefects that were supposed to help him.

"Amazing, you controlled it immediately." Lucian had said.

"But your left hand is wounded; what did you do?" Yue had replied and Seiryu looked at her.

"Turns out pain is one form of focus and meditation. It helped me concentrate more on focusing myself." Seiryu replied. Yue had noticed that as she looked at his eyes, one of them was a different color from another.

"Seiryu, your eyes." She had said.

"Why? What's wrong?" Seiryu had asked

"Let me take a look." Lucian had said as he went nearer to get a good look on Seiryu's eyes. He had seen that his right eye had a red colored eye while his left eye retained its brown color. He then smirked with confidence. "It seems that the darkness in you has already accepted you." Lucian had added as he turned his back.

"What do you mean?" the long haired student had asked.

"It had given you its affinity. Just look at your eyes in your blade." Lucian replied.

Seiryu had looked at his eyes from the blade of his katana. He saw that his irises were of different color. One was red and the other was still brown in color. He could've sworn that it wasn't like that before.

"You still have to train with me though. In order to make your control constant" Lucian had said. "Why don't you try one of your techniques just to be sure?" he added and Seiryu nodded in response.

The long haired student saw a huge boulder in front of him and he sheathed his katana in an instant. He reverted to his battojutsu stance as he prepared to attack the boulder with his signature move the Yakekoge Senko.

"Satsujin Ken Battojutsu form: Yakekoge Senko." Seiryu had said as he drew his sword fro its sheath and immediately slashed the boulder in half. He had noticed that instead of a flame, dark spirit energy had engulfed his blade when he had drawn his sword.

"Hmm, just like the move you used on me on our fight. Kokuryuge Senko" Lucian had said.

"What does this mean?" Seiryu had asked him.

"It simply means that you can control your affinity now and you need to maintain your grip at it. I'll keep on helping you of course." Lucian had said.

"You did it!" Yue had said to Seiryu with joy.

"Whatever." Seiryu replied to her coldly and he saw her fume in anger again.

"Damn you jerk!" she had replied but Seiryu was already making his way towards the Academy. "Hey you get back here I'm not done yet!" she had said.

"Now now Miss Yue, you need to calm down." Lucian had said to her

"But but he was mean to me!" Yue had said to her and Lucian made his way to the academy as well. "Hey Lucian wait up!" Yue had shouted as she ran to keep up with him and they all made their way back to the Academy.

The closer you go to the light, the taller your shadow becomes

The words rung in Seiryu's mind as he walked.

"The shadow can shield you from the blinding light, for light is not always good for it can deceive you." He heard the voice inside him say as he entered the academy and he knew now that the darkness had a point.