Months passed, and Eldrin and Michael continued their travels. Eldrin's bank account continued to dwindle from the numerous purchases.
But when he looked at Michael's smile, he felt it was more than worth it.
Money could be made easily; memories could not.
Two figures could be seen flying in the clear sky.
Both had beautiful black wings and long black hair.
Michael spun around in the air while laughing in joy.
To fly was the dream of every child, but one that mostly went unfulfilled due to obvious reasons.
But Michael was different; he was a dark seraphim, and dark seraphims could fly.
Eldrin glanced at the joyful Michael and smiled softly.
The kid was a fast learner, learning to master flight in a mere 4 minutes.
Eldrin's dark eyes scanned Michael in amazement.
"And the shadows, is he unconsciously controlling them? As expected of a dark seraphim"
Though Eldrin proudly.
He looked in the distance to see a sight that made him grin.
"The castle is ready, it appears"
Though Eldrins and with a flap of his black wings, he flew even faster.
Michael also flapped his wings as fast as he could to catch up to Eldrin.
3 kilometers away was a gothic black castle of expert architecture. It stood tall, surrounded by walls that were still being constructed, yet the castle was already finished.
Creatures made of darkness work tirelessly, building the wall with surprising speed.
But they all suddenly turned to look at the sky and knelt with absolute reverence.
A tall figure gently landed on the ground with his arm raised.
"No need to kneel, I must thank you for completing this castle"
Eldrin looked at the giant castle in awe.
"Without you, this would have been quite a pain to build"
The creatures rose, their dark hearts warmed by their ruler, who always treated them well despite being mere shadow creatures.
One of them stepped forward its voice casual.
"No need to thank us for such a simple task, my liege"
It looked back at the castle with pride.
"Building a mere castle might as well be effortless for beings such as us.
It was true, Eldrin hadn't given them any instructions about the architecture of the castle, so they improvised, and with sheer skill alone, they had built this masterpiece of architecture.
They all looked at it with pride.
"WOW!"
Michael's eyes were open wide in amazement, and his mouth was open wide in disbelief.
Eldrin chuckled.
"A rather fitting castle for little Michael"
The creature of darkness nodded in agreement and looked at little Michael.
"A gift from us to you, little one"
Michael bounced on the dark creature with surprising strength, hugging it.
"Hohoh!Quite the strong one"
Spoke the dark creature while patting little Michael in the back.
Though its dark purple eyes couldn't hide its shock at the kid's strength.
Creatures of darkness possessed immense physical strength, capable of crushing tanks like they were nothing, yet the creature that was being hugged by Michael could feel that the strength in the little one's body was terrifying, fully capable of crushing it into dark mist.
Eldrin causally explained.
"A Dark Seraphim's muscle fibers and bones might as well be made of solid steel. When they reach full maturity, their strength surpasses even elite Asgardians like Thor"
The dark creature nodded in amazement.
But Eldrin's expression turned a little sour.
"But for some reason, I wasn't able to give him the ability to turn intangible"
The dark creature glanced at Michael, who had run inside the castle in excitement, and spoke.
"That is only natural, my liege, unlike us michael is a purely biological being, while we are mostly spiritual "
The dark creature waved his hand through his body, which turned misty and then solid again.
Eldrin nodded and thought.
"We are both essentially shadow constructs; the only difference is that I have a core which allows for evolution."
Eldrin looked at the shadow creature and couldn't help but ask.
"Do you ever wonder who created me...Or who created us?"
The shadow creature went silent, its dark purple eyes turned complicated.
Then it spoke with uncertainty.
"We shadow creatures were once biological beings with an affinity to darkness, but once we died, our souls were transported to the dark dimension where we underwent a transformation into dark creatures"
But then it looked at Eldrin with wonder.
"But you, my liege,you are different; only a being of higher power could create a being as powerful and strange as you"
It then spoke with certainty.
"We have travelled the dark dimension for who knows how long, yet we have found no being such as yourself"
It recounted the time when he stumbled upon Eldrin.
It was, as usual, travelling through the dark dimension, but then a blinding light appeared ahead of it.
I looked strange, neither light nor darkness, neither good nor evil.
It looked off, unique, like a combination of both; it felt attracted towards it, it felt at home, and so he decided to follow it.
And the moment that it did, memories flooded its mind, memories that spanned 400 years, full of war and despair.
And it also saw that cursed moment!
The moment that woman cursed its liege with a terrible purpose, to protect the light!
Although Eldrin did not resent her, the shadow creature did, because it knew something that Eldrin did not.
Creatures of darkness and light had one dreaded weakness, a weakness that served as a curse to them but also as an anchor to the material world.
And that was Purpose!
They needed a purpose to keep on living, to keep on fighting, and most of all, to exist in the material world.
Without it, they were nothing but mortals who simply did not experience the passage of time.
But once they accepted a purpose as their own, they became forever cursed with the task to fulfil it; the purpose became bound to their very souls, inseparable and irreversible for all eternity.
But its liege did not know that, and his mother sure as hell didn't either.
Now his liege, who was already on his last spiritual leg, was forced to fulfil a task too heavy, a task that was considered impossible by any means, because of his mother's selfishness!
Each failure was like a dagger to his dark heart, sinking him further into despair and corruption, yet despite all that, he still held on, but for how long?
It was a tragedy, a joke far too cruel.
The dark creature was so furious that it wanted to go back in time and prevent Eldrin's mother from finding him, so it could raise him itself and prevent such tragedy from unfolding.