The Return of the Reaper of Life

The next day Aion and Moirai returned to the clearing where Moirai once more sat and Aion stood calmly looking down at her. “Yesterday I explained the tiers of magic, today we will start your training. Now as I am Death I won’t be able to teach you how to use the power of Life, I’m not compatible.” He explained calmly. “However I will be able to teach you the basics but before we start any exercises it would be best to get explanations out of the way.” Moirai nodded and waited for him to start. “Now let's first debunk some common ideals and beliefs about magic; most people believe Magic to be some complicated thing that requires complex rituals, incantations, and a bunch of other shit however this is both incorrect and accurate. The reason for this is because Magic is only as complicated as you make it."

"So that stuff isn't required?" Moirai asked in confusion as Aion shook his head.

"It depends on what you’re trying to do.” Aion explained calmly. “Some spells do require a ritual to perform; these are more often highly complex spells or spells that require a significant amount of mana energy. The incantation part is mostly a miss translation, Mages will often use words to direct their magic and some can even use their voice to cast spells.”

“Now in the ways of the Arcane Arts there are two paths one can take the path that you choose normally depends on how much of a Mana Pool have." Aion Raised his hand and a ball of blue energy formed in it. "This is Mana, all living things have Mana but some races and people will have more than others." Aion explained before dispersing the mana and looking at Moirai. “Are you following so far?” He asked

Moirai tilted her head and though before nodding. "I think I understand; the path one takes depends on how much Mana a person or species has, but what’s that determined by?" Moirai asked.

Aion thought for a moment before responding. "While I don't know exactly I do have a few theories on the subject but that's something for a later lesson. For now we should focus on the basics, later on I will go into Magic Theory. Now the two paths one can take are Alchemy and the actual Magic. To use alchemy one re-"

"Wait, what's the difference between the two?" Moirai asked interrupting Aion.

"Ah... right, I need to explain everything." Aion sighed as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, Alchemy runs off a few set rules. To put it simply while both paths alter reality, Alchemy does so by manipulating the laws of nature... tweaking it you might say. However Magic doesn't manipulate nature’s laws." Aion grinned as his hand glowed and Mana once more collected in it before slowly tuned black and exploding into a Black Rose. "Magic flat out breaks it."

Moirai gasped in awe as she reached out and took flower and examined it. “This is increadable!” She whispered in shock.

"Beings such as us, who are, Aspects, Avatars and embodiments can make anything, by the power of our will alone; we need not wands or chants. We might transmute lead to gold, make fish swim in the sky, or restore a devastated world back to full health.” Aion explained as he looked up at the sky. Moirai’s eyes grew wide as she looked at Aion who slowly turned to her his excretion sad. “But just because you can does not mean you should, though this is all within our power we should never usurp the natural order or flaunt the laws of nature in such a way.”

Moirai nodded. “Yeah… doing something like that could cause problems.” She said slowly.

Aion smiled and looked at her with a sad grin. “I'm guessing that Magic sound easier doesn’t it; but it's not." Aion rolled up the right sleeve of his cloak revealing the gauntlet on his hand. On the back of the hands was an intricate design that he used his left hand to twist; as it moved there was a sound of gears turning and with the sound of a lock unlocking Aion slowly removed it revealing the black leather underneath. "It can be difficult to learn to control, if you get ahead of yourself and attempt more than your capable of well..." Aion pulled the leather up revealing his arm was covered in deep red crystals that looked to be growing out it. "In my youth I made one silly mistake during my training days and this was the result.” Aion sighed and lowered the leather before returning the gauntlet and locking back into place. “Magic is far more dangerous than Alchemy and if you don't take it serious there are consequences that can be scarring. So please don't make that mistake."

Moirai nodded. "So will you teach me magic today or is there more to explain?" she asked.

Aion chuckled. "Slow down, Moirai; yes I'll teach you Magic but there is more to it than you think. When you talk about Magic your actually talking about it as a whole there are four branches to magic. The first and least dangerous it Light Magic, the magic innate to all creatures. It’s simple to learn and while it can be dangerous if used in combat it is the safest of all magic.” He said as he raised his hand and an orb of light appeared in it. “As my essence is shadow I’m not exactly compatible with this magic however I am far more compatible with the next type of magic, Dark Magic. Now most see Dark Magic as corruptive and evil but as long as a mentally stable person or one with a soul bound to darkness learns it then it's safe to wield. If the person doesn't meet those criteria then the Dark Magic will become corruptive and start to play upon the person’s desires and fears but it’s still relatively safe. Those of us that use this magic prefer to call this magic Shadow Magic.”

Moirai frowned. “So is it stronger than the normal light type of magic?”

Aion shook his head. “Contrary to belief Dark magic is no stronger than its lighter counterpart the only difference is that it requires the user to feed it with negative or dark emotions such as hate, anger, misery, etc." Aion hesitated and after a moment shook his head. "Moirai Promise me that you will only use the next two Magic branches only as a last resort."

"Why?" Moirai asked curiously.

"While Shadow Magic is still in your domain the next two branches of Magic fall under my domain and only I or those of my kind can use them safely. These branches are what gave Shadow Magic the name Dark Magic so please promise." Aion replied carefully.

"Alright, I promise that I'll only consider using the next two branches if all hope is lost" Moirai replied.

Aion sighed and nodded. "The next two branches are honestly about as twisted as it can get. The third branch of Magic is... it's called Necromancy. It's the power to raise the dead, now while it animates the corpse it doesn’t affect the soul. Most see it as desecrating the dead but to be honest most souls are fine with the use of their bodies as they no longer have a use for them. The last branch is called Blood Magic and this is the root of all the fear and hate for Shadow Magic and Necromancy. You see Blood Magic focuses on corrupting souls, summon Demons and controlling the literal blood of others; It even has the ability to siphon the powers and abilities of others granting the user those powers, It's a horrible branch of magic."

"I- I understand." Moirai said shakily.

"Well with that out of the way do you still want to learn Magic?" Aion asked receiving a nod from Moirai. "Alright so the first thing we're going to do is make you a weapon." Aion said happily. "The weapon of a being like us allows us to channel more power, is actually formed from our magic and as such it's nearly second nature to summon it so that’s probably the best place to start. I want you to close your eyes and clear your mind." Moirai nodded and did as Aion said. "Once you have succeeded you will see the world slightly different. It's hard to explain because it's different for each person so this is something I can’t walk you through. Once you have done this you will see your weapon, all you have to do is simply grab it." Moirai nodded once again and slowly let the world and world around her faded.

As Moira closed her eyes she did her best to clear her mind and focus on her power. As she did this the world seemed to break away and as it slowly returned She opened her eyes and looked around to see that she still sat in the same clearing but it looked much different. Instead of seeing the world in color she saw a white glow everywhere in the shape if what was the trees and other plants.

"What is this?" Moirai asked confused as she floated over to what she assumed was a tree. "Is this its Life Force… so in this state I can see the Life Force of living creatures? This is fascinating!" She exclaimed. "But where's Aions' Life Force?"

As she looked around she suddenly noticed a void in the area were Aion stood slowly she drew closer and realized that it was slowly sucking in the life not only around it but that everything except her was connected to it.

"So that's what Aion looks like when I'm in this state; I guess it makes sense, he is death so that would mean that he would slowly drain life. So I guess that if he slowly takes life then I must slowly release the energy that brings life." Moirai shook her head and looked around. "Aion said that my weapon would be near me so where-" Suddenly another shape appeared behind Aion the thing held a similar aura as Aion but instead of drawing in the Life Force it began to destroy it. Moirai stood in shock as the world around her began to die at a near instantaneous rate. Aions form turned and suddenly the space beside him warped releasing what appeared to be a dying sun shaped like a scythe. "Somethings wrong, I have to find my weapon and help Aion!" Moirai exclaimed as she began to frantically search for her weapon.