Dark Divinity

Omen's drowsy eyelids fluttered open, and he found himself enveloped in darkness. The air in the room was thick with tension, the stink of unwashed bodies mixed with the sour scent of anxiety. His body ached from tiredness, as if the planet's weight sat on his small form.

"What is this place?" Omen mumbled to himself as his eyes adjusted to the faint light coming through a single, cracked window. His heart fell at the scene in front of him. The room was packed with other children, their faces carved with unimaginable sorrow. They snuggled against the chilly, damp walls, their once-vibrant spirits crushed and defeated.

Their eyes, once full with youth's innocence, now carried only the shadows of lost hope. Some stared blankly into the distance while others grieved softly, their tears echoing across the dark room, providing a heartbreaking backdrop to their collective anguish. Their worn and stained clothes offered little shelter from the harsh cold that seeped through the holes in the walls.

"Welcome to our reality," A feminine voice shattered the suffocating silence.

As Omen's gaze met hers, he noticed a spark of resistance and strength in her eyes. He was about to reply to her comment but froze as a huge man walked into the room through the huge metal entrance door hidden among the damp walls.

A bald middle-aged man with a long scar on the right side of his fac and a long brown beard. He held a flashlight and flashed it at them, accordingly, momentarily blinding those who met its gaze.

"Fifteen… sixteen… seventeen… hmmm, not nearly enough" the man muttered as he soon left and quickly returned dragging in a frail boy "Eighteen… good, it's a nice start!". He finished and left one more time, this time he didn't return. Omen turned to the girl beside him.

"Do you know where we are? Who was that man? What's gonna happen to us?", he fired at her immediately.

"I don't know, I don't know, and I don't know", the girl said and glared at his direction with her dull green eyes "You have a lot of energy to be asking questions".

"I saw the man; he didn't look familiar. The people of my hometown would have recognized me by now", Omen began but the girl soon interrupted him.

"What do you mean you saw him? It's pitch black in here!", the girl inquired in confusion, focusing more on the fact that anyone could see in this absolute darkness "I can't even see your face". Omen was surprised at this, back in Tenebris the other royal children often bullied him because his vision wasn't as enhanced in the distance as theirs, but night vision was normal to them. So, it was either they weren't Tenebrii, or they were much weaker than him, but that was a lot considering he was extremely weak himself.

"I can see you fairly well though." He began wandering if telling her this was the right decision, afterall she was a complete stranger to him.

"Prove it", the girl said, staring at what she assumed to be his face but instead was staring at the pillar he was resting on.

"First you aren't even looking at me, you have long black hair and dark eyes", Omen said staring at her. She was pretty, even with the dirt and grimness around her face she was still pretty. Her body was frail, and her ribs were even beginning to protrude through her tattered sack of clothing. It was obvious with her soulless eyes and hungry stomach that she'd been here for a couple of days, probably weeks.

"That's amazing, I'm Annabelle but my friends call me Anna", she said smiling in the darkness. She still had hope in her eyes.

 "I'm Omen", He replied, shaking her outstretched hands. Surprisingly for a girl, her hands were hard.

"This is fascinating, you can see in the dark?" she asked again, completely looking in the wrong direction in the darkness " What do you see in this room?"

Omen looked around cautiously; his night vision was not as good at night as it was during the day. His colour perception was also extremely limited and most depths were in different shades of grey, but it was still enough for him to perceive distinct forms and shapes.

"There are eighteen of us, the room is very small and the window much smaller, it can't even fit a squirrel through those bars", Omen said.

"Squirrel? ", Anna asked in confusion.

"Furry mammals that climb trees", Omen explained then stared at her "Don't you have those where you come from?"

"We don't have animals that small where I'm from", She smiled in the dark and searched for his hand. Omen brought it closer to her to suit her and watched as she grabbed it tightly. "He's coming back… I can feel him".

And just as she predicted the man who had entered earlier walked back in followed by a much bulky one with thick long black hair and red eyes, he was completely cladded in thick black clothing to protect himself from the cold.

"Good evening children, you shall refer to me as the devourer and I shall explain why you're all here. Our Lord, and my master, the Overlord in his infinite mercies is in high need of potential beings strong enough to overthrow the god realm, and you're all fortunate to be chosen… "

'Overlord!' How distant was he from the empire? Was he a prisoner of the celestial world? As far as he knew, his realm was the only one at war; where did the others come from?

"Overlord! What a joke… hahaha", a skinny boy far from the man said laughing to himself, a few others chuckled alongside him.

They were quite cheerful despite the situation, but Omen had read a lot of books and situations like this never went well. And he was soon proven right.

The devourer said nothing but only Omen could properly describe the horrifying scene he witnessed next.

In the silence of the underground chamber, only Omen could witness the way the boy's laughter halted as he began screaming in anguish, the boy's cry was horrifying and bone-chilling. The change began so suddenly that those who were still laughing stopped abruptly in fear.

 The devourer stood still, never even leaving his position and only stared at the boy who was having his facial muscles gruesomely disintegrating from his skull. The fo boy formally filled with vigor was soon reduced to a pile of dust and bones. Only Omen saw what happened but the others were able to guess from the sounds, that what just happened as better left unseen.

"Please refrain from interrupting me whilst I speak, now I need to hunt down another one ", he finished with a sigh, he didn't even care of the life he just effortlessly snuffed out, he was only saddened by the fact he needed to find another replacement.

Omen and the other children stared at the devourer's direction in fear, cowering as they scampered farther away from his dominating presence. They didn't know what he did, even Omen couldn't explain the gruesome death he just witnessed, though they all heard the terrifyingly loud cries of pain and the sound of falling bones. Whatever the devourer's abilities were Omen had to thread carefully.

"As I was saying, you're all here to serve a specific purpose. And as some of you are quite uneducated, I'll educate you on the nine realms of existence. First, we have the god realm which is currently the most powerful realm in existence composed of gods and high celestial beings. Following that, we have the Celestial realm which is like a lower version of the god realm, presently they are invading the Tenebris realm and annihilating multitudes". Omen shivered in rage as he recalled the death of his mother, the celestials were behind it all afterall. Whatever his mother did at her dying moment was what teleported him to this place, but where was here exactly?

 'I will avenge my people ', Omen whispered to himself. 'but first, I need to survive'

"Now the third is the dark realm of Tenebris, home to the dark mages of all tiers. We also have the fourth realm; the realm of fae, Galactus, there are very few human cities, and it is where we currently are…unfortunately though this dimension is hidden from the outside world. Then the dragon realm is the fifth realm and then there are the twin realms known as Amphitryon and Asura, home to countless numbers of mages and specialists. And lastly Terra, the most normal realm that is home to people of ordinary talents".

He finished just as the bald man walked back in with a chubby boy making the number eighteen again. Omen hadn't even seen him leave! The devourer glanced at the newcomer having no difficulty in seeing in the darkness and then turned back to the children. Still he took the flashlight and shone it at the damp ceiling, giving the room a little luminance.

"The Overlord has gathered all of you here for the abilities you all possess. You have all been taken from different worlds for the sole purpose of serving my master. Your total number is one hundred in this sector and only ten of you will survive the trials given to you. As soon as I leave this room the first trial shall begin, out of the eighteen of you in this room, I only need ten" the man declared, at first No one moved probably doubting the entire concept, but the man proved to them he wasn't joking around when his hand suddenly shot a bright energy beam completely illuminating the room momentarily, the sudden display of theatrics at the ceiling startled some of the children into action.

As soon as the energy beam was released, Omen saw a boy bite into the neck of the female seated next to him, viciously tearing out her throat. The girl repeatedly extended her finger and buried it into his left eye; they both yelled as they bled. Omen felt compelled to act in response to the carnage around them, not to save anyone, but to prevent it from spreading to him.

"No, this is all wrong" As Omen stood amidst the wreckage, he needed to gain anna's trust so he hoped his terrified expression was fooling enough to reach his voice.

"Stay close Anna," Knowing she couldn't see in the dark, he held her tightly.

Anna stood by his side, her face pale as she fearfully glanced around her. Omen knew she was only interested in him because of his night vision but he didn't mind protecting her, this however… was just too cruel.

He observed the carnage as youngsters ripped each other apart with their own hands. He felt nothing as he witnessed what was happening to them; he had been through far worse things beyond hearing their screams. In the thick of the chaos, he pointed out spots to avoid, but there was soon no need to.

"And stop! ", the devourer declared, Omen didn't even realize the man was still in the room. "That's enough, now the rest of you… come along".

"Do not leave my side", Omen said to Anna as they both followed the group of survivors into the passageway. The others couldn't see the corpses surrounding them, but Omen felt the sudden urge to vomit but still held it in.

"I don't need your protection all the way, I only need your vision. I'm strong enough to defend both of us, isn't Night vision the only ability you have, in a place like this that's not enough."

Omen remained silent at her honesty, he had been trained to kill right from childhood, both in hand to hand combats and all assignation techniques, and as the emperor's son his training regime was always more intense than others. Though he hadn't mastered his shadow and dark matter manipulation he was confident enough that he could survive a situation like this, after all, there was one ability not even those of his realm knew of, a very insidious ability that was the root of his imprisonment in the first place… the ability to steal potential,

It sounded cool, but the reason why this ability was so dreadful was because he needed to kill his opponent with his own hands to take their potential. That very potential included their full life experience, abilities and raw energy.

Unfortunately though he was imprisoned as the emperor realized what he could do. He was tortured for years in hope of awakening normally like his peers but he seemed to only have that ability, though the skill had a limit as it could only permanently steal the abilities of anything he kills himself, at least at present. But he decided to keep this secret, as Anna said this place was dangerous and he couldn't trust anyone, not even her. He had already made a mistake telling her about his innate night vision.

"I trust you, Annabelle", Omen said with a fake smile as he observed the girl in the dimly lit hallway,

"I trust you too Omen", she said but Omen could sense she was lying. Like every royal from his realm he had to learn the skills necessary to detect lies.

The remaining ten children were all escorted to another cell in the darkness, none of them could see properly except Omen but they were still easily herded to a smaller cell, less damp than the previous one but still just as cold. That night they slept with pale cold faces and empty stomachs. Omen who had not rested since his mother had evacuated him from his cell back at Tenebris had slept soundly despite the solemn atmosphere. Finally morning came but it brought little respite.

Omen woke up to the frightened faces of the other survivors, he knew that they all felt it too. The air was thick with dread, an intense fear that settled over them like a suffocating blanket. Something was about to happen once again.

Then, cutting through the silence like a knife, came a horrifying sound—the ringing of a mundane bell. It echoed through the cell, it's clear, sharp tones sending a shiver down Omen's spine.

"The bell is a call to gather", Anna mumbled silently beside him. Omen hadn't seen her opening her eyes, but he wasn't surprised afterall the girl's instinct for danger was sharp. She had somehow felt when their captor was about to enter their previous cell even though she couldn't see then.

"Then let's go-"

"Wait!...", she dragged him back down before he could fully stand. Omen looked at her in confusion but her face was so terrifying to look at that his blood turned cold, he'd never seen her this terrified before, after a while she continued in a more fearful tone"…You'll die if you leave"