Consuming Darkness, Arising Light

Chapter 23: Only The Beginning

(A/n: This is the last chapter of this arc)

Leopold

Leopold, who has been dried off and put into new clothes consisting of a black sweater, black pants, and fresh new black socks, is sitting in an armchair next to a couch in a living room that has monochrome décor and furniture, looking sadly at Tweek, who's lying on the couch. The boy is sick, his face and hair clean of the smeared and dried blood. He's wearing the same attire as Leopold even though he's underneath a blanket. There's a pillow underneath his head, and in the center of his forehead is a mysterious symbol exuding a misty, dark aura. His bloodstained sneakers are on the floor made of carpet by the couch. The ceiling light is casting a moonlit glow around the room. Occupying the other armchair is a woman with pale skin, long, black hair, and black almond-shaped eyes. Everything about her indicates that she's a part of the Dark division: her eyeliner and lipstick, the diamond studs in her ears, her long-sleeved dress, her flats that have a little boost in the heels, and floating around her left ankle is a ring similar to a halo. She's the one who made this house, mainly for Leopold's and Tweek's sake. Since she took on a physical form before making it, and after little consideration, she decided to go by the name Raven. Most spirits do not have names, they either made up ones for themselves or had names already bestowed to them from a higher being.

Prior to entering Raven's self-made abode, the three of them were transported five feet away from a large iron gate. Connected to it on each side were tall grey-colored stone walls. Leopold, with the exception of Tweek, nervously looked around their otherworldly surroundings as the spirit hovered towards the gate. The vast stygian sky had a large number of stars that also extended down the rest of the realm all around, which had brightened into a dark blue hue. Leopold had never seen this many stars before, they made the place look a lot less ominous. A shrill sound of metal scraping against metal caught his attention with a flinch. He saw one side of the gate opening.

"Let us proceed," the spirit said, already hovering through the gate. Leopold gently pulled Tweek into walking. Once they entered through the gate, its door slowly creaked shut. "We are in the Realm of Darkness, home to me and many of the other spirits that have Dark magic," the spirit said while guiding them down the middle of two rows of dark purple-colored stone pillars. Perched on top of the first pillar but skipping the second one and repeating the sequence on each side were black stars. A red, blue, green, or purple dot of light would flicker one after the other every few seconds and orbit around the stars. Further down the wide aisle was an extravagant, grey-colored castle. It had four black spires with silver pentagrams attached to their pointy tips, glinting not from the stars, but from the full moon that's behind the building. Leopold gawked in awe at the size of the moon, it's humongous despite it being so far away, and surprisingly, it wasn't blinding to look at. Was that the moon's actual size? Leopold wouldn't be surprised since it looked small when viewing it on earth at night. But his fascination changed to fear when he saw two large statues of winged creatures stationed at the bottom on the left and right side of the castle's wooden doors. He did not like their glowing scarlet eyes. "We're going to remain here until the battle comes to an end." The spirit stopped, and so did Leopold and Tweek. The castle was still far from their current position.

Leopold looked around for any other dwellings that didn't look uninviting, but spotted no other buildings in sight. In fact, they're the only ones here. He gazed nervously back at the castle up ahead. "A-are we gonna go in that castle?"

"No, it is highly unlikely they will allow us entry into their abode."

"They?" Leopold asked confusedly.

"Yes, they are a group of celestial beings that rule over this realm. There are two other realms that are governed by spirits of higher status as well, and they are the Realm of Light and the Realm of Light and Darkness."