Li felt a small hand around his own in the darkness, and from that hand, he felt force. A jolt of force pulling him outwards. The sudden feeling of physical force was jarring to him, and all of a sudden, things were coming back to him.

His physical form and his regular mind, and with those slowly restoring, he returned to the world he was familiar with.

Things came back to him piecemeal.

First, it was his vision. Darkness was dispelled, and instead, he saw water all around him. Dark, shadowy, abyssal water. His touch returned, sensation becoming stronger, and he could feel how cold the water was, and, at the same time, how warm the hand clutching his own was.

Li looked down to see Tia there. Her hand, scaled and claws extended, were locked around his, and she stared at him with open-mouthed panic, her green and black eyes glowing in the dark. When she saw that his eyes met hers, that they were open, she gritted her sharp teeth and heaved backwards, wings unfurling from her back to aid her with the effort.

Li was torn out of the stone platform that comprised the heart of the forest, and he felt limp, disembodied. His mind, too, was a blend of chaos, his memories completely out of order.

What was happening? Why was Tia here? Why was it so dark? Where had he been? Where was that place? Who had he been talking to? How long had it been? So many questions formulated in his half-formed mind.

Tia took Li and swam up, her wings fluttering down and creating swaths of bubbles around her as she 'flew' through the water. Her determination and effort was such that it only took a few seconds for her to swim all the way up from the depths to the surface.

Like dolphins breaching the water's surface and soaring in the air, Tia and Li flew through the lake surface and she gently landed him at the edge of the lake, resting his still limp body on soft, bushy grass.

Touching the grass, Li felt life energy, and with that, he felt things return to him faster. Sensation and control over his body immediately formed into completion, and as he sat up, he could see a solid, almost tangible darkness slithering away from his body, pooling around the grass for a few seconds before melting away into nothingness.

It was not the darkness of the dark beasts. Organic and formed like flesh. It was at once incorporeal, hazy and fog-like in its appearance, and strangely still looked solid, the fogginess of the darkness fluxing between solidity and intangibility. 

His mind focused, and waves of realization began to hit him as clarity shone through his muddled head.

It was not that Li was ridding himself of the darkness. No, the darkness felt familiar. It felt like him. He had formed his physical body again out of it. During the time he was in that strange space, his body, the human form he carried right now, had been completely deconstructed, ceasing to exist in this world.

Or, to be more accurate according to words he half-remembered, the puppet he pretended to be had broken apart when he had returned to his true form. Not the true form of his video game character, for that, too, was a puppet, but the true form of his darkness that lay in a space infinitely alien and remote.

Li looked down to his hands, feeling it so utterly strange that he almost could not recognize them. They felt so artificial. So distant. Not his. 

Beyond every other question, there was one that seemed so basic and yet monumentally significant.

What was he? He had no real answer to that question as of now, just somewhat formed ideations. 

Tia collided into him, wrapping her arms around him tight as she buried her face into his chest, her horns nudging at his skin. He felt hot tears and sniffling, and he smiled. He did have answers.

Whatever he found out himself to be, one thing remained constant: he was still a father.

"What's wrong?" said Li as he returned Tia's hug, putting a hand to the back of her head and stroking her hair.

"Papa was gone so, so long," cried Tia.

"What?" Li blinked, realizing then that all around him, it was dark. He looked up briefly to see the faint glimmer of the moon largely obscured by clouds.

That was not right.

Though his memories of his time in the darkness were still hazy, his memories from before were clear and intact. He had killed the Dark beast amalgamation and purified the forest right as day was setting into the later parts of the afternoon.

But it was night now.

Far past midnight and nearing dawn. So much time had passed, and yet, how? When he tried to recall how much time he spent in the darkness, he found that he felt it was at the same time short and long.

He felt equally confident in saying he had spent one hour there or ten years or even a hundred.

There was no true sense of definite time in that place. 

Li shook his head, focusing on Tia instead. She was not unscathed. There were wounds around her body, albeit minor. Some cracks to scales that armored her skin. A chip on one of her horns. A few shallow cuts that had long since stopped bleeding.

"Tia, you're hurt," said Li urgently. He hovered a hand over her head, casting a spell to heal all her wounds. "What happened?"

"Monsters," said Tia. "Lots and lots and lots of them. Looked like shadow, but not on ground. I fight them. They tasted bad. Cold. Rotten."

Darkbeasts? Even after Li had destroyed them all?

"How did you get here, Tia?" said Li. He frowned, feeling awful that Tia had to fight without him. To fight for him, even, in this case. She should not have had to deal with anything like that. "I thought I told you to stay home. Zagan was keeping an eye on you as well."

"Doggie help me," said Tia, red flashing around the outlines of her pupils. "Make me stronger."

Zagan materialized in wisps of shadow next to Tia, assuming his canine form. "This personage greatly apologizes for bringing the girl here. However, she insisted you were in danger, and your safety is also mine own concern."

"No, no, that's fine," said Li as he tried to make sense of what had happened.

"Many hours pass, but papa never came back," said Tia. "So I tried to feel through here." She tapped her heart. "But only felt cold." She shivered. "Not warmth, not papa's warmth."

Li understood what she meant. She had tried to use their soulbound link to try and find out what Li's status was, and though he normally was full of life that was warm and nourishing, it was evident that while he was gone, his life signature had disappeared, too.

"Papa promised," said Tia as she wiped her tears from her eyes with her claws and looked accusingly at Li. "He promised to be back early."

Li paused, trying to sift through his mind to explain to her why he was gone. That he did not intend to be gone this long. That he had no idea things would become so very strange. He wanted to give her an explanation, but he realized that she was not looking for one.

"I'm sorry, Tia," said Li, finally.

Tia went back into Li's arms. She breathed in, then out, calming herself. When she looked up, she was smiling. "It's fine, papa. I was just worried. Maybe little angry, but only angry because I worried. If papa is sorry, then that's fine.

As long as you here now."

Whatever answers Li needed, he knew he would find. Although his time attuning with his eldritch side was hazy to the point that one could even call it unproductive, he did not come out of it empty handed.

He now knew it deep down within himself. Every single answer he wanted, every single bit of control he wanted over his eldritch powers, all of that, he knew inherently that the answers were within himself.

With time, it would all flow. 

"Let's go home, Tia. Father will spend as much time with you as you want to make up for everything." Li knelt down and scooped Tia up, putting her on his shoulder – her favorite spot. They smiled together, And like that, they walked out the forest, Zagan trailing behind them, making them look like a neat and complete little family.