John met the god’s eyes, and his face hardened. “Before now, it’s as if I wasn’t capable of thinking about it. Every time I would reach back into the memories of my past I was always missing something. I remember my life on Earth. All the milestones in my life, and the experiences I had there... But I don’t remember the people. It’s like I have a general idea that my family and friends exist, but there’s no one to match the concept. Every time I would start to question that, my mind would drift and the despair that I was in a completely foreign world never hit me. In this space, where Austerice drew my mind into, it’s like that foreign control preventing my mind from focusing on that loss was lessened. The memories are gone but now I’m aware of their absence” John’s eyes grew wet. His entire time in this world, he never thought about the people he left behind and now he realized he can't even recall them.

A pained look crossed Darkness’s face. “John, I'm truly sorry. The Beings Above, who remove mortals from their world to become Apostle’s in another, meddle with the minds of the mortals they choose. The recollection of any attachments you may or may not have had in your previous world are locked away. The Beings Above are too removed from the perspective of you mortals to consider that most would rather live miserably, but able to remember those they loved than to have no memory of them at all. I believe they did this to ease your transition here, but were largely misguided even if well intentioned. Until you have enough power to remove the memory seal they placed, when you are outside of this mental palace... well, your awareness of their tampering with your thoughts will be gone. The memories of important people to you will continue to draw up empty, and when you attempt to ponder and reflect on that, the seal will forcibly shift your awareness away from those thoughts.” Darkness said all this with hesitation. It didn’t help John to know any of this and he wouldn’t even be able to think about it when he returned due to the endlessly meddlesome Beings Above’s seal on his mind.

“That’s so messed up! You're telling me these Beings Above ripped me from my life because I had some affinity for your divine alignment, stole my memories, then placed a metal seal on my mind so I won’t realize I can’t remember anyone from my life? After screwing with my mind, they plopped me into a completely foreign world to fight on my own and even you, my god or whatever, left me out to dry until now!.”

Darkness’s eyes, black as an abyss, saddened. “There's much you are not yet ready to know. It’s too early in your development now, but you have the potential to cause great change in this world. Each generation of Apostles have been accompanied by a new era and as my Apostle, you are expected to be a leading force in guiding the direction of that change. If that’s not enough to drive you to strengthen yourself... I’ll tell you this, If you are able to gain enough mastery over divine power, you will be able to lift the seal on your mind and perhaps even retrieve your lost memories. This is something the previous Apostles who survived the battles between themselves were not able to accomplish in their lifetime. To get to that point... it is a very long path ahead that you may not even live to see it to fruition. With that level of power, there is even the possibility of returning to your world should you choose to do so. You will need to stockpile enough divine power and have the capability to masterfully utilize it. That is something even I can not do for you as my own powers are restricted.”

John deflated. Since arriving into this world he had been lost. He was lucky to meet Arther, Joana, Tina, and Vanessa... but he had only known them for a short while. They were trustworthy, but he wasn’t exactly close to them yet. He couldn’t be sure if they would be willing to help him follow this path as the stakes were so high. John needed to find the other Apostles who had already begun to establish themselves, the good ones at least. He also needed to know how to grow this unique ability to hold and control divine power if he wanted to even consider going back home.

“Darkness, how do we seal the deal with me becoming your Apostle?” John asked.

Darkness smiled, a look that seemed foreign and unnatural on his sullen face. “I will establish a link between the two of us. The divine power you absorbed from the dungeon core was small, but is now your own. Through the connection, a small amount of the divine power that I would normally receive through my divine alignment will be siphoned to you. Your body can naturally absorb it and will be reinforced by it as you develop. When you break into the Advanced tier, you will be able to consciously utilize this divine power instead of relying on magic to alter the world around you. The siphoning to Apostles is limited to less than 1% of the divine power that is absorbed by their host god from prayer or alignment, but as I am literally one of the two strongest gods in this plane, that is still quite a lot. To quicken your growth, you can take control of dungeons that have not yet been conquered by other apostles and absorb the divine power that is released through the tear in this fabric of reality to expedite your increase in strength. However, much like how killing spirit beasts is the fastest way for you to gain spiritual power and raise your level... killing and absorbing other strong Apostles is the most efficient route for you to advance as one”

John didn’t know how he felt about killing other people but somehow knew that in this world, where strength seemed to be most important, it was likely unavoidable if he wanted to make a place for himself in this society.

“Alright then! Let’s form the Siphon”

Darkness instructed John to kneel before him. John felt weird about it, but compiled without complaint. He was a god after all. Darkness placed his hands on John's shoulders and breathed in deeply. When Darkness exhaled, the process began. Darkness, not the god but the force of nature itself, latched onto his soul. His entire being was washed away and the small amount of himself that remained was engulfed in endless nothingness that followed.

Time stood still for John. He occasionally heard a harsh discordant mixture of sounds as he drifted through the empty void, but he could make out nothing through the shroud of darkness. He stared out into his surroundings but was met by emptiness. It was strange, but John could almost feel that the void was staring back at him. He no longer felt his own body, nor any sense of self. Only darkness. John began to scratch the surface of his understanding for this power. What felt like months, maybe even years passed, yet John did not care. All that mattered was understanding what was around him, what was consuming him. Darkness was a shadow that hid mysterious within itself and veiled the view of others. Children were right to fear the darkness that took root in the night, and men who lost that fear were ignorant. John was not a spirit-man plopped into this world. Here, he wasn’t even an Apostle. There was no John... All that existed was the endless void that was Darkness and a vessel for it!

---------------------------------------------------------------

“You alright, buddy?”

“Wh-WHAT!” John flinched in fright, startled. “Where am I?”

John scanned his surroundings. It was night and he was in a destroyed field . The ground around him was destroyed and there were charred marks from lightning strikes scattering the battlefield. Slowly, everything came back to him. Arther’s was looking at John curiously.

“You reached into the core, which by the way shouldn’t even be possible, and stood there spacing out for like ten minutes” Arthur explained.

“What ten minutes! I’ve been gone for... a very long time! What are you talking about?”

Arther looked at him doubtfully. “John, your battle with the boss only just ended recently. Afterwards you walked up to the core, reached in and froze up. I’ve been watching you the whole time. Good job with the boss by the way! Honestly, I thought I’d have to step in near the end but you proved me wrong again.”

“Umm, thanks. So from your perspective it’s only been a few minutes? That figures I guess, why not? Anyways, it seems like he wasn’t lying when he said I would regain most of my self control after absorbing it” John beamed, happy to be back in a sane state of mind.

“Who’s this he? There was no one here besides you and me, and what did you absorb?” Arthur turned to the rip in reality that was the dungeon core. “It looks and gives off the same feeling as before you reached into it for gods knows what reason.”

“About that... You and your team have gone out of your way to help me since I’ve arrived here. I’ve just become aware of the circumstances around myself and I’m not gonna blame you if you decide to part ways with me here. If you and your team can all swear to secrecy, then damn do I have some things to tell you about!”

Arther raised an eyebrow “More crazy than you trying to convince us that your soul traversed from a different world and settled down in this reality before forming into some kind of spirit-man?”

John chuckled, the whole situation was absurd even for this magical world. “Waaay crazier than that.”

Arther thought then that choosing to help, and befriend John kept proving itself to have been the right call. He somehow kept surprising him over and over again. This excitement was what Adventuring was all about!

The Aerlorhn Dungeon Boss stood together with the Advanced Level Adventurer of the Golden-Sword Family in the remains of a battlefield. The two laughed together under the brilliant night sky.