*Where am I? Why is it so dark?*

With much difficulty, the little boy struggled to open his eyes. As his eyelids opened very slowly, he could hear someone talking rather excitedly nearby.

“He’s waking up!”

“Yes, I can see that. Please calm down, Jongwan-ssi.”

The bright light was blinding; he squinted his eyes, trying to see the owners of the voices around him.

*Who are they?*

Once accustomed to the light, he blinked a few times before looking around. Standing before him was a man in his twenties. In contrast to his dark-looking clothing, excitement was all over his mature face. After scanning the man up and down, the boy turned his eyes towards the little child next to him. As young as she was, she seemed to be much calmer than the man. Furthermore, she had… wings? Although he was surprised at the sight, he didn’t let it show on his face.  

“Why isn’t he saying anything?” the man asked worriedly as the boy continued to stare at them in silence.

“I don’t know, but he has awoken for sure,” the child with wings replied before turning to the boy with a smile. “Hello, Sunggyu-ssi. How are you feeling?”

*Sunggyu-ssi? Is she referring to me?*

The boy frowned and tried to move, only to realise he had been sitting in a chair inside a thin glass sphere. As he reached out his hands towards the glass, the moment his fingers came into contact with it, it shattered into golden dust and disappeared into thin air. It was also then that he realized from looking at his hand that he was around the same size as the child with wings.

“Welcome to Paradise, Sunggyu-ssi,” the child continued to smile, not minding that her previous questions had been ignored. She knew all too well that the boy was no more than a newborn baby, curious about everything he saw.

“Is he a mute?” the man asked the child with wings as he stood behind her.

“No, he isn’t. Don’t be rude,” the child replied disapprovingly. Turning her head back towards the boy, she smiled and introduced herself for the first time.

“My name is Nyx. I am the Guidance Fairy of Darkness.” She then pointed to the man behind her, “And this is Jongwan, the God of Darkness.” The man quickly flashed the boy a smile. Unfortunately, the quiet boy didn’t return his smile.

“You, Sunggyu-ssi, are his successor. You are to be trained by both of us to be the next God of Darkness here in Paradise,” Nyx explained carefully.

“Do you understand?” she asked. Perhaps the boy’s long silence had put her in doubt.

“Yes,” he answered with a slight nod.

“Great! Now come; I’ll give you a tour around Paradise before we get to our lesson.” Jongwan-ssi jumped up from behind and grabbed the boy’s hand. Pulling him off his chair, Jongwan then proceeded to teleport to many places throughout Paradise and explain to Sunggyu the history of each location and its importance to Paradise. Despite having just awoken, Sunggyu was absorbing all the information like a drought with rain. Their last destination was his castle, the castle of Darkness.

“This is our home. It’s a little dark, but what can we do? We belong to the darkness, after all. So you should get to the dark fast. You must not fear it, no matter how scary it may be. You must have it under your control. Darkness is yours to command. Remember that, Sunggyu.”

Darkness is one of the most destructive elements. There are things within darkness that aren’t exactly friendly looking. It is important, then, that the successor not be afraid of them. He must overcome his fear and conquer those creatures to take hold of the darkness. Until he defeats them, he cannot be the God of Darkness.

Jongwan remembered during his training days, when his lazy trainer, the previous God of Darkness, would just throw him into the pit of Darkness and leave him there alone, fighting for his own survival. He remembered crying and wetting his pants when he first encountered those creatures of darkness. The painful memories caused Jongwan to shudder at the thought of those disgusting creatures. Although he now had no trouble controlling them, he still preferred not to come into contact with them unless he absolutely had to. Ever since then, he had sworn to never leave his successor alone to fight those scary creatures. Unlike his useless trainer, he would be a faithful trainer who would always be by his successor’s side through the ups and downs.

Little did he know that this was not necessary at all. Sunggyu was strangely calm at everything he saw. Not just that, he was also a genius compared to the other  successors. When the other successors had just finished their first training, he was already starting on his third. His learning speed was beyond anything Jongwan could have comprehended. Training Sunggyu pushed Jongwan and Nyx to change their program drastically in order to catch up with his learning speed.

During the training period of 100 years, there were five tests in total that the successors had to take. These tests were designed to determine the rank of each successor in many different categories. All five tests had ten segments, one of which was called the ‘Power Mirror’. In this segment, all successors had to try to attack the mirror with all their strength. The mirror was designed to absorb the attack and then return a power point equal to the attack power it had absorbed, with 0 being the weakest level of power and 10,000 being the strongest. The highest score ever recorded during the first test, taken in the 20^th year after the successors came to Paradise, was 6,389. It was a score that should only be seen in the third test, accomplished by an exceptional God of Fire in the year of 15XX. Yet Sunggyu easily broke his record with 8,709 power points. In the second test in the 40^th year, he destroyed the mirror, as his power had exceeded the limit. This caused chaos in Paradise, and the second test had to be put on hold until a new mirror was created. While exceeding 10,000 power points wasn’t something out of the ordinary among the gods, but it usually took them at least 50 years of being a God on average to achieve such power. Sunggyu was the first to ever exceed 10,000 power points as a successor, and not to mention in the second test. He was not a genius anymore at this point. He was a monster.

Because of his cold nature and his extraordinary power, all the other successors were afraid of him. The sight of him caused everyone to run away in fear. And just like that, Sunggyu was isolated for years. It was never his intention to scare anyone. He was told to attack the mirror to the best of his ability. Who would have thought that after he did so, the gods and goddesses present at that time would look at him with such huge, shocked eyes. In the second test, he tried to hold back his power a little; yet the mirror was destroyed instead. Nevertheless, Sunggyu was not bothered by the fact that he was isolated. He had never been a sociable person to begin with.

After the second test, Sunggyu underwent completely new training that focused on controlling his power, which was strong but wild. It was as if his power had a mind of its own, making it very dangerous not only for the people around him but for himself as well. Thus, he’d had to learn to manipulate his power at will to prevent it from getting out of control. This was one of the hardest things to learn, even for a God, for manipulation required high concentration. If one lost focus even just a little, the power would easily get out of control, like a hungry predator. It was like stopping a car going at 100 mph when the intersection was only 100m away – an impossible mission.

[35 years later, 25 years left until the Coronation Ceremony]

Boom!

A loud explosion was heard, and soon after a rather big tree was seen falling over with a giant hole in the middle of its trunk.

The young Sunggyu was panting hard. Sweats rolled down his face, dropping from his chin to the ground. Once he caught his breath, he checked the size of the hole in the trunk. Seeing the giant hole, Sunggyu frowned and threw himself to the ground out of exhaustion.

*Not good enough.* He thought over the result as he leaned against the fallen trunk tiredly. His goal was to take down the tree with minimal power, yet judging by the size of the hole in the trunk, he had been one step away from blowing up the tree.

With a huge sigh, he got up and returned to his position, 50 meters away from another big tree. Taking a deep breath, he began to gather his power in his hand.

“Don’t use too much power. Use just enough to bring down the tree,” Sunggyu mumbled to himself. His eyes closed as he adjusted the power within him. In an instant, he felt a surge of power rising in his small body.

*No!*

With sheer willpower, Sunggyu tried to push the power back down. He waited until the power was low enough.

*Now.*

Without hesitating, he opened his eyes. Aiming at the tree trunk, he was about to release his power when he heard voices coming from the woods, right where he was aiming his power.

“Jieun-ah, don’t run!”

“Oh, come on. There’s no one here! Come here, Jiyeon unnie.”

Two girls emerged from the wood. To make matters worse, the girl called Jieun was standing right where Sunggyu was aiming.

“!” Sunggyu cursed at the sudden appearance of the girls. His power had already been released. In theory, it could not be stopped after he released it. However, Sunggyu didn’t want to harm the girl in front of him, so he decided to redirect the power in another direction.

“Hurry Jiyeon unnie!” Jieun continued to shout with her back to Sunggyu. She had yet to notice Sunggyu behind her.

Sunggyu’s eyes widened at the shout as he moved his hand in another direction. Biting his lip, he decided to do the impossible.

Boom!

The tree next to Jieun shook tremendously, and dust flew everywhere. Jieun and Jiyeon were coughing hard from the dust. When it had dissipated a little, Jieun saw that there was a dent in the tree, but the impact had not been strong enough to take the tree down. However, had it hit her or Jiyeon, they would have been seriously injured.

Furious, she turned around and screamed. “Who dares to attack me?!”

“Jieun! Are you okay? I told you it was dangerous!!” The girl called Jiyeon caught up and immediately scanned Jieun up and down, checking if the other was hurt. When it was clear that she was fine, Jiyeon heaved a sigh of relief.

“Show yourself, coward!” Jieun shouted in anger. Jiyeon then turned in the direction Jieun was looking. Because the air was still thick with dust, they couldn’t see very well. When it had cleared up properly, they saw Sunggyu, drenched in sweat, standing up with difficulty.

“Why are you here?” Sunggyu glared at them.

“Why can’t I be here? You don’t own this place,” Jieun retorted. She didn’t know where they were, but who was he to stop them from coming here? From the looks of things, he too was just another successor like her. How dare he talk down to her in that way?

“This place is off-limits to successors. Leave!” Sunggyu said, his voice shaking badly. His chest was burning. His head felt like someone had been hammering a nail into his skull. His vision was getting blurrier.

*Not good,* Sunggyu thought.

“Liar! If this place is off-limits to successors, then why are you here?” Jieun scoffed at Sunggyu. Anger made her blind to Sunggyu’s condition. But Jiyeon wasn’t.

“Are you okay? You don’t look so good,” Jiyeon observed as she took a few steps towards Sunggyu, wanting to get a better look at his face.

Sunggyu turned his gaze on Jiyeon. The girl looked exactly identical to Jieun, except that her hair was white-blonde and her eyes golden, while Jieun had black hair and deep violet eyes. While Jieun was hot-tempered, Jiyeon was calm and composed. As if hypnotised, Sunggyu felt himself staring at Jiyeon, forgetting the pain inside his body. She was like a light shining in the darkness around him.

“I’m o—” Sunggyu tried to reply. However, before he could even finish his sentence, his breath was cut short and he coughed up a big pool of blood. Holding his chest, Sunggyu continued to cough up even more blood as he fell to his knees.

“Oh my god!” Jiyeon screamed and immediately rushed to Sunggyu’s side.

The weakened Sunggyu felt his visions blurring. The last thing he saw was the blood-covered ground as he fell over, and the last thing he heard was her lovely voice shouting for him.

↭↭↭↭↭↭↭↭

“Sunggyu-ssi?” A voice he didn’t recognize was calling his name.

He slowly opened his eyes, but before he could see his surroundings, he heard the soft voice from earlier shouting.

“Jongwan-ssi! Sunggyu is awake!”

Rubbing his eyes, Sunggyu realised the one shouting was Jiyeon. When he felt that his right hand was warmer than usual, he looked down and saw that Jiyeon was holding onto it tightly. He was confused as to why Jiyeon was next to him and why she was holding his hand, but whatever the case was, her warmth made him feel very comfortable, and he decided to not say anything.

Soon enough, he could see Jongwan rushing to his room with a worried face. The man stood by the bed, scanning him up and down. After confirming that Sunggyu was truly fine, he heaved a heavy sigh and turned to Sunggyu with a frown.

“You sure have guts. To think you would actually shut down your power forcefully like that. Don’t you know that it is extremely dangerous to do so? Our power doesn’t work like a switch. You don’t just turn it on and off. Once you have activated it, let it go. Why would you hold onto it, you idiot?!” the man scolded Sunggyu and ended by smacking the poor boy’s head.

“Ow…” Sunggyu couldn’t do anything but whine softly as he held his head in pain.

“Pfft…” Looking up, he could see Jiyeon trying her best to hold her laughter in, and that just made him feel even more pitiful.

*Of all the people, it just had to be her who saw me like this…* Sunggyu sighed dejectedly.

“Now, now. Please calm down, Jongwan-ssi. Let the boy explain himself.” Nyx walked into the room with a smile. She sat down on the side of the bed and took a quick glance at the boy. Seeing how he kept glancing at the girl standing in the corner, Nyx couldn’t help but giggle at the sight.

*Aigoo… Such young love.*

She smiled and asked Sunggyu with a warm tone, “Now, tell me. Why did you do that to yourself?”

Nyx had never encountered such a situation before. It was common sense to let your power out once you activated it. Holding it back was like holding a grenade after triggering it. One must be an idiot to do so, and Nyx was sure that Sunggyu was not an idiot. He must have had a reason.

Sunggyu took a quick glance at the angry Jongwan and curious Nyx, before his eyes landed on the beautiful, gentle girl standing patiently in the corner. Carefully, he answered.

“I was practicing on the trees in the usual area. Then suddenly, a girl with black hair appeared out of nowhere with her back towards me. I was planning to just redirect the shot elsewhere. But then that girl called for another girl. I didn’t know where that other girl might be, so in order to avoid injuring her by accident, I decided to just shut it down forcefully. Though I never knew it would be that painful…”

Both Jiyeon and Jongwan were surprised to hear this. They hadn’t known that the reason behind his crazy action was such a kind and thoughtful one.

*That other girl must be her…* Nyx simply smiled.

“I understand. Let us all put it behind us. Sunggyu-ssi, you must not forget to give your gratitude to the lovely lady over there.” Nyx pointed at Jiyeon and continued, “She was the one who saved your life, Sunggyu-ssi: Jiyeon-ssi, the Goddess of Life. Go say thank you now.” Nyx nudged the boy softly.

“A-Ah, no. Please don’t. It was nothing. Haha…” Jiyeon was flustered at the sudden situation. Her cheeks burnt when she noticed, Sunggyu’s eyes were glued on her. When he had been unconscious, she had noticed how handsome he was. Now awake, he looked even better with his alluring and hypnotising eyes.

Sunggyu nodded slightly and thanked her in a soft voice. “Thank you, Jiyeon-ssi.”

Jiyeon nodded back shyly and replied, “You’re welcome. Um… now that you’re awake, I should go back soon. My sister will be worried. Goodbye.”

With a bow, she quickly took light steps out of the room and disappeared. Her method of teleporting was simply fading into the air, leaving behind some golden dust that soon dissipated afterwards. It was such a gentle way of teleporting, befitting her personality and image.

Sunggyu’s eyes didn’t leave her until she had disappeared completely. Unconsciously, he smiled, remembering her shy expression and timid nature. It took him a while to return to the present, and once he did, he saw Jongwan smirking at him.

“What?” Sunggyu demanded.

“I see what’s going on,” Jongwan said in a teasing voice. “Our Sunggyu is finally a man!”

“…What?” Sunggyu repeated in confusion. Of course, the dense boy had no idea what Jongwan was implying.

“You should know that she is one of the most popular girls among the successors. Many other boys like her, so you are going to have a tough time, boy. A VERYYYY tough time.” Jongwan laughed, imagining the clumsy Sunggyu trying to go after one of the popular twins.

Sunggyu’s face darkened at this information. Jongwan knew that the boy was uncomfortable, but so what? When else would he get a chance to tease the icy prince? He had to take advantage of this opportunity.

“According to what I know, the twins are called the Queens among the successors. In the third test that you were exempted from taking, they topped the ranking chart among the Goddesses. The older twin was at the top with her exceptional healing powers. The younger one was right behind with her destructive powers. I think she had 6,957 power points – pretty high for the third test level.” Jongwan then decided to drop the bomb. “And you know what? Almost all of the Queens and Kings ended up together throughout their lifetime as Gods. Do you know who the King is? He’s the successor of Air! He is so, SO, popular. I think you should just give up, boy. You can’t beat him.” Jongwan giggled as Sunggyu’s expression grew more and more hopeless.

Jongwan had been there to observe the third test out of boredom. The so-called King during the third test had indeed scored better than average among the Gods. However, if Sunggyu had attended the test, then the King would have been nothing. But Jongwan wasn’t going to tell Sunggyu that. The boy’s pain was his happiness. Who had told him to be so hard to train? Jongwan needed his revenge on Sunggyu for giving him such a hard time.

Nyx shook her head, knowing that Jongwan would tease Sunggyu for a long time because of this. But even Nyx herself couldn’t resist smiling wholeheartedly about the fact that the cold Sunggyu had finally found a girl he liked. It seemed like the other girl was interested in him as well. At times, Nyx had thought that the boy was aual by nature and would live his life as a God alone. Now that he had Jiyeon, she felt like a mother about to see her son off with his own family – proud and happy.

⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰⊱⊰

WOO HOO! I AM BACK! 

First of all, I just wanna say that this chapter is VERYYYYYYYY long. It is so long that that I have to cut it into FOUR parts. Yeap, not two, four parts - for one chapter. Lmao. 

The first part was supposed to be a Halloween gift for you all but I partied too hard and yeah... I forgot. I'm sorry XD Happy Halloween anyway guys! Love you. Muah! 

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