Primordial Heir: Nine Stars

He understood the final lesson.

Darkness didn’t need to destroy something to consume it.

It could connect.

Understand.

Then—

Devour.

Nero stepped backward.

The clone watched him.

For the first time, her expression changed slightly.

Nero raised his hand.

The Darkness around the battlefield began moving toward him.

Every fragment.

Every shadow.

Every trace of energy.

All of it gathered around his body.

The clone charged.

Nero raised his sword.

She struck.

He blocked.

BOOM!

Their weapons locked.

Nero’s eyes met hers.

The pressure was overwhelming.

His arms trembled.

But he didn’t retreat.

He pushed forward.

The Darkness around his sword spread across her weapon.

Then her arm.

Then her entire body.

The clone attempted to separate herself.

Nero held on.

His Darkness followed.

She attacked with the Law.

Nero absorbed it.

She created blades.

He swallowed them.

She transformed into shadows.

He captured them.

The clone’s body began breaking apart into countless streams of Darkness.

Nero pulled them toward himself.

The battlefield grew darker.

The clone’s presence became increasingly faint.

Nero’s eyes remained fixed on her.

He understood what Nyx had been teaching him.

Darkness was not merely destruction.

It was possession.

Assimilation.

Devouring.

The ability to take something that belonged to another and make it part of yourself.

Nero opened his hand.

The entire clone collapsed into a vast black stream.

It surged toward him.

Nero didn’t resist.

The Darkness entered his body.

For an instant—

Everything stopped.

Then his inner world erupted.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A massive wave of Darkness spread across the black star.

Nero’s hair moved violently.

His crimson eyes widened.

The power inside him surged.

His shadow expanded.

Then contracted.

Again.

And again.

His Law of Darkness rapidly changed.

Before, he had been controlling Darkness.

Now—

He could feel it.

Every particle.

Every shadow.

Every fluctuation of energy within the black star.

He could sense Darkness even where there was no visible shadow.

He could feel the difference between ordinary Darkness and his own.

He could separate it.

Combine it.

Shape it.

Devour it.

And most importantly—

He could make it obey without forcing it.

Nero slowly lowered his hand.

The enormous storm around him disappeared.

Silence returned.

He looked at his sword.

Darkness gathered along its edge.

It didn’t simply coat the blade anymore.

It merged with it.

The sword became part of the Law.

Nero swung once.

A black arc crossed the empty world.

It didn’t explode.

It didn’t make a sound.

It simply cut through the darkness ahead.

Then the space behind the slash slowly began disappearing.

Nero’s eyes narrowed.

He understood another possibility.

Darkness could erase.

Not merely destroy.

Erase.

He allowed the sword to dissolve.

His hand became surrounded by black flames.

They weren’t hot.

They simply consumed the surrounding Darkness.

Nero closed his fist.

They disappeared.

He had learned more in this battle than he had during the entire first wave.

His shadow army.

His weapons.

His defensive techniques.

His movement.

His body reinforcement.

Everything had changed.

Everything had become simpler.

More instinctive.

More natural.

Nero looked toward the place where Nyx’s clone had disappeared.

There was nothing left.

Only Darkness.

He slowly raised his head.

The black star seemed different now.

Or perhaps—

He was different.

A voice echoed through the darkness.

Not Nyx’s clone.

The real Nyx.

”You finally understood.”

Nero remained silent.

The darkness around him moved.

A faint smile appeared on his face.

He had entered the black star knowing almost nothing about Darkness.

Now he understood one of its most fundamental truths.

Darkness didn’t merely obey its ruler.

It became its ruler.

Nero closed his eyes.

His consciousness expanded.

The entire black star entered his perception.

Every shadow.

Every particle.

Every trace of prana.

He could feel them.

And for the first time—

They felt like they belonged to him.

The Law of Darkness had been inherited.

But this was only the beginning.

Nero opened his eyes.

The crimson glow within them had become deeper.

His sword appeared in his hand.

A dark aura silently wrapped around his body.

He turned toward the endless darkness ahead.

There were no more enemies.

No more trials.

Only the next step.

And Nero took it.

The sixth star had accepted him.

And the Darkness had begun to recognize its new master.

As if she had already conveyed all she had to convey, Nyx didn’t appear again so Nero left the black star and returned to his body, he had the feeling that he spent countless days inside the black star but in reality only two hours passed outside. He exhaled before standing on his feet, with his right hand he summoned darkness, a black mass twirled again his hand as he shaped it into various form before throwing it at a tree in the distance.

Boom!

The Mass of darkenss consumed the tree in an instant, reducing it into dried husk.

’’Not bad!” he mumbled before deciding to go to sleep. That night he dreamed of the past but unlike the previous time when it was in form of nightmare this time it was a reminiscing of the good time he spent with his mother, unknowingly smile found its way onto his face.

That night he had a good smile, sleeping like a young baby nestled in his mother’s arms.

°°°

The following morning, he woke up early like usual and did the usual before preparing a simple breakfast he savoured before leaving. Today marked the fifth day, two more to go. Naturally, he had the highest score,more 1000pts.

By spreading his senses he soon found his next prey, a giant white horned wolf standing almost 3m tall.

Awoooo!

The beast howled as he fored deadly Wind blades at Nero whose body dissolved into a black mass slipping away.

’’!!!”

Reacting by instinct the White horned wolf jumped backward to dodge Nero’s ambush while at the same time attacking by whipping its thick long tail at him but the attack passed through Nero’s body because his body was transformed into a pure black mass, immune to physical attack, he couldn’t maintain this state for only two seconds, it was two taxing on the body and on his prana reserve but two seconds was more than enough as this move made the beast freeze, black spear punctured through its head claimed it life.

Thump!

The fallen body was consumed and turned into his first summon.

A black giant horned wolf appeared behind Nero, its strength close to high level Red knight, a B- rank monster. The first monster of his immortal army, just the beginning.