The Ancestral Staff also stopped shaking.
"It looks like he failed," Cylix commented, walking closer to Gabriel. He placed his hand on Gabriel's head, letting out a sigh. "It was indeed too much for him."
"Of course it was." Novius agreed. "Even a Holy Mage shouldn't be able to control an Ancestral Staff of other Elements. It's just the law of Nature. Even though it should be possible, it will be harder than swimming across the entire ocean without using any spell."
The light of the Binding Spell kept going down, but right when it was on the verge of disappearing, it stopped. Sometimes the blood formation stopped shining entirely, and sometimes it again started shining. It was unclear what was happening, but something wasn't right.
The formation wasn't succeeding, but it wasn't failing either. It was still stuck in some limbo, flickering.
"It's not disappearing?" Cylix exclaimed, slightly surprised.
He didn't understand how it was possible. If Gabriel was unconscious, there was no way this blood formation wasn't going to disappear. However, if he wasn't unconscious, then what?
****
As soon as the darkness spread everywhere, Gabriel felt his vision turning dark. His body was already very weak, but as the darkness hit his body, he felt even worse.
He didn't know what had happened, but it was as if he had lost control of his body. He couldn't even feel his body at the moment.
The silence and the darkness disappeared within a few seconds on the outside, but for Gabriel, this Darkness was Eternal as he couldn't feel or see anything. It was like he was blind as well.
After what seemed like an eternity, the darkness started retreating, and he started regaining his vision.
It was still dark around him, but it was the darkness of night. It wasn't the blinding darkness that made him unable to see anything. Here, he could see most of the things.
There was a night sky above his head. He couldn't see any moon above him though.
He was standing on what seemed like grass, but the grass was pitch black.
"Another dream?" Gabriel muttered. He only had one way to see if he was in a dream or not. In his strange Dreams, he only had the Element of Necromancy. However, in real life, he had two elements.
He looked at the back of his left hand.
"The Mark of Light is still there... So it's not one of the weird dreams I've been having recently. But what then? Where am I?"
"You are in my Realm of Darkness," a Voice came from the back, making Gabriel turn around.
"Lira?" Gabriel gazed back, noticing the young woman he had met before.
"When I came to know that someone was trying to bind the Ancestral Staff which belonged to me, I wondered who it could be. But it's you… I didn't expect it, honestly."
Lira looked at Gabriel in slight disgust. She had sent him there to bring the staff to her, and he was trying to steal the staff for himself. If she hadn't found out about it, she never would've known.
"Your Realm of Darkness? What is this place, and why did you bring me here?"
Gabriel didn't answer her question. Instead, he asked a question of his own. First, he needed to find out what this place was before doing anything.
Moreover, it wasn't as if he expected Lira to know before he succeeded. He thought it was only his battle against the staff and the Grimoire, not Lira as well.
"It's the Realm of Darkness where you'll be spending the rest of your life," Lira answered. "For your sins of trying to steal what belonged to me, this shall be your punishment."
Gabriel frowned as soon as he heard her words. Just what did she mean this was his punishment? It looked like one of her spells, but she shouldn't have been able to cast it on him. And even if she did, he should've been protected in a different realm.
"How did you manage to bring me here?" he asked. To know how to get out of here, he needed to know how he came here in the first place.
"You came here because of yourself. You tried to control my staff, which weakened your soul in return. And through the same staff, my Grimoire brought that weakened soul inside this realm which will be your permanent home," Lira responded. "This is your punishment for betrayal."
"There was no betrayal. I was still going to give the Ancestral Staff of Darkness to you after controlling it to some extent," Gabriel responded, which wasn't a lie at all. He actually was going to give the Staff to Lira after he succeeded.
In other words, he actually hadn't betrayed her. He was supposed to bring the Ancestral Staff to her, and he was doing it. There was no mention that he wasn't allowed to bind the Staff to himself. How could it be betrayal when he wasn't harming her or doing anything similar? He was just creating a safety mechanism for himself.
"Keep your lies to yourself." Lira refused to believe Gabriel, and even if she could, she wasn't going to let him leave after all this.
"You have two options now, and none of them involve you leaving this place. The first option is you tell me where my Staff is at the moment. If you take that option, you'll only be imprisoned here.
"The second option is that you keep your silence, but that won't be a good option for you, as I'll destroy your soul right here in that instance. You were already weaker than me before, but now you're in the Realm of Darkness, where I'm even stronger. So I would advise you to take the first option."
Even though Lira gave Gabriel two options, none of them were good for him as no way in hell was he going to stay here.
"So, what option do you choose?" Lira asked Gabriel. Even though she gave Gabriel two options, she believed he could only take the first option.
"I shall choose the third option," Gabriel expressed, making Lira frown. Since none of the options were to his liking, he decided on an option of his own.
Moreover, now he was really glad that he didn't have the staff to Lira in the first place. If she could trap him here now, it would've only been worse in the future if she had the Ancestral Staff.
Lira was taken aback. There was supposed to be no third option. What did he mean by that?
