Noctem

The journey to the temple was nothing short of perilous. Despite the tenebrous knight presence, there were still a large number of monsters which attacked clearly driven by their instinct, disregarding the authority the knight held. 

Each time a monster attacked, it would fall prey to the blade of the tenebrous knight before it could even afford to move a single finger. The dark knight himself was more terrifying than those monsters, lacing his blade with the aura of death, all it took was a swing of his pitch black,  great sword, and hundreds of dark abominations would perish in matters of seconds.

Eren couldn't do much but tighten his hold on Nox, he was as blind as a bat in the darkness, still, he could rely on his ears and his remaining senses to notice some approaching creatures, however he didn't expect that Aries would be no different from him.

Though Aries was just the fragment of the spawn of shadows, he was still the fragment of a divine being, yet, despite that, his vision was just as obscured as Eren's was in the dark.

'I thought shadows were associated with darkness, so why can't Aries see through this dark veil?' Eren couldn't help but think to himself.

He had even considered asking him, but then a strange noise came from within the tenebrous sea, disrupting his thoughts before he could proceed. 

–pop..

–blob...

Like bubbles popping, more sounds rose from the dark sea, becoming more loud and cacophonous by the seconds.

The ripples in the water expanded and became more aggressive, swaying their boat back and front. It was as though something was rising out of the depth of the black sea, something huge.

It had to be.

 Only a creature with an enormous size could cause such ripples and bubbles of that scale, still whatever it was, it didn't seem the least bit friendly.

'This is unsettling to say the least, I'm unable to use spells of any sort and the child has yet to awaken from his little slumber... Should I give it a try? Would runic sorcery be able to bypass the domain of this element?.' Eren pondered, his brows furrowed slightly.

After a while of indecisive thinking, he turned his attention towards Aries or at least where he thought Aries was seated, contemplating for a while, he simply stared unsure whether the question he wanted to ask was going to be relevant, considering the situation they were currently in.

As if noticing Eren's gaze, Aries spoke.

"You want to know why I'm unable to see despite being the spawn of a god whose power is closely associated with darkness, even though I'm just a fragment of the real Aries, don't you?"

For a few seconds Eren said nothing, then he chuckled softly.

"You noticed? Well that saves me the trouble of asking, so, care to satiate the curiosity of this troubled wizard?"

Aries stared blankly at the water, then sighed deeply.

"Let me ask you this, what happens when a match is lit in a dark area, obviously it would light up the place a bit, but then, what happens when a flaming torch appears in that same area where the match was lit?"

"The light from the match would be overwhelmed by the light from the flaming torch." Eren replied.

Aries nodded approvingly, although Eren couldn't see him clearly, Eren was able to tell by noticing the slight movement of the dark silhouette belonging to Aries.

"Yes... Same could also be said for the shadows, I completely lose all connections with them, in the presence of true darkness."

He paused, then lingered for a few seconds before adding.

"After all the shadows are still a part of darkness... just one created where there's light."

His gaze fell on the tenebrous knight who paid no attention to their conversation, rather, his hands were resting on the hilt of his great sword whilst he stared at the dark sea with cold indifference.

The ripples from the dark sea suddenly calmed, creating an eerie tension as a palpable feeling of death lingered in the air, sending a shiver down the spines of both Eren and Aries.

The tenebrous knight remained motionless, like a statue he stood still, watching patiently. It was as though he could see past the dark veil of the tenebrous sea, staring directly at the danger that lurked beneath the facade of the calm water.

"Hold the boat tightly."The chilling voice of the tenebrous knight sounded as he warned in a flat tone 

A few seconds after he spoke, the dark sea exploded causing towering waves to spread in all directions as ugly tentacles shot from its depths.

The boat was surprisingly sturdy, remaining intact despite the titanic waves hitting against it, though the same couldn't be said for the passengers seated within it.

Although they held on tightly so they weren't thrown off the boat, their clothes were now soaking wet, hugging tightly against their body while the smell of salt and decay lingered in the air making Eren  brow furrow in slight annoyance.

Something trivial yet it was so unpleasant to the eccentric wizard, but for completely different reasons.

'Why, of all things that we could have encountered, why did it have to be a demon kraken.'

Aries seemed to share the sentiment of the  wizard. His usual impassive expression was now replaced with a grim look.

His mind raced and his hands twitched subconsciously, trying to create a blade made out of shadows by reflex as he'd always done but it was futile.

Without his connections to the shadows he was unable to do anything, and simply using his shadow nether within this tenebrous realm would kill him.

The tenebrous knight who had been eerily still, moved, swinging his great sword in an upward arc with startling speed.

At the same time, a gargantuan tentacle swung towards the boat with piercing speed,

The great sword of the knight clashed against the tentacle of the kraken with a sickening thud, creating a massive shockwave that caused countless ripples to appear on the surface of the dark sea.

A huge gash appeared on the tentacle, spilling out black blood with a faint tint of crimson.

Still, the knight's assault didn't stop there, despite not moving a single muscle after his attack, several identical gashes followed, trailing along the hide of the gargantuan tentacle while creating more gruesome wounds, each of them more deeper than the last.

A chilling roar broke out from the tenebrous sea as the demonic abomination swung its remaining tentacles towards the knight in a frenzied manner. The dark knight responded with lethal precision, intercepting each of the Kraken's attacks with devastating strikes of his own.

Eren and Aries could only stare at the absurd scene in front of them, while doing their very best to remain on the boat which, despite the devastating battle, remained afloat.

A stray humanoid creature snuck up from the dark sea, using the raging battle between the tenebrous knight and the kraken as well as the distraction of both passengers on the boat to sneakily devour the defenseless child who lay unconscious.

However..

Eren was faster.

He thrust his hand towards the darkness, where he felt the subtle change in the air which was accompanied by a murderous intent. Yet, before his hand could reach the humanoid abomination, the creature exploded into a burst of darkness, gore and scattered flesh.

Eren was stunned, his mind raced as to what might have killed the creature and his unease skyrocketed, become palpable whilst his hold on the unconscious child tightened

' Was it another monster?.. A demon class perhaps?'

Myriad of thoughts assaulted his mind but the eccentric wizard wasn't even spared a moment to think.

One second, the dark sea was littered with countless ripples, associated with tremors, following the aftermath of the ongoing battle between the tenebrous knight and the demon kraken

The next second ...

The sea trembled, bursting into an enormous wave. To say the size was enormous, was seriously downplaying the scale of the gigantic wave.

It was easily three times the size of a tsunami.

Eren and Aries braced themselves for impact, while simultaneously using their body as a shield to protect the unconscious child from the crashing wave.

Yet, before the wave could reach them, the tenebrous knight swung his great sword with both hands, sending out a streak of darkness which curved into an arc, moving with piercing speed before splitting the wave in half.

Fortunately his actions saved their boat from being decimated by the enormous wave, saving them from certain doom, still the wizard and the shadow were uneasy, anticipating the next attack the kraken was going to make.

But it never came. .

The sea calmed a little, swaying the boat gently whilst the tenebrous knight returned to his position at the front of the boat, standing eerily still like a statue with both of his hands resting on the hilt of his great sword.

But Eren and Aries weren't looking at him, rather they were looking at the scene beyond the tenebrous knight, too stunned to even utter words.

Right in front of them, the silhouette of a disaster class monster stood, unmoving, the gargantuan creature was nothing short of terrifying, towering over a hundred and twenty feets, yet it was naught but a corpse 

The once terrifying abomination, was without a part of its head, cleanly cut with lethal precision, leaving no sign of resistance.

From the lifeless body of the kraken, one could easily tell that the demonic sea monster wasn't able to defend itself before the attack of the tenebrous knight kissed its skin.

The eccentric wizard couldn't help but stare as the boat passed the corpse of the demon kraken, his gaze fell on the dark Knight's unmoving figure and a pale smile split his lips.

'What a monster.'