(Zack)

My head throbs as I open my eyes, finding myself in a room at the Dark Temple. This is way too frequent of an occurrence for me to be comfortable in any sense of the word.

Rubbing my temples, I let the pain fade away a little before climbing out of the bed and changing into some clean clothes, throwing my bloody ones and the blanket and pillows into my Inventory before leaving.

It takes me a few minutes to track down Nik and Gold, who are sitting in the dining hall. I probably should've checked here first, but my stomach was growling, so I ended up in the kitchen first.

"How much trouble am I in?" I ask Nik as I sit with my plate of food.

"That depends," he says. "What happened? I haven't been able to get Gold to answer, even though you still believe he can actually talk."

"He can," I say as Gold shifts uncomfortably. "He's just too scared to talk. I promise, he will one day grace us with his voice."

"What happened last night?"

"Some asshole tried to steal my Primordial Essence?"

"So you shredded him?"

"I was going to go with a hand," I say. "Then he threatened Gold and Kylie. Then he put a blade to Gold's throat. Next thing I knew, he was in pieces, then I was healing Gold and passing out."

Gold starts nodding vigorously and seriously, his way of telling Nik that's what happened. Nik lets out a long sigh as he leans back in his chair, thinking for a bit.

"So was that the asshole who stole a Primordial Essence before and used it to make himself insanely durable?"

"Yes," Nik answers. "Despite you technically not having the Strength to hurt him, your weapons are far beyond that, and his absurd Endurance, from the looks of it, was easy for you to cut through with them."

"Yeah, it kind of was," I tell him, and he raises an eyebrow. "I cut him once before I blacked out for the fight. So. How much trouble am I in? Because I'm pretty sure that's nothing I can just get away with."

"Get your temper under control," Nik tells me. "I know you got pissed because Gold-"

"I am not going to let my temper be tamed in situations like those," I state. "Now. Answer my question."

Nik lets out another sigh.

"Consider yourself lucky, Zack," he says. "Because you're not. He attempted to steal from you, from a Dark Knight, has murdered before, and several other things. There's been a bounty on his head for decades."

"A bounty?"

"You aren't receiving a reward," Nik states. "Consider that your punishment. And Zack – I'm serious. Get that temper under control. It's going to cause you some major problems, if you don't."

"Whatever," I shove some food into my mouth.

"You're still leaving tomorrow, yes?" He asks, and I nod as I chew. "For serious training, not just observations?" I nod again. "It might be best if you left today, due to last night. I've purchased several potions and enough food to last you up to ten days, and no, you don't need to pay me back."

"Fine," I huff.

He's got a point, though. Things are probably going to be a bit awkward, were I to go around town right now. Leaving today instead of tomorrow would help to let people calm down from that brutal murder, as they'll have less time seeing me before departure.

However…

"What if I stayed here until tomorrow?" I ask Nik, and he starts to talk. "I mean, you or one of the others can help me train a little bit, right? That will help me be a little more prepared for when I head into Talorn tomorrow. We can leave early in the morning, so fewer people'll see me, too."

Nik thinks for a few seconds, then nods, seeing my point. I can still leave at the planned time.

"Alright," I say. "Let me finish eating, then Gold and I are heading into the training courtyard."

Gold gets a frightened look on his face, and I ruffle his hair, assuring him I'm not going to beat him up.

As soon as I finish my breakfast, I shove my tray towards Nik, grab Gold's hand, and rush out to the training courtyard, stripping to my pants and sending everything into my Inventory.

"You get practicing on a target," I tell Gold, and he nods, giving me a wary eye. "I promise, I'm just going to practice some moves by myself."

He still looks a little tense, but I guess that's to be expected, after last night.

Instead of focusing on Gold, I start performing a series of punches, kicks, and other types of strikes, lashing out at imaginary enemies. Vaguely, I'm aware of him striking out with his sword at one of the training dummies, and I make sure to not get too close to him as he tries to use the sword.

After thirty minutes of nonstop fighting for me, I take a break, noting that Gold's already resting, sitting on a bench, leaning back with his legs stretched out, his hands gripping the bench. Making my way over, I take a seat next to him, a thought coming to me.

"Hey, Gold?" I say, and sense a trace of worry coming from him. "Can I see those boots you got from the Platinum Present?"

Confused, he pulls them out of his Inventory and hands them to me. I inspect their toes carefully, but find no trace of any marks that would indicate slits for his claws. That sucks. Why did the Diamond Present come tailored for a Dog Beastborn, but not the Platinum Present?

"Here you go," I hand the boots back to Gold, who sends them into his Inventory and tilts his head at me in curiosity. "I was checking to see if there were slits for your claws to come out, but there aren't."

He nods in understanding, then watches as I pull out some of the marbles I've looted to fiddle with. Deciding to teach him how to shoot marbles, I pull a piece of chalk out of my inventory and make a circle on the ground.

"Come on," I tell Gold as I start putting out marbles. "Let's play a game."

We play a few games of marbles before I send them all back into my Inventory and tell him I'm going to do some more training. He nods, then pulls out his wooden sword and makes his way to a training dummy as I begin performing another series of strikes against imaginary enemies.

After half an hour, Theodore arrives and attacks me, and I spar against him until he draws his sword. Then, I pull one of my blades out of my Inventory and fight against him, the two of us using Skill after Skill. He nearly strikes me a few times, but I always manage to slip just-outside of his reach.

We're too close in Level for anything but his own experience to give him a large advantage over me, and I'm a wily little guy.

He doesn't seem to bothered by my constant use of the marbles, which is a boon, though he hasn't actually slipped on them yet, which is disappointing.

"Ow!" He exclaims when a marble strikes his forehead.

"Ha!" I exclaim as Gold explodes into laughter from his spot on the bench. "Got you that time!"

Theodore strikes out at me as I tease him, and I dance back, deflecting his blade with my own, striking at him with my other sword, which connects with the side of his neck.

"Fatal wound!" I exclaim, sticking my tongue out. "You're dead!"

"You're far too hyper," Theodore chuckles.

"I'm thirteen," I tell him. "It's only natural I'll be hyper!"

"You've been working out for over an hour," he says. "How long before you conk out?"

"I've got plenty of stamina left," I hold up both swords. "Want to go another round?"

"Are you going to pull a sword out of your Inventory mid-fight again?"

"Hey," I say. "No one said I couldn't."

"Of course I wouldn't tell you to," Theodore tells me. "You're a Dark Knight, Zack, it's in our nature to use anything we can to our advantage against an enemy."

"Maybe," I shrug. "Weapons, the environment, our own blood… that's the nature of a Dark Knight."

I know my expression darkens as I say the next part.

"But not innocents."

"No," Theodore says softly. "Not innocents. Nik told me that you got a bit moody when he told you to reign in your temper. I asked him what he'd have done, had it been someone he cared about."

"What was his response?" I ask.

"He admitted that he may have been unnecessarily harsh with how he told you to get your temper under control," Theodore responds, and I raise an eyebrow. "You do need to get it under control, Zack, but not so you don't shred someone who tries to bring harm to innocents. Big Flame does not like that in the first place, so you're in accordance with his ways, even if not with the people's.

"No," Theodore shakes his head. "The reason you need to get that temper under control, Zack, is so that you don't black out when it hits you. Turn yourself from a blind rage to a cold rage. When you get angry, calculate, don't strike without focus. Find a furious clarity, and use it to your advantage."

It would be useful if I knew how to start figuring that out. I've never gone into blind rages before. I've never blacked out – before here, I always had that furious clarity. Thinking about it, this actually scares me.

Why am I going into these blind rages? I should've been able to keep my focus as I tore that man apart, and yet I didn't. Does this have to do with my dragon side? My divine side? Is this an effect of it starting to wake up and me merging my elements into my Sacred Crystal?

"I didn't mean to depress you," Theodore walks over and places a hand on my shoulders, and I realize that I've lost my stance, my blades drooping down. "Much like Nik and the other Dark Knights, I wish to help you, Zack."

"It's… not that," I say, shifting. "Can you bring Nik in here? I… have something I should probably tell you two. It… it's kind of serious."

I send my swords into my Inventory, and Theodore nods, telling me he'll be back in a few minutes.

While I wait for him, I sit in the middle of the courtyard and meditate, looking in upon my Sacred Crystal. All of the elements have merged into the light and the dark portions fairly, though the fire is still the strongest by far, and more on the dark side than the light.

Then there are those three long scars on the crystal, and the scar of fire. My wounds, from when the Shadow of Life nearly killed me and from when I bled myself to make sure Big Flame was doing okay.

Scars…

On what is probably the most important part of my existence.

Could they be why I have these blackout rages? So far, I've had two, and both came after I received the injuries. If so, which one is it? The one from feeding Big Flame, or the one that caused my first blackout rage?

When I sense two more Sacred Crystals drawing near, in addition to the one that's close by, I stop my inner reflection and open my eyes, looking at the pair of Dark Knights that arrived.

"Nik," I dip my head to him.

"Theodore said you wanted to talk with me?" He asks, and I nod, beckoning him over, then Gold and Theodore.

"Before I tell you what I'm thinking," I say. "I want you to swear on the Crystals that you won't reveal it to anyone. If you can't make that oath, then you need to leave the area so you don't overhear it."

"Zack-" Nik begins.

"I'm serious," I say. "Swear it, or I won't tell you."

Gold nods, and I can tell from his impressions and thoughts that he's agreed on the Crystals to not tell anyone. Nik and Theodore make the swear, then Nik asks me what that's about.