Chapter 230: The Black Fang Prodigy
It was just a few years ago, at most five, when she first appeared in the sect. Unlike others who were recruited and made to pass trials before they were accepted into the sect, she was scouted and brought to the sect.
No one knew where she came from, and no family appeared to claim her. No records existed of her before she appeared at the gates of the Shadow Fang Sect alongside three elders who looked more exhausted than victorious after bringing her back. That alone became enough to spark rumors. Some claimed she was the daughter of a fallen royal family. Others believed she was a survivor from one of the forbidden regions beyond the Black Dune Sea.
The more absurd rumors claimed she wasn’t even human to begin with, but rumors were meaningless in the Shadow Fang Sect. Strength was truth, and the veiled girl possessed too much of it.
The only thing the disciples knew was her title: The Black Fang Prodigy. A title no one dared to mock, because everyone who underestimated her eventually disappeared from the rankings.
...
The first thing people noticed about her when she arrived was the silence. She wasn’t silent because she was shy or afraid. No. Her silence was intentional. She rarely spoke unless necessary. She never removed her veil in public. Even during training, meals, meetings, or missions, she remained completely covered.
At first, many disciples found it strange, but later, they stopped caring. The second thing people noticed about her was far more important. Monsters followed her. Whenever she fought, the atmosphere changed. It wasn’t a fully physical thing, but darkness moved strangely around her. Shadows stretched unnaturally when she was around.
...
One week.
That was all it took before the sect officially stopped treating her like a new disciple. One week after joining the Shadow Fang Sect, she volunteered for an external mission. The elders refused, but she took the mission anyway. No one knew exactly what happened during that mission because the disciples who accompanied her refused to speak afterward. The only confirmed fact was this: A Tier 2 Sand Reaper that had been terrorizing three towns vanished overnight.
The mission should have taken a month, but she completed it in three days. When she returned, she was mentally injured. Several elders sensed it immediately. Her aura had changed, became colder. As if something had awakened inside her. That was also the first recorded appearance of her elemental.
...
It happened during a combat evaluation. One of the inner disciples had challenged her publicly, irritated by the attention she was receiving despite being new.
The disciple was talented. A fire-element user at Tier 2, Circle of Element. He was older, more experienced, but stronger on paper. The duel lasted less than thirty seconds.
At first, nothing happened. The veiled girl simply stood there silently while the disciple attacked aggressively. Flames covered the arena as the challenger launched spell after spell toward her, when the shadows beneath the arena floor moved.
The darkness rose like liquid, and from it something crawled out. The witnesses never forgot it. A creature made entirely of darkness emerged beside her soundlessly. It had no fixed form. One moment, it resembled a wolf. The next, a serpent. Then something humanoid. Its eyes glowed pale silver, and the instant it appeared, the flames died, consumed by the darkness.
The disciple lost consciousness immediately afterward. The strange part was that no one even saw how. That was the day the sect realized something terrifying: The Black Fang Prodigy possessed an elemental: a true elemental. Elementals weren’t summons. They were spirits, but attuned to a single element. They lived in the Spirit Realm, Aetheria. And one of them had been bonded directly to her soul. It was a darkness elemental possessing intelligence.
That revelation alone shook the sect.
Her growth after that became absurd. Missions, training, combat, meditation: she completed everything flawlessly. Yet the strange thing was, she rarely participated in sect politics. She ignored rankings, ignored fame, and ignored disciples attempting to approach her. Even the elders found conversations with her difficult because she answered most questions with either silence or extremely short replies. Still, her name spread naturally, because wherever she went, impossible missions became possible.
...
Second year. She completed a caravan protection mission through the Crimson Ravines after bandits led by a Tier 2 tried to ambush the convoy. The bandits vanished, leaving only shadows on the canyon walls afterward.
In the third year, a plague-type beast appeared near the eastern settlements. Three disciple teams failed to eliminate it. She went alone, and the plague ended within the week. No corpse of the beast was ever recovered.
In the fourth year, she entered the Black Hollow Ruins, a forbidden region even elders avoided. She stayed there for eleven days. When she returned, her darkness elemental had evolved. The thing no longer resembled ordinary darkness. It had begun developing personality.
But it was during her fifth year that she truly disappeared from the sect. One day, she accepted a classified mission directly from the elders and left. She vanished into the outside world alongside her elemental.
The only thing people knew was that she had met someone before she left the sect. He was a blind boy, talented yet weak. He was the only one she truly respected and even cared for. His name was Ren, the most talented disciple in the sect after the Black Fang Prodigy.
...
Looking at the blind boy with white, black streaked hair standing in front of her, the veiled girl couldn’t help but mention Ren’s name. For some reason, she had the feeling that Ren was close by, perhaps even standing right there, but she couldn’t pinpoint him. The only person with some kind of resemblance was the white-haired boy, and strangely, the humanoid bunny. But the boy’s answer had left her stumped. She could feel that he wasn’t lying. He was really not Ren.
"I am Bahamut, not Ren," he answered flatly, then pointed towards the bunny. "This is Ren."
"Oh... sorry. You looked like someone I know..." she said quickly.
"No offense taken."
The boy, Bahamut, turned to leave, but the bunny stared at her for some time, and she could see some kind of resemblance to her Ren in his eyes. But she quickly put it away. Well, she had just returned. She would find Ren.
