The room was dim and silent.
Rey lay sprawled across the cold floor, unmoving. A gaping hole tore through his chest, the edges jagged and brutal. Blood seeped out slowly, thick and reluctant, as if even it refused to abandon him.
A few steps away, Darius stood calmly, his greatsword resting at his side.
To him, the battle was already over.
Rey was a corpse.
A curious one, perhaps, but still a corpse.
He didn't notice the faint shimmer forming beside Rey's body.
Nor did he hear the system struggling to respond.
[System Alert: Host HP has dropped to critical levels.]
[Immediate healing required to prevent death.]
[HP: 137/4110]
[74/4110]
[12/4110]
[1/4110]
[0/4110]
[Host HP has reached zero.]
[Vital signs have ceased.]
[Detected: Reserved Energy Core.]
[Initiating emergency conversion…]
[Energy Effect: Regen Burst – Triggered]
{Effect: Reconstruct fatal wounds to survivable threshold.}
[Critical damage reversed.]
[HP stabilized. Host remains in critical condition.]
A suppressed pulse erupted from Rey's body.
Flesh twisted and pulled itself together. Torn muscle reknit. Bones shifted back into place with faint, sickening cracks. The wound in his chest shrank rapidly, closing just enough to keep life from slipping away.
Just enough.
Rey let out a faint groan.
His eyes fluttered open.
But his body didn't respond.
His limbs felt like stone. His fingers wouldn't move. Even breathing felt heavy, forced, unnatural.
He tried to activate a skill.
Nothing.
He tried to summon his element.
Still nothing.
It was as if something had severed him from everything he was.
Panic crept into his chest.
'Why… can't I move?'
Footsteps echoed faintly in the distance.
Guards.
They were coming.
His breathing grew shallow, uneven.
'Is this it…?'
Images flashed through his mind.
His mother.
His sister.
'I'm sorry…'
His eyes shut tightly as despair swallowed him whole.
Deep within him, another struggle had begun.
Inside the sealed space where his spirits resided, Aiden slammed against an invisible barrier.
"Rey!" he roared.
No response.
Victor and the others felt it too.
Their bond was being forcefully cut off.
A wall had descended between them.
Their connection… sealed.
Back in the physical world, Rey's body lay still.
But beneath him, the shadows stirred.
From the darkness pooled under his body, something rose.
Not light.
Not energy.
A particle so small it barely existed.
Cold.Ancient.Silent.
It hovered above Rey's chest.
Then plunged straight into him.
His body jolted faintly.
Rey assumed it was just the aftershock of the Regen Burst.
He was wrong.
Inside Rey's Conscious Realm—
The endless void trembled.
At its center floated the orb of Darkness, calm and dormant.
The particle drifted toward it.
The moment they touched—
The orb shuddered violently.
A pulse rippled outward, distorting the void itself. The orb darkened, its surface thickening, deepening, turning into something far heavier than shadow.
Not darkness.
Something beneath it.
Something that consumed even the void.
[System Alert: Unknown energy detected.]
[Analyzing…]
[Warning: Mutation detected.]
[Origin-level interference suspected.]
[Ability {Darkness} is undergoing forced evolution.]
[Foreign substance has taken root.]
[Original elemental core… being devoured.]
[New variation forming: Oblivion Gloom.]
[Warning: Element is sentient.]
[Ego formation detected.]
[Ego analyzing host compatibility…]
[Result: Host deemed unworthy.]
[Ego initiating soul corruption.]
Inside Rey's body, something answered.
Blood pulsed.
Not violently.
Not wildly.
But with authority.
[Emergency Protocol Triggered.]
[Unregistered Bloodline detected.]
[Bloodline Awakening… engaged.]
[Foreign Ego suppressed.]
[Host recognized.]
[Element stabilized.]
[Congratulations.]
[You have obtained the Unique Elemental Variation: Oblivion Gloom.]
{Element: Oblivion Gloom}
Grade: Unknown (??-Tier)
Affiliation: Darkness (Origin-Deviant)
Type: Elemental Variation (Sentient)
Status: Bonded (Forced)
Description:
Oblivion Gloom is not a shadow—it is the graveyard of concepts.
Born from annihilated laws, extinguished dimensions, and truths that no longer exist, it does not hide or blind.
It devours. It unwrites the very existence of light, time, and memory itself.}
The room changed.
The temperature plummeted.
Light vanished—not dimmed, not blocked—erased.
Even reflections on the floor ceased to exist.
Darius stiffened.
A chill crawled up his spine.
He turned.
Rey was standing.
Barely.
His shoulders trembled. His breathing was shallow. But he was upright.
Alive.
"…Impossible," Darius muttered.
Then—
Darkness expanded.
A dome of absolute black swallowed the room whole.
The exit vanished.
The walls vanished.
The floor vanished.
Darius took a step back—and found nothing behind him.
A whisper crawled across his senses.
"You shouldn't have touched me."
Darius roared, swinging his greatsword with full force.
It cut through air.
Rey's image split apart like mist.
An afterimage.
Gone.
Darius spun, slashing wildly.
Nothing existed anymore.
Then—
Pain.
A shallow cut across his back.
Another across his leg.
His shoulder.
Six strikes.
Simultaneous.
Perfect.
Blood spilled into nothingness.
Darius growled, forcing a laugh.
"Playing tricks again? Think this scares me?"
Silence answered.
Then a voice echoed from everywhere.
"I don't need tricks to end you."
A pause.
"I need you gone."
From the darkness, six distorted daggers surged forward, serrated and unnatural.
They struck together.
Each aimed at a vital joint.
A vital artery.
Darius' eyes widened.
His breath froze mid-howl.
And for the first time—
Fear touched him.
Rey's voice whispered one last time.
Calm.Absolute.
"Now… FALL."
The dome of darkness pulsed once—
Then collapsed inward, folding into itself like a dying star.
When the black vanished, the world returned.
Darius lay sprawled across the shattered floor, unmoving. His armor was torn apart, his body carved with deep scars. Blood stained the ground beneath him.
His mind was broken.
And Rey stood alone.
The lingering darkness clung faintly to his form, his eyes glowing with a dim, cold light. A faint curve touched his lips—not triumph, not joy.
Just certainty.
Even someone as resilient as Darius had been reduced to this.
Darius suddenly coughed.
Blood spilled from his mouth as his fingers twitched.
Then—
Slash.
A deep cut opened across his side.
Another followed.
Then another.
Even as he collapsed again, the attacks didn't stop. Invisible blades rained down mercilessly, carving into him from all directions. His arms flailed wildly, trying to grab something—anything.
But there was nothing.
No enemy.
No presence.
Only pain.
"You think… this is enough to kill me?" Darius growled through clenched teeth, blood pooling in his mouth. "You're a fool, kid. My guards will be here any second. You're finished."
Then—
Everything stopped.
The slashes vanished.
The shadows withdrew.
The oppressive darkness began to thin.
A figure stepped forward.
The same boy.
The same face.
No wounds. No scars.
The hole in his chest was gone as if it had never existed.
Darius stared, his breath hitching.
"You're… a monster," he spat, forcing down his fear. "But even monsters can be killed."
His gaze dropped to the daggers still hovering in the air.
Only then did he notice it.
Thick, writhing black tendrils connected each blade to Rey's shadow—like extensions of his own body.
Not a technique.
An authority.
"If I had that power…" Darius muttered, greed and regret flickering across his eyes. "Hah… looks like luck truly despises me."
Rey stepped closer.
His presence was calm.
Cold.
Unforgiving.
"Who said I'm the one falling here?"
Darius's eyes widened.
From Rey's shadow, something massive emerged.
A hilt.
Then more.
Metal formed, growing upward as darkness condensed around it. In moments, a towering greatsword stood in Rey's grasp—larger than his body, thick and brutal, radiating a suffocating pressure.
Darius gasped.
"H-How…? Summoning from your shadow? That's impossible!" His voice trembled. "That's a Stage Two weapon! You shouldn't even be able to touch something like that!"
But it wasn't the size that terrified him.
It was the aura.
Dense. Heavy. Crushing.
This blade had already stepped into Stage Two territory.
The pressure alone made his stomach churn.
"What are you planning?" Darius snarled desperately. "Kill me, and you're done! I'm connected! You'll be hunted, erased!"
Rey didn't hesitate.
"I'm not killing you," he said flatly.
He raised the blade, darkness lifting its impossible weight.
"But I am sending a message."
The air trembled.
"Tell your master this," Rey continued, his voice carrying a chilling edge. "Engrave it into your soul."
"The Raven Blade is coming."
"For every one of you greedy bastards."
"And one day… I'll have my hand around his throat—for the scar you gave me today."
Darius screamed.
"NO—WAIT—!"
Too late.
The blade came down once.
Clean.
Precise.
Darius's arm severed at the shoulder.
The air screamed as flesh burned and blood exploded outward. His howl echoed through the entire building, raw and agonized.
The wall behind him split apart.
The floor cracked.
It was chaos.
Pain.
Humiliation.
Rey simply turned away.
Then his gaze paused.
Darius's greatsword lay nearby, abandoned.
"Trophy," Rey muttered, picking it up.
As he turned to leave, a dark tendril returned—holding something.
Rey frowned.
A severed pieces.
Darius's arm.
"…What the hell?" Rey muttered. "Throw it away. We're done here."
The tendril didn't move.
It resisted.
Rey sighed. "Fine. Do whatever you want."
The darkness wrapped around the severed hand and dragged it into his shadow. But before it vanished, the ring on the finger—gleaming with a faint, ominous glow—was carefully removed. Taking it inside too.
Then it too disappeared into the void.
System messages flared briefly in Rey's vision.
Something had unlocked.
But there was no time.
The guards were almost here.
He stored the looted sword and activated his skill.
{Shadow Meld}
Rey vanished.
He burst through the third floor's bathroom window, the wind roaring past him as he escaped into the night.
By the time the guards stormed in, all they found was Darius—screaming, broken, his arm gone, blood soaking the floor.
No one noticed the missing hand.
A mistake that would haunt him forever.
The Martial Center erupted into chaos. Sirens wailed. Search teams mobilized. A city-wide hunt began for the mysterious intruder.
But Rey was already gone.
By the time he reached home, his speed felt different.
Faster.
Stronger.
Something inside him was shifting.
Outside his house, he whispered, {Phantom Stride}
He leapt effortlessly to his window and slipped inside, closing it silently behind him.
Locking the door, he exhaled deeply.
"Aiden… Zero… where were you guys?" he muttered tiredly. "Whatever. I'll ask later."
He yawned.
"…I need sleep."
And just like that, Rey—now known as The Raven Blade—fell into slumber.
But the world would not rest tonight.
For the first time in history, someone had invaded the Martial Center, defeated a Director, and vanished without a trace.
The hunt for the Raven Blade had begun.
And it wouldn't end until the world realized—
This wasn't a thief.
This wasn't an intruder.
This was the birth of a storm.
One that would shake the entire Blue Planet.