As the words UMBRAL DOMINION left Kael's lips, the laws of physics governing the forest were rewritten. The chaotic flickering of the forest fires froze into static orange sculptures. The wind died instantly. For miles, every shadow—from the smallest pebble to the tallest oak—ceased to be an absence of light and became a presence of power.
The guard's legs turned to water, "It's... It's the... It can't be..." he stammered, his eyes darting frantically as the ground beneath him began to writhe.
Then, they rose.
Hundreds of shadows detached themselves from the floor of the forest, peeling away from the surfaces they were bound to. Even the guard's own shadow tore itself away from his feet, rising into a towering, twisted silhouette of his beastly form. Panicked, the guard moved backward, his breath coming in shallow hitches as his own reflection in the darkness stood up to face him.
The clearing was no longer a battlefield; it was a throne room.
Surrounding Kael and the guard was an army of silhouettes.
Each shadow was a different size, a different shape, but they shared a single characteristic, they were all looking at the guard. They didn't breathe, they didn't speak, but their collective gaze felt like a physical weight, pressing the guard further into the fear.
Kael stood at the epicenter of the void, his breathing becoming heavy and labored. His cloak billowed violently, pumped up by the sheer pressure of the shadow energy required to keep hundreds of shadows tethered to his will. The Shadow Load was already beginning to take hold; his limbs felt like they were being cast in iron, his movements slowing as his nervous system buckled under the weight of the legion.
A few hundred meters away, Tatsuya reappeared in a flicker of light next to Haruto.
Haruto remained on his knees, his hands still resting on Argen's cold chest. His eyes were bloodshot, the grief etched into his face illuminated by the eerie, pulsing glow of the Umbral Dominion. He looked toward the center, watching the silhouettes of monsters and trees rise as soldiers.
"He unleashed it after all," Haruto whispered, his voice cracking.
Tatsuya nodded, his eyes darting toward the distant horizon where the alarm bells continued their relentless scream. "Let's get out of here... our plan is ruined. The alarm bells are ringing... the Kazaim hunters must be coming any moment. We're going to be surrounded."
Haruto snapped his head toward Tatsuya, his expression twisting into one of disbelief. "Are you out of your mind?! Are we just going to leave Kael here alone?!"
Tatsuya grabbed Haruto's shoulders, shaking him with a desperate strength. "Wake up, Haruto! Look at that!" He pointed toward the crushing aura of the Dominion. "We can't do anything in a fight of this level. We're just D-Ranks! If we stay, we're not helping—we're just waiting to die!"
Haruto grabbed Tatsuya's wrists, ripping them off his shoulders. He stood up slowly, his height dwarfing the panic in the air. He looked Tatsuya straight in the eyes, his gaze burning with a fierce, suicidal loyalty.
"Then we'll die together," Haruto said, his voice flat and final.
The air screamed as hundreds of silhouettes—twisted, jagged, and massive—converged on the guard at once. It was a tide of ink rushing toward a dying light.
The guard stood frozen, his breath coming in shallow hitches. Behind the wall of rushing shadows, Kael remained motionless, his own shadow standing tall and silent beside him like a dark guardian.
"This is not the end..." the guard wheezed, his voice bubbling with fluid.
He tried to leap, to dodge, to do anything, but his muscles refused to obey. A sudden, crushing weight settled in his chest, and his eyes bulged as a fresh spray of crimson burst from his lips. The unnatural power of Stage-II reached its breaking point; the green energy flickered like a dying candle before shattering into a thousand fading sparks.
His massive frame shrank, his obsidian skin cracking and peeling away as he fell to his knees. He was no longer a beast—he was just a man, broken and bleeding.
Yet, even as the tidal wave of shadows drew close enough for him to feel the cold void they radiated, the guard's pride remained unbroken. He roared, blood streaming from his nose and staining his teeth.
"THIS ISN'T THE END!!"
But the shadows didn't care for his defiance.
Before the horde could reach him, a figure moved with a speed that defied the eye. The guard's own shadow, which had been standing detached on the ground, surged upward. It didn't just move; it struck. With a sound like a thunderclap, the shadow-fist connected squarely with the guard's chin.
The impact was so violent that the guard's head snapped back, his body launched into the air like a ragdoll, trailing a line of blood into the dark sky.
Kael remained anchored to the earth, his sword still buried deep in the soil. The strain was visible now; veins throbbed at his temples, and a single drop of sweat rolled down his chin. He didn't look up, but his voice rang out with the cold precision of a conductor.
"Jump!"
As one, the hundreds of shadows surrounding the crater launched themselves into the air. They moved like a swarm of locusts made of ink, their silhouettes blotting out the moon.
The guard, floating in a moment of weightless agony, tried to twist his body to find balance. But the dominion allowed him no grace. A massive, jagged shadow—the reflection of a fallen oak—appeared directly above him. It swung a leg like a battering ram, slamming a heavy kick into the guard's stomach.
The air left the guard's lungs in a wheeze as he was hammered back toward the earth.
But he didn't hit the ground.
Two sleek, humanoid shadows materialized directly beneath his falling form. In a synchronized motion, they reached into the void of their own bodies and pulled out twin blades of solidified shadow energy. They dropped into a crouch and thrust the swords upward, bracing them against the floor.
SHRAK—!
The guard's descent ended in a sickening crunch. The two shadow-swords tore through his back and erupted out of his stomach, the dark energy sizzling as it met his blood.
"AAAAAAAGH!!"
The guard's scream ripped through the silence of the woods, a high-pitched wail of pure, unadulterated agony. He coughed, a thick spray of crimson painting the dark blades that now held him aloft. He hung there, suspended three feet off the ground.
The four shadows standing closest to the impaled guard surged forward. They didn't use weapons; they used their hands. Two gripped his wrists, and two gripped his ankles. With the mechanical, cold strength of the void, they began to pull in opposite directions.
"AAAAAA!!" The guard's joints popped and groaned, the sound of stretching sinew echoing through the clearing.
But just as the shadows reached the point of no return, the world flickered.
In a sudden, silent pop, the hundreds of shadows, the impaling swords, and the pulling hands vanished into thin air. The Umbral Dominion collapsed like a punctured balloon. The guard fell to the dirt with a heavy thud, gasping for air as his wounds leaked fresh blood into the soil.
The guard rolled onto his side, his vision blurred, and looked toward the center of the crater. Kael was still on one knee, his head bowed, but a thick stream of blood was now pouring from his nose, staining the ground between his boots.
The guard let out a wet, rattling laugh as he pushed himself up with trembling arms. "So... you can't keep it up after all," he wheezed, his grin returning. "Your body broke before I did."
"No!..." Kael hissed, his voice a jagged rasp. He tried to summon even a spark of darkness, but his veins felt like they were filled with dry ash. "I'm... out of shadow energy!"
Seeing his opening, the guard didn't hesitate. Fueled by a final, desperate surge of adrenaline, he rushed toward Kael. He moved like a blur, closing the distance in an instant. He reared back his fist, pouring his remaining physical strength into a strike meant to shatter Kael's skull.
CRACK—!
The punch never landed. A shimmering, hexagonal shield—one of Tatsuya's—materialized inches from Kael's face. The impact didn't just stop the guard; the unique properties of the shield caused the force of the blow to bounce back with 100% efficiency.
The guard's own arm snapped at the elbow from the reflected force, and he was sent reeling backward, his own power used against him once again.
Tatsuya stood firm, his feet planted wide in the dirt, his eyes locked on the panting guard. The hexagonal shield hummed in front of him, glowing with a steady, protective light. He was no longer the boy who couldn't see the movement—he was the wall between his Commander and death.
Behind him, Kael's strength finally gave out. As he began to slump forward into the ash, Haruto caught him, bracing the S-Rank's heavy frame against his own shoulder.
"Aaa!!... Damn it!" the guard hissed, clutching his shattered elbow as he stumbled back. He glared at the two D-Rank hunters who dared to interfere.
Kael coughed, blood flecking his lips as he looked up at the two boys. "You two!?..." he rasped, his voice barely audible. "I told you... to get out of this fight... you'll die..."
"Shut up for once, Commander," Haruto muttered, though his voice lacked any real bite. He pivoted, pressing both of his palms firmly against Kael's shoulder blades.
"Commander... take my shadow energy," Haruto suggested.
"No... get out of here..." Kael's eyes were glassy, his pride still fighting even as his heart slowed. "I just... I wanted to revenge our comrades. I won't let you two be added to the count."
Haruto didn't listen. A sad, knowing smile touched his lips, and suddenly, his entire body erupted in a brilliant, pure white shadow energy. It wasn't the dark void of Kael's power, but something warmer, something vital.
"You still can revenge them," Haruto said, his energy beginning to flow into Kael's empty veins like a rushing river. "Remember... we're a team."
The guard, sensing the tide turning, became a creature of pure desperation. He threw himself at Tatsuya's shield, his remaining good arm a blur of strikes. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! He hammered against the hexagonal barrier, his knuckles splitting, but the shield held—until the world turned purple.
A high-pitched whistle, like a scream from the void, sliced through the air. From the dark treeline behind the warriors, a streak of violet light hissed forward. It didn't just hit the shield; it bypassed the physics of the reflection, piercing the barrier like it was made of parchment.
Before anyone could blink, the Purple Arrow struck Tatsuya's neck. There was no time for a scream. With a sickening, clean shink, Tatsuya was beheaded. His body slumped, and the hexagonal shields flickered and shattered into nothingness.
"TATSUYA!" Haruto froze, his hands still glowing with white energy against Kael's back. The shock paralyzed him.
With the shield gone, the guard didn't miss a beat. He lunged forward, his fist connecting squarely with Kael's jaw. The Commander, still mid-transfer and weakened, was sent tumbling backward across the dirt like a broken doll.
The guard turned his murderous gaze on Haruto. He swung a heavy, horizontal punch, but Haruto—fueled by pure, instinctual terror—dived to the side. He rolled, gasping, but as he tried to stand, the whistling sound returned.
Another violet streak. Another clean, horizontal cut.
Haruto's head rolled into the grass as his body fell limp beside Tatsuya's 's.
In the span of five seconds, the western route team had been decimated.
The guard, panting and covered in his own blood, turned away from the corpses. He looked toward the treeline for a moment, then fixed his eyes on Kael, who was struggling to push himself up from the ground.
Kael lay in the dirt, the world spinning in shades of red and grey. He forced his head up, his gaze trembling as it settled on the high silhouette of the Kazaim fort's outer wall.
There, bathed in the crimson light of the alarm fires, stood a figure. He was tall, draped in a dark, high-collared mantle that snapped in the wind. In his grip was a longbow that pulsed with an unstable, violet radiance—the source of the arrows that had just executed his last remaining friends. The archer didn't move; he simply stared down at Kael with a cold, predatory detachment, his purple eyes glowing like twin embers in the dark.
[ SCENE SHIFTS...]
A few miles away, the atmosphere was thick with the scent of pine and defeat. Toji knelt behind a tree, his head in his hands, tears carving tracks through the soot on his face. Around him, the remaining warriors were dejectedly sheathing their blades.
"We failed again..." Toji sobbed, his voice breaking. "We lost more comrades...The alarm bells... it's over."
But then, the ground began to vibrate.
From their vantage point, they saw the massive main gates of Kazaim groan open. A river of steel and light poured out—more than 1,000 hunters, their torches creating a golden serpent of fire as they charged with singular focus toward the Western Route, lured by the massive energy spike of Kael's Umbral Dominion and the alarm.
Soichiro stood tall, his eyes tracking the movement of the army. A slow, sharp realization dawned on him. He reached down and gripped Toji's shoulder.
"Hey!... Look!" Soichiro's voice was a low, urgent growl. "They are doing exactly what we wanted! Almost all of them are moving to the Western gate. That's it!...that's our opening!!"
Toji wiped his eyes, the reflection of the marching army sparking a new, fierce light in his pupils. The despair vanished, replaced by a desperate, burning hope.
The air around Toji didn't just vibrate—it ignited. A deep, violent crimson shadow energy began to spiral upward from his feet, wrapping around his body like a shroud of blood. It was the manifestation of his resolve, fueled by the grief of his fallen brothers and the weight of his people's future.
Soichiro saw the transformation and let out a soft, knowing smile.
"ATTACK!!" Toji's roared coldly.
He and Soichiro burst from the treeline like twin bolts of lightning, their boots tearing into the earth as they led the charge. Behind them, the remaining warriors found their second wind, their weapons raised high as they followed the crimson trail toward the capital's vulnerable flank.
As the fortress walls of Kazaim loomed over them, the world seemed to slow for Toji. His heartbeat drummed in his ears, a steady, rhythmic march against the silence of his mind.
"Every step toward Kazaim feels heavier than the last...
Because I know what waits behind me.
Families trusting me. Children sleeping in peace because they think I can protect them.
If I fail tonight... their screams will be my fault."
The crimson energy flared brighter, mirroring the fire in his eyes.
"So I tighten my grip on my blade. I swallow my fear. And I walk toward the fort, ready to stain my hands if it means they live peacefully.
If this is the night my name becomes a curse... so be it.
If this is the night I lose myself... then let the world remember that I chose to fight."
His locket shines for a second then the shine fades.
"So I march forward,
Not as a warrior,
Not as a hero,
But a man who refuses to kneel for his people."
TO BE CONTINUED...