The first thing Drex felt was the cold.
The second was the restraint. Bands of silver-reinforced alloy clamped his wrists and ankles to a tilted operating table. Glowing blue runes etched into the metal pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, suppressing his mana.
"Seed isolation complete," a clinical voice stated. "The host is compatible. Hand me the Resonance Scalpel."
Drex opened his eyes. The room was a blinding, sterile white. It looked like a high-tech surgery suite, but instead of medical charts, holographic screens floated in the air, displaying complex magical geometric circles. Researchers in pristine white lab coats moved around him, their faces hidden behind sleek glass visors.
He didn't scream. He didn't struggle. He couldn't. His brain was stalling.
I was in my room, his mind stuttered. I was reading the ending. I closed the app, and then…
The smell of his apartment was replaced by the stinging scent of ozone and processed mana.
"Initiate Core Severing," the lead researcher commanded. "We must extract the Goddess's Seed before the host burns out."
Goddess Seed? Extraction?
The terms tickled a dusty corner of his memory. He remembered reading the "Side Story" chapters. There was a gritty arc about a faction kidnapping Awakened to vivisect them and steal their Seeds using advanced mana-tech.
No way, Drex thought, his heart hammering against the alloy bands. I didn't just get isekai'd. I got dropped into the 'Harvest Arc'.
It was a death sentence. According to the Author's Notes, the survival rate for these extraction procedures was zero.
Drex flexed his fingers. He didn't feel like dying. He felt... hungry. A deep, abyssal void sat in his chest, waiting to be filled.
He focused his will, grasping blindly for the interface that is supposed to be present.
Ding.
A translucent blue window hovered in front of his face.
[ SYSTEM INTERFACE ]
* Seed Name: The Umbral Throne
* Seed Grade: Mythic
* Seed Saturation:0/1,000,000
[ INNATE SKILL: SOVEREIGN'S DOMINION ]
* Description: Shadows are no longer mere absences of light, but a primordial force bound by an eternal oath of fealty. They move not with the sun, but with the intent of the Sovereign.
Drex stared at the text.
"Mana density rising," the researcher noted, lifting a scalpel made of translucent, vibrating crystal. "Cut him open. Now."
Drex saw the blade coming. Terror, sharp and primal, spiked in his chest. He didn't know how to use his powers. He just knew he didn't want that crystal in his chest.
Get away from me! he screamed internally.
He didn't cast a spell. The shadow cast by the researcher's arm simply reacted to his fear.
SNAP.
A wet crunch echoed in the room.
"ARGH—!"
Drex snapped his eyes open. The researcher was on the floor, screaming, as a pool of darkness—his darkness—savaged the man's wrist like a starving beast.
"Containment breach!" The other researchers scrambled back, tapping commands into their holographic tablets. "Security! Neutralize the subject!"
The blast doors hissed open and three guards stormed in.
They weren't carrying guns—bullets were useless against the reinforced skin of an Awakened. They wore sleek, matte-black composite armor and wielded heavy, serrated Greatswords and Shock-Spears that hummed with electric mana.
Drex flinched, curling against the restraints, momentarily paralyzed by the sheer absurdity of it. He was a frail, unarmed human in a hospital gown; they were charging him with weapons massive enough to cleave a tank.
The guards charged, their weapons glowing.
But the impact never came.
Drex peeked through his fingers. The massive greatswords hadn't hit him. They were suspended in the air, caught in a swirling vortex of black mist that had erupted from his own shadow. The darkness gripped the enchanted metal, corroding the weapon enchants in seconds.
It's protecting me, Drex realized.
With a pulse of instinct, the shadows lashed out. The mist solidified into heavy tendrils that slammed into the guards' chest plates, launching them backward. They hit the reinforced walls with a sickening crunch of composite armor and slid to the floor, unconscious.
The shadows beneath the operating table surged upward, slicing through the rune-etched alloy bands like they were butter. Drex sat up, sliding off the table, his bare feet touching the cold synthetic floor.
The fear began to recede, replaced by the intoxicating, dangerous hum of the Abyss.
Drex stepped over the fallen guards, ignoring their groans, and walked out of the operating room into the main corridor. On either side, reinforced glass cells held other subjects—starved, broken kids huddled in the dark.
He swiped his hand through the air.
Crack.
The shadows twisted into the electronic locks, short-circuiting the mechanisms. The glass doors slid open.
Chaos erupted. The prisoners scrambled out, summoning whatever rudimentary magic they had—balls of weak fire, kinetic shoves—clogging the hallway in a panic.
Drex walked calmly through the mob toward the exit. A squad of twelve armored guards and two Assault Awakened blocked the blast doors at the end of the hall. They formed a shield wall with tower shields, the Awakened behind them weaving complex spell circles.
"Target locked," the lead Awakened shouted. "Incinerate."
A wave of fire roared down the hallway, fueled by high-efficiency mana circuits.
Drex didn't dodge. He stopped walking and let the void in his chest take over. Shadow devours all.
The darkness beneath his feet expanded. It rushed forward, a tide of black liquid that met the fire. It didn't extinguish the flames; it consumed the mana fueling them. The fire vanished instantly.
The guards froze behind their shields.
Then the wave crashed over them.
There were no screams. The guards, the Awakened, and their high-tech armor were pulled under, sinking into the synthetic floor as if it had turned to tar.
[ SYSTEM NOTICE ]
* Essence Devoured.
* Seed Saturation Increased.
Drex turned to the heavy blast doors. With a thought, the shadows condensed around his fist, forming a giant, spectral gauntlet.
BOOM.
The reinforced metal buckled.
BOOM.
The hinges shattered. The doors flew outward, crashing into the daylight.
Drex climbed out, shielding his eyes from the sun.
He was in a courtyard. He took a breath of fresh air, scanning his surroundings.
White stone spires rising next to sleek glass walkways. The emblem of the crossed swords displayed on holographic banners.
He froze.
"The architecture..." Drex muttered. "Arkhainon Academy. The West Wing."
His eyes widened. The "Extraction Lab" wasn't in a wasteland. It was under the Academy.
His mind snapped back to the final pages of the book. The Epilogue.
Drex whipped his head around, looking at the adjacent building. He could practically see the words on the page overlapping with reality.
"He's here," Drex whispered. "Sarius is here."
He didn't care about the alarms ringing from the speakers. He didn't care about the guards sprinting toward him with enchanted blades drawn.
He had a destination.
Drex took off sprinting toward the history building, a blur of grey hospital gown and trailing shadows.