Tap... Tap... Tap...
Footsteps echoed through the desolation of the "Old Eden Capital."
Once-majestic skyscrapers now stood as rotting skeletons. Rusted steel beams protruded like broken bones. Vines and massive trees had reclaimed the concrete jungle, their roots crushing what humans had built.
Under the pale, ghostly moonlight... atop the highest crumbling spire, a figure stood watching. His cloak billowed in the night wind.
His gaze, hidden beneath a hood, was fixed on the streets far below.
The streets were not empty.
Dozens of pitch-black shadows slithered across the ruins. Their forms were twisted and unnatural—some with arms dragging on the ground, others with multiple eyes scattered randomly across their bodies. Their liquid-black forms dripped onto the pavement, hissing like acid.
They were "Shadow Aberrations"—monsters that did not belong in this world.
The mysterious figure watched them with eyes devoid of emotion. Indifferent. Cold. As if looking at mere insects.
He shifted slightly... stepping back into the shadows of the rooftop. In a blink, he vanished without a trace, leaving only the silence and the wind howling through the dead city.