The ritual wasn’t done.And the monster was coming.Rick’s body trembled in midair, held upright by the swirling strands of light and shadow that wrapped around him like living ropes. The pedestal beneath him vibrated, pulsing harder with every beat of his heart. The shard above him spun faster and faster, its glow intensifying until it was almost blinding.But the forest behind him exploded.BOOM!Trees snapped like toothpicks and a wave of dust and glowing leaves blasted outward. Something huge was forcing its way toward the clearing—massive, relentless, unstoppable.Rick clenched his teeth.“Hurry—hurry—hurry—”The ritual didn’t speed up.If anything, it slowed.The threads around him thickened, sinking deeper into his skin like they were engraving something onto his bones.The voice inside him echoed again—calm, ancient, maddeningly unbothered:“Veilborn initiation requires full imprint. Remaining duration: 63 seconds.”“Sixty-three seconds!?” Rick yelled. “Are you insane?!”The f

The clearing suddenly felt much, much smaller.The hooded figure’s voice curled through the air like frost:“Prepare yourself… for the real test.”Rick’s throat tightened.“The real test? That thing—” he pointed weakly at the half-dead Scion twitching on the ground, “—that THING was just warm-up?”The figure didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink.But Rick felt its presence pressing down on him—heavycoldancient.“Stand.”Rick’s legs trembled.“I… I am standing.”The figure tilted its head.“Then rise.”Dark energy wrapped around Rick like invisible hands, lifting him upright despite the pain in his ribs and the ringing in his skull. His feet hit the ground, but the pressure didn’t release.He realized——this being wasn't just evaluating him.It was measuring him.Like weighing a blade before deciding if it should be reforged… or discarded.Rick swallowed.“Who… who are you?”For the first time, the hood peeled back slightly.Only darkness was inside.But two silver shapes gleame

“The Enemy Wearing His Face”Rick didn’t move.The words “That one is against me” echoed inside his skull like a cold laugh.The shadow-double stood across the broken clearing, identical to him in shape, height, even the way it breathed—except for the eyes.Rick’s were silver-ashen.The double’s were a drowning, bottomless void.It took a slow step forward, and the glowing roots beneath the mud recoiled from it as if afraid.Liora whispered behind him, trembling,“Rick… that thing—it's not just copying you. It’s… rejecting you.”Rick didn’t reply.Not because he didn’t hear her—but because the double tilted its head exactly as he would when studying an enemy.Mocking him.It raised one hand.Shadow dripped from its fingertips like ink falling upward.“Why are you here?” Rick asked, voice low.The double grinned—his grin, twisted wrong.“To correct the mistake.”A pulse hit the ground.The earth cracked.The glowing forest flickered like a candle in a storm.Liora stumbled. “Rick, i

The moment Rick steadied himself, the glowing forest changed.The lights dimmed.The colors bled into deeper shades.The roots beneath the soil trembled—as though something enormous had just shifted far, far underground.Liora felt it first.Her ears twitched—subtle, unnatural.“Rick…” she said quietly.“Something heard you reclaim your shadow.”Rick exhaled, steadying his breathing.His shadow moved on its own again—stretching an inch behind him, like a protective animal.“It can hear me?” he asked.Vaelen’s answer came slow, cautious.“Not hear. Recognize.”Rick frowned. “Recognize what?”Vaelen met his gaze.“Your existence.”The trees around them creaked, bending as if under a heavy wind—yet no wind blew.The air thickened.Rick rubbed his chest.The new, merged energy inside him felt unstable—silver and shadow swirling like two storms trying to become one.“I feel like I’m vibrating,” he muttered.“No,” Vaelen corrected.“You’re resonating. And that makes you visible to the an

Rick fell.Not through air—through absence.The world didn’t rush past him. There was no wind, no sense of speed. It felt as if he had been removed from reality and placed somewhere unfinished.Darkness pressed in from every side, thick and heavy, like wet fabric wrapped around his body.Rick tried to breathe.The air answered—barely.His lungs burned as he forced himself to stay calm. Panic would make it worse. Panic always made it worse.Think. Stay awake.His body suddenly struck something solid.Hard.Cold.Rick groaned, rolling onto his side. Stone scraped against his palms. He pushed himself up slowly, vision swimming.The darkness shifted.Not lifted—shifted.As his eyes adjusted, Rick realized he wasn’t alone.The ground beneath him wasn’t stone.It was bones.White fragments, cracked and layered, forming the floor like ancient ruins. Some were human. Some were not. Long spines curved unnaturally. Skulls with too many eye sockets stared up at nothing.Rick swallowed hard.“Ok