He learns to move through darkness undetected.The tunnel was still trembling.Dust drifted from cracks in the ceiling as if the earth itself feared making too much noise around him. Kain stood amid the ruin he’d created breathing slowly now, but every inhale still carried a tremor of leftover rage.Eira stood several feet away, keeping a careful, respectful distance. She had seen Awakened lose control before… but nothing like this.Kain wasn’t just powerful.He was becoming something else.Something the Dominion fearedand something the shadows seemed to want.Eira finally broke the silence.“…What are you now?”Kain didn’t look at her. His eyes were fixed on his own hands hands still trembling, still stained with darkness that pulsed beneath the skin like ink moving on its own.“I don’t know,” he whispered.A harsh ache stabbed through his chest as the memory of Talia’s capture hit him again. Cipher’s cold voice. The Red Room’s glow. Talia’s fingers slipping from his grip.They took

The vision begins to come true.The elevator doors slide open with a cold metallic hiss.A rush of frigid air spills out, brushing over Kain’s face like skeletal fingers. The temperature drops instantly. His breath turns to mist. The hallway before him glows with a dim, pulsing crimson light steady, slow, rhythmic, like the heartbeat of a monster.He knows this place.He’s seen it before.In the Echo.A knot forms in his stomach, twisting so hard he almost doubles over. The shadows around him ripple, reacting to his fear, tugging at him like they want to pull him backward.“Not this time,” he whispers.He steps out.His boots echo on the polished black floor. Every step triggers a faint thrum in the walls, as if the building recognizes him… and disapproves.His shadow stretches behind him too long, too sharp like it wants to break free again.He inhales slowly, pushing it down.One wrong surge of emotion, and he might lose control.The corridor bends left, then right, then dips slight

Kain’s consciousness drifted in and out like a dying flame fighting against wind. Sounds came first boots clicking against metal, distant humming, the low hiss of oxygen. Then the cold registered. Icy metal beneath him. A stale clinical smell that made his stomach churn.Not again.He forced his eyes open.A bright, white light stabbed deep into his skull. He groaned and turned his face away.He was on a medical cot restraints across his wrists and ankles. Not tight, but present. A warning more than a prison.His throat burned. His chest ached with every breath. Every muscle screamed. Cipher’s assault had carved deep wounds inside him physical, emotional, mental. His shadow felt sluggish, heavy, like it had been drowned.Then he remembered.“Talia”“Alive.”The voice came from across the room.Kain’s head jerked up.A man in a dark-grey Dominion uniform sat casually on a metal chair, one leg crossed over the other. No mask. No gloves. His face was calm, handsome in a cold, dead way.

The alarms were still screaming through Dominion HQ as Kain and the Elder slipped through the fractured door. The lights flickered violently half red, half dead, as if the building was trying to stay alive but failing.Kain’s body ached with every step.His right hand throbbed in broken angles.His ribs felt cracked.His head still rang from Cipher’s mental attack.His shadow clung to him like a wounded animal, weak and slow-moving.They weren’t going to get far.The Elder moved ahead, shadow cloak rippling with each step. His ancient eyes scanned the hallway.“Hurry,” he growled. “This tower is descending into lockdown. Doors will seal. Gas will flood the lower floors.”Kain forced himself forward. “I… I’m trying.”The Elder shot him a dark look. “Trying will get you killed. Moving will save you.”Kain tried again but his breath hitched. The adrenaline was fading fast, and every injury screamed harder.His shadow struggled to keep up.It trembled.It flickered.It felt… scared.Kain

Dominion Headquarters was a steel labyrinth drenched in red alarms and pounding footsteps. The entire building felt alive angry, hunting, vibrating with the fury of an empire whose prey had slipped its leash.Kain staggered through the smoke-filled hallway, one arm wrapped tightly around Talia’s waist. She leaned into him, barely conscious, breath shallow, lips pale. The restraints Cipher used on her had left ugly burns across her wrists. Her knees buckled with every step.“Stay with me,” he whispered, pulling her closer.Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused. “Kain… you came…”“Always.”He had no idea how far they had to go. Every corridor looked the same metallic walls, emergency lights strobing crimson, the sound of armored boots hammering toward them from every direction.His Shadow Cloak flickered around him, unstable, shimmering like liquid darkness peeling away from his skin. He was exhausted. He’d taken too many hits. He had pushed his powers far beyond anything he’d ever tried.