“Throw him out.”The command fell like a blade. Eddy Morphy didn’t move at first. He simply stood there, his fingers tightening slowly at his sides, as if the words needed time to pierce through bone before reaching his heart.“Did you not hear me?” his stepmother’s voice sharpened, cold and precise. “Or has grief made you deaf as well as useless?”A faint murmur rippled through the grand hall. Eddy lifted his gaze. The chandeliers above still burned brightly, their flames steady, protected, well-fed, untouchable by the darkness outside. The same flames his mother had once maintained.Now, they felt like mockery. “I heard you,” Eddy said quietly.His voice was calm. Too calm. That alone made a few of the onlookers shift uncomfortably.Standing at the center of the hall, dressed in worn black, he looked nothing like the eldest son of the Morphy family. No crest. No ornaments. No recognition. Only absence.Frank Morphy stepped forward with a scoff. “Then why are you still standing there

“Fuse.”The word didn’t echo. It consumed. The instant it left Eddy’s lips, the ring burned like molten iron against his skin. A violent surge of energy tore through his veins, raw, invasive, unnatural.And then, the world fractured. Not visually. But fundamentally. The flame, the darkness, the creature, everything blurred into shifting layers of light and shadow, as though reality itself had been peeled apart and exposed.Eddy’s breath caught. Then the system spoke again.Active Fusion Initiated]Target Locked: Eerie Entity – Unknown ClassificationWarning: Compatibility – Extremely LowOverride Condition: Critical SurvivalProceed?The creature was already mid-lunge. Its hollow eyes burned brighter, hungry, furious, aware. “…light… give…”Eddy didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”Pain, not sharp, not sudden, but total. It flooded his body all at once, bones, nerves, blood, like something foreign was forcing itself into every inch of his being.Eddy’s scream tore out of him before he could stop i

“…now… it’s my turn…”The whisper slid against Eddy’s ear like a blade made of ice. Too close. Too real. Eddy didn’t turn immediately. He couldn’t.Because every instinct in his body screamed the same warning, If you move, it will strike.The mine had gone silent again. Not the tense silence of danger. But the suffocating stillness of something already inside the danger. “Master… Eddy…” the servant’s voice trembled, barely holding together. “Don’t look…”Eddy exhaled slowly. “…too late,” he muttered.He turned. Nothing stood there. No creature. No shadow. Only space beside him, faintly distorted, like heat rising from burning stone. But his system didn’t agree.WARNING: Entity Proximity – 0.3 meters]Detection Failure: Visual Confirmation ImpossibleClassification: Unknown / ConcealedEddy’s pupils shrank. “…invisible…”A soft chuckle echoed. “…not invisible…”The air shifted. A faint outline formed barely perceptible, like darkness trying to imitate a human shape but failing to hold

The abyss below pulsed like a living wound. Darkness shifted and writhed, alive with intent, and every instinct in Eddy screamed that this was no ordinary fight.The Forge Heart inside him throbbed violently, responding to the unseen entity’s presence. White flame coursed through his veins, mingling with the black tendrils of corruption he had absorbed from the Eerie Spawn. Pain and power, fused, became clarity.“Master Eddy… we can’t survive this!” the servant shouted, struggling to keep footing on the crumbling mine floor. “The abyss… it’s”“Not yet,” Eddy interrupted, his voice sharp. “I control this. I decide who lives and dies.”The abyss shivered, a low hum vibrating through stone and bone. From its depths, shadows began to rise, thousands of them, faster and larger than any he had fought before.Their forms were inconsistent, flickering between animal shapes, humanoid silhouettes, and impossible geometries.Each pulse of darkness was synchronized with the heartbeat of the Forge

The figure stepped from the depths of the abyss, tall, imposing, and suffused with an aura of black flame and living shadow. Every inch of the air around him warped, vibrating as though reality itself recoiled in fear.Eddy’s chest heaved. The Forge Heart pulsed violently, white flame and black corruption twisting together like twin serpents. Every instinct screamed: this was not a creature he could fight with brute force.“…so… " You finally awaken,” the figure said, voice deep, resonant, laced with both recognition and menace. “…my son…”Eddy’s heart skipped. The truth hit him like a hammer. “…Father?”The figure tilted his head. Black flame licked across his shoulders, coiling and reshaping as though alive. “…you carry her mark, yet defy me… remarkable.”The abyss shivered violently. Stone cracked. Magma veins ruptured. The shadows that had previously recoiled now surged forward, not at Eddy, but around him, responding to the figure’s will.The mine twisted and reshaped itself as i