The smell of stale coffee and the pungent aroma of cheap perfume in the open office space was enough to make Arel Virel feel like his head was about to split. In front of him, the computer screen flickered lazily, as if mocking the sales targets he never reached. However, that was not the main problem. The main problem was standing right behind his chair, laughing his head off while slapping Arel on the shoulder way too hard. "Hey, Arel! You still alive? I thought you’d starved to death by now since you never earned a single commission this month!" That was Riko’s voice. The office golden boy, the type of guy with a smug face and a smile that made anyone want to punch him until his features were dented. Riko dropped a stack of messy files right on top of Arel’s keyboard. "Deal with this, chump. I’ve got a lunch date with an important client. Don’t touch the crucial parts, or you’ll mess them up like you messed up your life," Riko mocked again, this time followed by laughter from t

"I don't know what you're talking about," Arel snapped, his voice raspy and shaking. He tried to step back, but his legs felt heavy, as if the concrete beneath him had turned into a swamp. "I just want to go home. I just want all of this to stop." The little girl tilted her head, her hair falling to cover part of her face. "Home? Arel, you have no place to call home anymore. Your home is now wherever you set your sights." Arel shut his eyes tight. He tried to ignore the girl, tried to deny the reality that he had just caused a man to collapse with nothing but a dark thought. However, the ink shadow on his shoulder whispered, its voice feeling as if it were crawling deep into his ear canal, cold and tempting. Look at her, Arel. She's just an innocent 'Level 1.' You have far more potential than this little girl. Why are you trembling? Why are you afraid of your own shadow? "Shut up!" Arel barked at the empty air. The people around the bus stop who were previously busy with their ph

The destruction wasn't just a boom in the air, it was a vibration that traveled all the way to Arel's bone marrow. When his feet hit the concrete surface in the alley below the building, his body didn't slam into the ground like a dead weight, he landed with the grace of a predator that had just understood gravity as a suggestion, not an absolute law. Dust swirled, dancing under the light of a street lamp that was flickering its last breaths. Arel stood tall, brushing the remaining dust from his shoulders.Behind him, those two entities, Aelion who glowed with a calm light and Velkris who radiated an ink-black aura, appeared more solid than before. They were no longer just shadows, they were part of the atmosphere surrounding Arel."Quite a dramatic leap, Arel," Velkris's voice rang inside his skull, punctuated by a small laugh that sounded like the scraping of knives. "But you're still too slow. If you want to prove something, show the world that you aren't just an accident waiting t

The light particles that exploded from the red balloon weren't just light, they were sharp dust of reality, piercing Arel's skin until it felt like thousands of needles stabbing his pores. The darkness that followed wasn't merely the absence of light, it was a vacuum that swallowed his breath. Arel lay sprawled on the floor of his now cracking apartment, his body feeling as heavy as lead. Before him, Velkris, the ink entity that had now separated itself, grew towering, filling the narrow room with a posture that no longer resembled a shadow, but rather a monster with impossible body proportions."What are you doing, Velkris?" Arel's voice was hoarse, his throat dry from dust and despair.Velkris didn't answer with words. He only looked down, his face now sharper and more shapeless, staring at Arel with black holes where eyes should be. Beside the monster, Eluni stood calmly, her small fingers playing with the leftover string of the deflated balloon. The girl showed no fear at all, in