SHADOW KING'S RETURN

Chapter 4

"I have come to reclaim the Shadow Core."

The man in the black cloak emerged from the thick fog with a faint, cold smile. The silver crescent moon emblem on his cloak's chest glowed dimly, as if absorbing the dungeon's last remnants of warmth.

Darius stepped in front of Kai. The hinges of his iron armor clanged loudly as he raised the giant sword in his hand.

“I recognize that emblem,” Darius said. His voice turned icy, as cold as the layer of ice creeping up the walls. "Eclipse."

The robed man’s eyes narrowed slightly. "So there's still a knight's corpse that remembers our name."

Kai stood frozen behind Darius’s broad back. His chest rose and fell erratically as he struggled against the oppressive weight of a thick aura that made his head feel as though it were being crushed.

“Who...who are you, really?” Kai whispered hoarsely.

The man chuckled softly. The sound of his laughter rippled gently, carrying a strange sense of sorrow.

"Ten years ago," the man said, stopping his laughter and staring at Kai with his fiery red eyes, "we were the ones who stood closest to the Shadow King."

He paused deliberately. His pale fingers traced the hem of his robe.

"Then we were also the first to rip open his back and throw him into the depths of the abyss."

Kai’s eyes widened. Those words struck him far harder than the air pressure around him. “What?”

The man raised his right palm into the air. Above his pale skin, a black ball of energy appeared, whirling so rapidly through the air that it produced a sharp, ear-splitting whistle.

"Unfortunately," the man continued, shaking his head, "you're just a poor man who hasn't remembered a thing about that glory."

He widened his smile, revealing thin fangs at the corners of his mouth. "It doesn't matter. We’ll extract the Shadow Core from your body before those memories make you look at us again.”

WHOOSH!

The man vanished as soon as the last word slipped from his lips, blending into the darkness.

In the blink of an eye, he had teleported right in front of Kai. The air was violently displaced as his fist, shrouded in black energy, hurtled toward Kai's face.

CLANG!

Darius's giant sword sliced through the path of the punch. The violent collision of the ancient blade and powerful fist sent out a massive shockwave. The stone floor beneath their feet cracked in all directions, sending dust and concrete fragments flying into the air.

A fierce battle erupted instantly.

Darius and the man in the black cloak exchanged dozens of attacks in a matter of seconds. Flashes of purple light and plumes of black smoke collided repeatedly, creating echoes of impact that shattered the remaining pillars in the dungeon.

Kai was cornered in one corner of the room. He darted his gaze rapidly back and forth, but he could never catch a glimpse of the true forms of the two figures fighting. All he could see were shadows colliding and the screech of metal sparking flames.

"Too weak!" the Eclipse man shouted in the midst of his attack. He grinned when he saw Darius’s movements begin to falter. "The Shadow Core inside that piece of trash's chest has only fused a few percent!"

He dodged Darius’s sword strike by arching his body backward and spinning his feet suddenly.

"Then what's the point of rotten knights like you still breathing?!"

BRAK!

A powerful kick, shrouded in dense energy, struck Darius’s chest plate squarely. The force of the impact sent Darius’s massive body flying into the main stone pillar in the center of the room. The gigantic pillar collapsed instantly, burying Darius beneath shattered concrete debris.

A cloud of dust billowed high into the air.

The Eclipse Man turned slowly and fixed his gaze on Kai, who stood alone and defenseless.

"Now it's your turn, Courier," he whispered softly.

He charged forward. His fingers curved like an eagle’s talons, aiming straight for Kai’s chest, where the black crystal resided.

Kai wanted to run, but his feet were rooted to the concrete. Fear bound every joint in his body. His trembling hands could only rise halfway to shield his face.

Just as the man’s claw was a few centimeters from Kai’s shirt, a transparent black screen flashed before his eyes.

[Danger detected.]

[Shadow Core Synchronization: 5%]

[New skill available: Shadow Step.]

Suddenly, the shadow beneath Kai’s feet thickened without any conscious command. A chill swept through his entire body, from the top of his head to his toes.

Suddenly, the shadow beneath Kai’s feet thickened without any conscious command. A chill swept through his entire body, from his head to his toes.

Whoosh!

His body softened and faded into a cloud of black smoke that merged with the nighttime darkness.

The Eclipse Man’s claws dug into empty air. A fierce blast of wind slammed into the stone wall behind where Kai had been standing, shattering it into a gaping hole.

The man in the black cloak widened his eyes and stared at his palms, which hadn’t touched anything.

A few meters behind him, the cloud of black smoke reformed. Kai fell to his knees, supporting his trembling body with both hands on the ground.

The Eclipse man slowly turned his head and stared at Kai in deep disbelief.

"Impossible..." he whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "You...you can already use Shadow Step?"

Kai stared at his palms, which were still emitting a faint wisp of black vapor. The air around him felt strange, as if it had just allowed his body to pass through unimpeded.

"Did I move?" Kai whispered to himself. His breath came in short gasps as he tried to contain the warm throbbing that was growing stronger in his chest.

Before he could fully comprehend what had happened, a loud noise pierced the night air outside the old building.

WEEOO... WEEOO... WEEOO...

The emergency sirens in Arcadia wailed loudly, blaring at the highest frequency possible to trigger mass panic. The sound echoed from every street corner and reverberated between the skyscrapers.

A violent tremor shook the ground once again, this time far more intensely than before.

Kai looked up through the collapsed roof and walls of an old building. In the night sky above Arcadia, a mass of clouds parted to form a gigantic circle. A spatial rift opened wide, emitting thick, pitch-black mist and spewing suffocating cold air down to the city’s surface.

In the city center, the Hunter Association headquarters was bathed in red floodlights. The sound of an emergency announcement blared from thousands of loudspeakers.

"All Rank A and Rank S Hunters, take your positions immediately!" an officer shouted frantically over the city’s communication network. "A high-level Shadow Gate has been detected! The Shadow Gate has opened!”

Inside the basement ruins, the Eclipse man looked up and gazed at the sky visible through a crack in the building’s ceiling.

His smile slowly widened, stretching so wide that it revealed his entire row of teeth.

"Finally..." the man muttered in a terrifyingly joyful tone. "The gate opened much sooner than we expected."

He turned to look at Kai, who was still sitting weakly on the ground. His eyes glinted with madness and a longing for destruction.

"Shadow King..." The man bowed slightly and waved his hand in the air. "Your war has just begun."

GRAAAAH!

As those words were spoken, the roar of a primordial creature shook the entire city of Arcadia from behind the cracks in the blazing sky. Windows shattered in the skyscrapers and rained down.

A giant, black-scaled hand with claws as sharp as knives and as tall as a skyscraper slowly crawled out of the crack in the sky. It clutched at the edge of the air, trying to tear apart the human world.