Shadowblade:Rise of the Outcast

4:

Black blood gushed. 

The devil is still alive, but shaky. 

"Kael. Shadow is not to kill fast. But to destroy slowly."

The shadow stuck out of Kael's feet, infiltrated the wound of the devil. The creature stretched, roared, until finally his body melted ... turned to ash. 

Kael stood up, gasping. But this time, not because of weakness ... but because of the foreign workers he had just controlled. Wild power, sharp, but united. 

He looked at the sword in his hand. 

"This ... your strength?"

"No. This is our strength."

Silence returned to the cave. But now, Kael is no longer a weak boy who is thrown into death. He is the master of a shadow sword. And shadowblade ... is the key to the new destiny. 

But before he could calm down, the sound of chain and strange sighs could be heard from behind the hallway. 

Kael held his sword tightly. 

Kael's steps stopped in front of a cracked stone wall. The scent of damp soil and dry blood are still attached to the air. His sword - shadowblade - still felt warm in his grasp, as if throbbing slowly following his heartbeat. 

Kael's body is still shrouded in the remaining black energy that forms faint lines on his skin. The foreign taste slowly fused, like the second cold but not painful skin. 

"What just happened?" He muttered, more to himself. 

"You opened the first layer of Shadow Essence," the voice in the head answered. Calm. Certain. "Shadow is a living entity. And they like you."

Kael looked at his hand. There was a small scar from the previous battle. But now, the skin is intact. No blood. There is no pain. 

"I absorbed something ... from that devil?"

"Not only the devil. But also from this land. Black ravine is not just a place of exile. This is the stomach of the world. This is where pure, dirty, and ancient energy resides. Including Shadow Essence."

Kael closed his eyes for a moment. The sound of water dripping in the distance. The cold wind blows, carrying the smell of rotten flowers that grow somewhere. 

The shadow on the wall began to shift. 

"Then, what is the real shadow essence?"

"The shadow is the memory of the darkness. He is not an ordinary magic. He absorbs. He remembers. He grows. You are now a container."

Kael was silent. His soul is still wrestling to accept the fact that he is no longer just a exile boy from the Elhart clan. In the past, he had no energy core. Now, his body is the center of something that he hasn't even fully understood. 

His steps took him to a natural basin on the cave wall. Black water pooled there - diam and did not rippling. But once he approached, his surface reflected his shadow in a strange way. Kael's figure in the reflection ... smiled. 

Kael shuddered. 

"It's not just your shadow," Shadowblade's voice appeared again. "That is the energy of shadow essence in you who began to realize the shape."

Slowly, Kael knelt down on the edge of the puddle. His hands touched the black water. 

In an instant, a flash of memory burst - like an old wound that was forced opened. 

He saw his mother ... his face was scorched, his hands stretched out, protecting something ... then the sound of his uncle's laughter ... Byron's face, his cousin, with a satisfied look when pushing him into a cliff ... 

Kael fell back, his breathing hunted. 

"What's that?!" he shouted in panic. 

"That's shadow recall. The side effects of touching the core of the shadow too quickly. Calm down, it won't hurt you. It reminds you."

Kael closed his eyes, trying to stabilize his breath. His body trembled. But behind that fear, there is something else - amarah. 

The fire that had been extinguished because of insults, ridicule, and betrayal ... began to turn on again. 

He stood slowly, staring at the inundation with a sharper look. His left hand clenched. His right hand held Shadowblade. 

"If this is a force that can avenge all that ... then I will accept it completely."

Suddenly, the surroundings changed. 

The dark wall of the cave seemed to be broken, and from the cracks, the shadow appeared - a crashing like a fog, circling Kael's body, then entered his body. 

Kael was silent, his body lifted a few inches from the ground. His black eyes glowed purple. His body is now coated in a kind of thin layer like a fog shadow. Not armor, but more like the second skin. 

"You have opened the second layer - binding."

Kael landed softly. His body felt lighter, but the inside was full of wild. 

"Is this ... your full power?"

"Not yet." Shadowblade sounds like laughter. "But now, you can start."

Kael smiled faintly. 

From the end of the hall, the sound of footsteps was heard. But that step was not rushed. Not rude. More like ... floating. 

Kael turned his body. From behind the shadow, a dark robe appeared. His face was hidden, but from his body radiating black energy that felt familiar - but older, deeper. 

"You touch the Shadow Essence without a guard." His voice is heavy and deep. "It can kill anyone in an instant. But you ... survive. Even ... developing."

Kael straightened. "Who are you?"

The person did not answer. He raised his hand, and from behind his robe appeared a spinning shadow seal. 

"If you can hold me for three breaths ... then I will teach you to control your shadow. If not, you will belong to the darkness forever."

Kael took a breathing. The exploding show from the man's body. 

Kael lifted shadowblade, his body was filled with new energy. 

Morning fog has not fully subsided when a strange sound echoed from the edge of the village of Elhart - a ground crack, like a big creature stretched from his grave. Villagers who used to prepare merchandise in the market began to turn around, anxiously. 

Not far from there, at the foot of the hill that had been considered forbidden because it faced directly to the black cliff, someone stood still. 

His footsteps are heavy. His clothes are torn in many places, full of mud stains and dry blood. But the most terrible is not his appearance, but rather the look in his eyes. 

Kael Elhart returned. 

Kael looked at the village in the distance. Many things felt strange, even though he knew very well the narrow road, rock houses mossy, even the smell of burning wood from an old workshop at the western end. 

However, no one can extinguish the anger that raged in his chest. They - the big family Elhart, the elders, and especially byron - had thrown it up like trash. All because he does not have a core, the core of energy that is considered sacred. 

They don't know, now his body contains something that is much wilder than that.