The Sovereign’s Shadow: Awakening the Primordial Void

Dying to Live

The roar of the Bone Crusher demon was so loud that Kaelen’s ears started to ring. He pressed his back against the the sealed door, his fingers searching for a handle, a crack, or anything that could give him a way out. There was nothing.

"Why is this happening?" Kaelen whispered, his voice shaking. "It was supposed to be rats. Just rats and slimes."

The small shadow beast at his feet was no longer whining. It had gone completely still, pressed against Kaelen’s ankle. Its tiny body was shivering so hard that Kaelen could feel it through his trousers.

The demon took another step forward. The axe in its hand scraped against the floor, It wasn't in a hurry. It knew Kaelen had nowhere to go.

"Caspian," Kaelen said, the name tasting like poison in his mouth.

He remembered the way Caspian had looked at him in the guild hall. He remembered the smug grin and the bag of gold. It all made sense now. They didn't just want him to fail; they wanted him erased. An E-Rank dying in a dungeon wouldn't cause a single stir in the city. It was the perfect crime.

"You coward," Kaelen choked out, looking up at the ceiling. "You couldn't even face me yourself."

The demon didn't care about Kaelen's anger. It swung the massive axe. Kaelen threw himself to the side, rolling across the wet floor. The axe smashed into the door where his head had been a second ago.

Kaelen scrambled to his feet, his breath coming in short, panicked gasps. He pulled a small, rusted dagger from his belt—the only weapon he could afford. It looked like a toothpick compared to the monster in front of him.

"Stay back!" he yelled, holding the knife out with both hands.

The demon let out a sound that might have been a laugh. It lunged. Kaelen tried to dodge again, but he wasn't fast enough. The demon’s heavy fist caught him in the shoulder, sending him flying across the room.

Kaelen hit the far wall with a sick thud. He fell to the ground, the air knocked out of his lungs. Everything went blurry for a moment. He tried to push himself up, but his left arm wouldn't move. It hung limp at his side, broken and useless.

"Is this it?" Kaelen thought, his eyes stinging with tears. "I’m going to die in the dark, and Elara will never get her medicine. Mila will wait at the fountain until the sun goes down, and I won't be there."

The thought of his sister’s pale face gave him a sudden, desperate surge of energy. He grabbed his dagger with his right hand and crawled toward the demon.

"I’m not dying yet!" he screamed.

He swung the dagger at the demon’s leg. The blade hit the hard skin and snapped in half. The demon didn't even flinch. It looked down at Kaelen with its glowing red eyes and raised its clawed hand.

"I'm sorry, Elara," Kaelen whispered.

The demon’s claws came down. They moved so fast Kaelen couldn't even blink. He felt a pressure in the center of his chest, followed by a heat so intense it felt like he was being burned from the inside.

The claws had gone straight through his ribs.

Kaelen gasped, but no air came in. Only blood. The demon pulled its hand back, and Kaelen slumped to the floor like a broken doll. He could hear the heavy thud of his own heart, getting slower and slower. Each beat felt like a drum fading in the distance.

His blood pooled around him on the dungeon floor. His vision began to turn black at the edges.

Then, he felt something warm and soft move against his neck.

The small shadow beast had crawled out of the darkness. It wasn't running away. It was looking at the hole in Kaelen’s chest. The creature let out a low, strange sound, and then it did something impossible.

It didn't jump or run. It began to melt.

The beast turned into a liquid shadow, bubbling and swirling like ink in water. It flowed toward the wound in Kaelen’s chest, seeping into his skin and wrapping around his broken bones.

"What... what are you doing?" Kaelen tried to say, but only blood came out of his mouth.

Suddenly, a voice erupted in his head. It didn't sound like a beast. It was cold, deep, and filled with a terrifying amount of pride. It sounded like a king speaking from a throne.

"Do you wish to survive, little blood?" the voice asked.

Kaelen’s mind was slipping away into the darkness, but he clung to that voice. He thought of Caspian’s sneer. He thought of his sister’s cold hand.

"Yes," Kaelen screamed in his mind. "Yes! I want to live!"

"Then give me your soul," the voice boomed. "And I will give you the world."

Kaelen didn't hesitate. "Take it! Just let me kill them! Let me save her!"

The moment he said the words, the dungeon exploded with black lightning, the light was dark and filled with a heavy power that seemed to eat the very air.

Kaelen’s body arched off the floor. He felt his bones snapping and knitting back together. The hole in his chest began to close, but it didn't just heal. The shadow beast was weaving itself into his heart, becoming his muscles, his blood, and his very breath.

"It hurts!" Kaelen cried out, but his voice was changing. It was becoming deeper, vibrating with a power that shook the cave.

He watched in horror as his skin turned a palw white, and black veins began to crawl up his arms like vines. The shadow beast was gone, dissolved entirely into his body. He wasn't a man summoning a beast anymore. He was the beast.

The Bone Crusher demon backed away, its red eyes filled with a new emotion: fear. It raised its axe to strike, but Kaelen was already moving.

Kaelen didn't even feel like he was controlling his own legs. He was a blur of black energy. He caught the demon’s axe with one hand. The wood shattered into splinters the moment he touched it.

Kaelen looked at his hand. It was covered in a faint, dark mist. He felt a hunger he had never known before—a hunger for strength, for revenge, for everything.

He lunged at the demon, his fingers sinking into its bone armor. With a single, brutal strength, he tore the monster’s head from its shoulders.

The demon’s body fell to the floor with a massive crash. Silence returned to the dungeon, broken only by Kaelen’s heavy breathing.

Kaelen stood in the center of the room, the black lightning flickering around his fingers. He felt taller. He felt stronger. But he also felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, about to fall into a bottomless pit.

The voice spoke again, sounding much closer now. It was inside his very brain.

"My name is Erebos," the voice said, and Kaelen could almost feel the beast smirking. "And you are lucky you didn't die, little blood."

Kaelen looked down at his hands. They were trembling. "What did you do to me?"

"I saved you," Erebos said. "But do not think this is over. Your human flesh is weak. It is a house made of dry grass. If you try to use all of my power now, you will shatter into a million pieces. Your heart will burst before you can even take a step."

Kaelen tried to walk toward the exit, but his legs gave out. He fell to his knees, his body screaming in pain. The power was too much.

"To survive this hell, we must rebuild you," Erebos whispered, his voice low and deep. "We will stay in the dark. We will train. We will rebuild you from the bone up, until you are strong enough to carry the weight of a god. Only then will we go back for your revenge."

Kaelen looked at the dead demon, then at the sealed door. He realized he wasn't going home tonight. He wasn't going home for a long time.

He closed his eyes and let the darkness take him.