The Ultimate Awakener

Shadow God

When Elion’s body was fully restrained on the dark altar, Derick walked toward him and relaxed his hands on both sides of where his head lay. He sneered into his face before speaking:

“I want this to be fast and easy—but before that, I have one question for you. Unlike any other kids I’ve seen, why are you older? All the kids whose cores I’ve extracted so far were effortless to manipulate.”

Derick was stunned. He knew that all the newly awakened dreamers whose minds were channeled into the Shadow Realm were below thirteen years old. This was the first time he had met someone a little more mature.

“How old are you…?” Derick asked, but silence was all Elion gave him.

“I’m talking to you, brat. What’s your damn fucking age?”

Once again, silence was Elion’s answer. In the next second, Elion spat on Derick’s face.

“Go to hell, you bastard. So your job is killing innocent kids.”

Derick stumbled backward. He wiped the saliva from his face, then returned to Elion and landed a sharp slap across his face. “You don’t disrespect me that way, you brat.”

He began to strangle Elion, but his men rushed over and dragged him back. “Boss, do you want to kill the child before extraction? You fully know we can’t extract the core of a dead human.”

Derick gasped, then yanked his hands free from their grip. He walked over to a stone placed on a rotating flat platform. The stone had sharp edges, and when aligned with the moon, it would shoot out a beam of light that struck the dark altar. That was when the extraction would begin.

Before fully pushing the stone into position under the moonlight, Derick sneered before speaking:

“All the stories I told you about my family and my son—they were all lies. I wish you a safe journey into the afterlife. Maybe there you’ll see your dead father.”

After those words, Derick laughed darkly.

At that moment, the stone platform aligned with the shining moon, and a beam of light shot toward the altar. At the same time, the writings etched around the altar began to glow.

Elion felt the altar heating up with every passing second. The men watched, jubilant.

The truth was that these men were scavengers. Their task was to extract cores from awakeners. They had done it countless times before. That was why most teenagers never woke up after entering the Shadow Realm through the Dream-Piercer device.

It wasn’t monsters killing them all this time—it was these men. After extracting the cores, they sold them on the market for enormous fortunes.

Derick’s entire story had been lies, fabricated to make Elion feel safe and let his guard down.

Usually, they casually took kids into custody using their attribute abilities and brought them to the dark temple. They had never expected to meet a grown boy as mature as Elion.

Elion felt his skin burning. He screamed in pain as the men laughed. Derick, meanwhile, remained focused. All he wanted was the core—nothing else.

Then, suddenly, everything went silent. Even the men couldn’t hear their laughter. The moon shining above was swallowed by dark smoke.

The interruption suspended the entire process of the extraction.

Derick desperately darted his eyes around, searching for the cause. When he realized the moon had been covered, his heart sank. Something was wrong. They had never experienced this before.

They had discovered the dark temple years ago and learned the mechanics of core extraction. Over all those years, nothing like this had ever happened.

“What’s happening? Why did the process stop?”

“Could it be those creatures again? But it’s too early.”

Ziko and Brian panicked as they spoke.

“This isn’t supposed to happen,” Derick thought, staring at the dark clouds that hovered directly above the temple.

In the next second, Ziko’s eyes caught sight of something terrifying. He fell to his knees, pointing at it as he spoke desperately:

“Look over there—there’s something floating in the air.”

Brian and Derick soon saw it too, and both froze. The dark magic emitting from the entity was overwhelming, making it feel as if their skin were being ripped from their bodies.

What floated before them wore a cloak—a dark figure no different from a shadow. Inside the cloak lay only endless darkness.

The men braced themselves as they took a strong stance on the ground. Brian activated his levitation ability and hurled rocks toward the figure, but an invisible shield stopped them all.

Meanwhile, Derick, whose attribute was fire-based, unleashed barrages of flames from his hands. It was useless. The invisible shield was too strong—none of their attacks passed through.

Elion remained bound to the altar, his back burning from the heated runes. He stared in horror at the floating figure.

The entity did not move, only watched as attacks rained upon him.

“What the fuck are you?” Ziko growled, gritting his teeth as he conjured a lightning bolt, which is also one of his awakening attributes.

He hurled it toward the entity, but the attack dispersed as if it were nothing.

Enraged, Ziko shouted at the figure, his voice shaking with fury:

“Why the hell aren’t you attacking? You’re underestimating us, you ba—”

He never finished the word.

In the next second, Ziko’s head was severed cleanly from his body by an invisible force. His corpse split apart instantly.

“Ahhhh!”

That was when the men realized they were in grave danger—but they never got a chance to run. They were all split in half by the same unseen force.

Meanwhile, the entity never moved an inch. It was just there, floating and watching.

When the men were dead, it drifted toward Elion. Dark, cloudy hands stretched forward and pressed against Elion’s chest. Then it began to chant.

[Vis tenebrosa mille umbrarum, mitte benedictiones dignorum et da possessori potentiam dei umbrae.]

Meaning:

[Dark force of a thousand shadows, send forth the blessings of the worthy and grant to the possessor the power of the Shadow God.]