"Designation confirmed. You may call me… Shade."
Adrien tilted his head. "Shade? That's it? Sounds like something a twelve-year-old would name their pet cat."
"It fits. Neither of us belongs in the light."
Adrien let out a short laugh. "Yeah, well… lucky for us, I burn easy anyway."
Shade didn't answer right away, just adjusted its tone.
"I'll guide you. Correct you when you slip. Keep you alive. Think of me as… the friend you didn't get."
Adrien frowned. "That's depressing. Guess I can't fire you, huh?"
"You can try. But you'd only be hurting yourself."
Adrien rubbed his face, groaning. "Great. So now I've got a voice in my head that's half babysitter, half reflection in a dirty mirror. My life just keeps getting cooler."
Nyxaris lifted its head, eyeing him as if even it thought he sounded ridiculous. Adrien shoved the wolf gently with his boot. "Don't look at me like that. This is not my fault."
Shade chuckled quietly.
"This is going to be interesting."
----
The next morning, the city was already awake. Merchants shouted over one another, smoke curled from food stalls, and the clang of steel rang from the training pits outside the gates.
Adrien stepped into a quiet stretch of sand just beyond the walls. Fenrik and Galvir were arguing nearby about maps, leaving him space. Nyxaris prowled the edge, watching.
"Alright, Shade," Adrien muttered, summoning the system window with a flick of thought. "You said you could help. Prove it. Phantom Echo — let's see if you're worth the headache."
Shadow rippled from his feet. The Echo formed beside him — a half-transparent copy, shoulders hunched, blade in hand. It looked like him, but weaker, slower. When Adrien lunged, the Echo stumbled a half-second behind, its strike off-balance.
"Pathetic," Adrien spat.
Shade's voice slid into his mind. Calm. Direct.
"You're treating it like a shadow puppet. That's your mistake. Stop controlling it like a limb. Think of it like a partner."
Adrien scowled. "It isn't a partner. It's a broken mirror."
"Then fix the mirror. Don't force it to follow. Let it predict you."
Adrien clenched his teeth. He tried again — another slash, another stumble. The Echo lagged. He cursed.
"You're overthinking. Breathe. Let it read you, not copy you. It carries half your strength — but only half your trust."
Adrien paused, blade raised. For once, he let go of control. He swung, not with command, but with instinct.
The Echo moved alongside him — this time not stumbling, but striking in the same instant. Steel cut air with twin slashes.
The sand split with two grooves.
Adrien blinked. The Echo vanished in a flicker of shadow. His chest heaved, sweat dripping. "That… felt different."
"Better. You're still sloppy, but at least now it fights like you mean it."
Adrien smirked faintly, brushing sweat off his forehead. "So basically, I just learned to trust myself."
"Or the part of yourself you keep chained. Call it whichever makes you sleep easier."
Adrien's smile faded. He didn't answer that. Nyxaris padded closer, brushing against his leg, crimson eyes locked on where the Echo had been.
Shade's voice lingered, softer now.
"This is just the start. If you master the Echo, you won't just fight with yourself. You'll fight beside yourself."
Adrien twirled the blade in his hand, staring at the empty sand. For the first time, the idea of not being alone in battle felt less like a dream — and more like a weapon.
-------
The tavern felt distant — laughter, clattering mugs, smoke thick in the air. Adrien sat hunched at a shadowed table, eyes fixed on the jagged shard resting in his palm. Its faint pulse throbbed like a buried heart.
"Alright," he muttered, "show me what you're hiding."
The system flickered awake:
[System Notice]
— Resonance initiated —
— Accessing sealed record… —
For a moment, silence. Then, faint words scrolled across his vision like they were etched into old stone:
Name: Al'thoris
Designation: The First Crystal
Nature: Not born of this world. Not forged by mortal hand.
And then, softer, blurred like torn parchment:
Myth fragments — Origin.
They weren't Shade's words. They weren't the system's. They were older, carried on the shard itself:
"When the sky split, a hunter of gods struck something higher than divinity itself.
From the wound of that clash, Al'thoris fell — a shard of what the slayer severed, a memory cut free from the root of reality."
Adrien's pulse quickened.
"A hunter of gods…? You mean—"
Shade interrupted, tone sharper than usual:
Shade: "Not a hunter. A Godslayer. The first of them.
Whoever they were, they didn't just kill — they wounded existence. This shard is the scar."
The system's text bled out, final lines glowing faintly before fading:
Record: Those who bear Al'thoris cannot be erased. Their steps remain, even against the will of gods.
Adrien stared at the shard, feeling its unnatural weight, as though it wasn't stone at all but a piece of absence made solid.
He whispered the name again, quieter this time.
"…Al'thoris."
Shade's voice lingered like a second thought in his mind.
"You're not just chasing power, Adrien. You're chasing the myth that started us all."
-----
The desert night was cooler here, softened by the emerald shimmer of the forest-oasis just beyond the city's sandstone walls. Adrien leaned against the tavern balcony rail, watching lanterns sway below as merchants and hunters traded their stories of the day. The noise felt… alive, and for once, not hostile.
Nyxaris curled at his feet, half-shadow, half-solid, its crimson eyes watching the crowd with almost human curiosity.
Fenrik had taken off hours ago. The last Adrien saw, the nephilim-werewolf was sparring with city guards in the arena—half-training, half proving he wasn't some cursed beast. Galvir meanwhile had buried himself in the forge district, hammering steel with dwarven pride, muttering something about a weapon "worthy of songs."
Adrien? He was trying not to think too hard. Which of course meant he thought too hard.
He opened his hand, letting shadows coil from his palm. They licked outward like living smoke before clinging to one another, shaping into a second figure. His own figure.
The Phantom Echo.
It stood there—his copy—smirking with his exact grin. Adrien tilted his head. The Echo mirrored him. But the longer it stood, the more cracks in the shadow rippled along its form. The copy raised a mock eyebrow.
Adrien chuckled. "Yeah, you're not fooling anyone yet. Fifty percent me is still half a disaster."
The Echo faded with a ripple. Adrien frowned, then tried again. This time, instead of forcing shadows, he let them flow. Shade's voice stirred in his mind—calm, not cryptic.
"You're rushing it. Shadows don't obey like soldiers—they echo. Think of them as memory, not muscle."
Adrien inhaled. He pictured the rhythm of his own stance, the weight of his body shifting as if about to strike. When he released his breath, the Echo emerged again, sharper this time. Its footing was real. Its outline—solid enough to cast its own faint blur of shadow.
Adrien grinned. "Okay… that's way better."
The Phantom Echo flexed its hands—his hands—and for once, didn't collapse immediately.
---
A faint ripple blinked across his vision. Adrien blinked, and the tavern balcony vanished into a black-lacquered interface burning faint silver glyphs.
[ Abyss Market Activated ]
Current Balance: 4,750 SP | 2 Memory Shards | 15 Blood Tokens
Adrien exhaled slowly. "Guess it's shopping time."
The categories shimmered before him.
["Abyss Market" System Shop]
[1] Artifacts
[2] Skills & Abilities
[3] Beast Cores & Summons
[4] Fragments of Memory
[5] Potions & Boosters
[6] Crafting Materials
[7] World Keys
Adrien's eyes drifted to [2] Skills & Abilities.
---
[ Skills & Abilities Catalog ]
Shadowstep (1,500 SP): Blink short distances between shadows.
Umbral Guard (3,200 SP): Raise a barrier of condensed shadow for 5 seconds.
Twin Echo Upgrade (4,000 SP): Phantom Echo now mirrors 75% of user power.
Limited-Time Offer: "Shadebound Resonance" (Mystery Skill) — 3,000 SP. No description available.
---
Adrien rubbed his temple. "You've gotta be kidding me. Why does the one with no info always look the coolest?"
Shade answered dryly:
"Because temptation is cheap. Power never is."
Adrien chuckled under his breath. "You sound like Galvir. If Galvir was a moody ghost in my head."
He didn't buy anything yet. Not tonight. Instead, he tapped the "Mystery Box" option—just to look.
[ Mystery Box — 5,000 SP ]
Available once per week. Contains 1 random rare artifact or ability.
Adrien sighed. "Of course it's more than I've got. Story of my life."
The interface flickered, then receded, leaving him back on the balcony with Nyxaris watching him silently. Adrien ruffled the wolf's smoky fur.
"Don't give me that look. I'll get us something good eventually."
---
The night passed with laughter from the tavern below, the clang of Galvir's hammer in the forge district, and the distant howls of Fenrik sparring until the moon was high.
Adrien leaned back, arms folded, watching his faint Echo practice shadow-steps across the balcony like a younger brother mimicking him.
For once, it wasn't sinister. It wasn't heavy. It was just… progress.