Raine stood in the blood-soaked pit, his breaths coming slow and steady. His muscles still pulsed with the power from his last kill, his senses sharper than before.
But despite his growing strength, he wasn't relieved.
He looked at the two survivors standing beside him.
The sharp-eyed man, who had yet to give his name, leaned against a jagged rock, his expression unreadable. The girl with short, dark hair stood completely still, her knuckles stained with dark ichor, her gaze distant.
Three survivors.
Out of hundreds.
A reminder of the cold truth—the Abyss didn't care who you were. Only those strong enough to adapt would live.
And Raine had no intention of dying here.
Above them, the hooded figure watched in silence.
Then, he spoke.
"You have proven your worth. But your journey has only begun."
The iron gates at the far end of the pit creaked open.
"Follow."
A cold command.
Raine glanced at the others. No hesitation. No words.
The three of them stepped forward and entered the darkness beyond.
---
The tunnel was narrow and damp, the air thick with a scent of something ancient.
Raine stayed silent as they walked, his mind racing. Why did the mark react the way it did? Why does it hunger?
His grip tightened. He needed answers.
The sharp-eyed man must have sensed his thoughts.
"Confused about your new power?" he muttered, keeping his voice low.
Raine didn't answer immediately.
The man chuckled. "I told you. You're not the only one marked by the Abyss."
Raine turned to him. "What do you know?"
A smirk. "Enough to keep breathing."
Raine narrowed his eyes. This man was dangerous—not because of brute strength, but because of what he knew.
Before he could press further, the girl spoke for the first time.
"They're watching us."
Raine stopped.
Her tone was emotionless, but her eyes flicked toward the shadows clinging to the walls.
Raine focused—and then he saw them.
Figures, cloaked in darkness, barely distinguishable from the shadows themselves. They watched, unmoving, their eyes faintly glowing.
Whispers filled the tunnel.
Raine's pulse quickened. Not human.
The sharp-eyed man exhaled. "Great. The Watchers."
Raine turned to him. "What are they?"
"Prisoners who failed."****"Or maybe something worse."
Raine's jaw tightened.
They kept walking.
The whispers never stopped.
---
The tunnel opened into another chamber.
Raine stopped in his tracks.
It was massive—a ruined cathedral, its walls carved from black stone, its ceiling lost to shadows.
At its center stood a massive altar, surrounded by heavy, rusted chains.
And at the top of the altar—
A throne.
Occupied.
The figure sitting there wasn't human.
Tall, cloaked in deep violet robes, its face hidden behind an intricate mask of bone and gold. The air around it twisted, as if the very fabric of reality struggled to contain its presence.
It didn't speak.
It simply raised a hand.
The chains moved.
Before Raine could react, they shot toward him.
He dodged. Barely.
A sudden scream from the girl—she wasn't fast enough. The chains wrapped around her wrists, her throat, her legs.
The sharp-eyed man was already moving, dodging the chains with a sharp, fluid motion.
Raine gritted his teeth. No time to think.
The chains came for him again.
This time—
He didn't dodge.
Instead—he reached out.
The moment his fingers touched the metal, his mark burned.
The chains reacted.
Dark energy surged from his palm, racing through the links. For a brief second, they hesitated. Twitched.
Raine's eyes widened.
They can be controlled.
The entity on the throne tilted its head.
Then—
It spoke.
A voice that wasn't a voice. A whisper that echoed inside Raine's skull.
"A Shadowbearer… has arrived."
The chains exploded outward.
Raine barely had time to move before the entire chamber shifted.
---
The world blurred.
When Raine's vision cleared, he was standing alone.
The chamber had vanished.
Instead, he stood in a void.
Endless darkness stretched in every direction, the ground beneath him cold and cracked.
And before him—
The figure from the throne.
No longer seated, no longer distant. It stood only a few feet away, its masked face unreadable.
"You do not belong here."
Raine's pulse pounded.
"What do you mean?"
The figure didn't answer. Instead, it raised a hand.
Darkness surged.
Raine's mark burned hotter than ever.
And then—
Pain.
It wasn't physical. It was deeper than that. Like something was trying to pull him apart from the inside.
"You are incomplete."
Raine gritted his teeth. "Then complete me."
A pause. Then—
A whisper, cold and final.
"Very well."
The figure lunged.
And Raine's world turned to black.
---
He woke gasping.
Pain still lanced through his body, but he was alive.
The chamber was back. The throne was empty.
The sharp-eyed man and the girl were beside him, both breathing heavily, their marks glowing faintly.
Something had changed.
Raine clenched his fists.
His mark felt different.
Stronger. Deeper. As if something had settled inside him.
And for the first time—he heard a voice, low and distant, in the back of his mind.
"Hunger. Devour. Become."
Raine exhaled.
He didn't know what had just happened.
But he knew one thing.
He was no longer the same.
And whatever he was becoming—
The Abyss had just taken its first step inside him.