The space around them twisted, reality folding in on itself like a broken mirror struggling to hold its shape.
Vieira barely had time to react before the floor beneath his feet cracked open like a mouth, swallowing him into a void of shifting shadows. He felt his body lurch forward, his surroundings warping.
Then.....he was alone.
The fluorescent hospital lights above him flickered, revealing a desolate hallway. Peeling walls, gurneys overturned, and deep claw marks lining the floor as if something had been dragged. The air was thick with an unsettling energy, as if the place itself was breathing.
Vieira clenched his fists. "Kenji? Aya?" His voice echoed, but no response came.
Meanwhile, in different parts of the domain.....Kenji and Aya found themselves under attack.
Kenji grunted as two regular Shadows lunged at him. "Tch.... persistent bastards." His sword was already drawn, the glow of his soul energy tracing along its edge. With a swift, precise slash, he cut through the first Shadow, watching as it dissolved into wisps of black mist.
Aya, on the other hand, had landed in what seemed to be a storage room, but the walls crawled with tendrils of shadow, twisting unnaturally. Her threads shot out, catching an incoming Shadow before it could strike. "Noisy," she muttered, pulling the threads tight..... forcing the Shadow into submission like a tangled puppet.
But Vieira…
Vieira was face-to-face with something worse.
A slow, heavy breath echoed from the darkness ahead. A figure stepped forward, its form shifting unnaturally, as if it wasn't entirely solid. The Emerged Shadow's glowing hollow eyes locked onto Vieira.
Then..... it grinned.
"Strange... you feel different."
Vieira took a step back, his instincts screaming at him.
The Shadow tilted its head, as if listening to something only it could hear.
"Yes... You're unlike the others."
Vieira's breath hitched. What the hell is it talking about?
Then, in a blur of movement, the Shadow lunged.
Vieira barely dodged, rolling to the side as the ground where he stood cracked apart under the sheer force of the attack.
His heart pounded. "Shit..... this thing's fast!"
But the Shadow didn't strike again.
It just stood there, watching him. Studying him.
Then, in a voice dripping with amusement, it spoke again.
"Yes… I will devour you."
And with that, the real fight began.