The dirt under Aiden's body hissed.
Smoke curled up from the edges of his wound. The grass around his back began to smolder. His breath came in short, rattling bursts—and then steadied.
He rose.
Not slowly. Not weakly.
Like a puppet with cut strings reattached, he pushed himself up in a single, stiff motion. His eyes opened—glowing faint green. Not like a system alert. Not like Kael's faded undead gaze. These burned with something alive.
Something angry.
Steam poured from the hole in his side where the creature's limb had punched clean through. But there was no blood. Not anymore. Just that soft green fire flickering from inside him like someone had set his soul on fire.
Farren stepped back, eyes wide. The Miresit on his shoulder hissed and leapt to the ground, scrambling away.
"Hey—hey, wait!" Aiden's voice came out deeper. Warped at the edges. "Back off, both of you."
His hands clenched into fists.
Then burst into flame.
Not red. Not orange.
Emerald.
The fire crawled up his arms, veins lit beneath his skin like glowing cracks in dark glass. He didn't scream. Didn't hesitate.
His feet left scorch marks as he stepped forward.
The creature paused.
Just for a second. Just long enough to flicker—like it was reevaluating the situation. Kael stood nearby, steadying himself against a broken tree trunk. His armor was dented, his sword arm trembling.
But when he saw Aiden walking, flames bleeding off his skin and eyes glowing like hell's afterburn, he laughed once—dry and sharp.
"Well," Kael said, dragging his blade across his leg to shake off the blood. "Where the hell was this last night?"
Aiden didn't answer. He couldn't. His throat felt too hot, too tight. The flames licking from his chest made it hard to think straight, let alone talk.
But he didn't need to speak.
Bones charged first, bounding around Aiden's right with a speed that split the leaves off the branches in his path. His growl was low, lethal. The creature lunged to meet him—but something was different this time.
Bones wasn't trying to pin it.
He was herding it.
The black-glass monster twisted mid-air, trying to melt backward—but Kael was already there, sword flashing in a downward arc. It dodged the blow—barely.
And then Aiden was on it.
He didn't lunge. He just moved.
One foot forward, the ground ignited. His fist hit the creature in the shoulder—and green flame erupted across its skin like oil on water. The black matter writhed and shrieked, pulling back.
Aiden followed. Not with technique. Not with style. Just with fury.
His second swing missed. His third clipped the side of its head, leaving a smear of smoldering green fire behind. The beast shot a limb toward him—but as it stabbed into his arm, the flame swallowed the wound.
It hissed. Then healed.
Aiden stared at the limb still stuck through his forearm.
He smiled.
Then let it burn.
The fire traveled from his veins to the creature's body like a rope soaked in oil. It lit instantly. The monster retracted the limb, howling in that broken, radio-static sound—but Aiden didn't give it space.
He kicked it in the chest, and flame exploded outward, sending it crashing into the tree line.
The creature bounced—once—then vanished into shadow.
A beat of silence.
Kael exhaled. "That was… not what I expected from a kid in a hoodie."
Aiden turned to him, green fire flickering off his collar.
"I'm not sure I'm in control," he said, voice distorted at the edges.
Kael shrugged. "You're alive. You're moving. That's enough."
A ripple in the trees.
Bones snapped his head up and bolted to the right.
Aiden followed without thinking, sprinting like the flame was pushing him forward instead of backward. He could feel the fire inside him reinforcing his legs, his arms—like it replaced his blood with something faster.
The creature dropped from a tree, limbs reconfiguring mid-air, turning into something between a spear and a scythe.
Kael intercepted it, sword clashing mid-swing, deflecting the worst of it—but not all. The thing flicked sideways and slashed across Kael's chest.
He grunted, staggered—
—and Aiden grabbed the blade.
The blade burned in Aiden's hand like it belonged there. Fire wrapped around the metal like it had been waiting for someone to set it free.
But the weight—
The weight was wrong.
He lunged with it once—too wide. The blade dragged behind him.
Swung again—too slow. The creature had already shifted sideways, slithering past the arc with a shimmer of glitching limbs.
Aiden gritted his teeth, trying to adjust. His flames poured into the steel with every heartbeat, casting green light across the clearing like a wildfire reflected on water.
It looked beautiful.
But he wasn't in control.
The blade pulled at his balance, his reach too long, his footing off. His muscles weren't used to this kind of movement—he was used to fists, bursts, instinct.
Not form.
Not steel.
He growled, ducked under a whip-like strike, and stepped back—blade raised in a clumsy guard.
Kael was there in a flash, sidestepping beside him.
"You're feeding it too much," Kael said, breathing heavy. "It's overflowing."
"I thought it'd help."
Kael raised a brow. "It does."
He held out his hand.
Aiden hesitated, then placed the sword back in Kael's grip.
The flame didn't die.
It flickered. Then merged with Kael.
His arm took on a faint glow. His eyes caught a gleam of emerald.
He looked down at the blade like it had just remembered its name.
Then he turned to Aiden.
"Watch close, rookie."
Aiden stepped back, still burning, still panting—but something in him calmed.
He trusted Kael.
Bones circled the clearing, keeping the creature hemmed in. It flickered from form to form, increasingly unstable—its limbs twitching erratically, its light-bending body stuttering like a broken illusion.
Kael walked.
Not ran.
Walked.
Sword low. Body loose. Eyes locked.
The monster struck first.
A wild blur of limbs and shadow lashed toward Kael in a chaotic burst.
Kael dodged the first. Parried the second. Let the third scrape his shoulder without flinching.
Then he lifted the sword with both hands, flame spilling down the length of it like liquid light.
A breath.
A stance Aiden had never seen before.
And then—
He moved.
Kael's body blurred.
His foot planted hard—and the flame erupted.
The sword carved a spiral through the air. A full circle—no wasted motion, no recovery needed. A full-body twist that turned momentum into fire, and fire into speed, and speed into finality.
The ground beneath the slash caught fire.
The arc of emerald light split the air itself.
It struck the creature clean through.
The impact let out a low, distorted boom—like a thunderclap underwater.
The creature shrieked—not in rage, not in pain.
In disbelief.
Its limbs fell apart mid-form. Its torso shredded into fragments of black mist. Each piece tried to pull away, to reform, to escape.
The light caught it.
Burned it.
And for the first time since the fight began—it didn't come back.
It collapsed into nothing. No body. No shadow. Just a trembling puddle of flickering black fog—
—and at the center, a dull, pulsing light.
Aiden took a shaky step forward, flames dimming slightly across his skin.
The forest was silent again.
Kael stood with the sword lowered, its edge still glowing faint green, smoke drifting from the tip.
Bones paced in a slow circle, watching the last twitch of mist dissolve like dust into moonlight.
And the light at the center pulsed again.
The System's tone chimed—lower than normal.
[New Ability Detected – Unclaimed Soul Signature Located]
Status: Unique Entity Defeated
Soul Core Available
Soulbind Unavailable.
Alternate Option Detected:
• Absorb Soul?
This will imprint a trait or skill into the host body.
Side Effects: Variable
Sentience Risk: Low
Accept Absorption? [Y/N]
Aiden stared at the message, his body still smoldering. The flames curled slowly back into his chest, quiet now, as if waiting.
"Another one of your windows?" Kael asked quietly, walking up beside him.
Aiden nodded.
Kael didn't push.
"What does it want?"
"To absorb it."
Kael looked at the flickering soul core hovering just above the grass. "What happens if you do?"
"I don't know."
Kael gave a half-smirk. "Guess we find out."
Aiden reached forward.
The instant his hand touched the light—it disappeared.
No flash. No explosion.
Just a cold pull inside his chest. Like something slotted into place.
And then the System spoke again.
[Skill Acquired – LIVING SHADOW – Lv.1]
You have absorbed a corrupted soul. Its traits have bound to your form.
• Your shadow may act on instinct in low-light or confined areas
• You gain improved speed and strength when partially or fully submerged in shadow
• Shadow Sync: Your shadow may briefly separate to strike or defend
This skill will evolve through combat, connection, and soul alignment.
[Warning: This soul retains partial awareness. Observe carefully.]
Aiden looked down.
His shadow stretched unnaturally across the grass.
Not matching the angle of the sun.
Not… behaving like a shadow should.
It pulsed once.
Then flickered back to normal.
Kael was still beside him, blade resting on one shoulder. "Well?"
"I've got a sentient shadow now," Aiden said flatly.
Kael grunted. "Neat."
Aiden swayed slightly. The last of the fire curled back into his chest, leaving only smoke. He looked pale. Exhausted.
Kael caught him as he staggered.
Bones padded up beside them, resting his head under Aiden's arm like a living crutch.
"...I'm good," Aiden muttered.
Kael didn't let go. "You're barely standing."
"I feel fine."
"You look dead."
"I am kinda dead now, I think."
Kael exhaled through his nose. "Welcome to the team."
The forest smelled of ash and cooling dirt.
Above them, the sun broke cleanly through the trees for the first time that morning.
The threat was gone.
But Aiden wasn't the same kid who'd entered this clearing.