Valeria appeared in the void without sound, without light, as if space itself had yielded and made room for her, while the cosmos around her was nothing more than a backdrop, not an obstacle. Blackness stretched in every direction, deep and almost serene, pierced by distant points of light that most beings would call stars, but which served her only as reference marks in infinity.
Her form began to change again.
Her wings spread fully, vast, powerful, with feathers so black they seemed to swallow the light around them. Each one was perfect, pristine, far removed from the broken, torn shape they had taken moments earlier in the lower world. They were majestic, made for flight between worlds, not for cramped human spaces. Her black hair fell freely, drifting in the unnatural currents of the vacuum, as though the cosmos itself adjusted to her presence.
The clothing she wore looked exactly as before, dark, fitted, cut in sharp lines with subtle embellishments that made it clear it was neither ordinary fabric nor something born in a single world.
"I shouldn't stay in one place for too long…" she murmured to herself, more out of habit than fear.
For her, lingering in any one world always carried risk, detection by powerful entities that searched for her across the cosmos. Her gaze drifted downward, toward the place she had just left.
"I really must be at some edge of the universe, if this world has only just begun to evo, "
She fell silent.
Her eyes narrowed.
Where the planet should have been, there was… nothing. Absolute, undisturbed blackness, as if the space had never been inhabited, as if nothing had ever existed there at all. Valeria hung motionless, her wings going still as her mind instantly shifted into full analysis.
"…What?" she whispered.
She beat her wings instinctively.
One stroke.
Space rippled, and suddenly the planet reappeared, exactly where it should be. Blue-green, young, still chaotic in its energy. Valeria stopped short, then drifted back slightly.
The planet vanished.
She frowned.
She flew closer, it returned.
She moved farther away, it disappeared.
She changed her angle, she could see it again.
She repeated the motion several times, methodically, until at last she found it: a clear boundary, invisible, yet absolute. A point where the planet existed… and a point where it ceased to exist for perception itself.
Valeria froze.
Her eyes widened for the first time in a very long while.
"…A barrier," she said softly, disbelief seeping into her voice.
This was no ordinary shield. Not a masking field. Not a crude energy veil. It was a concealing barrier, something that didn't merely protect the planet, but erased it from cosmic perception entirely, as though it did not exist unless one stood in exactly the right place.
Something like this did not come about by accident.
And it certainly did not protect a world that had only just begun to evolve.
Valeria hovered in silence, staring at the invisible boundary, and something new appeared in her eyes, alertness… and interest.
"This world…" she whispered. "…is far more troublesome than it appears."
Her eyes widened further as the realization fully settled, not just what she was seeing, but what she should not have been able to see.
This barrier was not local. It did not shield a continent, or a region of space.
It concealed the entire planet.
Valeria went still in the void, her wings spreading a fraction wider, her body reacting instinctively to a threat her mind was only beginning to grasp.
"That's impossible…" she breathed.
Creating something like this required a being of at least the Eighth Order, and not just any such being. Someone who had not only reached an absurd level of existence, but specialized in barriers, in the control of perception, existence, and the boundaries between worlds.
Valeria knew many powerful beings.
She knew legends.
She knew names that were never spoken aloud.
But she knew no one who fulfilled both conditions at once.
Her brows knit deeply.
"Eighth Order… and barriers…" she murmured. "No. That doesn't add up."
If such a being existed, they should have been known.
And if they were known, she should have known them.
Yet the barrier was here, in this forgotten corner of the cosmos, hiding this planet from the rest of reality.
Her gaze dropped to her hand, to the finger bearing a ring.
It wasn't flashy or ornate. Dark metal with a deep, almost stellar sheen formed a simple band, set with a small, irregular crystal, like a fragment of condensed night. Faint, nearly invisible lines moved across its surface, like shifting constellations, responding subtly to her presence.
An artifact of an old era.
Not something worn for decoration.
Valeria smiled coldly, remembering how much she had sacrificed to obtain it, as her hand instinctively pressed against her chest.
She felt it clearly, damage to her soul. Deep, treacherous wounds, not the kind that healed with the body. Every movement of her essence carried a faint but constant strain, like a fracture at the core of her existence.
"This…" she sighed softly, "…won't heal quickly."
For a moment, true exhaustion surfaced in her gaze. Not physical, but existential.
Then she looked at the ring again.
And nodded.
"But it was still worth it."
Her eyes returned to the invisible boundary, to the barrier capable of deceiving even her senses, and Valeria allowed herself a moment of calculation.
If she could not detect the planet without standing in the exact point of perception…
Then others wouldn't be able to either.
Even an Eighth Order being would need to know precisely where to look. Without that, not even such an entity could find this world.
Her lips curved into a small smile, this time almost… sweet.
"I suppose I'll stay," she said aloud to the void. "A few years. At least until my soul wounds heal."
Her wings moved once, powerful, elegant, carrying a strength that had nothing to do with human flight.
And then Valeria vanished.
As if she had never been there, leaving behind only a hidden planet, a barrier no one should have been able to create…
***
Leon closed the apartment door quietly behind him, adjusted the backpack on his shoulders, and stood still on the stairwell for a moment, letting the echo of the past few hours finally sink deeper. It didn't disappear, but it stopped choking every breath. His encounter with Valeria hadn't been a dream, too much remained afterward, but the world was demanding his attention again, and he couldn't afford to stand still.
Today's goal was simple.
First: survive.
Second: try using his second skill for the first time.
When he stepped outside, cold air hit his face, and the city greeted him with its familiar, dead chaos. A dozen meters ahead, at an intersection, three zombies wandered aimlessly, dragging their feet across the asphalt, unaware, purposeless, just remnants of motion in a world that had already ended.
Leon stopped.
He frowned.
Normally, he would've closed the distance by now and ended it with his sword, but this time, his hand didn't move to the hilt. Instead, he recalled the lines of text that had once seemed too abstract to matter.
Manipulation of the basic form of darkness.
Shadow.
Imagination.
He looked down.
At the shadow cast by one of the zombies, long, ragged, unnatural in the morning light. He extended his hand slowly, as if afraid the gesture itself might be foolish or meaningless, and closed his eyes.
He didn't try to "cast a spell."
He simply imagined the shadow no longer being flat.
That it lifted. Condensed. Twisted.
Like a chain.
He felt resistance.
Not physical, mental. As if something responded to his intent with a slight delay.
Then the shadow twitched… and tore itself free from the ground.
Leon opened his eyes.
From the darkness rose a black, semi-transparent chain woven from pure shadow, wrapping around the zombie's arm in a fraction of a second. The creature reacted instantly, thrashing violently and letting out a guttural roar, but the shadow held fast, taut like a steel cable.
"…It works," Leon whispered, stunned.
Without hesitation, he raised his other hand and repeated the process, faster now, more confident. A second chain shot out from the shadow beneath the zombie's feet, binding its other arm and wrenching it outward. The zombie struggled uselessly, arms spread, unable to reach him, or freedom.
A small, almost childlike smile tugged at the corner of Leon's mouth.
He walked forward calmly.
Unhurried.
He drew his sword in one smooth motion and, with a single clean cut, severed the zombie's head from its body. The shadow dissolved instantly, as if it had never existed, and the corpse collapsed onto the ground with a dull thud.
[Essence Record – Kill Confirmed]
[Target: Normal Zombie (LVL 6)]
Leon stood over it for a moment, staring at his hands, at the shadow beneath his feet, now just a shadow again.
"So…" he murmured softly. "That's how you use a skill."
And for the first time since the Essence Record appeared, he felt something that wasn't fear or panic.
It was curiosity.
With a faint, almost boyish grin, he looked toward the remaining two zombies and extended his hand once more.