The shadow existed on a level beyond human perception, moving with a speed no mind could truly grasp. It towered over Antik, its form swelling and stretching, growing clearer, sharper, and incomprehensibly vast. Its size surpassed any ordinary measure—larger than two apartment buildings, a dark colossus with glowing eyes that seemed to pierce through reality itself. Every movement was deliberate yet impossible to follow, as if the world itself bent around it, and yet, despite its enormity and unnatural motion, it was bound to him, a reflection of his own calm and will within the void.
In Antik's eyes, it all unfolded in a blur—faster than thought, faster than time itself. He dodged by the slimmest margin, a movement so precise that even a delay of 0.01 seconds would have meant the absolute end, the story of his life concluding in that single instant. The void around them warped and stretched with the shadow's presence, walls and floor dissolving into endless emptiness, yet it remained bound to him—a terrifying mirror of his own will, his calm, and the unfathomable power that stirred within.
And yet, the second attack came—relentless, direct, with no mercy. Too fast to perceive, too precise to fail. It struck Antik with unimaginable force, crushing him to his very bones in a single, unerring blow. And yet, as if reality itself obeyed his presence, the void stretched once more, and then just as suddenly, it vanished, leaving nothing but emptiness where it had been.
As Antik's body was struck and broken, the void vanished, and the room returned to its normal shape. But the sheer size and force of the shadow had left its mark: the apartment could not withstand it. The second floor had collapsed, reduced to a flat, open terrace, the walls and ceiling crumbled under the weight of its presence.
It was a perfect, unerring strike—a straight, flawless victory of the shadow. As light fell, the shadow vanished into the abyss from which it had come, leaving behind only Antik, broken and pitiful, teetering on the edge of death.
After the shadow departed, neighbors began to appear from the surrounding area, helping Antik to his feet. They carried candle lanterns and other small sources of light, their glow cutting through the remnants of darkness and the eerie silence that had filled the apartment.
They all began speaking with Antik, and he, in turn, finally spoke. He said he had only been trying to see how strong the shadow truly was, to understand the meaning of something supreme, unbreakable, and destructive—a shadow. What they did not realize, he added, was that it had been nothing more than a suicide attempt, a deliberate dance with death to measure his own limits.
Here, it becomes clear that he was a normal human, an ordinary person. As he spoke with his neighbors, they helped him get treatment and insisted he spend the night in their home. Yet, even as everyone talked around him, Antik remained detached. For him, it had all been nothing more than a suicide attempt—a deliberate act that had summoned the shadow, nothing beyond that.
Yet, as the light around him grew and someone watched over him, Antik's thoughts began to surface. He reflected on what he had done—the suicide attempt that had summoned the shadow—and the magnitude of his mistake became painfully clear. Covered in bandages, he realized the true consequences of his actions, and the weight of what he had unleashed pressed heavily on him.
As his thoughts cleared, the truth of the world around him became apparent. On the surface, it seemed like any normal world, ordinary and familiar—but beneath that facade, it was far greater, governed by hidden laws and inhabited by creatures beyond common understanding. The world had its own elements, its own rules, and only those who dared to see beyond the ordinary could begin to grasp its true nature.
One of the rules of this hidden world was the No-Light Rule. Shadows, the creatures that no one had a proper name for, could only appear in places where there was no direct light—only faint illumination that had bounced or reflected elsewhere. When they manifested, the person's own shadow would vanish, yet strangely, even without light, one could still perceive them, as if endowed with a form of night vision. People simply called them "shadows," though their true nature remained a mystery, a dark force born from the absence of light itself.
Other than shadows, the world was inhabited by god-like creatures. Some were omniscient, knowing things beyond mortal understanding. Some were immortal by age, untouched by the passage of time. Others dwelled in shadows, devouring entire species, while a few existed on a scale approaching gods, yet remained entirely unknown—much like the shadow itself. The rules governing these beings were mysteries in themselves; how they appeared, why they acted as they did, no one truly knew.
These words had been passed down from generation to generation, though some had been forgotten over time. Those who could stand against such forces were themselves mysterious—rarely seen and shrouded in legend. Unlike ordinary beings, they were supreme, and only those chosen or "elected" could face these forces in a true, unrestrained fight. Their existence was a secret woven into the fabric of the world, a testament to the unimaginable power that lay hidden just beyond ordinary perception.
And yet, they were normal people too—at least on the surface—but there was always something subtly… off about them, a presence that marked them as different, chosen, or touched by forces beyond ordinary understanding.
And as Antik's thoughts ran on, the weight of it all overcame him—his body grew weak, and he finally passed out.
The next day, he woke to find himself surrounded by people, each holding weapons capable of ending his existence in an instant.