The cavern rang with steel.
Dozens of swords, spears, and axes gleamed in the shafts of moonlight, all leveled at the figure standing so still at the center of it all. The watcher's cloak billowed without wind, smoke curling around its form as though it were half-shadow, half-flesh. Its glowing eyes swept across the resistance, indifferent to the blades drawn against it.
The silence pressed down until even the drip of water seemed deafening.
Darius broke it first. "Hold your ground!" he barked, voice steady as stone. His soldiers tightened formation, a ring of weapons hemming the intruder in.
But the watcher didn't move. Didn't even blink. Its head tilted slowly until its gaze locked onto Aric.
And only Aric.
"You've tasted it," the watcher whispered, its voice both near and far, curling around Aric's skull like smoke. "The sorrow. The hunger. It grows inside you."
Murmurs rippled through the group. Soldiers' eyes darted between the watcher and Aric.
Aric's throat went dry. His hand hovered over his sword hilt, but he didn't draw it. He couldn't—not yet.
"Speak plain, Shade," Darius growled, stepping forward. "Why are you here?"
The watcher's eyes never left Aric. "Not Shade. Not demon. Reflection."
Kael snarled from the crowd. "It's speaking riddles. Cut it down before it curses us all!"
His voice carried the weight of suspicion that had been festering since the night Aric first fought with them. Too many eyes turned toward him now, their expressions sharpened with unease.
Aric forced himself to stand taller, though his chest tightened under their stares. "It's here for me."
The words dropped like stones into water.
The ring of soldiers shifted, their formation faltering as whispers hissed through their ranks. For him?What does that mean?What is he hiding?
Darius's expression darkened, but he didn't lower his sword. "Explain."
Aric opened his mouth—then froze. What could he say? That he carried a system that devoured sorrow? That every enemy's suffering fed into him like fuel? That he was changing, even if he didn't understand into what?
If he told them, they'd either kill him or chain him.
Before he could speak, the watcher raised a smoke-wreathed hand. The cavern trembled. Cracks spiderwebbed through the stone, and from them seeped creatures—half-formed, shrieking horrors of bone and shadow. Their bodies twisted unnaturally, as though sculpted by madness.
The resistance erupted into chaos.
"Shades!" someone shouted, though these things were not quite Shades—cruder, hungrier, fragments of sorrow given flesh.
Weapons clashed. Screams filled the cavern. The watcher remained untouched, its gaze still fixed on Aric.
"This is your test," it whispered, audible only to him. "Feed. Grow. Or break."
Aric's blood roared in his ears. The Sorrow System surged to life on its own.
[Sorrow Detected]Manifested Shades: 12Each unit slain will yield increased sorrow.
The temptation clawed at him, stronger than ever. The air thickened with agony as the creatures screeched, every note of their suffering singing through him like a drug.
But if he fought them with the system's full power—if the resistance saw—he wouldn't be able to hide anymore.
A blade flashed. One of the creatures lunged past a soldier and barreled straight toward Lyra. She stumbled back, her sword raised too slowly.
Aric didn't think. He moved.
His blade cut through the creature in one smooth arc. It dissolved into mist with a scream that clawed at his skull. The sorrow rushed into him like fire into dry wood, swelling his veins with cold ecstasy.
[Sorrow Collected: +34]Total: 376 / 500
Aric staggered, gritting his teeth as the rush almost brought him to his knees. Around him, the soldiers saw the way the Shade's body seemed to shrink into him as it died.
Whispers rose. Fear sharpened.
Kael's voice cut through it all. "He's one of them!"
"No!" Lyra shouted back, parrying another Shade. "He saved me!"
The cavern became a warzone of blades and doubt. Some soldiers fought with renewed desperation, others faltered, their eyes flicking to Aric as though he were as much an enemy as the horrors around them.
And still, the watcher stood, silent, watching.
Aric's chest heaved. He could feel the sorrow building toward the threshold, the promise of new power just within reach. If he pushed—if he let himself go—he could slaughter them all in seconds.
But would he still be himself when it ended?
Another Shade lunged. Another scream tore into him as he cut it down.
[Sorrow Collected: +42]Total: 418 / 500
The rush nearly made him choke. His vision blurred, edges tinged in violet.
"Aric!" Lyra's voice cut through, pulling him back. Her face was pale, her sword trembling in her grip. But her eyes—those eyes—still looked at him with trust.
He clung to that trust like a rope in the dark.
Snarling, Aric forced his blade into the fray, cutting down another Shade, another surge, another scream.
By the time the last one fell, the cavern reeked of smoke and sorrow. Bodies dissolved into nothing. The soldiers stood panting, bloodied, alive.
And all eyes turned on Aric.
Some with awe.Some with fear.Some with the quiet calculation of deciding whether he was a weapon—or a threat.
The watcher finally lowered its hand.
"You pass… for now." Its glowing eyes burned into Aric's. "But the hunger only grows. You cannot run from it. You cannot hide it."
And with that, it dissolved into smoke, leaving only silence in its wake.
Aric stood among the wary resistance, his sword still dripping with shadow that wasn't blood. His pulse thundered.
Because the watcher was right.
He could feel the hunger gnawing at him.And it was winning.