I climbed the stairs toward my room, my thoughts a whirlwind of the Pure Darkness Ball, Devouring Veil, and the strange girl with white eyes.
As I reached the top, I glanced back toward the common room entrance. Yuri was there, leaning casually against the railing, her smirk unwavering. The faint glow of her white eyes seemed to pierce right through me.
Behind her, the shadows shifted, and a tall figure solidified — the Soul Sage who had already made his presence known earlier. He bowed slightly, his deep, resonant voice filling the quiet hallway.
"Yes… Master," he said. The words were heavy with absolute loyalty, and the air around him seemed to ripple slightly with his power.
Yuri's smirk widened as the Soul Sage returned to her side, his presence like a cloak of darkness around her. I felt a chill run down my spine.
So this is her. And that… thing is her servant?
I shook my head slightly and opened my door, closing it behind me. Still, even as the shadows curled gently from my Pure Darkness Ball, I couldn't shake the sight of her — the smirk, the white eyes, the Soul Sage whispering "Master."
Something told me my journey was about to become far more complicated than I had ever imagined.
I closed the door to my room and let out a slow breath, letting the quiet settle. The flickering shadows from my Pure Darkness Ball curled around my feet, restless as if sensing my thoughts.
Devouring Veil… I can feel you, but you refuse to grow.
I knelt on the floor, placing my palms before me. The shadows rose slightly, forming thin tendrils, but they flinched when I tried to push them farther. My bottleneck — that invisible wall — was still there.
I closed my eyes, reaching into the memories that had lived with me since I was three. The void. The endless black. The whispers of power that had taught me the first movements of Devouring Veil.
"I won't be trapped," I murmured.
Slowly, I let my soul pulse through my veins, forcing the shadows to obey the rhythm of my heart. The tendrils coiled around one another, twisting tighter, denser, darker. The Pure Darkness Ball above my palm began to swirl faster, pulsing with a deeper black glow.
I felt a sharp resistance — a barrier inside me trying to hold the technique back. But this time, I didn't pull away. I pushed. Memories of the darkness at age three flowed like a torrent, filling the gaps in my understanding. The shadows responded, stretching longer, sharper, and heavier than before.
A faint voice whispered in my mind — ancient, cold, almost like it had been waiting for me:
"Consume. Expand. Become."
And then it happened.
The shadows surged outward in a wave, brushing the walls of my room without touching them. The Pure Darkness Ball pulsed, its surface splitting into ripples of black energy that twisted and intertwined like living smoke. My body tensed, but the energy obeyed.
I opened my eyes. The Devouring Veil had changed. No longer was it just a trickle of shadows; it had shape and weight, a fluid, responsive force I could control. The bottleneck had cracked — not entirely gone, but lifted enough that I could feel the technique's true potential.
I smiled faintly, exhaustion crawling through my body.
This is only the beginning. Devouring Veil… we're just getting started.