The darkness began to lift.
It didn't rise like smoke. It pulled itself upward in jagged sheets, each fold of shadow creasing into the suggestion of armor, shoulders, and a bowed head. The echo of the knight had become a silhouette, kneeling before Asta, half-formed yet more solid than the doglike minion pressed at his ankle.
The screen chimed.
[Binding Shadow: Black Knight]
[Warning: Vessel capacity exceeded. Risk: Collapse imminent.]
[Proceed? Y/N]
Asta's arms shook. His lungs were still rasping from the fight, his shoulder a ragged line of pain, his chipped blade cracked near the hilt. He was done. Every part of him screamed at once: Don't. Don't take this. Don't gamble again.
But the knight's shadow remained kneeling, head bowed, as if daring him to claim it.
He licked cracked lips. "I already died once tonight. What's one more risk?"
The words had barely left him when his mouth shaped the inevitable command.
"Rise."
The moment he spoke it, the dungeon howled.
The kneeling silhouette shuddered, collapsing into liquid black that surged toward him like a flood. It slammed into his chest and burrowed deep, flooding through veins, dragging ice into his marrow. His body convulsed. His knees hit the floor.
[System Warning: Overload Threshold Reached.]
[Stabilizing Vessel…]
Asta's vision split. Half of him stood in the dungeon chamber, gasping on stone. The other half—deeper, darker, stood inside a boundless void, face-to-face with the Black Knight.
This was no shadow now. It towered, whole, the helm bowed slightly. Its white eyes burned steady, without malice but with weight, like stars pressed close enough to crush.
The knight raised its blade and drove it into the ground before him. The sound rang like a grave sealing shut.
[You are unworthy.]
The words weren't spoken but pressed directly into his skull, heavy enough to rattle bone.
Asta clenched his jaw. "Then why bow to me?"
[You are hollow.]
"Then fill me." His voice was raw, but steady now. The void had stripped him of fear; only stubbornness remained. "If I'm a vessel, then you fit."
The knight's helm tilted. Not amusement, consideration.
[Oath required.]
The void lit with script, letters coiling in fire-black light:
[Swear upon shadow's law: Kneel, and I shall serve. Falter, and I shall consume.]
Asta's breath shook, but his grin came unbidden. "If you can stomach me, knight, then we'll see who consumes who."
He pressed his bleeding palm to the blade's hilt where it jutted from the void floor. The black steel drank his blood, and the knight dissolved, folding into his shadow like water down a drain.
The void shattered.
Asta slammed back into the dungeon. His body arched, shadows gouting from every pore, writhing across the floor before snapping back into his silhouette. His heartbeat rattled like drums. His chipped blade clattered away as his hand clenched empty air.
The system flared again:
[Shadow Bound: Black Knight Acquired.]
[New Ability: Shadow Armament (Rank: ???)]
[Description: A fragment of the Black Knight dwells within your shadow. It may be summoned in part or whole at the cost of stamina and essence.]
The shadow at his feet lengthened, warped—and the outline of the knight rose from it, translucent, head bowed in silence.
Asta's mouth went dry. "You… answer to me?"
The knight didn't move, but its white eyes flickered once, like a nod.
The shadow-hound pressed close to his leg, tail of darkness wagging like ink. For the first time, he wasn't completely alone.
And then the world outside the Penalty Zone cracked open.
Stone light bled in as the void peeled away. Asta found himself back in the chamber of the Rift, the smell of blood sharp and sour. The corpses of his former party had returned, or what was left of them. Some were shredded, some scattered across the chamber. Their faces were locked in death masks, wide-eyed, accusing.
But something was wrong.
They twitched.
One hunter's head jerked sideways with a crack. Another's arm spasmed.
Asta staggered back. "No…"
The crystal veins on the walls pulsed, brighter, faster, and the corpses began to rise, jerking like puppets on strings pulled by something unseen. Their mouths opened, black smoke seeping out, and the stink of rot hit him in a wave.
The system whispered, almost smugly:
[New Objective Generated: Prove Dominion.]
[Command the corpses or be consumed.]
The reanimated hunters turned their dead gazes toward him, teeth clattering as though laughing.
The knight's shadow stirred behind him.
Asta gritted his teeth, lifted his bloody hand, and shouted the word that had become the marrow of his survival.
"RISE!"
The corpses convulsed mid-step. Their shadows twisted unnaturally, jerking like ropes pulled taut. One by one, their heads bowed against their will, shadows slamming into the ground beneath them, trembling under his command.
Asta's whole body trembled with the strain. Sweat dripped down his jaw.
But then—silence. The chamber held its breath.
The shadows of the dead stood waiting. Not puppets now. Soldiers.
The screen chimed again.
[Skill Unlocked: Necroshade Bind (Rank: F)]
[Description: Bind the husks of the fallen as lesser shadow thralls. Warning: limited duration.]
Asta's lips curled into a grin that wasn't joy but relief edged with madness. "You mocked me when I was Hollow. Now you'll march for me in death."
The corpse closest to him, a hunter who once shoved him aside in raids—bowed low.
The chamber trembled, as though the Rift itself disapproved.
The shadow-knight behind him raised its blade silently.
And deep within the crystal walls, something enormous shifted awake.
The air grew so heavy Asta's knees bent under the weight of it. The corpses twitched again, this time in fear, not obedience.
A second crack split across the chamber floor. Black light poured out.
[Warning: Rift Overload Imminent.]
Asta staggered, shadows clinging to him like armor, corpses bowing, knight looming.
From the crack, a voice crawled up like oil poured into fire.
"…Heir."
The system chimed one last time, freezing the breath in his chest.
[Commandment Two Unlocked.]
[Slay or Serve.]