The *Realm of Hollow Echoes* pulsed with ancient sorrow.
Kev stood still, surrounded by rolling shadows that twisted like serpents across the blackened ground. But then… they spoke.
Not in words — but in thoughts, emotions, urges that filled his mind.
*"Flesh… anchor… vessel…"*
*"Free us… carry us…"*
*"You are open…"*
The shadows weren't just alive.
They were *conscious*.
And they were *trapped*.
Kev stumbled back as tendrils of darkness slithered toward him, pressing against his skin, slipping beneath it. He screamed as images flooded his mind — the endless wait of the shadows, the torment, the hunger to escape the realm through a living host.
He saw his mother's face… then her tears.
Then his father.
Walking away.
*With another woman.*
Kev, still a child, clutching his baby sister while their mother bled out from illness — alone, abandoned.
And worse—
His older brother.
Watching from the Koran Clan balcony.
Doing nothing.
*He left us.*
The shadows roared in his mind. They wanted to take advantage of the pain. Break him. Swallow his will.
But in that moment… Kev didn't shatter.
He stood.
Not in rage — but clarity.
"You want freedom," he said quietly, his voice shaking. "I want strength. We make a deal."
The shadows halted.
*"What… deal?"*
"You train me. I become strong enough to hold you — all of you — inside me. You want to leave this place? Then teach me how to survive it first."
A long silence.
Then:
*"…Accepted."*
***
And so the training began.
Inside that realm of eternal night, time flowed differently.
The shadows tore him apart daily — in body and spirit. He broke bones, shredded muscles, burned out nerves, and healed them all with *Cell Control*. He learned shadow weapons, stealth, voice, manipulation, domination, and war.
He grew. Changed. Hardened.
He no longer feared the dark.
He *commanded* it.
***
Then came the final test — to carry the entire weight of the Hollow Echoes within his own shadow.
Kev stood at the edge of the realm. The ground trembled as the shadow mass gathered.
He knelt.
And welcomed it.
Every last one.
The sky cracked. The realm trembled. And then… silence.
He opened his hand.
His system reactivated.
*[NAME: KEV]*
*[CORE ABILITY: CELL CONTROL (Magic)]*
*[SECONDARY SKILL: SHADOW CONTROL (Extraordinary)]*
*[TITLE: KING OF SHADOW — FIRST OF THE HOLLOW]*
*[LEVEL: WHITE - PEAK]*
*[EQUIPMENT COMPATIBILITY: SHADOWBOUND]*
He looked at his reflection in the dark stone.
He was still only 16 in the real world.
But inside?
He'd survived *a decade of war*.
And he was ready to return.