KRSHHH… —
The dust finally settled.
The mountain exhaled one long, dying breath, and then… quiet.
A silence so complete it felt arrogant—
as if the world had already erased what happened,
as if the larva's dying scream had been a temporary glitch in reality.
Leo sat slumped in the half-collapsed hollow, legs splayed like a broken marionette.
His fingers—blood-crusted, trembling—still clamped around the obsidian shard.
He shook uncontrollably.
Not from cold.
From the aftershock of killing something that should never have existed.
Then—
— KZZT-KRRRM. —
The voice returned, softer than before, almost lazy.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Mountain King's Larva.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
A strange warmth crawled through his chest.
Not comforting.
Heavier—like molten iron had been poured into his veins, cooling into new bones.
[Name: Leo.]
[True Name: faceless sun.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine (Dormant).]
[Aspect: Shadow Slave.]
[Flaw: Child of Shadows.]
[New Flaw Revealed: Slave.]
Leo stared at the glowing script until it burned itself into his mind.
Child of Shadows.
Slave.
He let out a single, cracked laugh, the sound echoing off fractured stone.
"Of course," he whispered. "Even the Spell thinks I belong to someone."
The warmth surged.
Something shifted under his skin—wrong, crawling, alive.
Leo looked down.
Thin tendrils of shadow slithered across his forearms, curling through cuts, sealing wounds without a scar.
Pain dulled to a distant echo.
Then the walls themselves peeled.
Rivers of black ink flowed toward him, shadows answering a command he hadn't given.
They wrapped softly around his wrists, his ankles, his throat.
Gentle.
Possessive.
Cold.
Leo didn't flinch.
He was too tired to.
When the shadows settled, faint black lines remained—tattoos… or brands.
[Mark Obtained: Shadow Slave.]
[You are now bound to the shadows.
They will obey you… and you will obey them.]
Leo exhaled through his teeth.
"Great. I finally get superpowers, and the fine print says I'm still a slave."
He forced his body upright.
Muscles screamed, but they held.
The larva's corpse sat half-buried beneath rubble—already dissolving into thin black wisps.
Soon it would be nothing more than a bad memory.
Then—
— PING. —
A new prompt appeared.
[Memory acquired: Shadow Shard.]
[Memory Rank: Divine.]
[Memory Type: Weapon.]
The obsidian shard flickered.
Darkness bled into the stone, drinking the red light, turning it into liquid midnight.
The edge refined itself—
a whisper-thin line that looked sharp enough to cut sound.
Leo turned it in his hand.
Weightless.
Perfectly balanced.
Humming faintly, almost… pleased.
He exhaled shakily.
"One down," he muttered. "How many more to go?"
The Spell didn't respond.
The mountain did.
— GROOOOOM… —
A bone-deep rumble rolled through the stone.
Dust sifted from above.
Far below, something ancient shifted… awakening.
Not quite a roar.
Not quite words.
Leo felt it vibrate through his teeth.
The Mountain King.
Probably the larva's parent.
Or its god.
Either way—
it felt its child die.
And it was waking up.
Leo glanced at the narrow crack he'd squeezed through.
Then at the tons of rock blocking his other escape.
Then at the fading corpse.
A hollow, humorless smile tugged at his lips.
"Perfect timing."
He tightened his grip on the Shadow Shard.
"Guess I'd better start running again."
CRRRRK—
The ceiling splintered.
Cracks webbed outward like lightning frozen in stone.
Leo stepped toward the fissure—
Paused.
He turned back to where the larva had died.
Where he had killed it.
His first kill.
Something cold and clear clicked into place inside him.
Not fear.
Not pride.
A promise.
"I'm still alive," he whispered. "And I plan to stay that way."
Shadows coiled around him like a cloak as he slipped through the crack—
— FWSSH. —
And vanished into darkness just as the hollow collapsed behind him in a thunderous cascade.
— KRRRRAAAAAASSSSHHHH! —
The mountain swallowed the sound.
But somewhere deep within it…
a new shadow was learning how to fight back.