The first thing Aryan noticed—
Was silence.
Not peace.
Not calm.
A watchful silence, heavy and suffocating.
The city below him had frozen. Shadow-creatures stood mid-crawl on walls and streets, their twisted forms trembling as if awaiting a command. Even the wind refused to move.
Aryan flexed his fingers.
Darkness rippled across his skin like liquid ink before sinking back in. He felt… different. Stronger. Sharper. As if the night itself had aligned with his heartbeat.
"Correction units deploying."
The system voice echoed again—cold, mechanical, and wrong.
Aryan looked up.
From the裂 open sky, something descended.
Not monsters.
Hunters.
Humanoid figures formed of pale light and broken symbols, their bodies incomplete, flickering like corrupted data. Where their faces should have been, only glowing runes rotated endlessly.
"ANOMALY CONFIRMED."
"ELIMINATION PRIORITY: ABSOLUTE."
Aryan swallowed.
"So I don't even get an introduction?" he muttered.
The shadow inside him stirred.
Move.
He obeyed without thinking.
The rooftop exploded behind him as a spear of light slammed down, carving through concrete like paper. Aryan rolled, barely avoiding death, his heart pounding—but his body moved faster than fear.
Too fast.
He landed on his feet.
Unharmed.
Aryan stared at his hands. "I dodged that…"
Another spear formed.
This time, he didn't run.
The shadow surged forward.
Darkness erupted from his feet, stretching, shaping—forming a blade that wasn't metal, but absence itself. Aryan swung.
The spear shattered.
The nearest hunter froze.
"UNEXPECTED RESISTANCE."
Aryan didn't wait.
He lunged.
The blade passed through the hunter's chest. For a moment, nothing happened—then the figure cracked, light spilling out like blood before it dissolved into nothingness.
"CORRECTION UNIT DESTROYED."
Aryan staggered back, breathing hard.
"I… killed it."
Below, the shadow-creatures began to move again.
But not toward the city.
They bowed.
Every single one.
Aryan's breath caught.
"WARNING."
"LOCAL NIGHTMARE ENTITIES SHOWING SIGNS OF SUBMISSION."
The shadow within him laughed—low, satisfied.
They recognize us.
A chill ran through Aryan.
"Us?"
The sky darkened further.
More hunters descended.
Ten.
Twenty.
The system voice hardened.
"ESCALATION APPROVED."
"THE HUNT HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN."
Aryan looked around—at the ruined rooftop, the bowing monsters, the enemies falling from the sky.
Fear returned.
But it no longer controlled him.
He tightened his grip on the shadow-blade and smiled faintly.
"If you're hunting me," he said, stepping into the darkness,
"then I guess I'll learn how to hunt back."
The eclipse pulsed.
Somewhere beyond the sky, ancient eyes narrowed.
The anomaly was adapting.
And that—
Was far more dangerous than they had expected.The eclipse pulsed.
The hunters hovered in the sky, their symbols burning brighter, recalculating. The monsters below remained bowed, unmoving, as if waiting for a command that only one existence could give.
Aryan exhaled slowly.
The night no longer rejected him.
It listened.
Somewhere deep within, the shadow shifted again—not restless this time, but… satisfied.
"ANOMALY RESPONSE EXCEEDS PREDICTION."
The system hesitated.
Just for a fraction of a second.
"UPDATING THREAT LEVEL—"
The message cut off.
Aryan frowned. "What now?"
No answer came.
The hunters froze mid-descent.
The sky trembled.
And then—far above the eclipse, where the system's gaze should have been absolute—
something blinked out.
Not destroyed.
Hidden.
A final notification appeared in Aryan's vision, faint enough that he almost missed it.
"—log inaccessible—"
"—observer status altered—"
The shadow inside him went completely still.
For the first time since the night began…
It stopped laughing.
Someone is watching, it whispered.
And this time… it is not the system.
Aryan slowly lifted his gaze toward the darkened heavens.
He didn't know why—but deep in his bones, he felt it.
The hunt hadn't started tonight.
It had started long before he was born.
And his name…
Had just been noticed again.
--🕷️THE END OF CHAPTER 3--