Dravers walked ahead, boots clicking softly against the pavement.
Beside her, Adrian strolled with exaggerated ease, fingers interlaced behind his head in a reclined dominance posture—the kind people used when they wanted the world to know they weren't worried about anything at all. Blonde hair caught the streetlights; his black jacket fluttered open slightly with each step.
Jake wasn't with them.
Silence stretched between the two.
Adrian was the one who broke it.
"…He's smarter than I gave him credit for," he said casually.
A pause.
"…Actually—no. I didn't give him any credit at all."
Dravers didn't respond.
"I really thought he'd say something stupid," Adrian continued, staring up at the night sky. "'The target might be stronger, but we can beat him with teamwork,' or some heroic nonsense like that."
He smirked faintly.
"He's an ass who clearly enjoys attention," Adrian admitted, "but he's not naïve."
Dravers glanced at him.
"He knows his limits," Adrian went on. "He's D-rank, after all."
Another silence.
"We could've really used his help," Dravers said quietly.
Adrian stopped walking.
"…His help?" He turned his head, disbelief clear on his face. "Hello? He's a D-rank. Our target is S-rank."
He dropped his hands from behind his head, finally serious.
"An S-rank on par with one of the High Table's assets," he said. "We definitely don't need his help."
He looked at her.
"What made you think we needed him anyway?"
Dravers hesitated.
Her fingers tightened around the strap of her weapon.
"I can't put my finger on it," she admitted slowly. "But he has this… presence."
Adrian raised an eyebrow.
"An aura," she continued. "The kind that makes you feel like… he can do anything."
Adrian scoffed lightly, shaking his head.
"Instincts," he muttered. "You always did trust those too much."
Cut.
Jake sat alone in his room.
The lights were off. The only illumination came from the translucent blue screen hovering inches from his face.
Purchase time in the Dyriad Realm?
Jake stared at it.
No hesitation.
No doubt.
He tapped YES.
"…Two hours," he murmured. "That should be enough."
The air in front of him collapsed.
Not tore—
Collapsed.
Space folded inward, screaming silently as a pitch-black singularity bloomed into existence. Gravity twisted. Light bent. The edges of the room stretched unnaturally toward the void.
A black hole.
Real. Hungry.
Jake exhaled slowly.
"Time to work."
He stepped forward.
And vanished into the dark.
Jake came out of the portal—
—and his feet never touched the ground.
For half a heartbeat, there was nothing.
Then his stomach dropped.
Wind howled past him like a living thing as the world snapped into focus far, far below. Ruined skyscrapers leaned at impossible angles, half-buried in snow and shadow. The ground was so distant it barely looked real.
He was falling.
Fast.
"…Huh."
Snowflakes brushed his face.
Slow. Lazy. Beautiful.
Jake blinked.
"…It's snowing?"
His coat snapped violently as the air pressure increased, freezing wind tearing at him from all sides. His arms flailed once, instinctively, before he forced himself to straighten—trying to orient his body mid-fall.
"Winter?" he muttered, oddly calm. "The weather's really messed up here."
Then—
Something moved.
A shadow peeled itself out of the clouds above him.
No.
Many shadows.
Jake's eyes widened.
Shapes burst through the snowfall—winged, fast, wrong. About twenty of them. Bat-like silhouettes the size of humans, wings stretched wide, membranes torn and veined like rotting leather. Their bodies were twisted mockeries of humanoid form, limbs too long, joints bent at unnatural angles.
Their eyes—
Red. Bulging. Glowing.
Locked onto him.
"Oh. Come on," Jake hissed.
They were accelerating.
The wind screamed louder as the distance closed frighteningly fast.
Jake thrust his hand downward.
Shadow surged.
Black mist exploded beneath him, stretching outward and snapping into shape—fabric-like, wide, rippling violently as it caught the air.
A shadow parachute.
His fall slowed sharply, his body jerking as the sudden drag tore at his shoulders.
"Yes—!" he breathed.
Too early.
The creatures were already on him.
One shrieked—a high, ear-piercing sound that stabbed straight into his skull—and dove.
SCRAASH—
Razor claws tore through the shadow fabric like it was paper.
"What—?!"
Another slash.
Then another.
The parachute shredded apart, dissolving into smoke as the integrity collapsed.
Jake spun violently as gravity reclaimed him.
The world turned into a blur of white snow, black sky, and crooked steel. His stomach lurched hard enough that bile crept up his throat.
"Shit—shit—SHIT!"
FWOOOSH—
Something slammed into him.
Pain flared as talons locked around his leg.
Jake screamed as his body was yanked sideways mid-fall, momentum snapping his spine into a brutal arc.
The creature beat its wings furiously, hauling him through the air.
Jake's vision swam.
"Doesn't it want me dead?!" he yelled over the wind.
Then he saw where it was taking him.
The creature angled downward.
Not straight down.
Toward a leaning skyscraper—its upper floors snapped in half, jagged steel and shattered concrete jutting outward like teeth.
Realization hit.
"…No."
It wasn't trying to kill him.
It was trying to break him.
"SON OF A—!"
Reality stuttered.
A translucent screen glitched into existence beside the creature's head.
Demon Bat
Jake's jaw clenched.
Shadow poured into his palm.
A dagger formed instantly—thin, dense, serrated with faint skeletal ridges along the blade.
"One," he muttered.
He twisted his body violently, using the pull of gravity and the creature's grip to swing himself.
"Two—"
The world spun.
The skyscraper loomed closer.
"Three!"
He drove the dagger upward.
SHUNK—
The blade buried itself deep into the demon bat's leg.
The creature SHRIEKED.
A sound so sharp it felt like glass shoved into Jake's ears.
Its grip loosened—
Then vanished.
Jake dropped.
"…Ah."
The wind screamed again as he plummeted.
He looked up.
And his blood ran cold.
They were circling him.
All of them.
A spiraling mass of wings and red eyes, rotating downward together—tight, controlled, predatory.
A living tornado.
"No way…" Jake whispered.
They hit him.
Not all at once.
Pass after pass.
SCRATCH—
Pain tore across his shoulder.
SCRAPE—
Claws raked down his ribs, tearing fabric, skin, muscle.
TEAR—
Something warm spilled down his side.
Jake gritted his teeth, forcing air into his lungs as his body spun helplessly in freefall. Every demon bat that passed him slashed with the talons on its feet, carving shallow—but countless—wounds.
Death by a thousand cuts.
Blood scattered into the wind, freezing into crimson mist.
Jake's vision blurred.
His teeth clenched hard enough to creak.
"…Okay," he rasped.
A grin crept across his face despite the pain.
"Now I'm pissed."
The shadows beneath him began to move.
Jake tore out of the spiral.
Shadow mist detonated behind him as wings unfolded from his back—sleek, angular, forged from compressed darkness. Veins of black energy rippled across the surface like living muscle.
A shadow wingsuit.
The bats screeched in unison.
Jake didn't look back.
He dove.
Wind roared past his ears as ruined skyscrapers rushed up to meet him. He leveled out at the last second, gliding between leaning towers, shadow wings flexing instinctively.
SWOOSH—
A bat lunged head-on, jaws splitting open to reveal rows of needle teeth.
"DAMN these things!" Jake snapped.
He twisted sideways, the creature missing him by inches, claws slicing nothing but air. Another came from below, then two more from above—coordinated, relentless.
Blood streamed from shallow gashes across his arms and ribs.
"Yeah, yeah—I know," he growled. "You're annoying."
Then he saw it.
A skyscraper with a glass façade—most of it intact.
Jake angled hard.
The bats shrieked, assuming pursuit.
He accelerated.
The building filled his vision.
"Here we go."
He folded his body—
CRASH!!!
Glass exploded inward as Jake smashed through the window shoulder-first. Shards burst like a storm of diamonds, sunlight and snow flashing behind him as he rolled across marble flooring.
He didn't stop.
He sprang up instantly—vaulted over a toppled desk, slid under a collapsed beam, kicked off a wall, flipped mid-run, and sprinted through the ruined interior as the building groaned around him.
Outside—
The bats screeched.
They didn't follow him inside.
They circled.
Waiting.
Predictable.
Jake skidded to a stop near another shattered window.
Shadow pooled around his arm.
A chain erupted from his palm—long, black, metallic, writhing with mist. At its tip—
A dagger.
Scorpion-style.
"Got you."
The chain shot forward—
BOOM—SHUNK!
It punched through the glass and straight through the neck of the nearest bat.
The creature didn't even have time to scream.
Jake leapt.
He burst back out of the building, dragging the impaled bat with him as its wings spasmed uselessly.
The others reacted instantly—diving straight down toward him.
Too late.
Jake swung.
Using the dead bat as an anchor, he whipped his body around in a tight arc—
The chain reshaped mid-swing.
The dagger stretched, widened—
A katana.
Steel-black. Razor-thin.
Jake sliced.
The second bat's head separated cleanly, spinning away as its body folded mid-air.
He kicked off the corpse—
Third kill.
He flipped over its back, drove the katana downward, and split the creature from skull to pelvis. Its body tore apart in two screaming halves.
Fourth bat lunged from behind—
Jake released the sword.
The chain snapped tight.
He yanked himself backward, the blade retracting into a spear, and drove it straight through the bat's open mouth.
The spear burst out the back of its skull.
Fifth.
Jake twisted mid-air, ripped the spear free, and flung it—
Sixth bat.
The weapon punched through its wing joint, spinning it uncontrollably.
Jake flashed past.
A hammer formed in his fist.
He brought it down.
The bat imploded.
Six.
The swarm adjusted.
They spread out.
Surrounded him.
Jake's breath came heavier now. Blood dripped from his fingers, freezing as it fell.
"…Good," he muttered. "This is better."
Two bats attacked simultaneously—one high, one low.
Jake snapped his wings shut and dropped straight down between them.
They collided.
Crunch.
Seven and eight.
Before the bodies even fell, Jake re-forged—
Twin short blades.
He kicked off a falling corpse, twisted, and carved an X across the ninth bat's chest. Shadow blades tore through bone and wing.
It disintegrated.
Ten.
A bat grabbed his shoulder from behind, claws digging deep.
Jake grunted—
Then smiled.
Shadow surged around his neck.
A spike erupted backward.
The bat's skull was pierced instantly.
Eleven.
He grabbed its body, spun, and used it as a shield as three more bats launched spikes of compressed sound from their mouths.
The corpse absorbed the blasts.
Jake hurled it—
It slammed into two bats, knocking them together.
He followed.
A greatsword formed overhead.
One swing.
Both bats split cleanly down the middle.
Twelve. Thirteen.
The last seven hesitated.
That was their mistake.
Jake shot upward, wings flaring, shadow mist boiling around him.
He condensed everything—
The chain. The wings. The weapons.
All into one.
A massive shadow lance.
He spun.
Threw.
The lance pierced through three bats in a straight line, pinning them together like grotesque ornaments.
Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen.
The remaining bats screeched and scattered.
Jake inhaled sharply.
Then vanished.
He reappeared above one—
Dropped.
A knee smashed through its spine.
Seventeen.
He caught another mid-air, locked his legs around its neck, and twisted.
Snap.
Eighteen.
The last two attacked together, desperation in their movements.
Jake extended both arms.
Shadow mist erupted outward—
Two chains.
They wrapped around both bats simultaneously.
Jake yanked.
The creatures collided head-on.
Their skulls shattered.
Nineteen. Twenty.
Silence.
Bodies rained down through the snow-choked air.
Jake hovered, chest heaving, wings flickering unstable as blood dripped freely from dozens of cuts.
He looked around.
"…All twenty," he muttered.
The wings dissolved.
Gravity reclaimed him.
Jake began to fall again—
—but this time, alone.
And smiling.
Jake hit the ground with a dull puff.
Snow exploded outward, softening the impact as his body sank a few inches into the white. For a second, all he could hear was his own breathing—ragged, sharp, dragged straight from his chest.
He inhaled.
Held it.
Then exhaled slowly.
"…Haaah."
A translucent screen forced itself into his vision.
LEVEL UP
Shadow Forge — Lv.13
Dark Overlord — Lv.2
Speed +78
Agility +56
Jake stared at it, eyes unfocused.
"…Figures."
Before he could think further—
POOM.
POOM.
POOM POOM POOM—
The bodies began to fall.
Demon bats slammed into the snow around him at terrifying speed, some hitting hard enough to crater the ground, others skidding and rolling lifelessly past his vision. Blood splashed across the snow in dark green arcs.
Jake winced.
"…I've gotta keep going."
He tried to push himself up.
His arms shook.
His legs refused.
He collapsed back into the snow with a grunt.
"…Naa," he muttered. "I'll stay here for a while."
He lay there, staring up at the gray, snow-choked sky.
Seconds passed.
Then minutes.
Nothing happened.
"…Wait."
Jake sat up abruptly.
His gaze snapped to the bodies.
They were changing.
The demon bat corpses were evaporating—their flesh dissolving into black smoke, bones crumbling into ash, wings disintegrating like burned paper.
"…What?" Jake muttered.
No resurrection.
No shadow conversion.
No system prompt asking for allegiance.
His brow furrowed.
"I killed you," he said quietly. "That should be enough."
He stood, snow crunching beneath his boots, and looked at the fading remains.
"If you choose to follow me," Jake continued calmly, voice carrying across the ruined field,
"I'll make sure you have your fair share of food."
Silence.
Only the wind answered.
Then—
A screen flickered into existence.
23 Demon Bats — Ally Request Pending
Jake froze.
Then—
He smiled.
"…So I do have to prove myself to you."
He tapped YES.
The ground shuddered.
Purple light surged through the dissolving remains, reversing the decay. Cracks sealed. Flesh reformed. Wings unfurled. One by one, the demon bats rose from the snow, their bodies now threaded with faint violet veins.
Their eyes glowed purple.
They hovered in the air, silent.
One drifted forward.
It was larger than the others. Broader wings. Sharper horns. A faint, mocking curl at the corner of its mouth.
Jake's eyes narrowed.
A stat window opened automatically.
Demon Bat Leader
Speed: 189
Strength: 34
Agility: 120
Intelligence: 12
Power: 0
Magic Energy: 9
Loyalty Level: EXTREMELY LOW
Jake stared at the last line.
"…I see."
He walked toward it slowly.
The bat didn't move.
Didn't bow.
Didn't avert its gaze.
It smiled.
That was its mistake.
Jake's hand flicked.
A shadow blade formed instantly—
STAB.
The weapon punched straight through the demon bat's chest.
Green blood erupted, splattering across the snow as the creature's eyes widened in shock. Its wings spasmed once—then went limp.
The body collapsed at Jake's feet.
Dead.
Jake looked up at the others, his expression flat. Cold. Absolute.
"Your leader is dead," he said quietly.
"I won't tolerate backstabbers."
The air shifted.
All remaining demon bats shuddered.
Their purple glow intensified.
A wave of invisible pressure rippled outward.
Jake's interface updated.
Loyalty Levels — HIGH
"…Good."
He dismissed the screen and checked the timer.
Time Remaining in Dyriad Realm: 1:19:00
"Still plenty," he muttered.
Jake turned and looked at one of the demon bats hovering closest to him.
"Hey," he said casually. "How much weight can you carry?"
Moments later—
Jake squatted comfortably on the back of a demon bat, one knee bent, one hand resting casually on its spine as it flew low over the ruined city.
Below him—
The Dyriad Realm stretched endlessly.
Collapsed buildings. Twisted streets. Monsters prowling openly—massive ground-based creatures tearing through rubble, flying horrors circling high above.
Jake ignored most of them.
"Too loud," he muttered.
"Too much trouble."
Then—
A flicker of green light.
His eyes sharpened.
He leaned forward slightly.
"…Goblin."
A small figure moved between the ruins below—fast, cautious, glowing faintly with system energy.
Jake smiled.
"Let's go down."
The demon bat screeched once.
Then—
The entire bat army dived.
Snow and shadow swallowed the city as Jake descended.