The thing that rose from the void residue was no longer small.
No longer minor.
It pulled itself together with wet, grinding sounds, fragments locking into place like a puzzle assembled by something that hated symmetry. Limbs thickened. Joints multiplied. Its body stretched taller than a man, hunched forward under its own weight. That vertical slit along its face widened, and this time, something looked back.
Not eyes.
Awareness.
The creature inhaled.
The air rushed toward it.
Dust, ash, loose stones all dragged forward as if gravity itself had tilted in its favor. Tharyx dug his heels into the cracked street, cloak snapping violently behind him.
Zalivra screamed and clutched a broken pillar. "WHY IS IT BREATHING LIKE THAT?! STOP BREATHING LIKE THAT!"
The void beast exhaled.
A wave of pressure slammed outward, ripping chunks of stone from walls and flinging debris like shrapnel. Tharyx crossed his arms instinctively; his shadow surged up, forming a dense, layered barrier just in time.
The impact hit.
The shadow held.
Barely.
Cracks spiderwebbed through the street beneath his feet. His bones rang. Pain flared up in his arms. He slid back several meters, boots carving deep grooves into stone.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Warning: Shadow durability approaching threshold.]
Tharyx laughed breathlessly. "Good to know you're paying attention now."
The beast moved.
Not lunged.
Phased.
It blurred forward in a stuttering, unnatural motion, appearing directly in front of him. A claw came down, heavy enough to split a building.
Tharyx twisted aside, shadow snapping upward to deflect the strike. The stone exploded. The shockwave ripped through the street, tossing Zalivra like a sack of grain.
"THIS IS ABOVE MY PAY GRADE!" Zalivra yelled as he hit the ground and rolled behind cover. "WAY ABOVE!"
The void beast screeched lower now, deeper, almost satisfied.
Tharyx felt it then.
A pull.
Not toward the beast.
Toward himself.
His shadow wasn't just reacting anymore. It was asking. Pushing. Stretching against limits it didn't understand yet.
He steadied his breathing.
Focused inward.
The shadow responded.
Not as a weapon.
As an extension.
It flowed differently now, thinner, denser, layered in strands that twisted and rewove themselves constantly, like living threads knitting something unseen.
The beast lunged again.
Tharyx stepped into the attack.
His shadow exploded outward not as raw mass, but as dozens of thin, razor-like filaments that wrapped around the creature's limbs, torso, and neck. They didn't crush.
They cut.
The void beast shrieked as black ichor sprayed across the street. It thrashed violently, claws tearing into shadow strands, but every severed thread immediately split into two more.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Shadow behavior anomaly detected.]
[Threaded structure forming.]
"Threaded…?" Tharyx murmured.
The beast reared back, its torso bulging grotesquely. Tharyx felt the surge of energy a heartbeat before it happened.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Critical Void Reaction detected.]
He didn't hesitate.
He pulled.
The shadow threads tightened all at once, weaving inward, converging on a single point deep inside the creature's chest, something dense, unstable, wrong.
The core.
The beast convulsed as the shadow pierced it.
There was no explosion.
No dramatic burst.
Just a sudden collapse.
The creature imploded into itself, its body folding inward as if crushed by invisible hands, then unraveling into drifting black ash that burned away before touching the ground.
Silence crashed down afterward.
Tharyx stood still, shadow slowly retracting, threads dissolving back into darkness at his feet. His chest rose and fell steadily, adrenaline buzzing through his veins.
Then...
The air flickered.
A translucent panel unfolded in front of him, hovering at eye level. Not light. Not magic. Something… between. Letters formed themselves, sharp and precise, glowing faintly against the ruined backdrop.
Zalivra gasped. "Oh. Oh no. I knew it. I knew this would happen."
Tharyx stared.
The message pulsed once.
Then locked into clarity.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Shadow Thread detected.]
[Minor Bonus Applied: Survival Probability +5%.]
[Additional Note: Don't die next time.]
Tharyx blinked.
Once.
Twice.
"…That's it?" he said flatly.
Zalivra crawled closer, eyes wide, whispering fiercely. "THE GHOSTS ARE TALKING TO YOU. THE POLITE GHOSTS. THIS IS WORSE."
The panel shifted.
New text scrolled beneath the first line, slower now, deliberate.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Hidden Attribute Identified.]
[Shadow Potential: Unclassified.]
[Status: Restricted.]
[Reason: Incomplete Awakening.]
Tharyx felt his shadow twitch.
Not violently.
Nervously.
Like something had just realized it was being watched.
"Restricted," he murmured. "By who?"
No response.
The system panel flickered slightly, then stabilized, adding one final line.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Recommendation: Continued exposure may unlock further permissions.]
Zalivra swallowed hard. "I don't like the word 'permissions.'"
The panel vanished without warning, dissolving into the air as if it had never existed.
The city felt heavier afterward.
Tharyx exhaled slowly, flexing his fingers. The shadow at his feet stretched longer than before, then settled, deceptively calm.
Something fundamental had changed.
Not just power.
Recognition.
The system hadn't activated him.
It had noticed him.
A low rumble echoed through the ruins.
Tharyx looked up.
Far above, the clouds twisted unnaturally, spiraling around a faint distortion barely visible against the sky. Not a rift, something smaller. Watching.
Measuring.
Zalivra followed his gaze and whimpered. "You don't think it's sending more, do you?"
Tharyx's lips curved slightly.
"I think," he said quietly, "I just realized I can see it."
His shadow shifted.
Somewhere deep within it, threads tightened.
And something unseen pulled back.