The dust had not yet settled when Shivraith moved.
It didn't charge immediately. Instead, it slid forward, void energy peeling off its frame like torn fabric, its elongated limbs dragging across broken stone as if gravity had become optional. Each step warped the air around it, crushing sound and bending light until the cathedral ruins seemed to recoil in fear.
Tharyx felt the pressure spike instantly.
This wasn't like the swarm beasts. This wasn't even like the duplicated horrors from the mini-rifts. Shivraith carried intent. Purpose. A hunger sharpened by awareness.
His shadows surged defensively, forming layered barriers in front of him, but even they hesitated, coiling tighter, adjusting angles, reinforcing weak points before the first blow landed.
Shivraith struck.
The impact shattered stone and shadow alike, a massive void-laced limb slamming into Tharyx's defences with bone-crushing force. The shockwave ripped through the plaza, flipping debris and sending fragments screaming through the air.
Tharyx skidded backwards, boots carving trenches through ash-covered stone. Pain flared up in his arms, sharp and grounding.
"Okay," Zalivra yelled from behind a half-crushed archway, "that one is definitely above your pay grade!"
Tharyx didn't respond. His mind was racing not with panic, but calculation.
He needed options.
The shadows reacted before he fully formed the thought, stretching outward to anchor him and stabilise his stance. He felt the Void Fragment pulse within him, responding to the proximity of Shivraith like a living heart.
An idea surfaced, dangerous, untested, reckless.
Perfect.
He extended his hand.
The shadows beneath his feet thickened, folding inward, compressing, twisting around a pocket of void energy. The sensation was wrong, like squeezing something alive into shape, but the system did not stop him.
I watched.
The compressed darkness shuddered… then split.
Small shapes crawled free.
They were crude things. Roughly humanoid, barely stable, made of condensed shadow and flickering void-light. Their forms jittered, edges blurring as if reality hadn't decided what they were yet.
Mini void constructs.
Zalivra blinked. "…You made pets."
"They're not pets," Tharyx muttered, eyes fixed on Shivraith.
One of the constructs tilted its head.
Another tripped over its own legs and face-planted into rubble.
A survivor hiding nearby whispered, "What… what are we supposed to call those?"
Zalivra perked up immediately. "I vote for the Voidlings. Cute, right? No? How about Shadow Beans?"
Shivraith roared and advanced again, clearly offended by the existence of lesser void entities in its presence.
Tharyx gestured sharply.
The mini constructs lunged.
They were fast. Faster than he expected. Shadows propelled them forward in erratic bursts, claws forming mid-strike, tearing into Shivraith's legs and torso. The damage was minimal, but the reaction was not.
Shivraith staggered.
Not from pain.
From confusion.
The constructs multiplied.
Without warning.
Each time one was struck down, its shadow split, birthing another malformed copy that scrambled back into the fight. Two became four. Four became eight. The plaza filled with skittering void-things, each feeding on residual energy, growing more stable with every second.
Tharyx's pulse spiked.
"That's not, " he started.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Unintended Effect Detected.]
[Void Constructs Exhibiting Self-Replication.]
[Recommendation: Immediate Control or Termination.]
Zalivra stared in horror and awe. "They're breeding. YOUR SHADOWS ARE BREEDING."
The survivors began arguing in hushed panic.
"That one looks like a rat."
"No, that one's a goblin."
"I still say Voidlings!"
Tharyx barely heard them.
His attention was locked on Shivraith.
The mini constructs swarmed it, clawing, biting, distracting, forcing it to defend against dozens of unpredictable attacks. Shadows lashed, wrapped, stabbed, but beneath it all, Tharyx felt something unsettling.
The constructs weren't just following commands.
They were learning.
One ducked a counterstrike it shouldn't have anticipated. Another coordinated with a shadow thread, flanking Shivraith from behind. Their movements sharpened as their instincts evolved in real time.
And worse
They weren't waiting for his input anymore.
Shivraith slammed both arms into the ground, releasing a void pulse that annihilated half the constructs instantly. The remaining ones shrieked not in sound, but in vibration and then multiplied again.
The air darkened.
Tharyx felt control slipping, not fully, but enough to terrify him.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Warning Escalated.]
[Summoned Entities Approaching Semi-Autonomy Threshold.]
[User Note: You are still responsible.]
The shadows around him surged protectively, wrapping tighter, bracing his body as if anticipating something catastrophic.
Shivraith straightened.
Its hollow gaze flicked past Tharyx… and settled on the multiplying constructs.
Recognition flashed through its void-lit symbols.
It raised its head and screamed not in rage, but in alarm.
The ground cracked.
From the fissures beneath the plaza, void energy surged upward in response not to Shivraith… but to what Tharyx had created.
The mini constructs froze.
Then, he turned slowly toward him.
Zalivra's voice came out as a whisper. "Tharyx… why are they looking at you like that?"
Tharyx swallowed.
The shadows around him trembled not with fear, but anticipation.
Something new had entered the battlefield.
And it wasn't on anyone's side.