Kai woke to a vibrant sun that mocked the darkness he felt, ominous weight now lodged in his chest like a second heart. Through the blurriness of his eyes, he saw Rusco—the only creature that had ever made any attempt to like him. The mangy stray hound was busy sniffing around his body, nudging gently, making sure he was awake.
The city was lively again. The Grimoire collection had ended. Just like usual, everyone ignored him—the little boy who needed love more than anything.
His breath hitched. He heard the voice before he saw the face.
Adin.
The bully who turned every scrap of happiness sour. Not loud or aggressive—no. Adin was dangerously calm, calculated, evil, sinister. The type who could kill a dog and smile about it. Words were his weapon, and everyone followed. Natural-born leader. Incredibly smart. Son of the noble in charge of the Dunston Estate. Polar opposite of Kai. He reminded him every single day how superior he was to "trash" like him.
"Trash like you will never be accepted in this kingdom," Adin had told him once, sternly, right to his face.
Kai gulped down a huge ball of spit. He wasn't ready for this—not after everything. He stood to slip away, but it was too late. Adin had already sighted him.
"Hey, look—it's the runt."
Kai froze in his steps, paralyzed by fear. Adin's minions burst into laughter like they always did, pointing fingers. Their grimoires nestled in saddlebags across their chests. Changes from awakening: extra height on some, differently colored hair on others, one even sprouted a pair of small, leathery wings.
Adin remained the same—tall for his age, blonde hair, pale skin—but there was a different air about him now. Still terrifying, but laced with fresh, predatory confidence.
The taunting crew closed in, sneering crude jokes.
"Powerless trash."
"Weak dunce."
They chorused behind Adin, who walked with his normal grace, grin fixed.
"Hey, seems like you were really cursed after all," he said, touching the saddlebag where his grimoire rested. Kai bowed his head to avoid his gaze, as usual. Rusco kept barking at Adin, but Adin ignored the dog completely.
"A fifteen-year-old without affinity to magic? How crude," he continued, grin unwavering. Passersby walked on as if the scene didn't exist.
"Your trash mother should have at least waited until after your christening to abandon you in the trash," Adin added, taunting further. The crew laughed.
"I was named 'Emperor of Ice' today. Do you know what that means?" He sneered, a hint of hunger in his voice. "Let me show you what a mage of my caliber can do."
He stepped back. Minions followed. Grimoire glowed light blue—bright even in the glistening sun.
It hovered into sight. Kai saw the front cover: an eight-shard crest. That was where the new cockiness came from. Eight shards meant instant High Mage status right from awakening. Grow in power enough, and you could transcend to the realm of the gods.
"Brace yourself, runt."
The book fluttered open once. Scribbling sound—first spell inscribed.
"Eternal Cold; Ice Shards… Shard Rain."
Kai tightened, bracing for a grievous hit that would either leave him dead or half-dead.
But just as he surrendered to fate, he heard it—that voice. The woman from his dreams.
"Come on, Kai. You don't possibly think that will kill you," she whispered.
Rusco's barking grew louder. Kai looked at the dog—sad… no! A pawn!
"Yes, Kai. Let it out."
He did.
His eyes dimmed to an entirely black color. He stretched his hands toward Rusco. Dark smoke escaped his fingers and met the creature.
Gradually Rusco wasn't barking anymore. He was growling—a low growl that progressed into a roar.
The smoke didn't stop there.
It spread like oil on water, seeking more vessels. The rabid dogs from the alley froze mid-step, then convulsed, eyes glazing pitch-black. A passing hawk plummeted, wings twitching, before righting itself with mechanical precision. A snake slithered from a nearby crack, coiling tighter, fangs now dripping inky venom.
They were his.
Extensions of the Abyss.
The whispers surged inside Kai's skull: Feed. Corrupt. Erase.
Adin's grin flickered for the first time—uncertainty flashing behind the confidence.
Rusco lunged first.
Not at Kai. At the nearest minion.
The boy's scream was cut short as Rusco's jaws clamped—not to tear clean, but to infect. Flesh rippled violently, skin sloughing off in wet, steaming sheets to reveal muscle that twisted into thorny black protrusions. The minion's arm withered, bones cracking like dry twigs before imploding into blackened sludge. He collapsed, gurgling as shadows crawled up his throat, bursting his eyes into empty, weeping sockets. His body convulsed, bloating grotesquely before splitting open down the middle, spilling entrails that writhed like living serpents before dissolving into nothingness.
The rabid dogs swarmed in a pack of horrors. One leaped onto a woman passerby, exhaling a miasma that accelerated decay—her hair fell out in clumps, teeth crumbling to powder, skin sagging and splitting as she aged decades in heartbeats. She collapsed into a desiccated husk that cracked open like dry earth, releasing swarms of shadowy wisps that drifted toward the nearest victims.
The hawk dove from above, talons grazing a guard's neck. Shadows bloomed across his skin like ink in water, veins bulging black and bursting in sprays of corrupted ichor that hissed on the stone. His face melted, it's features sagging into a grotesque, dripping mask while he howled, eyes liquefying in their sockets and running down his cheeks like tar.
The snake struck a child's ankle. The boy froze, then began to writhe as his limbs elongated unnaturally, joints popping like gunfire, skin splitting to reveal writhing tendrils that lashed out at his screaming mother. She reached for him—her hand withered on contact, fingers crumbling to dust mid-air. The child bloated grotesquely, then burst in a shower of foul black ichor, splattering nearby guards whose armor rusted instantly, flesh beneath festering into open sores that crawled with phantom maggots.
Rusco, now a behemoth of warped flesh—extra limbs sprouting from his sides, maw unhinging to reveal rows of void-black teeth—barreled through a cluster of merchants. One man's chest caved inward as shadows pulled his ribs apart from within, exposing a heart that shriveled and blackened before his terrified eyes. Another's legs fused to the ground in roots of darkness, torso stretching until skin tore in long ragged strips, entrails spilling out and writhing like worms before dissolving into smoke.
Grimoires flared in desperate defense—fire spells turned to void-flames that sucked in light and incinerated their casters from the inside, bodies imploding in wet, muffled pops. Wind spells became suffocating entropy gales, stripping flesh from bones in thin layers, leaving skeletons that rattled briefly before shattering into dust.
Buildings groaned as foundations eroded into nothingness. Walls crumbled into pits that swallowed entire streets. The sky darkened unnaturally, eclipsed by an expanding veil of shadow. The entire land fell to ruin in minutes—screams blending into a single, unbroken symphony of despair: wet gurgles, sharp cracks of bone, tearing flesh, final ragged breaths.
Silence followed.
Only faint echoes drifted away on the wind.
Kai stood untouched amid the devastation, the possessed creatures circling back to him, eyes vacant, waiting. The black scar on his chest pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.
The whispers purred approval.
He was no longer empty.
He was the beginning of the end.