Kaelen pushed himself up from the yielding, resonant dust where he had fallen.
The pain was still a raw, screaming entity in his body, but the cold, dark energy that now surged through him, fueled by the Whisperwind resonance and his unyielding fury, held his broken form together with an unnatural, chilling strength.
Wisps of shadow, visible only through his dark-infused [Fragmented Insight], coiled around his limbs as he knelt, then slowly, painfully, rose to his feet.
He was broken, bleeding, and remade in darkness. His ascent began now.
His first few steps were shaky, each one a victory over screaming nerves and shattered bone.
But the dark energy flowed, a chilling tide pushing back against the agony. It felt alien, potent, and utterly aligned with the cold rage burning in his gut.
He reached the sheer rock face of the canyon wall, pressing a trembling hand against the stone.
A fleeting patch of unnatural cold bloomed on the rock under his touch, seen only by his enhanced sight, before dissipating.
He needed handholds. He needed a path out of this abyss.
[Fragmented Insight], now tinged with the shadow energy within him, overlaid the rock face.
It didn't just show the physical cracks and ledges. It showed subtle energy pathways – faint lines of residual resonance, weaknesses in the stone pulsing with low energy, almost like veins of darkness within the mountain itself.
Use the weaknesses. Follow the shadow paths.
His mind, sharp and focused despite the pain, interpreted the data.
He found a handhold, not obvious, but highlighted by [Fragmented Insight] showing a confluence of faint energy lines.
He gripped it, testing his weight. Pain flared, but the dark energy surged, lending impossible strength to his injured arm.
He pulled himself up, his legs scrabbling for purchase. This was a brutal climb. A vertical battle against the mountain, his own broken body, and the sheer impossibility of it all.
As he ascended, the dark energy within him manifested more clearly, no longer just fleeting wisps.
A faint, cold aura seemed to cling to him, deepening the shadows around his form. His eyes, he suspected, now held a glint of chilling light that wasn't entirely human.
He was becoming the embodiment of the darkness he had embraced.
His climb was agonizingly slow. Every foot gained felt like a mile. The rock was unforgiving, the handholds sparse.
But his dark-infused [Fragmented Insight] was invaluable. It showed him where to grip, where the stone had subtle weaknesses he could exploit, where the energy flows were stable enough to support his weight.
It was a map of vulnerabilities, a path revealed by the very darkness he now commanded.
Mid-climb, he encountered the first significant obstacle. Not just a sheer face, but a section of the canyon wall overgrown with the same strange, dark, crystalline flora from the canyon floor, but larger, pulsing with a more intense, resonant energy.
[Fragmented Insight] tagged them:
Classification: B_I_O_L_O_G_I_C_A_L (System-affected Flora?)
Energy Signature: A_B_S_O_R_P_T_I_V_E (Increased intensity).
Hazard: E_N_E_R_G_Y D_R_A_I_N (Proximity).
He couldn't climb through them; his skill warned him they would drain his already limited energy reserves.
He had to go around. But the rock face beside the flora was slick, almost sheer. No obvious handholds, even with [Fragmented Insight].
Find a weakness. He focused his dark-infused insight, scanning the slick rock. The resonance flows here were weak, unstable.
No easy path. But then he saw it – a faint, almost invisible line of darker energy running vertically through the stone, a hidden seam pulsing with a low, discordant frequency.
Structure: C_R_Y_S_T_A_L_L_I_N_E F_R_A_C_T_U_R_E.
A deep fracture, perhaps related to the canyon's formation or the intensity of the resonance.
Could his dark energy interact with it? He pressed a hand against the seam, feeling the cold, potent energy within him surge.
He focused his will, pushing the dark energy outwards, into the fracture. The rock didn't shatter, but the seam pulsed with a brief, intense black light visible only to him.
The stone around the fracture seemed to momentarily solidify, its integrity rating through [Fragmented Insight] flashing
Integrity: T_E_M_P_O_R_A_R_Y S_T_A_B_L_E.
It was a gamble. He used the temporarily stabilized seam as a handhold, his fingers finding purchase in the chilled, hardened fissure.
Pain screamed, but the dark energy held him. He pulled himself across the treacherous section, his body moving with jerky, unnatural efficiency, the faint aura of shadow clinging to him like a second skin.
He was using his dark power not just for support, but to manipulate the environment, subtly interacting with the stone through its hidden weakness.
They left me for dead.
The thought was a burning coal in his mind, fueling the dark energy that flowed through him. Each painful pull upwards, each desperate search for a handhold, was an act of defiance.
This wasn't just survival; it was a promise of return. A promise of vengeance. He was climbing out of the abyss they threw him into, powered by the darkness they inadvertently awakened.
As he continued the brutal ascent, the taste of his new power, of manipulating the very structure of the rock through its dark fissures, left a cold satisfaction.
He was learning. Adapting. Becoming something else. Something forged in betrayal and empowered by the shadows of the Whisperwind.
The climb was far from over, but with every foot gained, the surface, and the reckoning that awaited there, felt a little closer.