Chapter 41: The Return of the Shadow
The ground groaned beneath the shattered remains of the battlefield. Cracks ran through scorched earth like veins of despair, and smoke curled into the air in thin, dying spirals. Ash coated every stone, every broken pillar. The sky was bruised with the scent of storm and blood.
Three battered figures stood against the impossible.
Eliz Betham knelt, sweat dripping from her temple, both palms pressed against the ground as her magic flared to life. Her once-smooth spells now surged with wild, dark power—evidence of her change. The sweetness in her eyes was gone. In its place was a storm.
To her left, Kenya Naro stood with a cracked gauntlet and a fractured horn from his Fire Demon Evolution form. Flames flickered around his shoulders, unstable and pulsing with fury. His eyes never left the beast before them.
Ruke crouched behind a jagged boulder, his breathing sharp and ragged. Sparks jumped along the surface of his dragon staff, but his right leg twitched uselessly, broken from his last charge.
Across from them stood Arcane General Vaegas, Rank 5—one of the elite horrors birthed from the heart of the Arcane world. His body was no longer entirely flesh. Black scales shimmered with mirror-like distortion, bending light. Wings shaped like jagged crystal blades unfolded from his back. His voice was like thunder swallowed by water—muffled, deep, and crawling with malice.
"You believed you could harm me?" he asked, his smile wide and unnatural. "You're ants playing gods."
Eliz spat blood to the side. "We're more than we were."
She raised both arms and began chanting. Symbols burned in the air—dark, swirling glyphs from ancient Black Magic she had once refused to touch.
"Wait—Eliz, are you crazy?!" Kenya barked. "That's Grave Spiral—!"
"I know what it is," she snapped. "And I'm not the same girl anymore."
The chant reached a peak. The sky howled.
From the ground erupted a twisting cyclone of obsidian flame and screaming wind. It surged toward Vaegas, encasing him in a hellish spiral of cursed energy. The magic was so strong it carved a crater around its target, melting stone and swallowing light.
For a moment, silence fell.
And then came the laughter.
The spiral shattered like glass.
Vaegas emerged, a hole torn through his chest, one arm missing—and still smiling. His voice broke through the smoke like a knife.
"Adorable."
Kenya charged, body igniting with renewed fury. "Ruke! Combo!"
Ruke pulled up what magic he had left. Lightning streaked through the air as he hurled his weapon to Kenya mid-air. It struck like thunder as Kenya caught it, fire and lightning roaring together as he dove for the Arcane General's head.
He never made it.
Vaegas swatted him down with a single wing. The ground cracked where Kenya landed, unmoving.
"Do you see now?" Vaegas whispered, walking slowly toward Eliz. "The limits of your strength. The foolishness of your hope."
Eliz tried to stand. Her legs buckled. Her magic fizzled.
"Not yet," she whispered.
Then—
The air stopped moving.
It wasn't a wind. It wasn't a sound.
It was presence.
Something ancient and burning and cold swept across the battlefield like a second sky had fallen.
Eliz froze. Ruke stopped breathing.
Even Vaegas halted, his monstrous grin faltering.
A footstep.
Another.
And from the haze of broken dust and shadow, a figure emerged.
Cloaked in black armor with glowing seams. A sword slung over one shoulder. Eyes hidden beneath a cracked helm, glowing with cold flame.
"Miss me?"
Kenya stirred, barely conscious. "No way…"
"Shen…" Eliz breathed.
Vaegas narrowed his eyes. "Another insect?"
"No," Ruke rasped from the rubble. "He's the guy who kills monsters like you."
Shen Karguro said nothing. His gaze was fixed on Vaegas, but he didn't charge. He didn't need to.
Even the Arcane General felt it now—the shift in weight, the bend in space around this new arrival. Shen was no longer just a fighter. He was a storm in human shape.
Eliz trembled, not from fear, but from something like awe. The black scale beneath her shirt, the shard Shen had once gifted Nolan, pulsed in resonance.
Vaegas stepped back unconsciously.
Shen smiled.
"Let's make this quick."
The battlefield was silent again.
And then the sky shattered.
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