Carl lay crumpled on the fractured ground, his body refusing to rise. Each breath came shallow and jagged, scraping his throat like rusted nails. Blood pooled warmly beneath him, a weak comfort against the bone-deep chill gnawing through his veins.
The System's numbers blinked dimly at the corner of his vision:
[21/50 Subdued.]
[46:58 Remaining.]
"Still… twenty-nine more to go," he rasped, spitting blackened saliva onto the unseen stone. His lips curved into something resembling a grin, though the sound that escaped him was closer to a sob.
Then he felt it.
The pull.
His shadow no longer lay flat. It writhed like a nest of worms, stretching outward with slow, eager hunger. One of the smaller beasts, too cautious to rush him, twitched nearby—close enough that the darkness reached for it. Carl didn't move; his body was broken glass. Yet the shadow lashed out on its own, latching onto the beast's throat and dragging it in.
The subdual hit him instantly. His chest arched from the ground, a scream tearing through cracked lips as shards of something vile poured into him. He gagged, bile mixing with blood. When it ended, the world swam.
[22/50 Subdued.]
Carl's hand trembled as he clutched at the shadow, fingers digging into the dark as if he could pin it. It didn't help. The thing twitched beneath his grip like a living muscle, slick and impossible to hold.
"Stop," he whispered, voice breaking. "You're not me. You're not—"
The darkness pulsed, as if laughing, before stretching further.
The hunt hadn't stopped. It had only begun.
"Resistance is futile."
Another whisper.
He heard it but was too consumed by pain and trauma to react.
---
Meanwhile, back at the castle, Kaela was in high spirits—a rare mood for a knight. She was preparing for the time she hoped to spend with Carl.
She dressed in silk linen that highlighted her brown eyes and vanilla-colored hair. The garment clung to her curves, slits exposing her thighs, while its neckline revealed just enough cleavage to set wandering imaginations aflame.
"I hope he likes my dress," she murmured to her reflection.
"I just want him to notice me. I'm not even asking for much."
"Kaela, do you have a crush?" she asked herself softly, tilting her head at the mirror.
Talking to herself was a habit—a way of weighing difficult decisions, such as this one.
"Crush? No, no… I just can't stand how the princess gets so clingy around him. But she's like family. We're practically sisters. If I told her how I feel… surely she'd understand."
She sighed. "I'm at a crossroads here. In any case, once I'm done, I'd better go fetch Carl. I don't want to keep the squirt waiting."
---
Poor Carl—still in the void realm, fighting for another chance at life.
Pressed against the ground, sweat and blood streaking down his face, he felt his shadow twitch, excited… hungry.
The next beast lunged, claws sparking against the jagged stone. Carl didn't lift an arm. He didn't need to.
His shadow moved first.
It speared upward like a hooked blade, impaling the creature mid-leap. The beast shrieked, collapsing into black fragments. Carl gagged as the shards funneled into him like smoke sucked through a straw.
[23/50 Subdued.]
He coughed so hard his ribs rattled, vision blurring, bile rising. And yet—he hadn't acted. The shadow had.
"No," he hissed, clawing at the ground until nails split and skin tore. "I didn't tell you to do that!"
The darkness rippled—smug.
Another beast stepped too close. Instantly, tendrils lashed from the shadow, dragging it down like quicksand. Its distorted screech died as it vanished.
[24/50 Subdued.]
Carl screamed—not from pain, but from horror. His chest heaved as he tried to pull away from the thing stitched to his feet. No matter how he moved, it clung.
"I'm not your puppet," he spat, trembling.
Whispers answered—not words yet, only hunger.
And then Carl saw the truth:
He wasn't subduing the beasts. The shadow was—and it was feeding him like a baby bird forced to swallow gore.
Each time, he lost more of himself.
Carl coughed blood into his palms and laughed raggedly, madness dripping from his voice.
"This isn't something I'd even wish on the devil."
The timer blinked again.
[25/50 Subdued.]
[39:40 Remaining.]
The beasts backed away, snarling—not at Carl, but at the thing writhing beneath him.
And he realized the ugliest part:
The System didn't care if he survived. Only that the shadow finished the task. And in a twisted way, wasn't the shadow still part of him?
---
The air shifted.
Carl's vision swam as the horizon stirred. Vast, wrong shapes loomed—too large, bending the void like heatwaves.
Every instinct screamed don't look. But his shadow stretched toward them, eager, like a dog scenting meat.
"No… don't you dare," Carl rasped, dragging himself backward. Blood slicked his palms. "Stay the hell away from—"
The shadow didn't listen. It never had. Tendrils feathered outward, inviting. The beasts scattered, whimpering.
"You're calling them."
Whispers filled his skull, layered and inhuman, rattling his bones like static from a cursed frequency.
The ground shuddered.
One horizon-shape stepped closer. His eyes rejected it—too many limbs, too many jaws, flickering between substance and smoke. The air thinned to suffocation.
His shadow quivered with delight.
[26/50 Subdued.]
Another beast was dragged screaming into him. Carl gagged, black saliva spilling from his lips. His veins burned like molten tar. His body crumbled, but the shadow thrived.
He laughed, broken and wild.
"You're not keeping me alive—you're fattening me up."
The titans loomed nearer. Silence deepened until his heartbeat thundered. The ground cracked and pulsed.
The System chimed:
[Warning: Host Compatibility Falling.]
[Warning: Shadow Entity Sync Increasing.]
Carl's teeth rattled. Knees buckled. He pressed his forehead to the ground, terror raw and naked.
"Time left is almost thirty minutes...is it possible to test my luck and wait it out... right now I can't run even if I tried "
"God… somebody… please. Just kill me before it finishes."
Behind him, the shadow rose, jagged and immense, no longer his own. It beckoned to the horizon.
"I was expecting more from you... Master."