The cathedral should not have still been standing.
Its spires were cracked, its stained glass reduced to jagged scars of color embedded in stone, and its bell tower leaned like a corpse refusing to fall. Yet it remained looming over the ruined district like a monument to stubborn faith. Shadows clung to its walls unnaturally, thick and layered, overlapping even where no light existed to cast them.
Tharyx felt it before he saw it.
The pressure.
A distortion in the air that pressed against his chest, like the city itself was holding its breath. His shadow threads tightened instinctively, spreading across the broken plaza leading to the cathedral steps. They recoiled, then stretched again, alert, wary.
Zalivra stopped walking. For once, he didn't crack a joke.
"…Tell me that thing isn't alive," he whispered.
The cathedral doors exploded outward.
The stone shattered. Void energy poured from within like a screaming tide. From the collapsing entrance emerged something tall and wrong, humanoid only in the vaguest sense. Its body was formed of layered darkness and fractured bone, its limbs too long, joints bending at angles that mocked anatomy. Hollow symbols burned across its torso, pulsing with void light.
Shivraith.
The name surfaced in Tharyx's mind without explanation, carried on instinct and the system's subtle hum. A creature born of rift convergence, not a swarm beast, not a mindless horror, but something closer to purpose.
The ground trembled as it stepped forward.
Shadows surged around Tharyx, reacting faster than thought. Some formed blades. Others anchored themselves to rubble, bracing the plaza. A few detached entirely, slipping toward the cathedral's interior without command.
Zalivra backed away slowly. "I uh, this feels like a boss. This feels like the kind of thing people don't survive."
Shivraith screamed.
The sound wasn't loud; it was heavy. It crushed the air, sending shockwaves through the plaza. Stone pillars cracked. The cathedral's roof groaned, ancient supports giving way under the pressure.
Tharyx moved.
Not recklessly. Precisely.
His shadows struck first, testing blows, not lethal, wrapping around Shivraith's legs and arms, probing resistance. The creature responded instantly, void energy flaring as it tore free, swinging an arm that cleaved through shadow and stone alike.
The cathedral began to collapse.
Massive slabs of stone broke loose from the upper structure, raining down toward the plaza where survivors drawn by rumors, hope, or desperation had gathered.
Tharyx felt it all at once.
Fear. Weight. Responsibility.
And then...
His shadows moved without him.
Threads are split, multiplied, and prioritized. Some intercepted falling debris mid-air, cushioning impacts with layered darkness. Others wrapped civilians, yanking them out of harm's way with brutal efficiency. One shadow flattened itself into a ramp, redirecting a collapsing wall away from a group of children screaming in terror.
Tharyx hadn't ordered any of it.
He was still focused on Shivraith when he realized the truth.
They had decided.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Warning.]
[Apocalypse Potential Detected.]
[Shadow Network Acting Independently.]
[User Authorization: Partially Bypassed.]
His heart slammed against his ribs.
Shivraith roared again, void symbols across its body flaring brighter as the cathedral's bell tower finally gave way, collapsing inward in a thunderous cascade. Dust and darkness swallowed everything.
For a brief, terrifying moment, Tharyx lost sight of the battlefield.
Then the dust cleared.
Shadows held the ruins aloft like black pillars, supporting collapsed arches, frozen mid-fall. Civilians clung to them, alive, shaken, staring in disbelief at the living darkness that had saved them.
Zalivra stared too, mouth open. "…They didn't wait for you."
"No," Tharyx said quietly.
Shivraith stepped from the rubble, largely unharmed, void energy rippling across its form. Its hollow gaze locked onto Tharyx not with rage, but recognition.
A predator meets another.
The shadows around Tharyx recoiled slightly… then surged forward again, thicker, heavier, sharper than before. One formed a silhouette beside him, not a clone, not fully separate but watching, learning.
The system's tone changed.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[This entity is not prey.]
[It is a test.]
[Survival Probability: Unknown.]
The cathedral finally collapsed completely behind Shivraith, sealing the ruins in darkness. The civilians were safe for now, but the cost hung heavy in the air.
Tharyx clenched his fist.
His shadows responded as one.
And somewhere deep within the void, something noticed.