The dark chasm rushed upward to meet him as he plummeted once more into the heart of the abyss. Down below, a pinpoint of amber brilliance fractured the gloom. As he fell, the light expanded with terrifying speed, radiating a suffocating, blistering heat that scorched his clothes and caused the air around him to smoke.
Bani instinctively squeezed his eyes shut, raising a forearm to shield his face from the miniature sun blazing below.
Then, the heat swallowed him whole.
For a timeless moment, there was only the roaring fury of combustion. Slowly, the ambient chill of the deep shadows bled back into his senses. The roaring fire receded into a low, rumbling hum. Bani opened his eyes, blinking against the lingering afterimages.
Towering before him was a monstrosity. A phoenix forged of pure, roaring conflagration, its colossal form easily dwarfing a multi-story fortress with effortless, terrifying grace.
From deep within the swirling furnace of its chest, the ancient voice resonated once more.
*"As expected of the spawn of the void. You have survived the crucible. For that, you shall be bestowed the Mask of Concealment."*
A heavy, metallic clang echoed in the void. Floating in the air directly before him was a grotesque half-mask, carved meticulously from the bleached skull of an ancient beast.
*"Forged from a fragment of the void and the heavens, bound together under the scorching fires of a divine core. This relic shields its wearer from any divination, scrying, or tracking spell woven by mortal hands. None shall ever know the true identity of he who wears the mask."*
Bani reached out, his fingers wrapping around the bone-white artifact.
The phoenix lowered its blazing head slightly. *"The other fragment calls out to you, leading you step-by-step to where your destiny waits."*
Bani studied the cold, hollow sockets of the mask before lifting it to his face. The moment it clicked into place, a chilling, deadened frost seeped into his skin—if a synthetic vessel of shadow could be said to possess skin at all. Instantly, his perception of the surrounding darkness deepened, expanding his awareness of the hidden corridors of the world.
Miles away in the bustling, sunlit streets of the empire, his charming golden-haired clone grinned. He felt the ambient shadows shift organically as he walked past them. *Looks like it's my lucky day,* the clone muttered, pausing in front of a public bulletin board. His eyes scanned a small parchment pinned near the center:
*Bartender needed. If interested, inquire at Louisa District, No. 5 Aproda.*
With a smooth motion, the clone plucked the notice off the board, pocketing it as he strolled onward.
Back in the chasm, Bani dismissed his shadowy daggers. He opened his mouth to question how he was supposed to escape this forgotten layer, but a sudden, violent wave of vertigo crashed over him. His knees buckled.
*Rend.*
Space itself fractured like cheap glass. Reality violently rejected him, spitting his battered form straight out of the void and hurling him canopy-first into a dense, sprawling forest.
He moved on reflex, dissolving into a pool of ink to cushion his hard landing. He solidified, straightening his jacket as he scanned his new surroundings.
Low murmurs drifted through the undergrowth behind him. Relying on his heightened shadow sense, he tracked three distinct signatures: a trio of low-tier demon casters moving through the brush, flanked by a snarling, multi-eyed chimera. They were weak—peons who posed zero threat to a newly ascended Highmage. But Bani had no desire to stir up unnecessary commotion or draw unwanted attention from whatever apex predators roamed these woods.
With a silent bound, he vaulted upward, melting into the dense foliage of a towering branch to watch them pass below.
He tailed them effortlessly from the safety of the canopy, using the branches to scout his location. Suddenly, one of the demons halted. The chimera had stopped dead in its tracks, its multi-eyed gaze locking straight up at the branch where Bani crouched.
The demon frowned, following the beast's line of sight. He squinted into the leaves, seeing nothing, though Bani was perched mere feet away.
"What's wrong with it?" the second demon snapped, annoyed by the delay.
"Nothing," the first muttered, yanking the beast's leash. The chimera remained stubbornly hesitant, refusing to break eye contact with the empty space until it was dragged away.
Bani exhaled slowly, but as he stared past them—deep into the heart of the ancient forest—his breath caught in his throat.
An unmistakable, suffocating mana signature bled through the trees. It was a vile, rancid aura he could never mistake, etched permanently into his memory by the pain of someone he cared for.
*How hilariously ironic.* Fate had brought the man he had sworn an oath to slaughter right to his very doorstep.
Dark, inky tendrils surged around his boots. Bani's carefully maintained emotional control cracked, a wave of incandescent rage bleeding directly into his shadow mana. He no longer cared about caution, about collateral, or about the consequences. All he wanted, all he needed, was to tear Vilthrax limb from limb.
Vilthrax's presence was drawing closer. *Good.* Today, the demon would pay in blood for what he had done to Azula.
A sharp snap of a twig echoed through the trees below. The traveling demons froze, finally realizing something was hunting them.
*BOOM.*
In the distance, the sharp, metallic shriek of steel violently clashing against hardened chitin reverberated through the valley. But the chimera didn't care about distant skirmishes. With a sudden, explosive jerk, the beast snapped its restraints, breaking free from the demons' grip, and launched itself upward like a human-cannonball straight toward Bani's tree.
Bani's eyes flashed behind the bone mask. He didn't have time for this nuisance.
As the chimera burst through the canopy, Bani swung off the branch, utilizing the momentum to hurl himself downward. His booted heel slammed squarely into the beast's skull, driving it crashing into the forest floor with a deafening thud.
Before the two terrified demons could even process the ambush, Bani materialized out of the dark. Twin daggers of condensed shadow flashed in the gloom, passing through their bodies with zero physical resistance as their life force snuffed out instantly.
The chimera shrieked, scrambling back to its feet. But Bani gave it no quarter. He closed the distance in a blur, his shadow-wrapped knuckles connecting with bone-cracking force against its armored snout. The monster was launched backward, shattering a thick pine trunk meters away.
Just as Bani stepped forward to execute the beast, the shadows parted.
He came face-to-face with a silver-haired boy with striking golden eyes.
The boy's gaze locked onto him the instant their paths crossed. Even with the bone mask concealing Bani's face, the palpable, terrifying weight of an **8th-circle core** rolled off the young warrior in waves.
Bani's tactical mind raced. An 8th-circle combatant was no small fry, and wasting his mana core here when his true target was moments away was foolish.
With a single step, Bani dissolved into a puddle of black ink, bypassing the silver-haired boy entirely.
He materialized directly behind a familiar, arrogant figure stepping out of the thicket.
*Vilthrax.*
Bani's daggers flared with blinding, lethal intent, descending in a lightning-fast arc toward the demon's spine.
Vilthrax reacted with preternatural reflex. He spun around, drawing his own blade to parry the strike at the last fraction of a second. The violent collision of steel and shadow mana sent a shockwave that hurled both combatants backward.
Before Bani could press the offensive, a secondary spatial disturbance registered nearby. Someone was hurtling toward them with terrifying, reckless speed.
It was the silver-haired boy again, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
"Xavier, get back now!" the silver-haired boy screamed across the clearing.
Vilthrax's eyes gleamed with malice. Mid-recovery, the demon prince whipped his arm forward, hurling a concealed dagger directly toward the boy's exposed flank.
The boy didn't flinch. He twisted in mid-air with impossible precision, instinctively catching the flying blade bare-handed before flicking it contemptuously away into the dirt.
"Do you really think I'll fall for the same trick twice?" Kyle said coldly, his golden eyes locked onto Vilthrax with glacial fury.
Bani's masked brow furrowed. *History between them? Wait... is this the legendary disciple of Cerci?*
He shifted his stance, weighing his options. If the boy turned hostile, he would cut him down just the same.
Vilthrax chuckled, a low, guttural sound that carried the weight of a predator cornering its prey. He brushed a speck of dirt off his shoulder, his lips curling into a wicked, predatory grin.
"What do we have here?" the demon prince purred, his callous voice dripping with casual, sadistic amusement as his eyes flicked between Bani and Kyle. "Looks like it's my lucky day. I get to kill the runaway prince charming... and *you*."
He nodded toward Kyle, his grin widening. "What do humans call it again? Killing two birds with one stone."