The next day, I snapped.
It happened in the Dreg alleys, where the air was thick with smoke and rot, and the narrow corridors twisted like veins beneath the city's beating heart. I hadn't slept in two days. My mana was a flickering ember. My wounds from the last bounty encounter still wept under tattered wraps. But I kept moving. There was no time to rest. The moment I stopped, the system advanced.
They found me between two collapsed vendor stalls—six bounty hunters, armored in a patchwork of stolen guild steel, and one corrupted mage cloaked in shifting ash. They didn't speak. Professionals. Trained. Focused. Their boots didn't echo.
But I could hear them. Feel them. My shadow hummed with their weight.
I had one Veilstep left. Maybe.
The corrupted mage raised his staff. Black veins pulsed along his neck, spidering beneath pale skin. A core eater. He had consumed too many.
I dove left, tumbled into shattered crates, drew a ward line with blood and instinct.
> [Warning: Mana Reserves Critical]
[Shadow Pulse Unavailable]
[Auto-Surge Disabled]
The system was failing me.
That's when it spoke.
> [Emergency Option: Soul Consumption]
Absorb corrupted enemy core. Gain temporary boost. Chance of permanent corruption: 9.4%.
I stared at the line of text hovering over my vision. I could feel the heat of it, like it was inside my skull.
And I made the choice.
I lunged.
The corrupted mage unleashed a flare of entropy, but I slipped beneath it, drew the void dagger Lira had forged me, and buried it in his chest.
The soul release was immediate.
Like swallowing lightning.
It tore through me—a scream of memories, pain, death, power. I felt his mind, fractured and mad, crash into mine. Images of blood altars. Screams that had no mouth. He had killed hundreds.
And now I carried them.
> [Soul Core Absorbed]
[New Passive Unlocked: Shadowrage]
While below 30% HP, chance to trigger berserk state. +40% damage. -15% control.
The world twisted. My muscles screamed.
When I opened my eyes, the alley was gone.
Ash. Fire. Bones. Even the bricks had been scorched to glass.
I stood in the center, panting, with smoke curling off my skin.
And I smiled.
Then I fell to my knees and vomited black.
---
I staggered out of the ruins hours later. The world felt thin, like I was moving between pages of a book instead of streets. I reached the hideout half-dead.
Ayla wasn't there.
Neither was Lira.
But Kael was.
He leaned against the stone wall, arms crossed, sword unbuckled but nearby.
"You look like hell," he said.
"I feel worse."
He tossed me a flask. I caught it with numb fingers.
"Shadowcore drink?" I asked.
"Burnroot tea. Won't kill you."
I drank. The bitterness grounded me.
"You crossed it," Kael said.
I looked at him. "I survived."
"That's not the same."
I met his eyes. "Would you rather I died?"
He pushed off the wall. "I'd rather you stayed human."
The words struck deeper than I expected. Something flickered in my chest.
Then I crushed it.
"We all become something in this world," I said. "You wear your pride like armor. I wear the truth."
He unsheathed his sword. "Then let's see whose truth bleeds first."
---
We fought.
No banter.
No restraint.
Shadow against light.
My daggers flowed like water; his blade roared like wind. He had always been stronger, faster, more classically trained. But I was different now. My strikes left trails of black fire. My eyes pulsed with red system runes.
I didn't just move between attacks.
I moved between seconds.
Veilwalk chained to Pulse Rush chained to Displace Strike.
Kael grunted as I clipped his side. Blood sprayed. He countered with a Windshock Slam that threw me into a pillar.
I laughed.
I couldn't help it.
The berserk passive was active. I was high on the edge.
He charged.
I shadowstepped through his form and slashed his back. He roared, spun, and impaled my side.
We both collapsed.
Blood soaked the floor. Breathing became an effort.
He crawled to his knees. "You're not him anymore."
I looked into a shard of metal nearby. My reflection stared back.
Eyes glowing.
Veins pulsing with black light.
He was right.
But I didn't say it.
I simply turned and walked into the dark.
Behind me, Kael whispered, "Don't forget who you were. Or there won't be anything left to fight for."