Before
Before the sky split, before the monsters, before he learned to walk through shadows, Andrew was just… tired.
Not physically. Not really. He was 18, healthy, had decent grades, and an okay life on paper. But there was always a fog behind his eyes—a feeling that the world was too bright, too loud, too fake.
He didn't smile much. Didn't talk unless necessary. He preferred the quiet: the stillness of dusk, the dark corner of the classroom, the cold glow of a computer screen at 2 A.M. He wasn't a loner by force. He just… didn't fit.
His classmates called him weird. Not bullying—just distant teasing. His teachers described him as "capable but unmotivated." Even his parents, before the calls stopped, used to say: "You have to live in the real world, Andrew."
But the real world bored him. It felt like a box. A cage painted blue.
Except for one person.
Her name was Luna, his best friend. The only one who truly saw through the silence. The one who'd tease him for looking like a cartoon vampire, then quietly sit beside him for hours without saying a word. She made the world a little less hollow.
Until the day it all burned.
Now
Yaoundé — 3:28 PM
The streets were unrecognizable. Cracked asphalt. Cars overturned. Smoke twisting through broken power lines. The air was thick with rot and ozone.
Andrew and Clara crouched behind a fallen billboard, catching their breath. He scanned the alley while Clara tightened a bloodied wrap around her thigh.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
She hissed between her teeth. "Deep. Bastard nicked an artery, I think. I'd be dead if I hadn't awakened."
Andrew looked at her more closely. Sparks of mana—fire, ice, and wind—flickered faintly beneath her skin, like a storm waiting to burst. "Tri-elemental?" he muttered.
Clara blinked at him. "You can see mana?"
He didn't answer. He didn't fully understand it himself.
The strange screen from earlier hovered in the corner of his vision, slightly distorted. His EXP bar now read:
EXP: 6/10
Skill: Umbra Constructs (Lv.1)
Skill: Shadow Step (Lv.1)
Status: Semi-Stable
Semi-stable. Whatever that meant.
"What are you?" Clara finally asked, voice soft.
He didn't look at her. "Something broken."
They stayed silent for a moment. Then she laughed—not mocking, not cruel. Just… tired.
"Well, I'm something pissed off," she said. "Those things killed my family."
Andrew tensed, but said nothing.
He thought of Luna. He didn't know if she was alive. Or if his little brother, Evan, had made it. His parents were already dead years before. But Evan… he prayed Evan was still out there.
Suddenly, Clara grabbed his arm.
"Look."
Down the road, near what used to be a small church, several goblins were dragging bodies—fresh ones. Some alive. Screaming.
Clara's eyes burned. "We're not letting that happen."
Andrew felt it again. The cold rising inside him. A slow crawl up the spine. A hunger.
He nodded.
"No mercy."
They moved like shadows.
Andrew melted into the alley, his footsteps silent. Clara limped beside him, but her aura flared—icy wind circling her fingers, fire flickering from her wounded arm.
The goblins didn't stand a chance.
Andrew struck first, launching a bolt of pure darkness through one's head. Clara followed with a whirlwind of slicing wind, knocking the rest off-balance. Then fire. Screams. Blood. The monsters fought back—but too slow. Too weak.
Andrew felt himself moving faster, hitting harder. His shadows responded before he even thought. Each kill brought him clarity. A deeper connection to whatever darkness lay inside him.
EXP: 10/10
Level Up! You are now Level 2.
+5 Strength, +4 Speed, +3 Agility, +2 Intelligence, +4 Resistance
Skill Proficiency Increased: Umbra Constructs → Lv.2
New Skill Unlocked: Shadow Box (Lv.1)
He didn't know what a Shadow Box was. He didn't care right now.
They won. The monsters died.
The survivors—three of them—were badly hurt. A young boy, a teen, and an older woman. They thanked them with tears in their eyes.
Clara helped bind their wounds. Andrew stood guard, watching the shadows dance.
This was just the beginning.