After Mavuika left, the night seemed to exhale.
Jin remained seated on the warm black stone for a long moment, the echoes of her laughter and the lingering heat of her presence fading into the vast, ember-lit silence of Natlan. The moon climbed higher, pale and distant, its light cutting across volcanic ridges and rivers of cooled lava like a blade drawn slowly from a sheath.
Without urgency, Jin rose.
He walked until the land dipped and the wind changed, until he reached a strange tree standing alone near the edge of a basalt slope. Its trunk was black as burned bone, cracked with faint crimson veins, and its leaves glowed a deep blood-red, whispering softly as if remembering fire. The air beneath it smelled metallic, sharp, and old.
Jin sat beneath the tree and lifted one hand.
Darkness answered.
It did not erupt or roar. It gathered.
A formless mass condensed above his palm—neither smoke nor shadow alone, but something denser, heavier, bending the air around it. It pulsed slowly, like a living thing breathing in reverse.
Jin's understanding of darkness was simple.
Darkness was an aberrant element—without a fixed shape, without allegiance. Because it was aberrant, it was neutral. It did not care whether the energy it consumed was pure or corrupted. It fed on power itself.
And because it was darkness—answering to the Absolute Lord of all shadowed elements—it possessed the authority to absorb poisons, curses, and malignant residues. Poison, after all, was merely negative energy in a hostile configuration.
The principle was absurdly simple.
Darkness could become anything he willed.
Darkness fed on polluted energy and clean energy alike.
Darkness thrived on negativity—on death, decay, hatred, corruption.
Corpses were fuel.
Monsters were fuel.
Humans were not.
Jin had never touched a human corpse—not even an enemy's. It disgusted him. Worse than that, human energy was fundamentally pure. Even the wicked carried untainted cores unless corrupted by curses, infections, or abyssal influence. Those could be extracted without killing.
Efficiency mattered.
As Jin contemplated the slow rotation of shadow in his palm, something itched at the edge of his perception.
A pressure.
A dense, malicious pull from the eastern reaches of Natlan—near one of its cities.
Jin's eyes narrowed.
That was not human malice.
That was thick. Polluted. Layered.
Abyssal.
He stood instantly—not out of concern for the city, but because the concentration was immense.
So much fuel.
Darkness flooded his legs, compressing beneath his feet.
The ground cracked.
And Jin vanished, leaping across terrain in impossible strides, shadow folding and unfolding beneath him like a living path.
---
Elsewhere — Springs
Firelight clashed with violet distortion.
Abyss portals tore open the air like wounds that refused to close, vomiting creatures of warped geometry and void-black armor. The ground around the hot springs hissed violently as corrupted energy met steaming water, filling the air with acrid vapor and ozone.
"More incoming—left side!" Kachina shouted.
She spun her spear in a tight arc, her small frame moving with precision and stubborn ferocity. Despite her size, her footwork was flawless—low stance, sharp pivots, striking joints and weak points with practiced efficiency.
An Abyss Mage floated backward, its cracked mask glowing with unstable sigils as it raised a corrupted shield.
"Not today!" Kachina yelled, vaulting forward and slamming her spear into the ground.
Geo energy surged—solid, resonant—fracturing the Abyss shield with a sharp crystalline crack.
Beside her, Kinich of the Shadow-Slither Clan moved like a blade drawn through smoke. His sword traced arcs of greenish-black light, every strike clean, economical, lethal. An Abyss Lector lunged at him, crackling with Electro corruption.
Kinich slid under the strike, eyes cold, and whispered:
"Too slow."
His blade flashed.
The Lector's form destabilized, screaming as its energy scattered like torn ink.
Above them, laughter rang out—bright and fearless.
"Wooo! This is getting good!"
Mualani surged across the battlefield atop her dolphin-shaped hydro board, skimming over boiling springs and shattered stone as if gravity itself had agreed to take the night off. She spun midair, water trailing behind her like a ribbon, and slammed down into a cluster of Abyss Hounds.
Hydro detonated.
"Hey! Abyss guys!" she called cheerfully. "You picked the worst hot spring to crash!"
The hounds howled—distorted, skeletal beasts with glowing cores of void-energy—lunging with corrosive claws that ate into stone.
One leapt—
And was impaled.
A black spike burst through its chest from below.
The battlefield froze.
Darkness rippled outward, swallowing sound for half a heartbeat.
Jin stood where the spike had emerged, one hand lowered, shadow dripping from his fingers like ink falling back into the world.
His eyes swept the field.
"So," he said calmly, "this is where you're dumping the trash."
The Abyss reacted instantly.
Multiple creatures turned toward him, howling in warped unison.
Kinich frowned. "Who—"
Jin stepped forward.
Darkness unfolded.
Abyssal energy screamed as it was torn from its hosts, ripped free and devoured by the void that wrapped around Jin like a cloak. An Abyss Herald lunged, blade formed of condensed corruption—
Jin caught it with his bare hand.
The blade dissolved.
"Disgusting," Jin muttered. "Your energy is loud."
He thrust his palm forward.
Darkness compressed into a sphere, then detonated inward.
The Herald collapsed, its form unraveling as its power was stripped and absorbed, leaving nothing but ash.
Kachina stared, wide-eyed. "W-Who is that?!"
Mualani grinned. "Ooooh, I like him!"
Kinich tightened his grip on his sword, eyes sharp. "He's not Abyss… but he's not normal either."
Jin turned slightly, glancing at them over his shoulder.
"Relax," he said flatly. "I'm not here for you."
Then his gaze snapped back to the remaining portals, eyes gleaming with cold delight.
"I'm here to eat."
Darkness surged.
And the Abyss learned—far too late—that it had wandered into a predator's territory.
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heat: Thank you very much for reading.