The forest split with every step — roots cracking, wind screaming through torn branches.
Gareth ran, breath ragged, boots pounding against soaked earth.
Behind him, that laughter rose again — deep, warped, too familiar.
The corrupted knight tore through the trees, each swing splitting trunks like paper.
Gareth ducked low, sliding beneath a collapsing branch, dirt spraying up behind him.
One more swing — he twisted sideways, the blade missing by inches, cutting air.
The ground shook under the monster's weight, leaves swirling in the pressure.
Gareth leapt to a higher branch, boots landing soft, eyes locked on the thing below.
"Fast… too fast," he muttered, chest heaving. "And definitely angrier."
The corrupted knight's armor groaned as it turned, molten cracks pulsing faintly beneath blackened steel. Its sword dragged through mud, hissing like fire on ice.
Gareth steadied his breath, one hand pressed to his knee, the other tightening around his weapon.
"Damn…" he muttered, watching the creature's movements — raw, precise, relentless.
A faint grin cut across his face. "You're giving me Shalkeer vibes."
The knight's helm snapped toward him, that warped laughter twisting louder — guttural, broken.
Gareth chuckled under his breath, half out of exhaustion, half out of madness.
"Guess that's a compliment."
The monster lunged, blade cleaving upward.
Gareth threw himself back, boots skidding across slick roots, the edge missing his chest by a hair.
Bark exploded behind him, shards flying.
He landed, crouched, heart hammering, mud spattered across his face.
He laughed again, low and sharp through the chaos.
"Alright," he breathed, eyes narrowing. "Let's dance, then."
The corrupted knight froze mid-step.
Its blade hung low, head tilting — slow, unnatural.
Then, with a sickening creak of metal, it raised one gauntleted hand to its mouth.
The fingers dug into the helm's slit, scraping against steel as if trying to open it.
A faint sound followed — not quite speech, not quite growl.
Gibberish, broken syllables that twisted like static.
"Raa… vel… veeil…"
Gareth's grin faded. His muscles tensed, eyes narrowing.
"You've got to be kidding me."
The thing took a step forward, voice glitching through tones, as if forcing itself to remember how to speak.
"It's… adapting," Gareth murmured, disbelief cutting through his voice.
"It's learning to talk."
The air thickened — Veil energy rippled through the forest, dark light bleeding into the mist.
The corrupted lunged, a blur of black and red.
Gareth moved first. His body twisted, dodging the strike by inches — the blade cleaving through where his chest had been a heartbeat ago.
He slammed a hand into the shadows beneath him, his voice calm and low:
"Veil—open."
The world fractured.
Shadows surged upward, swallowing him whole. Sound vanished.
Color died.
When Gareth opened his eyes again, everything was inverted — pale, silent, weightless.
The forest existed in ghostly outlines, every branch and root translucent white.
The corrupted knight stood ahead, its armor no longer black but blindingly white, radiating a faint hum — pure inversion of corruption.
Gareth exhaled, watching the light pulse faintly around his hands.
"So this is the shadow world again…"
He looked down at the faint, black tendrils coiling around his wrists — his connection to the Veil itself.
"How does someone even use the Veil?" he muttered, voice low, thoughtful.
"I only know a little about how the Veil works," he admitted.
"It's like a switch… you open it, draw energy from outside surrounding, and channel it into something."
His eyes flickered with faint light.
"There are two ways to use it — the Soul Path and the World Path."
He clenched his fist, shadow curling around it.
"The Soul Path turns the power inward — strengthens your body, your mind, your spirit. But it eats at you."
Then his gaze shifted back to the creature.
"The World Path forces it outward — bends matter, flame, gravity… but the world fights back."
He stepped forward, eyes cold now.
"Guess we'll see which one of us the Veil favors."
The air around Gareth rippled. The corrupted knight shrieked — a sound like tearing metal — and lunged again.
Gareth caught the shadow mid-swing, veins flaring dark beneath his skin as he pulled.
The Veil roared in answer.
Power flooded through him — wild, burning, wrong.
He gasped. Blood burst from his mouth, dripping down his chin.
The energy seared through his veins like molten glass, eating at his insides.
His vision blurred, colors bending, the world fracturing at the edges.
"Damn it—" he hissed, staggering. "It's… corrupt."
The ground beneath him cracked, his shadow twisting unnaturally.
He could feel it — the Veil inside the creature wasn't like his own.
It was poisoned, ancient, something that screamed against his soul.
The mark on his neck — the faint black eclipse — began to burn.
Lines of black fire spread from it, pulsing, absorbing the violent current that threatened to tear him apart.
Gareth fell to one knee, coughing red into his hand.
The mark flickered, dimming the madness in his eyes, pulling the corruption inward — containing it, just barely.
He breathed hard, shaking, voice low.
"Even with the mark… it's like swallowing acid."
The corrupted knight stumbled toward him again, hissing in that broken, stolen voice.
Gareth raised his head, eyes glowing faintly through the blood and shadow.
"Fine," he muttered. "Let's burn together."
Gareth staggered, wiping the blood from his lips. His breath came ragged, the taste of iron thick in his mouth.
He reached down — fingers trembling — and gripped the hilt of his sword.
The blade shimmered into form, red and black veins of light pulsing through the metal like a heartbeat.
The corrupted knight's pale silhouette moved through the shadow realm, its white glow stark against the endless dark.
Every step it took warped the world around it, bending the air, echoing with whispers.
Gareth lifted his sword just in time — clang! — sparks and darkness erupted as steel met corrupted light.
Each strike sent shockwaves through the shadow ground, the sound sharp and deep, like thunder beneath water.
Blood trailed from Gareth's mouth as he blocked another blow.
His knees buckled, vision blurring — the corruption was still eating at him.
Then his eyes narrowed.
"Enough."
He opened the Veil again.
The air cracked — like glass under pressure — as invisible force wrapped around the knight.
Gareth's veins glowed faint red, his shadow writhing with power.
"Telekinesis."
The knight froze mid-swing. Its limbs jerked violently, armor groaning under impossible weight.
Gareth clenched his fist — and the white silhouette compressed, bones and steel grinding inward with a sound like breaking stars.
The world itself seemed to recoil.
With a snarl, Gareth hurled the knight sideways —
— the thing shot through the shadow field like a meteor, vanishing into the distant void.
A moment later, the lake above shattered as it slammed into the real world, sending up a geyser of black water miles away.
Gareth exhaled, his chest heaving, the veins on his arms still burning faintly red.
His mark flickered, barely containing the corruption's backlash.
He glanced toward the rippling horizon, voice low and strained.
"I've got three minutes… to end this bastard."
The corrupted knight steadied itself across the pale expanse of the shadow world, its white silhouette flickering like a dying flame.
Gareth wiped the blood from his mouth, the metallic taste sharp and bitter.
His breath came shallow, uneven — every inhale felt like fire crawling through his veins.
"Corrupt Veil energy…" he muttered, clutching his side. "It's eating me alive."
His mark pulsed, dark crimson light threading through his neck and arm, absorbing most of the backlash before it could tear him apart.
Steam rose off his skin, and the air warped faintly around him.
The knight raised its sword again — movements jagged but faster now, adapting.
Its steps left ripples of white across the black surface beneath them.
Gareth drew his red-and-black sword from the shadows, the blade thrumming with contained violence.
He steadied himself.
"Alright then… let's finish this."
The knight lunged.
Gareth met the strike head-on, steel colliding with a flash of black and white.
Sparks burst through the shadow world — light twisting into shadow, shadow bleeding into light.
Each clash sent echoes through the dimension. The air hummed, fracturing with every blow.
Then Gareth's blade caught the knight's in a lock — both weapons grinding.
Their faces were inches apart.
"Still clinging to life, huh?" he hissed. "Let's see how that light of yours holds up."
He pushed his palm forward — right against the knight's chest.
The Veil surged.
A deep hum rolled through the world as Gareth forced the two realms — shadow and real — to overlap.
The forest flickered around them, half in darkness, half in daylight.
The knight's white glow began to rot, twisting into veins of black corruption crawling across its body.
"You wanted the light?" Gareth said quietly.
"Let's see how it feels when it burns from the inside."
The knight convulsed — its armor cracking, white flame sputtering into darkness.
Its scream echoed through both worlds, glitching, warped, and human for a single second.
Then it shattered — light scattering into the void like dust.
Gareth stood there, breathing hard, sword still raised.
The shadow world rippled once more… and fell silent.
He lowered his blade, eyes flicking toward the faint traces of fading light.
"Reverse corruption," he murmured.
"Guess even monsters can't handle their own reflection."
The mark on his neck dimmed, his vision blurring for a heartbeat.
But he managed a faint smirk.
"Three minutes well spent."
The world snapped back—color flooding in where shadow once ruled.
The silence broke with the sound of Gareth hitting one knee, breath ragged.
Blood spilled down his lip, black-red, faintly hissing as it touched the dirt.
His fingers trembled, the mark on his hand dimming from a burning crimson to a dull ember.
"…I won't use the Veil here again," he muttered, voice hoarse. "Not in this forest."
The wind moved through the trees, carrying the faint echo of something ancient—like the shadow realm still watching him.
He wiped his mouth, steadied himself, and started walking.
He rose slowly, wiping the blood from his chin.
The mark still pulsed faintly beneath his skin—like something alive, whispering in the veins.
Gareth tightened his grip around the red-and-black blade and turned away from the clearing.
Leaves brushed against his shoulders as he moved, each step sinking into the soft earth.
The forest loomed darker ahead, the air thicker—like the world itself was holding its breath after what it had just witnessed.
He didn't look back.
The corrupted knight's remains were gone, swallowed by silence.
Only the whisper of his boots and the faint hum of his sword remained.
As he walked deeper into the forest, eyes cold, unchanged, expression unreadable.
Only the whisper of his boots and the faint hum of his sword remained.
As he moved deeper into the forest, mist coiled low between the trees — quiet, watchful.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
High above, through the shifting haze, a faint glimmer of movement stirred.
A figure stood among the distant ruins — cloaked in pale blue light.
Her hair — blue as moonlight through glass — swayed gently swayed in the wind.
Cold eyes followed him, unblinking.
She said nothing.
Just watched — as if measuring him, as if waiting.
And when Gareth vanished into the fog, she turned away, her voice a whisper lost to the wind:
"Found you."