'Void Coffin, what are you?'
In his mind, Enzo asked the black coffin strapped to his back.
[I am the Void Coffin, a treasure born from the night. And you are my master.]
The coffin responded directly in his head.
It had somehow commandeered the HUD in his brain and was now speaking into his subconscious. It felt like an upgrade. the original chip could barely respond to his questions.
'Is that all? No history, no purpose?' Enzo frowned.
[The Void Coffin was [Redacted]. All information will be unlocked in due time. As for purpose? I am here to serve the night. You are an Inheritor of the Night.]
'Fucking useless,' Enzo muttered mentally as he approached the final gate, which had just been smashed down by Victoria.
"It's night time now. That's good," Victoria said, stepping forward calmly.
"I'm assuming from the age of your blood that you're quite young." She glanced sideways at Enzo as he caught up to her.
"The Red Sun Legion station on this planet has been dead for centuries, so you were probably born in the prison, am I right?" she asked.
It was nigh impossible to sneak into a Red Sun Legion prison of this scale. Even she had no choice but to smash her way in. It made sense that Enzo had been born here.
"Well… yes," Enzo answered. He couldn't exactly tell her he'd been infected by stardust and was currently undergoing a life-or-death trial. This was a decent cover for now.
"Figures. First things first." Victoria nodded, then stepped down onto the desert sand.
In the next moment, two reptilian creatures shot out from the ground at lightning speed, aiming for Victoria's neck, trying to pierce through her skin.
"Hmph!!" With a single swing of her hand, three streaks of crimson light burst forth, slicing the creatures into four clean pieces.
It all happened in a blink.
"Those were Sand Trihorns. They're littered all over the desert. Their goal is to burrow into any living body they find and eat it from the inside out," Victoria explained as she inspected the twitching remains.
"Also, they can sense movement across a five-kilometer radius."
Suddenly, nearly a hundred of the creatures burst from the ground, rising into the air around them. Enzo instinctively took several steps back.
But when he saw Victoria still standing there calmly, he stopped.
—Shinnngggg—
Without even moving, crimson lines slashed through the night, severing every last one of the beasts mid-air.
Enzo watched as their bodies dropped like rain.
"So yeah, one step on the ground can bring a hundred of them down on you. And that's nighttime. They're even more active under the sun," Victoria said, visibly annoyed. That damned brother of hers really knew how to cause problems.
"How?" Enzo asked, wide-eyed. He couldn't imagine killing two of those things, let alone a hundred.
"Ah, that reminds me. For freeing me, I want to reward you." A rare smile crept across Victoria's face as she turned to Enzo.
"This here is an old inheritance skill of the Shadow Clan. Most night creatures can learn it easily, it aligns with darkness." She pulled a small scroll from thin air and flicked it toward Enzo.
He caught it and stared at it. It was incredibly small, too small to make out clearly.
Opening it confirmed his suspicion… in a way. The words were tiny, but there weren't many: just four.
[I Am the Shadow, and the Shadow Is Me: Shadow Step]
The system translated the phrase in his head.
"What does this mean?" Enzo asked, unsure of what he was holding.
"It's a skill phrase. Don't lose the scroll — the skill is embedded in it, like your innate abilities are embedded in your body. All you need to do is say the phrase to activate it," Victoria explained.
Enzo was basically a child when it came to night creature lore. He knew nothing, not even about his own powers. Victoria had to spell things out for him.
"Ahh, I see," Enzo nodded. This was more helpful than she realized. He had never used a skill before — not even the ones in his own body.
"Yes. Try it," Victoria said, picking up Nibbleskin and cradling him in her arms.
The Shadow Step technique was one of the few tools that could safely cross this cursed desert. If Enzo could master it, that was one less death trap to worry about.
Taking a deep breath, Enzo centered himself and spoke the phrase aloud.
"I am the shadow, and the shadow is me… Shadow Step."
As the words left his mouth, his body pulsed with dark energy. His senses expanded into the night, and suddenly he could feel distant pools of shadow scattered across the desert under the starlit sky.
The sensation was surreal. It etched itself into him, vibrating in his soul. His vision blurred, and for the first time since arriving on this rock, he felt truly alive.
But before he could lock into that feeling — it was gone.
"It'll take some time to get used to it… Unfortunately, you have around five hours before sunrise. After that, I won't be of any help," Victoria said gently, walking over to stand beside him, her gaze stretching into the horizon of sand and dread.