Liora stumbled backward until her back hit the cavern wall. Her breath hitched in her throat as the shape before them fully detached from the glowing sigils on the floor.
Aleron's shadow… but thicker, darker, a pitch-black silhouette solidifying into something almost human.
It tilted its head toward Aleron, copying the exact angle of his last movement from moments ago.
Aleron's skin crawled.
"Stop," he whispered, though he had no idea who he was speaking to—the sentinel or the shadow. "Stop this."
But the shadow took another step forward.
No footsteps.
Just a hush of cold air.
Liora reached for Aleron, fingers trembling. "Aleron, it's—it's you."
"No," he rasped. "It's not. It's… something else."
Behind them, the sentinel hovered above the pool, her blue light casting shimmering reflections across the cavern.
"You fear it," she said softly. "Good. Fear reminds the Hollowborn that power is not a toy."
Aleron glared at her. "What did you do?"
"I woke it," she answered.
The shadow froze when she spoke—as if listening. Its shape wavered slightly, forming jagged edges like claws before smoothing again.
"It is your hunger given form," the sentinel continued. "The part of you that devours what it touches. The part your mother tried to seal."
Aleron felt the world tilt.
"My mother sealed it?"
"Yes. For twelve years she held it at bay. But you began to stir the night she died."
Liora's eyes darted between Aleron and the shadow. "She said you were holding something back. She—she asked you if you felt… wrong that night."
Aleron remembered.
The ache.
The burning behind his ribs.
The strange pressure in his skull.
The way the flames had reacted—rising and twisting like coils of living fire.
He forced the memory down.
Not now.
Not here.
He stepped toward the shadow. "You're not me."
The shadow mirrored him, stepping forward as well.
"You're not me," Aleron repeated, louder this time, voice shaking. "You're something else. Something she put inside me."
The shadow's head tilted sharply, as if offended.
Then it lifted one hand, its fingers stretching longer, sharper.
Liora took a panicked step toward him. "Aleron, don't get close to it!"
"I don't think I get a choice," he whispered.
The cavern trembled—
A warning rumble from the stone colossus, kneeling behind the sentinel.
It lifted its massive head, sockets glowing with deep blue flame, and released a guttural growl.
The sentinel raised a hand, silencing it.
"You must choose," she said quietly. "This is the moment all Hollowborn meet. Power or restraint. Devour or dissolve. Only one path leads forward."
Aleron clenched his fists. "I never asked for this."
"No one asks to be what the gods fear," she replied. "But you are. And what wakes now cannot be undone."
The shadow lunged.
A streak of black struck toward Aleron's chest like a spear of darkness. He stumbled back, narrowly avoiding the blow. The ground hissed where the shadow's hand struck stone—leaving a dark stain, as if it had poisoned the rock itself.
Liora screamed. "Aleron!"
Aleron backed away, heart pounding. "I can't fight this."
"You must," the sentinel said. "It is only the beginning."
The shadow charged again, faster this time.
Aleron dodged, but it moved like liquid night—its body turning to smoke, then solid again behind him. Cold fingers brushed the back of his neck. His vision blurred.
For a flash, he saw nothing but endless darkness.
An abyss. A hunger vast enough to swallow stars.
His knees buckled.
Liora grabbed him before he fell. "Aleron, look at me! Look at me!"
Her voice cut through the haze.
The shadow reeled back, as if burned by her touch—even though she hadn't touched it at all.
The sentinel's head snapped toward Liora.
Interesting.
Aleron forced himself upright. "Liora… it reacted. It moved away from you."
Liora stared at him, horrified. "Why? I'm not special."
He shook his head. "It doesn't matter why—it's something."
Before Liora could respond, the sentinel drifted closer, her glow dimming as she observed the two of them.
"The bond," she murmured. "Stronger than I expected."
Aleron frowned. "What bond?"
But she didn't answer.
The shadow lunged again, this time angling not for Aleron—but for Liora.
Aleron's heart stopped.
"NO!"
He threw himself between her and the shadow.
The impact hit him like a fist of ice and fire. Darkness surged through his veins, cold and biting. His lungs seized. His heart stuttered once.
The cavern blurred. He could feel the shadow slipping into him—like a parasite forcing open locked doors inside his mind.
Liora grabbed his shoulders. "Aleron! Fight it!"
The shadow pushed deeper.
Darkness whispered inside him
Consume, devour, hunger is truth.
Aleron screamed.
Liora pulled him toward her with all her strength—pressing her forehead to his.
And something incredible happened.
The voice inside him faltered.
The darkness recoiled, as if Liora's presence was poison.
Or light.
Aleron gasped for breath as the shadow staggered backward, its form flickering violently. Its edges frayed and split apart like smoke torn by wind.
The sentinel watched intently. "Yes… yes. She is its opposite."
Aleron clutched Liora's arms, panting. "What does that mean?"
"It means," the sentinel said, "that she is the one thing that can keep you from becoming what the gods fear."
Liora's voice trembled. "And what is that?"
The sentinel responded with calm certainty:
"A living cataclysm."
The shadow hissed, its head snapping toward the sentinel.
And then—in a burst of rage—it surged forward again, all shape dissolving into a whirl of black smoke.
It streaked directly toward Liora.
Aleron didn't think. He shoved her aside,
And the shadow hit him instead.
This time, it didn't try to enter him.
It wrapped around him.
Engulfed him.
Liora screamed. "Aleron! ALERON!"
Darkness swallowed him whole.
For a few breathless seconds—
Aleron felt nothing.
No sound.
No cold.
No pain.
Just a pulse.
Deep. Immense. Ancient.
And then—
a voice he had never heard before whispered from the dark:
"Awaken, Hollowborn.
Your father is waiting."
Aleron's eyes snapped open…
Completely black.