The wind battered the walls of Raiders Fortress.The cold did not aim for the skin. It aimed for the bones.
Eray raised the collar of his fur cloak. His shivering was not from the cold.Three years in the Raiders' training grounds had taught him how to hide fear, but not how to erase it.
Varen stood before him, grinning. His teeth were yellow. He rested his heavy axe on his shoulder.
"Don't look so grim, rookie," Varen said. "It's just reconnaissance. Go in, map the area, get out. We won't even step into the heart of the Chaos Realm."
The third member of the team, Junia, was testing the edge of her thin, curved sword with her bare thumb.A thin line of blood appeared. The drop trembled strangely on the metal, then was pulled back in.
Without lifting her head, she spoke."Drop the comfort, Varen. There are no easy missions among the Raiders. Only missions you survive… or die in."
Varen laughed. "That's your problem, Junia. Your blood runs too hot."
The Commander entered the room. His face was expressionless. He placed a parchment on the table.
"Coordinates locked. Sector Four. Low threat level. No civilians. Observe, collect samples. Combat is forbidden."
The Commander did not even look at Eray.Eray was used to it. He was just an attachment. His sword was average, his magic conditional, a freak of sorts. But the Raiders used everything that could be useful.
"Prepare yourselves," the Commander said.
Eray glanced at the torches on the walls. The flames danced, stretching and shrinking the shadows.As long as there was light, he felt safe.
The gate chamber trembled.Purple energy swirled at the center of the stone arch.
"I'll go first," Varen said. He gripped his axe with both hands, stepped forward, and vanished into the energy.
Junia gave Eray a brief glance. Her eyes were cold."Don't get under my feet."Then she stepped through as well.
Eray took a deep breath. His hand moved to the hilt of his sword, but his fingers felt unfamiliar against the metal.Every instinct screamed at him not to go.
But among the Raiders, disobedience meant death.
He closed his eyes and stepped into the gate.
Nausea.Vertigo.The loss of gravity.
The air suddenly grew heavy. Oxygen was replaced by a dense gas that smelled of rust and rot.The pressure was enough to rupture his eardrums.
Then came the impact.
Eray fell to his knees. His lungs burned.
He opened his eyes.
Nothing.
Pitch-black darkness.
It was nothing like night in the Main World. There were no stars. No moon. No sky.Only a suffocating, endless black.
"Varen?" Junia whispered. Her voice trembled. She was just to his left.
No answer came.
Suddenly, a wave of warm, damp air washed over them.This was not wind. It was the breath of something enormous.
Then came a wet, nauseating tearing sound, like a massive piece of fabric being ripped apart.
A heavy body collapsed onto the ground.Thud.Lifeless.
Varen was down.He had not even had time to scream.
"Varen!" Junia shouted. "This is bullshit… you can't be dead…"
Eray froze. His hand went to his sword, but he could not draw it.The blade felt stuck in its sheath.
His mind went blank.
He raised his hand and forced his focus. Shadow…
No response.Nothing.
Without light, his mind could not find the shadows.In that moment, he was no different from a defenseless child.
An invisible mass passed right beside him. The pressure it created was strong enough to knock him over.The ground trembled under a weight measured in tons.
Junia's breathing grew rapid. Shock turned into panic.
"Die!" she screamed.
A sharp scent spread through the darkness. Fresh blood.Junia had cut her palm.
Wet sounds echoed as she tried to shape her blood into a whip.
But it failed.
The blood could not stay suspended. It could not form. It could not find its target.It splashed hot across Eray's face.
Her magic had collapsed. In the darkness, even it had lost its way.
"It's not working…" Junia whispered in horror."The blood… it won't obey."
A low growl sounded directly in front of Eray.
The stench of rotting flesh and sulfur burned his throat.The monster was there. Its breath hit his face.
Junia attacked again. She swung her sword blindly.The metal cut through air, but struck nothing.
Then came the sound of a heavy impact.The sound of bones breaking.
Junia was thrown backward. She slammed into Eray's leg and went still.
She did not even groan.
Eray trembled.
He could not run.He could not fight.He could not see.
Here, in this absolute darkness, he would vanish.Without ever learning who he was, or where he came from.He would rot as nothing.
Death was reaching for him from within the dark.
Then, a thin line appeared on the horizon.
Red.Sickly.
The sun of the Chaos Realm was rising.
The light was weak, pale, but it existed.It cut through the absolute void like a blade.
The first ray struck a sharp rock beside Eray.
Behind it, a long, thin darkness formed.
A shadow.
For the first time, Eray felt air fill his lungs.
It was not just a shadow.It was his severed arm, returning to its place.
Fear did not disappear.It changed shape. From despair into the instinct to survive.
With trembling fingers, Eray reached toward the thin black shape.
The shadow waited.
Waiting for Eray's command.