A tremor ran through the ancient chamber, the sound of shifting stone reverberating deep beneath their feet. Dust rained from above, disturbed by the weight of something long forgotten stirring beneath them.
Kaelen's heart pounded.
The word Shadowborn clung to his thoughts like a curse, its meaning unknown yet heavy with unspoken consequence. He had spent his entire life in the slums—an orphan, a nobody—so why did it feel like those whispers had always known him?
Rina took a slow step toward the now-empty pedestal, wariness in her every movement. "That… was unsettling."
Understatement of the century.
Kaelen exhaled sharply, forcing himself to focus. "We need to leave."
Rina nodded, but the tension in her posture told him she was just as shaken as he was. Whatever was sealed here, whatever wasn't meant to wake—it wasn't just some long-dead relic. This was something alive. And it was waking up.
They turned toward the tunnel that led back to the surface, but before they could move, a new sound filled the chamber.
A low, deep exhale.
Like the breath of something vast and ancient, something tasting the air for the first time in centuries.
Kaelen froze.
Rina grabbed his wrist, her grip tight with fear. "Tell me you heard that."
He didn't answer. He didn't need to.
The stone beneath them shuddered, cracks splitting outward from the pedestal's base. A pulse of pure darkness—thick and suffocating—began to seep up through the fractures, curling in the air like living smoke.
Then, a voice. Not the whispers of before. This was something else entirely.
"Who… dares… disturb… my slumber?"
The voice was ancient, resonant, filled with a depth that spoke of time immeasurable. It wasn't just sound—it was a presence, an entity pressing against their very souls.
Kaelen's breath caught in his throat. His instincts screamed at him to run, but his body refused to move. The darkness seeping from the cracks felt familiar, like something he had always known yet never understood.
Rina, standing beside him, was visibly shaking, but she forced herself to step forward. "We didn't come here to disturb anything," she called out, her voice steadier than he expected. "We didn't know—"
"Lies."
The darkness coiled, twisting like tendrils of ink in water.
"You were drawn here, Shadowborn. And now… you will face what was meant to remain buried."
A violent shockwave of energy burst from the pedestal, knocking them both backward. Kaelen slammed into the far wall, his vision swimming as pain shot through his ribs. Rina landed beside him with a pained grunt, coughing against the dust that filled the air.
Kaelen struggled to push himself upright, his mind racing. Shadowborn. That name again. Whatever this thing was, it knew him.
The air grew heavier, the pressure around them increasing as if the chamber itself had become smaller. Then, from the darkness rising from the cracks, a form began to take shape.
A figure, towering and wreathed in shifting black mist, its eyes glowing with an eerie silver light.
It had no true form, shifting between something humanoid and something far beyond comprehension.
"You reek of the Forgotten Blood," it murmured, stepping forward, the shadows shifting and curling beneath its feet. "But you do not yet know what you are, do you?"
Kaelen clenched his fists, his pulse hammering against his skull. "Then tell me."
The entity paused, studying him. Then, a slow, deep chuckle rumbled through the chamber.
"Very well, child of the abyss. Let me show you."
The darkness rushed forward. A storm of pure shadow, consuming everything in its path. And then—Kaelen's world vanished.