The Real World and the Shadow Realm are two distinct yet interconnected dimensions. Like light and darkness, one cannot exist without the other.
However, their nature is absolute, shadows cannot influence the physical world, and humans cannot step into the Shadow Realm.
At least, that's how it was supposed to be.
Not before The First Signs of Change occurred.
Long before The Forgotten One set foot in Yggdrasil, before mana was returned to humanity, something unnatural began to occur.
The boundaries between the two realms began to weaken.
At first, it was subtle. A slight distortion. A faint flicker at the edge of one's vision. But over time, the thinning veil allowed something far more dangerous.
The whispers.
Shadow Beings, entities that should have been bound to their realm, began to speak to humans.
At first, the whispers were nothing more than unintelligible murmurs, like wind passing through empty halls. But as the veil continued to weaken, the messages became clearer.
Promises of power. Secrets lost to time. Warnings of what was to come.
Some humans listened. Some even answered.
And that was when everything changed.
For those who paid attention, the Shadow Beings offered knowledge that should not exist in the real world. They spoke of hidden truths, forgotten histories, and forbidden paths to power.
But the Shadow Realm does not give freely.
Those who listened too long found themselves changed.
Their minds were no longer fully their own, their shadows moving just a fraction too late as if something else lurked beneath the surface, using their form as a vessel.
These individuals became known as Hollowed Ones, those who had lost part of their existence to the Shadow Realm.
They were neither fully human nor fully shadowed, trapped between two realities.
And yet, the veil continued to thin.
The real world was never meant to touch the Shadow Realm. But as the balance weakened, more and more things began to seep through.
Until one day…
The Hollowed came.
They were not demons. Not spirits. They were something far worse, the echoes of those who had been erased, using the thinning veil to claw their way back into existence.
And now, they are searching.
For what?
For who?
That remains to be seen.
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Just as light and shadow cannot exist without each other, the universe demands balance.
When The Hollowed emerged from the thinning veil, becoming an unnatural presence between the Real World and the Shadow Realm, the universe reacted.
To counteract the creeping darkness, The Harbinger of Light was born.
Unlike humans, who are naturally attuned to elemental affinities such as fire, water, earth, or wind, The Hollowed and The Harbinger of Light exist outside the natural order.
The Hollowed embody Shadow, they are distortions of existence, entities that should not be, feeding on the boundary between worlds.
The Harbinger of Light embodies Purity, a force that does not simply oppose the darkness but eradicates it at its very core.
These two forces are in direct opposition. Neither can truly coexist, for one is the anomaly, and the other is the correction.
The Harbinger of Light is a Being Born to Destroy the Hollowed
The Harbinger of Light is not just an individual, it is a phenomenon, an existence created only when The Hollowed reaches a certain level of threat.
They are not chosen. They are not trained.
They are made.
Forged by the will of the universe itself.
Unlike a hero who rises to protect the world, The Harbinger of Light has only one purpose: to erase The Hollowed.
And Mikail was one of the several Harbinger of Light in this era.
But Mikail and the rest of Harbinger of Light in this era are not the first.
There have been many before him, Harbingers of Light chosen by the universe, awakened by the creeping corruption of The Hollowed.
But they never had a chance.
Before they could fully awaken… They were hunted down and killed.
The Hollowed are not just creatures of shadow; they are predators. They know the moment a Harbinger is born, and they do not wait for their enemy to grow strong.
Every Harbinger before Mikail was eliminated before they could understand their power, let alone master it.
But this time… Something is different.
This time, Mikail survived because he had something that other harbingers of light didn't, and that was the system.
Mikail is not just the chosen Harbinger of light that the universe chose, but he is also the chosen one, the one that The Forgotten One chose.
Mikail rejected The Hollowed's corruption.
He broke the cycle.
This was not supposed to happen.
To The Hollowed, Mikail's survival is an anomaly, an impossibility, one that threatens the very existence of their kind.
If he continues to grow, he may become the first true Harbinger of Light since the beginning of time.
A force capable of eradicating The Hollowed completely.
And that is why they will stop at nothing to try to kill him.
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The city was eerily silent.
Too silent.
Melisa sprinted through the empty streets, her heart pounding like a war drum.
The air felt heavy, thick with an unnatural pressure that pressed down on her lungs. Shadows slithered through the darkness, moving as one, converging toward a single point.
Toward him.
Mikail.
Her grip tightened, her breath sharp. She couldn't let them reach him.
Behind her, Moona followed raw magic crackling at her fingertips, casting flickering light onto the abandoned streets.
Grandpa moved with a predator's grace, his sharp eyes scanning the ever-shifting dark. The Shadows no longer attacked them. They didn't need to.
Their purpose was singular. Their prey is already marked.
Which meant one thing.
Mikail was already in the middle of it.
The hunt had begun.
And they were already late.
They rounded the last corner, their feet barely touching the ground.
And froze.
The Shadows swarmed like a living tide, but they weren't alone. Something else was there.
A figure moved within the writhing mass, tearing through the darkness like a force of nature.
Mikail.
But he wasn't just fighting the Shadows.
He was locked in battle with something far worse.
A Hollowed.
Its form was twisted, its body a gaping void of writhing tendrils and soulless hunger. It lunged, but Mikail met it head-on, his blade pure of light carving through the abyssal flesh. The creature shrieked, a sound that made the very air shudder.
Melisa's breath caught.
Mikail wasn't just surviving.
He was winning.
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Mikail stood in the center of the street, surrounded.
The Hollowed crawled from the darkness, his forms shifting, not wearing Mikail's father's face again, but showing his true form, flickering between existence and something far worse, something that defied reality itself.
His hollowed-out eyes pulsed with an eerie glow, empty yet aware, filled with a hunger that could never be satisfied.
But Mikail did not waver.
He was bathed in light.
Not just any light, but a light that should not exist in this world.
It pulsed from his body, flowing like liquid gold, crackling like lightning, pushing back the creeping darkness.
In his hands, made of pure light, a sword shining with brilliant light.
His breath was ragged, his body battered, but his stance was firm.
He wasn't just fighting.
He was winning.
Melissa skidded to a stop, her eyes wide.
Moona whispered.
"Impossible…"
Grandpa simply stood there, observing the situation.
The Hollowed should have already torn Mikail apart.
But he was still standing.
And then, in a single instant, everything changed.
A Hollowed lunged.
Mikail moved.
Faster than before.
His body blurred, golden arcs of energy trailing behind him as he met the creature head-on. His sword, wreathed in divine radiance, thrust the Hollowed in the chest.
It didn't just wound it.
It erased it.
The Hollowed screamed, not in pain, but in fear, a raw, primal terror that no Hollowed should be capable of feeling.
The shadow hesitated.
That had never happened before.
They could feel it now. The wrongness. The danger.
Mikail wasn't just fighting them.
He was destroying them at their core.
The balance had been broken.
This was not how things were supposed to be.
Mikail took a slow breath, his golden eyes flickering toward the shadow. His grin on his sword tightened, the radiance intensifying.
And then he spoke.
"... Your hunt is over"
After that, Mikail vanished, and then a burst of light, faster than thought, reappeared in the midst of the Shadow.
And the slaughter began.
....
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