The forest no longer whispered. It screamed.
Branches snapped like bones underfoot. Wind howled through the trees with the voice of something ancient, angry, and watching. And yet, for the first time since arriving in this strange world, Aiden Kuro moved forward with purpose. The Mark of Ascension still burned faintly on his chest beneath the borrowed cloak, but its pain had dulled, replaced with a hunger he couldn't explain.
He had chosen to stay. To ascend. But no one had told him that ascension began with a descent.
Through shadows and ruin.
He'd been walking for what felt like hours, maybe days—time warped in this place, bending like glass under pressure. The sky, still locked in a permanent twilight, shimmered with strange constellations, and even the moon, fractured into crescent shards, watched him with quiet judgment.
Aiden didn't know where he was going, only that the System had said the path would "reveal itself." And just as he began to question if he was already lost—he heard it.
Screaming.
Not the distant, eerie wails he'd grown used to. This was close. Human. Real.
Without thinking, Aiden broke into a sprint. His legs, newly strengthened, carried him swiftly between trees and over roots that would've broken his ankles just days ago. He crashed through a wall of brush and into a clearing—and saw them.
Three figures. One girl. Two armed men.
She stood her ground, blood running down her temple, clutching a jagged, broken staff. The men circled her like predators. Their armor was rusted, patched together from mismatched plates and animal hides. One grinned, revealing teeth that looked filed down.
"Give us the relic, witch," he snarled. "Or we'll carve it out of your corpse."
The girl didn't flinch. "Try it."
Aiden didn't wait.
He didn't stop to think. He didn't ask questions. He just moved—faster than he'd ever moved in his life. The moment he crossed the threshold of the clearing, the System reacted.
[Combat Zone Entered.][Enemy threat level: D-Rank.][Bonus XP awarded for first engagement.]
There was a low hum—his body responding, the Mark of Ascension pulsing beneath his skin—and then darkness erupted from his hands.
Not smoke. Not fire.
Shadow.
It coiled from his palms like living ink, slamming into the first attacker with the force of a wrecking ball. The man flew back, crashing into a tree with a wet crunch that silenced him forever. The second hesitated. Wrong move.
Aiden closed the distance in three steps, dodging the crude swing of a mace, and drove his fist into the man's chest. Power surged. Bones shattered. The man collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
Silence.
The girl stared at him, stunned. "You... you're not from here, are you?"
"I don't think so," Aiden said, breathless.
She blinked. "You have the Mark. I saw it."
He hesitated, then pulled the cloak aside just enough for the symbol to show, still glowing faintly like embers.
"You're one of them. A chosen."
She didn't sound afraid. She sounded... relieved.
Before he could ask what she meant, the System buzzed again.
[Enemies defeated. +100 EXP][New Ability Unlocked: Shadow Bind - Temporarily trap enemies in living shadow. Duration: 6 seconds.]
Another notification. Another piece of himself becoming... not human.
"I'm Aiden," he said, suddenly self-conscious. "Or I was."
The girl nodded slowly. "My name's Lys. And if you want to survive here, you'll need more than power."
He raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"
She knelt beside one of the bodies, prying a crystal from the man's chestplate. It shimmered with a strange violet light.
"Knowledge," she said. "This world runs on it. Mana, relics, contracts with forgotten gods. Your power? It's raw. Loud. You'll get yourself killed by something worse if you don't learn how to use it."
He looked down at his hands. They still trembled—not from fear, but from the echo of what he'd just done. It hadn't felt like a fluke. It had felt natural.
Too natural.
"I don't even know why I'm here," Aiden admitted.
Lys looked up at him with something between pity and curiosity. "You were chosen. That means this world wants something from you. It always takes something first."
"What did it take from you?"
Her face went still. "Everything."
A beat passed. Then she stood, brushing blood from her cheek, and turned toward the deeper part of the woods.
"You coming, Chosen? Or do you want to wait for the corpse scavengers?"
Aiden followed.
Because now, he wasn't just wandering.
Now, he had a reason to keep moving. A world to learn. A girl with secrets. And a power growing inside him like a second heart.
Whatever this place wanted from him, it was too late to go back.
He was no longer the boy from the dorm room.
He was becoming something else.
And the forest—old, hungry, and full of watching eyes—knew it too.