Steel cracked. Stone shattered.
And in the heart of Caldrath's underground, the shadows screamed.
Kieran was already bleeding when the Failed One struck again—its scythe of twisted void splitting the air like an unholy bell.
But Kieran didn't flinch.
He couldn't afford to.
Half a Step Slower
The Failed One moved like silence given shape—no footsteps, no growl, just weightless momentum and relentless strikes. Faster than Kieran.
Stronger too.
Even with Silence Slash, Kieran barely dodged in time.
"You are not ready," the creature rasped—its voice like breath caught in a dying throat.
"Then why do you hesitate?" Kieran growled back.
The Failed One paused.
It didn't understand the question.
Because it had hesitated.
And in that flicker—that stutter of purpose—Kieran moved.
Shadow's Murderer Intent: Unleashed
He reached inside.
To the mark burned into his palm.
To the gift from the void that called itself his blood.
"Fall with your strength," he whispered.
A wave pulsed out from Kieran—not sound, not light, but absence. The Failed One's cloak twitched. Its blade dipped an inch. The edges of its form seemed to drag.
-25% to all status.
The battlefield changed.
Balanced at Last
Now Kieran's speed nearly matched the creature's.
Now its blows no longer shattered stone with ease.
And when Kieran's Silence Slash landed across its chest, shadow bled out in spirals.
The Failed One hissed—truly hissed, not echoed—and backed away.
"You carry what she carried," it rasped."Her judgment."
Kieran's blade dipped into stance again.
"Then I'll finish what she couldn't."
The creature lunged—and the battle restarted.
Elsewhere… a Name Stirs
Far above, in a sealed library beyond the Noble Hall, an old man in crimson robes turned a page in a book titled The Line of Veyron.
He paused.
Looked to the darkened corner of the chamber.
"He lives," he said.
The figure in the shadows did not respond.
Only watched.
Watched the name scrawled in ancient ink: Kieran Veyron.
And smiled.