Several months had passed, and I am still stuck in the Araks Islands. The idea of survival no longer carries hope as it did in the beginning, but has turned into a heavy burden that grows day by day.
I was sitting atop the branches of one of the giant trees, watching the sky that had begun to be tinged with the shades of evening. And as darkness approached, the sounds around me began to change—for this is the time when the beasts grow more ferocious, and the forest turns into an open trap.
I climbed to the top of the tree, and my eyes looked up at the sky swallowed by the darkness. The stars began to twinkle quietly, as if they were lanterns guiding the lost in this desolate world... but I knew well that I was not one of them.
I looked around cautiously, and in the distance, I saw something that resembled an abandoned building, or maybe it was just an illusion made by the darkness. I wasn't sure... do I go? Or do I ignore it as if I had seen nothing?
— "Tsk…" I muttered in frustration.
There was no other choice. If I stayed here, I might not survive. The food had begun to run out, and the truth is I was the reason… I overconsumed it, as if I was escaping hunger with deception, not with satiety.
I began to move cautiously over the high branches, jumping from tree to tree with deliberate silence, avoiding any sound that might attract the attention of the beasts roaming the ground beneath me. Every step was a small adventure, and every jump could mean the difference between survival… or falling into hell… once again…
I fixed my gaze forward, toward that mysterious building. With each jump, I was getting closer, and the distance between me and it began to fade little by little. I did not know what awaited me there, but my feet did not stop... as if something was pushing me toward it.
After minutes of continuous jumping, I finally reached the destination of the journey. I stood atop a tree branch facing the building, watching it silently.
— "A temple…" I muttered in astonishment.
It was a temple, or so it seemed. Ancient, abandoned, and resembling something from another era. There was nothing to indicate the presence of life around it, not even footprints… only silence, and mystery.
I descended cautiously from the tree, step by step, until I touched the ground. I advanced toward the door, all my senses tense. I placed my hand on the handle and opened it slowly, while my other hand held the dagger, ready for anything.
I entered the place with cautious steps. It was neither big nor small, just enough space to stir suspicion without suggesting safety. I stood in its center, examining the worn-out walls and the darkness that filled the corners with my tired eyes.
— "Is anyone here?" I called out in an audible voice, broken by a trace of hesitation.
No answer came. The silence remained hanging in the place, but it was not a comforting silence… it was as if there were muffled breaths behind it, and unseen eyes watching me from the shadows.
I felt something. My body jolted automatically, and I turned quickly to the back… footsteps. Their sound was faint, but it was real. And I was not alone here.
"Who's there?"
I shouted in a sharp voice, then continued in a more resolute tone:
— "Come out… I know you're here."
I was turning in my place, looking around in all directions, and my eyes were desperately searching for any movement among the shadows. I tried to keep my focus clear, to distinguish sounds from illusion, but the mystery was too heavy to bear.
And suddenly, from where I did not know, a strong blow surprised me from behind. I staggered a step forward, stumbling from the ambush. I clenched my teeth, gripped my dagger tightly, then pulled its twin from the system—both were now in my hands, and the air around me became saturated with danger.
I felt warm breaths touching my ear from behind… real breaths, disturbingly close. I turned swiftly, both weapons in my hands, but it was no use. There was no one there.
"Tsk…" I muttered in frustration, and anger began to creep into my head.
That was not an illusion. I was sure of the presence of something… or someone. But it was too fast to be spotted, or maybe it was playing a game I do not like to be part of.
I shouted defiantly:
"Come out and fight me if you're a man."
As I turned to face whoever was behind me, a strong kick came toward my chest and knocked me to the ground. I removed my hand from my chest, trying to suppress the pain, and I saw in front of me a girl with black hair tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing black clothes, and half of her face was covered with a mask that extended from her nose to her jaw.
The girl whispered mockingly:
"Oops, I'm not a man, but a woman."
Then she directed another kick toward me, but I avoided it quickly and launched my dagger toward her. Still, it didn't hit her, for she suddenly vanished as if she had dissolved into the air.
She appeared behind me without a sound, as if she had emerged from my own shadow, and began attacking me with a series of fast kicks and punches. I was barely blocking them, a dagger in one hand, and my other arm deflecting the strikes as best I could.
But suddenly… my body stopped.
I tried to raise my arm, to wave the dagger, to take one step back… no use. I felt as if something invisible was binding my limbs, preventing my grip from moving, shackling me without ropes.
My eye was following her, as she approached slowly, with that playful expression on her face that I couldn't interpret.
"What is this cheap trick? Are you… controlling my body?"
I shouted in resentment, and the anger was rising inside me while my limbs were still completely paralyzed.
She didn't answer.
She approached in silence, her steps barely audible, until she was directly in front of me. She bent slightly and brought her face close to my chest, then took a long breath, as if she were catching something unseen. A moment passed, then she slowly raised her head, and her dark eyes met mine.
"Oh… you're not a beast."
She said it in a calm tone, then her lips tilted into a mocking smile before she added:
— "But you… reek. Just like her."
She raised her hand gently, and thin threads began to appear around me, extending from the ends of my body to the shadows surrounding the place. At first glance they seemed almost invisible, transparent threads barely perceptible, but they were strong… strong enough to paralyze me completely.
She said in a calm tone, without the mocking smile leaving her face:
— "And what you call a cheap trick… is a thread I wove from my shadow. A means to bind the beasts here."
I watched the threads as they wrapped around my arms and legs, pulling me without truly touching me, as if the shadow itself had become a living shackle.
I said tensely, resisting her steady gaze:
— "But… as you see, I am not a beast."
She looked at me with a long, deep look, as if digging inside me for something that cannot be spoken in words. Then she said in a quiet voice, devoid of emotion:
— "I am not so stupid that I can't distinguish between beasts and humans."
Her gaze did not waver, rather it grew more fixed… as if she were trying to sneak into my depths, searching for something I myself don't know. She wasn't just looking at my face, but at what lies behind it—at the shadows I hide, and the scars that never healed.
She stepped back a pace, without releasing the binding of the shadows around me, and said in a decisive tone:
— "What matters now… is that I will restrain you until my doubts extinguish. Your presence here means only one thing, doesn't it?"
I remained silent, waiting for her next word, and she continued as she stared into my face:
— "That you understand this… in the Araks Islands, humans aren't always humans."
She approached a little, whispered as if revealing a buried secret:
— "Sometimes… they are deformed beasts."
I stared at her with widened eyes, as the pieces of the image finally began to come together in my head. I asked her in a soft voice, tinged with hesitation:
— "Do you mean… like a shape-shifter?"
She raised an eyebrow as if surprised by my knowledge, then nodded calmly:
— "Yes. Seems you met him."
My throat went dry, and I felt a new tension creeping into my chest. What I didn't say was that I hadn't just met him… I had almost died because of him.
— "Yes… and I killed him too."
I said that in a cold tone, my eyes not leaving hers, without any concern this time.
Her eyes widened in astonishment, then she burst into a short, broken laugh that carried a hint of sarcasm:
— "Heh… don't joke. You? Kill a shape-shifter?"
But the laughter soon faded. Silence fell between us for a few seconds, before she returned to her serious gaze, sharp as a sword:
— "Do you… really mean that?"
I didn't answer. I didn't need to.
All I did was raise a single eyebrow and looked at her steadily. Words weren't necessary then, for my gaze said enough.
She said after a moment of silence, and she seemed somewhat uneasy, as if forced to admit:
— "Fine… I believe you."
Her words came out slowly, as if pulled from between her teeth. Her gaze hadn't completely softened, but there was something different this time… something closer to hesitant respect.
The shadow threads around me began to gradually fade, disappearing into the air as they had appeared, leaving my limbs to slowly regain their freedom. I stood without saying a word, dusting off my cloak, still watching her with a half-mocking gaze.
She spoke as she folded her arms across her chest, her tone returning to firmness, but without hostility:
— "Good… now, how did you get here? And why are you alone without a squad?"
Her question was direct, but behind it was a hidden worry, as if she wasn't asking out of mere curiosity, but for something deeper. She stood before me waiting, the faint sunlight reflected through the openings of the abandoned temple casting pale shadows on her masked face.
I didn't answer her question. I simply looked at her for a moment, then bent down slightly to pick up my dagger from the ground and returned it to its place slowly. And when I raised my gaze to her again, she was still waiting… but I smiled with light sarcasm, and said calmly:
— "A question for a question."
She raised an eyebrow, but did not object,
so I continued:
— "Who are you? And why do you live in an abandoned temple deep within lands teeming with monsters?"
Her features changed for a moment—not fear… but hesitation. As if she didn't expect to be the one asked.
Now… it was my turn to uncover the shadows.
Hours had passed since our first meeting. We were now sitting around a small fire she lit herself with some dry wood, the giant trees around us forming silent walls, and the sky above us heavy with stars. The shadows danced on her masked face with the fire's flame, and the threats between us were no longer present… only a mutual silence, closer to a truce.
I raised the water bottle to my mouth, drank slowly, then placed it aside and said in a calm tone, as if declaring a logical conclusion drawn from long observation:
— "So… I understand that you are her. The daughter of the Shadow Master, who came to the island without anyone's knowledge."
She didn't answer.
She only… nodded her head.
A short, silent nod, but it carried a weight greater than any explicit confession. She didn't need to speak—her silence was enough to confirm the truth.
As we sat around the fire, and the stillness of the night began to wrap the forest like a heavy blanket, a strange sound rang out from among the bushes.
A low growl… followed by another. Then a third.
She turned immediately, her hand touching the hilt of her weapon, and her gaze returned to its sharpness—just as it had been when we first met. She stood without a word, her back to the flame, and her eyes scanning the shadows between the trees.
I stood as well, picked up my dagger again, then whispered:
— "Is it one of the night beasts?"
She replied without turning to me:
— "No… that growl isn't one of them. This… is something else."
We fell silent, the fire between us crackling faintly, as the growling sounds grew closer.
I stepped back, my eyes still fixed on the shifting shadows behind the bushes. The growling became clearer, as if it came from more than one throat.
I whispered anxiously, without raising my voice:
— "Don't tell me… it's what I think it is."
She laughed, a short, tense laugh, as if trying to mock the situation while her hand never left her weapon:
— "I think what you're thinking… is exactly what I'm thinking."
She slowly drew her sickle, and the fire flickered in her eyes as the flame began to dim under the weight of silent fear. We fell silent again, listening… the growls grew, approached, circled around us.
As if something—or things—were surrounding us.
Then suddenly…
From one of the bushes, a massive creature lunged at us with a speed the eye could barely follow. It was a wolf, but not like any wolf.
Its fur was white as snow, and its eyes… its eyes blazed with blue, fiery light, glowing under the full moon, as if they held captive souls within.
I screamed as I leapt in front of her:
— "Damn it! Watch out!"
I raised my dagger at the last second and swung it hard to strike the wolf in midair. My move wasn't elegant, but it was enough to push it back half a step… just a moment that separated life from death.
The wolf recoiled, growling, circling around us slowly, its fangs dripping with saliva, its chest rising and falling with deadly ferocity.
I heard her stand behind me, her weapon ready, her back against mine. It was a moment of battle from which there was no escape.
Suddenly, without any warning… she threw her sickle to the ground and it vanished beneath the earth.
And before I could grasp what had happened, her feet began sinking into the shadow beneath her, as if the earth itself was swallowing her. She was fading slowly into the darkness, her arms being pulled with her, and her face barely visible as she muttered with ferocity:
— "Damn it… sons of bitches!"
I gasped, not understanding what she meant, and called out tensely:
— "Where are you going?! Hey! Answer me!"
But she didn't reply.
The shadow swallowed her completely… and left me alone.
I turned slowly toward the white wolf, and realized—too late—the size of the disaster. Behind it, from between the trees… an entire pack appeared. Gleaming fangs, eyes blazing beneath the moonlight, and hearts that knew no mercy.
The white wolf roared, then they began the attack.
I screamed, raised my dagger with both hands—striking, blocking, stumbling, gasping. One, two, three… every time one fell, two more appeared.
My breath quickened, my shoulder was bleeding, but I didn't back down. I was alone… and monsters show no mercy.
Just as I was about to fall… just as I began to think this was the end—something moved in the earth.
From the shadows beneath my feet, a black hand began to form… then another, then dozens. They were long, thin, as if made of living smoke, yet terrifyingly strong.
The first hand reached out, grabbed a wolf that was about to bite me, and pulled it down as it screamed. Another followed, clinging to the neck of another wolf and yanking it with such force that its body tore apart, blood exploding onto the nearby trees.
The wolves retreated for a moment… but the hands were faster.
I stood, in pain, blood streaming from my shoulder and arm, but I smiled despite everything. I looked down at the ground, where those shadows were helping me, and muttered with a broken smirk:
— "Ah… now I understand what she meant by her words..."
I pulled my dagger from one of their bodies, raised my head toward the rest, and shouted:
— "You really are sons of bitches."
Then I charged again.
Stabbing, slashing, and the shadows pulling them one by one. Some were swallowed alive, some returned in pieces. The ground became a stage for silent slaughter.
I panted amid the rising clouds of shadow from the earth, and the hands still tore the wolves apart as if they were paper. My body was battered with wounds, but something inside me had broken free.
And in that moment, I realized the truth.
I had never been alone from the start… she was with me. The daughter of the Shadow Master… too powerful to describe, too strange to comprehend.
— "Nibara Ombrys…" I whispered her name, as I watched the hands multiply and coil like black serpents around the last of the wolves, splitting it in half.
A name whispered in the Empire of Oryval like the names of forgotten gods.
A family known for its mystery, its shadow that, once entered… you don't come out of alive.
"Ombrys"… the name alone is enough to freeze the blood in the veins of the cruelest killers.