Chapter 22: Command
Okay, so this giant shadow thing was kneeling in front of me.
It had one, huge eye, and it was staring at me like I was its new master.
Which, I guess I was.
This didn’t feel like I’d just made a new friend, though.
It felt more like I’d just crafted a new weapon.
A really, really sharp one that was made out of the smoking crater of my biggest screw-up.
Heh.
I heard someone gasp behind me.
Ugh.
Then I heard boots crunching on all the rubble I’d just made.
Lianna and Gandalf.
Of course they followed me.
I guess that’s what NPCs—I mean, survivors—do.
They stick together.
Too bad for them, I was a solo player now.
That whole "power of friendship" thing was a luxury I couldn’t afford anymore.
They stopped about twenty feet away, looking like they’d just seen a ghost.
A really, really big ghost.
Their faces were all pale in this crappy, grey, end-of-the-world lighting.
They weren’t even looking at me, the main character.
Nope, their eyes were glued to my new pet.
Mouths hanging open like total idiots.
I swear, you could’ve parked a carriage in Gandalf’s gaping maw.
"Quinn..."
Lianna’s voice was all shaky, like she was trying to talk and not pee her pants at the same time.
It was a pretty good mix of awe and sheer terror, I had to admit.
"What is that thing?"
Gandalf just stood there, clutching his dinky broken sword like it was going to do anything.
His knuckles were white.
Man, for a so-called veteran captain, he really didn’t have a poker face.
His soldier brain had probably just hit a 404 error.
"It’s a solution," I said, my voice totally flat.
I didn’t even bother to look at them.
My eyes were on the prize.
The grind.
"It’s how I get stronger."
They probably thought this was all about revenge or some other noble garbage.
Wrong.
Revenge is just a debuff that clogs up your inventory.
This was farming.
"Its first job," I said, finally turning to give them the full, dead-eyed stare.
My own eyes probably looked just as cold and empty as my new shadow’s.
"Is to hunt."
I lifted one finger, very dramatically.
I pointed it across the ruined plaza at some big, dumb hiant that was busy punching a bell tower for no reason.
A walking pile of experience points.
"Go," I ordered.
"Eat them."
My shadow stood up.
It wasn’t like watching a person get to their feet.
It just... unfolded.
Like a river of pure, silent darkness pouring upwards into the sky.
It coalesced into its full, terrifying height with this soft little woosh of air.
No heavy, ground-shaking footsteps that you get in the movies.
This thing made zero noise.
It just glided over the rubble like a silent, graceful nightmare.
Lianna and Gandalf were frozen solid, just watching the show.
The other giant, the dumber model, finally noticed it and turned around.
"ROOOOAR!"
It let out this stupid, guttural roar and swung a fist the size of a carriage.
The air screeched as the fist came down.
"WHOOSH!"
The fist passed right through my shadow’s chest.
It hit nothing but cold, empty air.
The big stone idiot looked down at its own arm, its brutish little mind probably glitching out.
My shadow didn’t bother with fists.
That’s inefficient.
It just opened its mouth.
A swirling black hole of absolute nothingness tore open in the center of its face.
"HSSSSSS—"
Tendrils of pure, inky shadow shot out like whips.
They were as fast as striking snakes.
They wrapped around the stone giant’s arms, legs, and torso, and squeezed.
"Puchi!"
The stone thing screamed.
It wasn’t a roar of anger, either.
This was a high, piercing shriek of absolute terror.
The tendrils were piercing its stony hide.
It wasn’t getting crushed.
It was being unmade.
Its stone texture was glitching and dissolving, one pixel at a time, into those grasping tendrils.
"SQUELCH!"
A little pop-up window appeared in my vision.
<System notice: Shadow Servant is consuming a lesser foe.>
<System notice: Restoring 15% of Shadow Servant’s maximum HP.>
Oh, nice.
A life-leech skill.
Efficient.
I like it.
<System notice: User has been granted a temporary 5% bonus to maximum mana regeneration.>
And a buff for me?
Even better.
This was a top-tier pet.
The stone giant’s scream died out as the last of its body was sucked into that void.
My shadow just stood there, retracting its tendrils.
Then, without a sound, it turned and glided toward the next one.
The hunt was efficient.
Brutal.
Perfect.
As it started on another low-level giant, I pulled up its character sheet in my head.
<Name: Shadow of the Unremembered | Gender: None>
<Level: 11 | Race: Void | Class: Elite Shadow Servant | STR: 250 | PHY: 300 | AGI: 180 | INT: ??? | WILL: ??? | WIS: ??? | CHA: -100>
<HP: 5000/5000 | MP: ∞>
<Skills: [Shadow Form], [Consume Essence], [Silver Gaze]>
<Luck: Unknown>
My breath kind of hitched.
Then I compared it to my own stats.
<Name: Quinn | Gender: Male>
<Level: 11 | Race: Elf | Class: Slayer
| STR: 14 | PHY: 20 | AGI: 13 | INT: 12 | WILL: 25 | WIS: 10 | CHA: 5>
<HP: 130/130 | MP: 210/210>
<Luck: Probably terrible>
It was stronger than me.
Faster than me.
Way, way tougher than me.
The perfect meat shield.
The irony was so bitter it almost tasted like ash in my mouth.
I’d lost my meat shield, and in my desperate, stupid quest to save her, the System had just given me a monstrous replacement.
"By the gods..." Gandalf finally choked out, his voice all hoarse.
"Quinn... what have you become?"
"What I have to be," I said, not leaving any room for argument.
"This is the only way."
"I kill them, I get stronger, and I get the power to fix her."
"It’s a grind."
Lianna finally got her tactical brain working again, overriding her fear.
"You can’t control that thing," she said, like she knew anything.
"It’s a monster from the void."
"You’re wrong," I said, turning to face them completely.
I noticed my new passive skill, [Aura of Dread], was working, because they both took a step back without even thinking about it.
"I’m not controlling it."
"It’s a part of me now."
"An extension of my will."
"My will is to save her."
"Therefore, its purpose is to help me save her."
Logic.
It’s simple.
I looked past them, back toward the darkness of the tunnels where everyone else—where she—was waiting.
My face, which I knew was just a cold, emotionless mask right now, probably softened for a split second.
"I need to get back," I said.
"This was just a test run."
"The real hunt starts now, in the north."
"But first... I need to see her."
Without another word, I turned and started walking back toward the tunnel entrance.
My silent, monstrous shadow glided right behind me like a loyal, world-ending hound.
Lianna and Gandalf just stood there watching me go.
Trapped between the terrifying monster I’d just created, and the even more terrifying guy I was becoming.
Whatever.
I had levels to gain.