When I reemerged, I wasn't behind her—I seemed to be amidst nothingness.
The image of her shadow still rang vividly in my mind but instead of appearing behind or beneath her it seemed her shadow had devoured me whole.
Panic began to rush through my mind as I knew I had made a grave mistake, I had somehow misstepped into the shadow, but how? I thought, my mind feeling as if it was swelling.
How was I supposed to get back to that woman? I couldn't sense or feel the icy presence that the shadows gave off, so how could I leave?
A rising sense of dread gripped me as the world around me showed no signs of return. I could still feel the weight of the shadow, but it was as if I were suspended in a void, no longer connected to the world I'd known. Panic surged, and my thoughts scattered like broken glass.
What have I done? I thought desperately, my heart pounding in my chest. How do I get out?
I forced myself to take a steadying breath, fighting to push the panic aside. It wasn't like I hadn't been warned. Shadows were fickle, unpredictable, and I had misjudged my step. The woman had said it was easy to misjudge, to lose track of where the shadow would lead. But this... this was beyond anything I had imagined.
There was no coolness now, no tangible sensation of the shadow's familiar embrace. It was as if I had crossed into something else entirely—some space that existed outside of time and dimension.
I tried to focus, reaching out with my senses, but there was nothing to connect to. The landscape around me was devoid of structure, color, sound. It was as if the very essence of being had been stripped away. Was this the true nature of the shadow world? Was this what she had meant by "defying conventional dimensions?"
Focus, I ordered myself.
Drawing a deep breath, I focused on the very core of my being, the energy that had brought me this far—the mana, the pulse that ran through me. I reached out, pushing against the void, trying to grasp something, anything that might give me a foothold. A hint. Anything.
But there was nothing.
I shut my eyes, fighting the overwhelming sense of vertigo that seemed to pull at my very soul. Stay calm. Focus. You have to find a way out.
But as I focused, the darkness seemed to press in harder, as though trying to smother me. It was alive, yes—but not in the way I had imagined. It wasn't alive in the sense of a conscious, guiding force. No, this was something different, something deeper—a void that didn't care whether I existed or not.
The voice of the woman echoed in my mind: The shadows are fickle. They twist and turn, defying comprehension. To move through them, you must become one with them.
Then I remembered another phrase she had spoken that now gnawed at my chest.
"But never forget, they can consume you as easily as they can carry you."
I had become one with the shadow, but now, it felt as though I had been lost in it.
My heart hammered in my chest, but I couldn't feel my body. It was as if my very sense of self was disintegrating. Was I even still me?
I reached out, desperate to find my core, to reconnect with the power within me, but it felt distant—like a fading memory.
Had Shadow Step drained all of my mana? Did my core even still resign? Was this my body?
No, no, no! I'd fail again at this rate. Panic twisted in my mind.
I tried again, my thoughts racing. I had to escape. I had to find the tether, the exit, the anchor that would pull me back. But the more I searched, the more I realized the terrible truth; there was no way out. I wasn't in a space that had an exit. I wasn't in a space that had anything at all.
And then, a sharp, echoing snap cracked through the void, rattling me to my core.
In the next instant, I was standing before her again.
She sat in that same chair. She cradled a delicate cup as she took a sip, her watchful eye turning towards me.
"Oh, life so soon?"