The sharp blades of grass against his face were a shock. Cold, real, and utterly mundane after the raw, unyielding stone of the canyon walls.
Kaelen lay sprawled on the ground at the lip of the abyss, gasping, sucking in the thin, clean air of the peaks.
Every muscle screamed, every broken bone throbbed beneath the exhausted whisper of dark energy that still held him together. He had done it. He was out.
Below him, the Whisperwind Canyon was a gaping maw of shadow, its resonant hum muted by distance, yet still a part of him.
He looked back at the edge he'd just crawled over – the normal rock, the familiar plants of the surface world. It felt alien, jarringly normal after the dark, energy-saturated depths.
He pushed himself onto his elbows, the movement sending jolts of agony through his body. The dark energy flared in response, a cold internal fire that dulled the pain but left him feeling hollowed out, drained.
The shadows that usually clung to him were faint now, barely visible even to his own enhanced sight, like smoke dissipating in the sunlight.
Exhausted. The assessment was purely functional. The climb had taken everything, pushing his body and his new power to their absolute limits.
But he was alive. And the moment the immediate threat of the canyon was gone, the burning core of his fury, the reason for all this suffering, reasserted itself.
They thought they could leave me to die.
He used [Fragmented Insight], now perceiving the surface world through a lens still tinted by darkness and resonance.
The ambient energy flows here were different – less intense than the canyon depths, more scattered, tied to the sun, the plants, the faint magical ley lines of the wider world.
He could still see them, but they felt… muted compared to the raw power of the Whisperwind.
He focused the insight on himself. His body was a ruin, but the dark energy pulsed faintly at his core, a smoldering ember.
His injuries were still severe, but the dark energy was maintaining an unnatural state of function, preventing him from simply collapsing.
His System (the basic interface from his old life) was still dark, non-responsive. It couldn't measure what he was now.
Body Condition: Critical. Energy Reserve (Dark Resonance): Low. Will: Absolute.
What about his appearance? He found a small puddle left by recent rain, catching his reflection.
His face was gaunt, streaked with dirt and blood, but his eyes… they held a cold, unnatural light, and faint lines of dark energy seemed etched into the corners, receding slowly as his reserves waned.
He looked like something that had crawled out of the earth. Which, he supposed, he had.
Immediate needs: Water. Shelter. Rest.
And then, the long journey. He was somewhere in the Jagged Peaks, miles from any civilization, days of travel from the nearest outpost, weeks, maybe months, from the Steel Peaks Guild.
Survive first. Get stronger. Then return.
He used his dark-infused [Fragmented Insight] to scan the immediate surroundings. Not just for dangers, but for resources.
The plants didn't radiate useful energy. The rocks were just… rocks. He saw the faint energy signatures of small mountain animals scurrying in the distance, their life force a dim spark.
He felt a chilling flicker within him, a dark hunger that wasn't just physical.
The dark energy... was it sustained by something? The resonance? Or something else?
He pushed the thought aside. Survival first.
He needed to get moving. Stay exposed on the open peaks was dangerous. He needed to find shelter, maybe a cave, somewhere he could recover slightly before attempting the long trek.
He picked a direction, using [Fragmented Insight] to map the most energy-efficient path, looking for dips in the terrain, natural shelters indicated by stable energy fields.
As he pushed himself to his feet, his body protested fiercely. He channeled the last of his readily available dark energy, forcing his legs to support his weight.
The faint shadow aura around him intensified for a moment, a cold promise. He was a Revenant, walking out of the abyss.
He took his first step, leaving the canyon edge behind. The setting sun cast long, dark shadows across the peaks.
The air was crisp, clean. It was a familiar world, but he was an alien within it now. Broken, empowered, and fueled by a singular, burning purpose.
The path ahead was long, arduous, and paved with the promise of retribution. He would master this dark power. He would return.
And the Steel Peaks Guild would learn the true cost of betrayal. The surface world awaited its Revenant.