The rooftop was quiet again. For a few moments, it almost felt like the world had paused—like the chaos that had upended Elias's life was just a bad dream.
But the weight in his chest said otherwise.
Kael tossed him a towel and a warm pandesal from a plastic bag. "Eat. You're no good to your shadow if you're starving."
Elias took it without speaking, eyes locked on the concrete beneath him where his shadow calmly rested. It no longer seemed threatening—just… watching. Always watching.
Kael sat on the ledge, staring out toward the skyline where Manila flickered like a broken circuit board.
"You're lucky," he muttered.
"Lucky?" Elias asked. "I nearly died. I don't even know what's inside me."
"That's exactly why," Kael said. "Most people who awaken... lose control. Their shadows consume them. You? Yours protected you. That's rare."
Elias didn't feel rare. He felt cursed.
---
Later That Night – Hidden Warehouse, Sampaloc
Kael brought Elias to an abandoned warehouse they'd converted into a training ground. Its walls were covered in scratch marks, shadows etched into concrete like they had burned memories into the surface.
"This is where we learn to survive," Kael said.
Elias stood at the center of the floor. "How do I start?"
Kael stepped behind him.
"First rule: You don't control the shadow. You listen to it."
Elias scoffed. "That makes no sense."
Kael's own shadow uncurled like a serpent from under his boots, hissing silently across the floor. "It does. If you try to force it, it fights you. If you understand it... it becomes you."
"Understand what? It doesn't talk."
Kael turned. "It does. Just not with words."
---
Training Begins
"Close your eyes."
Elias obeyed.
"Now feel it. Not just behind you—inside you. The moment you were supposed to die, it woke up. It's tied to your instinct. Your fear. Your rage."
Elias's breathing slowed. His pulse slowed too. For a second, there was silence.
Then—
He felt it.
Not a voice. Not a thought. A presence. Cold but alive. As if someone else had stepped into his skin.
His shadow rippled across the floor, rising up slightly. Shifting. Taking a more defined shape.
Kael whispered, "Now ask it to guard you."
Elias focused. "Protect me."
The shadow flickered. Then surged.
In a flash, thick black flame-like matter crawled up Elias's arms and legs, wrapping around him like a second skin. It hardened—like armor.
His eyes snapped open.
Both arms were armored in obsidian-black plating—his fingers tipped with claw-like extensions. His legs, too, now bore the same strange armor. Partial. Incomplete. But real.
Elias stumbled backward in shock. The armor peeled off slowly, fading back into shadow.
Kael watched, arms crossed. "That's Level 1. Took me a week to hit that."
Elias blinked. "I… I didn't even mean to."
Kael nodded. "You didn't force it. You trusted it."
---
Midnight Surveillance — Project Silencer HQ
Inside a cold control room, Dr. Ria Velasco leaned forward as she watched the camera feeds.
The heat signatures in the warehouse were unmistakable. One human. One... irregular anomaly.
"Subject Nine is stabilizing faster than predicted," she said quietly.
Colonel Dela Vega frowned beside her. "Do we move in?"
"Not yet. He's not alone. The traitor is with him."
Kael Arceo.
She smirked. "Let them train. It'll make the experiment cleaner."
---
Back at the Warehouse
Elias sat cross-legged, panting, staring at the fading shimmer of black energy on his palms.
Kael knelt beside him.
"You felt it, didn't you? That bond?"
Elias nodded. "It's not just power. It's like it… knows me."
Kael's eyes were tired. "Your shadow is everything you've buried. Rage. Guilt. Fear. If you reject it—it turns on you. If you accept it... it becomes your armor."
Elias looked up, eyes dark but steady. "Then teach me everything."
Kael smiled, just slightly. "You sure?"
"I need to protect the people I love. Even if I have to become something else."