The air was thick with a presence that did not belong to the living.
Aren knelt in the snow as the last echoes of the system's voice faded into the silence. Around him, the shattered shrine glowed faintly—its ancient glyphs humming in his bones.
He wasn't sure if he was breathing.
His body was frozen. Not by the cold.
But by something far deeper.
[System Initialization Complete.]Welcome, Aren Vahl.Designation: SpiritlessOverride: Sovereign Access GrantedNew Class: Sovereign of the Null DomainUnique Trait: Soulforge (Locked)System Core: Code of the Forgotten King [Alpha Fragment]
A black window blinked to life before his eyes—transparent, hovering midair like a floating tablet of light etched in ink. It curved faintly as if made for royalty.
Aren reached out on instinct. His hand passed through the window, but it responded.
Skill Tree Unlocked.
[Shadowcrafting Lv. 1] – Create constructs or entities from your own soul essence. Essence cost scales with complexity.
[Memory Reap Lv. 1] – Absorb fragmented memories from dead enemies. Gain their skills, knowledge, and echoes of thought.
[Sovereign's Will Lv. 1] – Passive. Presence scales with defiance. Null Domain expands when surrounded by Spiritbound.
Warning: Host must adapt soul structure to wield Sovereign power. Initiating first-stage soulburn…
"Soulburn?"
Pain exploded through his chest.
Aren doubled over, gasping. It wasn't fire—it was inversion. Like his entire being was being unraveled and re-threaded with black silk and shattered crown pieces.
His vision blurred.
The system windows flickered wildly.
[Soulbound Pathway: Reconstructed][Spirit Core: Rejected] → [Null Core: Stabilized][Vitality +2] [Willpower +5][Shadow Affinity: Detected]
Then—
Stillness.
And a new feeling.
Weight.
Aren rose slowly, breath fogging the air. The cold didn't sting like before. The hunger dulled. His limbs were still weak, but something watched through him now.
A dark whisper in his blood.
A throne, half-buried in shadow.
Aren blinked—and it vanished.
He stumbled toward a pool of frozen water near the ruins and saw his reflection for the first time since the exile.
He barely recognized the boy in the ice.
Pale skin. Faint black markings under his eyes. A flicker of dark violet light pulsing from behind his pupils.
And in the reflection, something loomed behind him.
A massive, crownless figure cloaked in shadows and broken chains, unmoving.
Aren turned—nothing was there.
Just the wind. And falling snow.
But the system flickered again.
[Domain Entity: Fragment of the Forgotten King – Dormant][Synchronization Level: 1%][You are being watched.]
Aren exhaled.
"...So be it."
He didn't sleep that night.
Instead, he sat in the ruins, meditating as the system instructed, feeding the flickering Null Core inside him with breath, memory, and silence. The cold stopped biting. The wind grew distant.
By morning, he felt something tug at him.
A presence—weak, flickering, but calling.
He followed it through the stone ruins, past dead trees and cracked walls until he found it:
A pile of bones.
Not human.
A faded corpse of a spiritbeast, its form still bound to its death shape. A silver-furred wolf, curled around a rusted weapon.
It was long dead—but some essence remained.
[Target: Faded Spirit – Level 6]Status: DeceasedMemory Fragments: 9% IntegritySoul Echo: TraceAttempt Memory Reap? [Y/N]
Aren didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
[Activating Memory Reap…]
The world shattered around him.
He was falling—not physically, but into the mind of something else. Cold forests. Moonlight hunts. A voice that once called it "Fang." A master's cry. Pain. Flame. Death.
Then blackness.
Aren gasped and staggered back, the wind knocked out of him.
[Memory Reap Complete.]Gained: [Spirit Instinct Lv. 1]Partial Skill: [Echo Fang]Fragmented Emotion: Loyalty
A shadow stirred near the bones.
Slowly… it rose.
A wolf of pitch-black shadow stepped forward. No eyes. No heartbeat. No spirit core.
Only Aren's will.
[Shadowcrafting Successful.]Created: [Fang – Null Shadow Beast Lv. 1]Bond Strength: 12%Warning: Shadow Beasts require essence upkeep.
Aren looked into its hollow gaze—and it stared back, silent and waiting.
He didn't smile.
But inside, something bloomed.
Not hope.
Control.