The creature lunged, a storm of smoke and shifting faces, its limbs stretching like chains of shadow. Kaelen met it head-on, his blade igniting with the Abyss's black fire. The first strike split the air with a thunderous crack, sparks raining into the void.
The entity did not bleed—it fractured, splintering into shards of light before reforming in an instant. A dozen faces screamed at once, their voices overlapping: "Return… fragment… vessel!"
Kaelen's boots skidded across the broken ground as the weight of the blow pressed him down. The shard at his chest burned, its pulse wild, feeding him strength he hated to rely on. But without it, he knew he'd already be dead.
He roared and swung again, pouring every ounce of will into the strike. This time the black fire cut deeper, carving a wound that refused to close. The monster reeled, its smoke form unraveling—yet for every piece Kaelen destroyed, two more arms clawed from the rift below.
The ground split wider. Violet light roared upward, bathing Kaelen in its glow. His heart raced. The Abyss whispered at the edges of his mind, urging him to surrender, to unleash fully, to let go of the fragile line he held between man and shadow.
"No," Kaelen growled through clenched teeth. "I'm still me."
He drove forward, ducking beneath a sweeping strike. His blade slashed upward, severing one of the entity's elongated limbs. The air shook with its screech.
But the victory was brief. Another limb coiled around his waist, lifting him into the air. Shadows crushed against his ribs like iron bands, stealing his breath.
For a heartbeat, his vision dimmed. The whispers surged. "Yes… break… give in…"
Kaelen's grip tightened on his weapon. In the suffocating darkness, he saw the faces of those who had fallen—the Keepers who had fought this same battle and lost. He would not join them.
Black fire exploded from his blade, a flare of defiance. The limb holding him disintegrated, and Kaelen fell hard to the ground. He staggered up, panting, eyes blazing with a fury that was half his own, half the Abyss's.
The rift-born entity recoiled but did not retreat. Its countless faces turned toward him, smiling in unison.
The true fight had only begun.
---