> Thrown into a world of shadows and demons, Owusar N'Valdoria awakens the ancient Umbra System—an artifact of runes, glyphs, and forbidden power. With his first sigil and spell, he must survive the nightmare trials of the Nethrith Abyss… or be consumed by them.
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Chapter 1: The First Trial
The silence was the first thing Owusar noticed.
It was not the gentle silence of night or the reverent quiet of temples, but a hollow, suffocating void where even his breath felt stolen away. He opened his eyes and found himself standing on a plain of fractured obsidian, shards of black glass jutting up like teeth. Above him stretched an endless sky, veined with cracks of pale silver light, as though creation itself had been shattered and left unfinished.
Then came the whisper.
—Awaken, Bearer.
The words did not come from around him, but inside him, threading through his bones like cold fire. His chest tightened, and before he could cry out, a sharp chime rang out—
DING.
A panel of shimmering obsidian light slid into existence before his eyes. Letters burned across it in silver runes that bent and shifted until they resolved into something he understood:
[ Eternal Umbra System Activated ]
Initializing Soul Sync...
Warning: Incomplete Stabilization.
Owusar staggered back. It looked like nothing from Valdoria, nothing from the scrolls of Eryndral. It was as though someone had trapped a mirror of stars in glass and handed it to him, alive. The panel flickered, then multiplied into several translucent panes, orbiting around him like fragments of a broken tablet.
[ Trial Commencement ]
Objective: Survive.
Time Limit: 06:00:00
Failure: Soul Erosion (33%)
Reward: Sigil Upgrade + Attribute Bonus
The ground trembled. Obsidian shards rattled, then collapsed inward as something rose from beneath the earth. A shape of sinew and shadow, bone shards jutting from its back, a face twisted into a hollow mask. Its eyes burned with violet flame, and its breath leaked smoke.
A demon.
Owusar's heart hammered against his ribs. He had seen depictions of these beings in temple murals, painted as nightmares of the Nethrith Abyss. But here it was, alive, stalking him with hunger etched into its every movement.
Another pane slid into view.
[ Status ]
Name: Owusar N'Valdoria
Title: Shadow-Bearer
Level: 1 (Initiate of the Umbra)
Sigil Rank: Lesser Glyphbearer
Health: ████████▒▒ 76%
Soul Stability: 89%
Mana (Umbra Flow): 102 / 120
Attributes:
• Strength – 9
• Agility – 11
• Willpower – 13
• Soulforce – 15
• Insight – 10
Owusar barely had time to process the numbers before the demon lunged. Claws raked the air where his head had been a heartbeat earlier. He threw himself sideways, stumbling across the jagged ground.
"Why me?" The thought tore from his mind as sweat and terror mingled. "Why here?"
As if in answer, another pane pulsed alive.
[ Sigil Unlocked: Shadow Dominion ]
Rune Active: Umbryel
New Sorcery Available: Shadow Bind
The runes etched themselves into his vision, glowing across the inside of his eyelids until he blinked. Suddenly, he knew what to do, as though the glyph had always been carved into his soul, only hidden until now.
He thrust out his hand.
The ground beneath the demon rippled, shadows stretching long and sharp like chains of living night. They coiled upward, lashing around its legs. The creature snarled, jerking against the binds as black glyphs flared across the chains.
Owusar gasped. His own breath fogged with dark mist, the strain burning along his arms. The Umbra Flow numbers ticked down in his vision:
Mana: 87 / 120
The demon shrieked, thrashing, bones grinding as the chains tightened. For a moment, Owusar thought it would work—that he had won his first battle in this nightmare world. But then the ground cracked again.
Another shape crawled free. This one was larger. Its body was hunched, its claws dragging lines of fire across the obsidian plain. Its eyes glowed not violet, but crimson.
Owusar's blood turned to ice.
[ Alert: Additional Entities Detected ]
Difficulty Scaling: Adjusted.
Warning: This is only the first wave.
The smaller demon tore against his binding, and Owusar realized with a sick lurch of fear that the spell would not hold forever. His arms shook, his chest burned, and the shadow chains flickered as if unraveling strand by strand.
For the first time, he understood what the whisper had meant. This was not a dream. This was not a vision.
This was a trial of the Abyss.
And he was not meant to survive.
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