Chapter 2: Gathering Shadows
The night of blood never left Shadow's mind.
Even after Serina woke, smiling, alive, as if nothing had happened… he couldn't forget the faces of the seven who died to protect her.
Lyra was the only one who survived the first, and now the last of his original Shadows. She stood silently behind him as he watched the sunrise over the Valeheart estate.
"You should rest, Master," she said quietly.
He didn't answer. His eyes reflected the sun, burning red.
"Rest?" he murmured. "No… Shadow Veil died that night. I'll rebuild it stronger."
Lyra lowered her gaze. "Then we start again."
For months, Shadow trained alone.
He mastered magic circles that no human should understand spells that bent reality itself. He combined swordsmanship and mana control until his very movements distorted the air.
The nobles whispered rumors. They said the Valeheart heir was cursed. That he spoke to ghosts. That his mana was too dark to be human.
They were right.
Every night, Shadow left home under cover of darkness. He hunted the corrupted those who had been possessed, the monsters wearing human flesh.
He didn't do it for fame or recognition. He did it because no one else would.
But soon, others started to appear.
The Second Shadow
He found her in the slums a blind girl fighting three possessed men with nothing but her fists. Her white hair was stained with blood, her body shaking from exhaustion.
Yet her punches never missed.
Shadow stepped forward, raising his hand. The shadows around them expanded, swallowing the attackers whole. When silence returned, the girl turned her blind eyes toward him.
"Who are you?"
"Someone who sees everything," Shadow said. "You fight well. You fight like someone with nothing left to lose."
"I don't need pity."
"I didn't offer it."
He smiled slightly. "I'm offering you power."
She hesitated. "…Power to do what?"
"To fight in the dark, and save those the world ignores."
After a long pause, she knelt. "Then I'll be your shadow too."
Shadow placed a hand on her shoulder. "Your name will be Iris."
The Third and Fourth Shadows
Weeks later, Shadow and Lyra found two brothers imprisoned by a noble cult experimenting with demonic energy. The pair, twins with red eyes and wild mana, had survived hundreds of failed rituals.
Shadow shattered the fortress walls with a single step, mana leaking from him like smoke.
The cult leader screamed, "Impossible! That's"
"Atomic mana," Shadow said calmly. "And you're done."
The explosion erased the fortress from existence.
When the dust cleared, the twins knelt before him, trembling.
"You saved us," one whispered.
"No," Shadow replied. "I released you. What you do now is up to you."
They looked at each other and then bowed their heads.
"Then let us fight in your shadow."
Shadow smiled faintly. "Then you'll be Rai and Ren the twin blades of the Veil."
Rebirth of Shadow Veil
By the end of that year, Shadow had gathered thirty-seven members.
All people who had been broken, possessed, abandoned all reborn under his command.
They called him "Lord Shadow."
He called them "family."
In their underground base beneath the Valeheart mountains, the new Shadow Veil was born again.
Before them stood Shadow, cloak fluttering in the flickering torchlight.
He raised his hand, black mana swirling around him.
"We are the unseen," he declared. "We strike from silence, and we vanish into it."
His eyes glowed violet.
"The world believes we are gone, but they will feel our presence again. From this night forward "
His mana surged.
"We are the shadows that hunt the shadows!"
The hall echoed with the roar of his followers.
The Game Begins
Months passed.
Shadow continued to build his organization quietly, believing he was the only one playing this "game" of secrets and masks.
But fate had other plans.
One night, Lyra entered the command hall. "Master," she said, "we've detected demonic corruption spreading again near the northern academy district."
Shadow's eyes narrowed. "The Magic Academy…"
He didn't want to interfere with the lives of normal people. But when he saw the name of the area the one where his sister would enroll next year something dark flickered in his chest.
"Send reconnaissance. No combat. If you see anything… call me first."
Lyra nodded. "Understood."
For the next two years, Shadow worked silently from the darkness, expanding his forces and mastering his new mana type Void Essence, a fusion of light and shadow energy.
By fifteen, he had reached a level far beyond anything human. His strength was no longer measurable by rank or title.
And when his sister left for the Magic Academy, Shadow smiled faintly. "Stay safe, Serina. I'll be nearby… just not where you can see me."
He gazed into the mirror one last time, seeing not a noble heir, but a man who no longer belonged to the light.
"I am Shadow," he whispered. "And my game has only just begun."