The mall was no longer a place of commerce; it was a cathedral of echoes. Behind me, the survivors huddled in the north wing basement, their frantic whispers muffled by a foot of reinforced concrete. They thought they were safe, but I knew better. In the "Second Wave," safety was an illusion bought with blood, and the currency was running low.
I stood at the edge of the food court, my boots crunching on a mixture of spilled soda and green Orc gore. Tusk stood behind me, his twelve-foot frame casting a shadow that seemed to swallow the light from the emergency lanterns. His new blue-fire eyes scanned the darkness, his shadow-hammer resting on his shoulder like a mountain waiting to fall.
[Current Level: 14] [Shadow Army: 28/50] [Status: Monarch's Shroud Active (Mana Regen +100%)]
"Nero," I said, my voice barely a whisper in the cavernous space.
The small dragon chirped, landing on a nearby railing. His scales were vibrating. He felt it before I did—a shift in the pressure of the air, a drop in temperature that had nothing to do with the broken windows.
[Warning: An 'Administrator' has altered the Zone.] [Event: The Eternal Night has begun.] [Difficulty: S-Rank]
Outside the mall's glass facade, the world vanished. The red sky didn't just turn dark; it turned into a void. It was as if a giant hand had dropped a shroud over the city. The streetlights didn't just flicker; they died as if their very essence had been sucked out.
"So, they're bored already," I muttered, gripping the hilt of the Shadow-Slaying Blade.
In my past life, the Administrators were the puppet masters of the System. They viewed Earth as a reality show, a playground where they could test their "toys." They hated when a player moved too fast, when someone like me broke the curve. By starting the Eternal Night, they were trying to level the playing field by tipping it entirely in favor of the monsters.
[Notification: Shadow-type monsters gain 100% Stat Boost during Eternal Night.] [Notification: The Sovereign's Mana Consumption is reduced by 50%.]
A cold, sharp smile crossed my face. They thought they were punishing me. They didn't realize that in the dark, I wasn't just a player. I was the master of ceremonies.
"Tusk! Take the Shadow Orcs and guard the basement entrance. If anything breathes that isn't human, crush it. Knights! Follow me."
I didn't walk out the front door. I stepped into the shadow of a pillar.
"Shadow Blink."
I reappeared on the roof of the mall. The wind was howling, a freezing gale that tasted of ash. The city below was a sea of ink, but with my silver eyes, I could see the shapes moving in the dark. Thousands of them. Shadow Lurkers. They were creatures made of semi-solid smoke, with long, spindly limbs and faces that were nothing but vertical slits of teeth.
Usually, they were Level 12. Under the Eternal Night, they were hitting Level 20.
Skreeeeee!
One of them spotted me. It launched itself from the side of a skyscraper, gliding through the air like a tattered kite. It reached for my throat with claws that could slice through tank armor.
I didn't even raise my sword.
One of my Shadow Knights appeared in mid-air, intercepting the Lurker. The Knight's greatsword, glowing with a cold blue light, sheared through the creature's arm. The Lurker screeched, but the Knight didn't stop. It grabbed the monster's head and slammed it into the roof tiles, the impact echoing like a hammer blow.
[Exp +400]
"Too slow," I said.
I looked toward the center of the city. The Administrator's silver carriage had vanished, but the trail of mana was still there, leading toward the Seoul High School district. My heart tightened. In my past life, that school was the site of the "Bloody Graduation." Hundreds of students had been slaughtered because the first Awakeners there didn't know how to use their powers yet.
Among them were the two people who would eventually become the pillars of the human resistance: Lee Sung-min, the future 'Sword Saint,' and Yoo Hana, the 'Ice Queen.'
If they died tonight, the future was truly dead.
"Nero, stay with the mall. If Tusk gets overwhelmed, give him air support," I commanded.
Nero let out a reluctant chirp but nodded, his four eyes glowing gold in the dark. He knew the stakes.
I turned toward the edge of the roof and looked at the school, which was nearly a mile away. Normally, the trip would take twenty minutes through Orc-infested streets. I had five.
"Let's see how much mana I can burn," I whispered.
I didn't run. I dove off the roof, plummeting five stories toward the lightless street. Just before I hit the pavement, I vanished.
"Shadow Blink."
I appeared on top of a moving car two blocks away.
"Shadow Blink."
I appeared on the shoulder of a giant Orc patrolling the intersection. Before he could react, I kicked off his helmet and vanished again.
"Shadow Blink."
I was moving faster than the System could track. My mana bar was draining, but the Monarch's Shroud was pulling energy from the very darkness of the night, refilling me almost as fast as I spent it. I was a ghost in the machine, a flickering shadow moving through a city of screams.
I reached the High School gates in under three minutes.
The school was a fortress of terror. The main building was partially collapsed, and the gym was surrounded by hundreds of Shadow Lurkers. They were scratching at the reinforced doors, their claws sounding like a thousand knives on a chalkboard.
Inside, I could feel the mana. It was raw, unrefined, and flickering like a candle in a storm.
CRACK!
The gym doors finally buckled. A Lurker squeezed through the gap, followed by five more. I heard a girl scream—a sound of pure, unadulterated hopelessness.
I didn't hesitate. I didn't sneak. I wanted every monster in this district to know I was here.
"Domain of the Monarch!" I roared.
The ground for fifty yards in every direction turned into a boiling lake of shadow. The Lurkers, which had been boosted by the Eternal Night, suddenly found themselves trapped. The "boost" they received from the dark was stripped away as my domain overrode the System's environmental effect. They weren't in the Eternal Night anymore. They were in my night.
I stepped through the broken gym doors.
The scene inside was a massacre waiting to happen. About fifty students were huddled in the center of the basketball court. In front of them stood a boy with a wooden kendo stick that was glowing with a faint, white light. His arms were covered in deep gashes, but he refused to move. Next to him, a girl was kneeling, her hands pressed to the floor. The ground around her was covered in a thin layer of frost, but she was shivering, her mana almost depleted.
Lee Sung-min and Yoo Hana. They were seventeen years old, terrified, and seconds away from being torn apart.
The lead Lurker lunged at the boy.
SHLICK.
I appeared between them, my blade buried up to the hilt in the Lurker's vertical mouth. I twisted the sword, and the creature exploded into black mist.
The boy, Sung-min, stared at my back. He saw the raven-feather cloak, the silver-glow of my eyes, and the five Shadow Knights that rose from the floor around me.
"Who... are you?" he stammered, his wooden stick trembling.
I didn't turn around. I watched as thirty more Lurkers began to crawl through the windows and the broken doors, their eyes fixed on me.
"The guy who's going to make sure you live to see the sun," I said.
I raised my hand, and the shadows in the gym began to stretch, forming the shapes of the Orcs I had killed at the mall. One by one, my army climbed out of the floor, their blue eyes illuminating the dark gym.
"Knights, protect the students. Orcs, clear the perimeter."
The students watched in stunned silence as my shadows charged the Lurkers. It was a clash of darkness against darkness. The Lurkers were fast, but my Shadow Orcs were brutal. They grabbed the spindly creatures and ripped them in half, while the Knights moved like surgical blades, decapitating anything that got too close to the kids.
[Exp +400, +400, +400...]
[Ding! Level Up!] [Current Level: 15]
[New Skill Unlocked: 'Shadow Exchange'.] [Description: You can instantly swap positions with any of your Shadow Soldiers, regardless of the distance.]
I felt the power plateau break. Level 15 was the first major milestone for the Sovereign class. My vision expanded, and I could suddenly "feel" Tusk back at the mall, swinging his hammer. I could feel Nero breathing fire on the roof.
I turned to Sung-min and Hana. The girl was looking at me with wide, tear-filled eyes.
"You're an Awakener," she whispered. "Like us?"
"No," I said, looking at the black sky through the broken windows. "I'm the reason the monsters are afraid of the dark."
I sensed a massive presence approaching the school. Something much larger than a Lurker. Something the Administrator had sent specifically for me.
"Stay behind my knights," I commanded, stepping back out into the center of the football field. "This one is going to be loud."
From the darkness of the sky, a massive, skeletal bird with four wings and a crown of black ice began to descend. Its wingspan covered the entire field, and the temperature dropped so low the grass shattered like glass.
[Boss Spotted: The Frost-Bane Phoenix (Level 25).]
The bird let out a shriek that felt like a needle in my brain. It looked at my shadow army and opened its beak, preparing a blast of freezing breath that would turn the entire school into an ice sculpture.
I didn't flinch. I reached out my hand toward the mall, miles away.
"Shadow Exchange."
In a flash of black light, I vanished. In my place, Tusk appeared in the middle of the football field. The Shadow Commander didn't even look surprised. He looked at the giant bird, gripped his hammer with both hands, and let out a roar that drowned out the monster's shriek.
And me? I was back at the mall, standing right behind the Weaver of Nightmares that had been bothering Nero.
The spider-woman turned her head, her eyeless face full of confusion.
"My turn," I whispered, and drove my blade into her heart.