Just as humans possessed Mana Cores and demons bore Demon Cores, creatures of darkness had their own distinct counterparts: Shadow Cores.
Compared to the others, Shadow Cores were far more enigmatic. Their nature was inconsistent, difficult to define, and even harder to fully understand. Unlike Mana or Demon Cores, which followed relatively established principles, Shadow Cores seemed to operate outside conventional rules.
They had a wide range of uses due to their adaptability.
They could store energy, distort it, amplify it, or in some rare cases, alter its very properties. Their value lay not only in raw power, but in their sheer versatility. No two Shadow Cores were exactly alike, and because of that, they were highly prized by Fortcliff's Government. With the right methods, they could even be refined and forged into Mystic Tools.
In fact, aside from halting the expansion of the Dark Dimension, one of the primary reasons Hunters ventured into Fissures was to retrieve such resources.
Some were used to reinforce weapons and armor. Others became catalysts for research, helping scholars and engineers better understand the fractured laws of the world. And in rarer cases, certain cores were preserved in their original state for other purposes.
But there was something that bothered him.
'What is a Monster Core doing here all on its own? Isn't it supposed to be inside a Shade or something? Or has the Shade already been slain by some unforeseen horror?'
Frowning, Kevin found the situation suspicious, and the growing sense that something was wrong began to gnaw at him.
…Could it be—!
A chill ran down his spine.
He reacted instantly, leaping backward away from the floating core.
But his timing was slightly off.
The ground beneath him erupted.
Something massive surged upward from the depths of the fractured floor, coalescing out of pure, shifting darkness, and slammed into him with brutal force.
His quick reflexes prevented his head from being crushed outright, but only just.
Now Kevin found himself in a far worse position.
"Shit…!"
He gritted his teeth, straining under the sudden pressure.
He was seconds away from being torn apart.
The Darkness Creature loomed above him, over five meters tall, its form an unstable mass of writhing shadow that refused to settle into a single shape. At times it resembled a wolf, at others a panther. Its jaws, however, were unmistakably real, wide enough to bite a human clean in half, and strong enough to crush bone and armor into powder.
And those jaws were closing in on him.
The only thing stopping them were Kevin's hands.
One pressed against the upper jaw, the other braced against the lower, forcing them apart with everything he had.
Muscles screamed in protest.
Mana coursed through his arms in tremendous reinforcement, but even that wasn't enough to fully stabilize the strain. His body trembled under the sheer pressure, every fiber threatening to tear apart under the creature's raw strength.
This thing wasn't ordinary. It was definitely a Tyrant-class Shade!
The creature's jaws pressed harder.
The ground beneath Kevin's feet cracked further, sinking slightly under the force of the struggle. His boots scraped against the fractured stone as he struggled to maintain leverage.
"…Tch."
His arms trembled violently.
This wasn't a fight he could afford to lose strength in.
Fortunately, either of them seemed able to overpower the other, so it was a damn statement.
Perhaps the beast had realized this too because the Darkness Creature let out a deafening growl and doubled down on its efforts. Kevin's knees slightly bent as it forced its weight down.
"Don't underestimate me, you fucking mutt!"
Coincidentally, one of the conditions required to use his second form had already been met.
| Shred
The moment his focus sharpened and his Soul Ability activated, the creature's jaws were violently torn apart.
There was no resistance.
Just an instantaneous rupture as though the space between his hands had been forcibly split open. The upper and lower jaws separated unnaturally, ripped wide beyond their limits, shredded into unstable fragments.
The rupture didn't stop at its jaws either.
It spread like a fracture running through glass, the effect cascaded through the creature's head and into its body. The darkness composing it lost cohesion, splitting apart as if something fundamental had been severed.
The Tyrant staggered.
Or at least, its body distorted violently, collapsing inward before attempting to reform.
Kevin didn't give it the chance.
The instant the pressure vanished, he twisted his body and kicked off the ground, creating distance between himself and the unraveling mass of shadow. He landed a few meters away, grimaced and then flexed his fingers.
Ahead of him, the creature convulsed.
The torn halves of its jaw hung unnaturally, struggling to reconnect as threads of darkness stretched and snapped between them.
"Of course, it wouldn't die from that."
A Tyrant-class Shade wasn't something that would go down that easily.
He had intended to decapitate the appalling creature with that attack but failed due to its peculiarity.
Soon, the darkness began to condense again.
Fragments of its form were drawn back together. The torn sections writhed, resisting the reconstruction for a brief moment before being overridden.
Its head snapped back into place and the beast lowered itself, glaring at him from a distance.
"..."
What could he say? This thing was strange to begin with.
Kevin glared at the beast too before pointing and launching a series of Dismantles, the powerful slashes tearing through the air in rapid succession.
Each Dismantle carved across the creature's body without warning, splitting through layers of condensed darkness, forcing the creature mass to peel away in chunks.
But the Tyrant did not fall.
The moment the damage appeared, the shadows writhing violently as they attempted to stitch themselves back together. The severed portions did not fall away like flesh. Instead, they lingered, suspended, before being dragged back into the whole.
It was like someone using a sewing machine to stitch together a piece of cloth.
'What is this situation? It can regenerate its body... Tch. As if it's absurd strength wasn't bad enough.'
His dismantles had effectively been neutralized, and shred required direct contact to be fully effective. But closing the distance wasn't an option, not when those monstrous jaws could snap him in half the moment he misstepped.
Fighting the Tyrant by his lonesome was bound to be difficult.
Thankfully, he wasn't alone.
A few seconds later, two arrows tore past his shoulders and buried themselves deep into the beast's feral eyes. The shots were nearly simultaneous, precise to an almost unnatural degree.
Kevin's lips curled into a faint grin.
'Nice shot.'
Far in the distance, Noah stood with his bow already drawn once more, another pair of arrows nocked and ready. He seemed to be shouting something, which meant Mikoto and Jasmine were likely already on their way.
But whether that would be enough remained to be seen.
Blinded, the dreadful abomination turned blindly toward Kevin, rage replacing whatever semblance of instinct it had before. Thick strands of saliva dripped from its maw, splattering against the ground. Then, wiith a powerful push from its hind legs, the Shadow Creature launched itself forward, tearing through the distance in an instant.
The Shadow opened its terrible jaws and bit on... emptiness.
There was nobody there.
...At least, not anymore. Closing the gap in the exact moment the creature overcommitted, Kevin had slipped past its strike like a shadow threading through a needle.
Seizing the opportunity, Kevin stuck the exposed flank with a [Shred] at maximum output.
A one-hit strike that cut the target at a molecular level. Even for a Shadow Creature, it was difficult to survive such a tremendous blow.
Blood poured to the ground as the creature staggered and fell.
Quickly, its breathing ceased.
[You have slain the
[You have inherited the Dark Core.]