Ethan woke to the taste of ash.
For several seconds, he lay still, face pressed against something cold and uneven.
His lungs burned each time he breathed, and a sharp ache pulsed behind his eyes.
Somewhere nearby, metal groaned under strain.
Glass tinkled faintly as pieces shifted in the wind.
He opened his eyes.
The apartment was gone.
At least, most of it was.
The wall beside him had been torn open, exposing the twenty-third floor to the ruined city beyond.
Half the ceiling had collapsed.
His desk had disappeared beneath broken concrete, and the narrow kitchen where he had spent too many nights eating noodles from the pot now ended in open air.
Dawn had arrived, but the sky looked wrong.
The clouds were gray and bruised, stretched across the horizon like old scars.
Red light still leaked through distant cracks above the city, though the fractures were much smaller than before.
Ethan tried to sit up.
Pain shot through his ribs.
He stopped and remained still until the dizziness passed.
“What happened?” His voice sounded raw.
Memories returned in broken pieces.
The crimson sky.
The enormous eye.
The Ascendants dying.
His shadow asking for permission.
Then darkness.
A darkness that had spread across the city.
Ethan lowered his gaze.
His shadow lay beneath him.
It looked ordinary.
Flat.
Silent.
Motionless.
For some reason, that made him more nervous.
A translucent screen appeared before his eyes.
[Host consciousness restored.] [Processing completed.] [Consumption successful.] [Target consumed: Fragment of the Hunger Between Stars.] [Target condition: Severely restricted.] [Compatibility: 0.003%.] [Most acquired properties have been rejected.] [One compatible property has been preserved.] [New ability acquired: Shadow Mark.] Ethan stared at the messages.
The words made sense individually, yet together they felt impossible.
He had consumed part of that creature.
No.
His shadow had.
“What is Shadow Mark?” The screen changed.
[Shadow Mark] [Type: Growth Ability] [Rank: Unclassified] [Description: Mark the remains of a defeated target.
The marked shadow may be consumed, preserved, or reconstructed depending on the host’s authority.] [Current reconstruction limit: 1.] [Warning: Reconstruction requires shadow energy.] [Current shadow energy: 0.] Ethan reread the description twice.
“Reconstructed?” His eyes moved toward the empty room.
“Are you still here?” No answer came.
He forced himself to stand.
His knees nearly gave way, but he caught the edge of a cracked support pillar.
Dust slid from the ceiling.
The entire building felt unstable, as though one strong gust could bring the rest of it down.
Outside, New Haven City had become a graveyard.
Several skyscrapers had collapsed entirely.
Others leaned against neighboring buildings, held upright by twisted steel and impossible luck.
Smoke rose from dozens of streets.
Cars had been crushed beneath debris.
Fires burned unattended.
There were bodies everywhere.
From this height, they looked small.
Too small.
Ethan searched for movement.
He saw a man stumbling through an intersection, one arm hanging uselessly at his side.
Farther away, a group of survivors dragged supplies out of a pharmacy.
Someone screamed from a building across the street.
Then came the sound of gunfire.
Three short bursts.
Silence.
Ethan reached for his phone before remembering that it had fallen somewhere near the window.
He found it beneath a broken shelf.
The screen was cracked, but it still worked.
No signal.
The battery showed nine percent.
He opened his recent calls and stared at his mother’s name.
The last thing he had said to her was a promise.
He tried calling anyway.
Nothing.
Not even a failed connection message.
The device simply remained silent.
“Come on.” He tried again.
Then again.
Still nothing.
Ethan tightened his grip around the phone until the broken glass pressed into his palm.
His family lived almost eighty kilometers away.
Under normal circumstances, it was a short train ride.
Now the city looked as though it had survived a war against something that had not even considered humanity an opponent.
A scraping noise came from the hallway.
Ethan turned.
The apartment door hung crookedly from one hinge.
Beyond it, the corridor was dark.
Emergency lights flickered along the walls, each pulse revealing more blood than the last.
The scraping came again.
Closer.
Ethan searched for a weapon.
He found a metal support rod buried beneath plaster and pulled it free.
It was heavy and slightly bent, but it was better than nothing.
“Hello?” No reply.
He stepped into the corridor.
The smell hit him first.
Blood.
Smoke.
Something rotten.
The hallway had split near the elevator.
A deep crack ran across the floor, wide enough to see into the lower levels.
One of the neighboring apartment doors stood open.
A trail of blood led inside.
Ethan knew he should leave it alone.
He also knew that whatever had made the scraping sound was already close enough to find him.
A shape moved in the darkness.
He raised the metal rod.
“Stay back.” The shape crawled beneath the flickering light.
It had once been human.
At least, Ethan thought it had.
The creature wore the remains of a security guard’s uniform.
Its arms had grown too long, with fingers bent backward like hooked claws.
Black veins spread across its swollen face, and its jaw had split nearly to the ear.
One eye remained human.
The other had become completely white.
A notification appeared.
[Corrupted Human] [Level: 2] [Condition: Starved] [Threat: Low] Low.
Ethan almost laughed.
The creature moved faster than any human should have been able to.
It lunged.
Ethan swung the rod with both hands.
The metal struck its shoulder with a dull crack, but the creature barely reacted.
Its claws tore across his shirt and opened three burning lines over his chest.
Ethan stumbled backward.
The corrupted man snapped its teeth inches from his face.
He jammed the rod between its jaws.
The creature bit down.
Its teeth cracked against the metal.
For one terrifying second, Ethan saw the guard’s remaining human eye.
There was fear in it.
Not hunger.
Not rage.
Fear.
As though some part of the man was still trapped inside.
Ethan shoved the creature away.
It crashed against the wall, then immediately crawled back toward him.
The system had called it low threat.
Perhaps for someone with fire or lightning.
For Ethan, it was more than enough.
He retreated until his heel struck broken concrete.
The creature sprang again.
Ethan stepped aside at the last moment and swung toward its head.
The rod connected with its temple.
Once.
Twice.
The corrupted man fell to one knee.
Ethan raised the weapon again, hesitated, and nearly died for it.
The creature clawed his leg.
Pain tore through him.
He brought the rod down with everything he had.
The body collapsed.
It twitched for several seconds before finally becoming still.
Ethan stood over it, breathing hard.
Blood dripped from the end of the rod.
His hands were shaking.
He had never killed anyone before.
Monster or not, the body still wore a name tag.
DANIEL ROSS.
Ethan looked away.
A cold sensation touched his ankle.
His shadow stretched toward the corpse.
This time, it moved slowly.
Almost carefully.
A thin black line crawled across the floor and connected with Daniel’s shadow.
The darkness beneath the body trembled.
[Defeated target detected.] [Would you like to apply Shadow Mark?] Ethan swallowed.
“What happens if I do?” [The target’s shadow will be preserved.] [Preserved shadows may be consumed for energy or reconstructed as servants.] He stared at the corpse.
A servant.
The word felt wrong.
Daniel had been a person.
Maybe he had a family.
Maybe someone was waiting for him too.
Ethan almost rejected the prompt.
Then a roar echoed from the street below.
It was answered by another.
And another.
The sounds spread through the city.
The first phase had not ended.
It had only begun.
“Apply it.” The shadow beneath Daniel’s corpse peeled away from the floor.
It rose like smoke and folded into a dark symbol no larger than Ethan’s palm.
For an instant, the shape resembled a man kneeling with his head lowered.
Then it sank into Ethan’s shadow.
[Shadow Mark applied.] [Preserved shadows: 1/1.] [Consume or reconstruct?] “Reconstruct.” [Insufficient shadow energy.] Ethan frowned.
“How do I get shadow energy?” The system remained silent.
“Of course.” Something clicked behind him.
Ethan spun around.
An elderly woman stood in the doorway of apartment 2307, holding a small revolver with both hands.
Mrs.
Ortega.
She had lived across the hall for as long as Ethan could remember.
Her silver hair was tied back.
Blood stained one sleeve of her nightgown, though Ethan could not tell whether it belonged to her.
The gun pointed at his chest.
“Drop the metal bar,” she said.
“Mrs.
Ortega?” “Drop it.” He did.
Her eyes moved toward Daniel’s body.
“You killed him.” “He attacked me.” “He attacked everyone.” Her grip trembled.
“My grandson was downstairs when the sky opened.” Ethan said nothing.
“He came back wrong.” The words caught in her throat.
“I locked the door.” A heavy impact struck from inside her apartment.
Mrs.
Ortega flinched.
Another impact followed.
Something slammed against the door behind her.
Wood cracked.
Ethan moved forward.
“You need to get away from there.” She raised the gun higher.
“No.” “Mrs.
Ortega—” “He is still my grandson.” The door burst open.
A young boy, perhaps twelve years old, threw himself into the hallway.
His body was thinner than it should have been.
Bone-like spikes had torn through the skin along his back.
His mouth opened, revealing black teeth.
Mrs.
Ortega turned too slowly.
The boy struck her with one arm.
She hit the opposite wall and collapsed.
The revolver fired.
The bullet tore through the ceiling.
The corrupted boy crawled over her.
“Mateo,” she whispered.
The creature paused.
Only for a moment.
But it paused.
Ethan saw the same thing he had seen in Daniel’s eye.
Someone remained inside.
Buried.
Watching.
Suffering.
Mateo opened his mouth.
Ethan grabbed the metal rod and charged.
The creature turned.
A spike ripped through Ethan’s shoulder.
He screamed but kept moving.
The rod struck Mateo’s jaw.
The boy stumbled sideways, then slashed at Ethan’s stomach.
Ethan blocked with the rod.
The impact numbed both arms.
Mateo was stronger than Daniel.
Much stronger.
A notification appeared.
[Corrupted Human] [Level: 5] [Threat: Moderate] The creature attacked again.
Ethan barely avoided the claws.
He fell against the wall, leaving a smear of blood behind him.
Mrs.
Ortega reached for the revolver.
Mateo noticed.
He turned toward her.
“No!” Ethan’s shadow moved.
Not the thin line from before.
The entire shape rose behind him.
Silver eyes opened within the darkness.
Hungry.
The word appeared in Ethan’s mind without being spoken.
He understood.
It wanted the shadow he had just preserved.
Daniel.
Ethan’s stomach turned.
If he consumed it, there might be nothing left to reconstruct.
Nothing left of the man at all.
Mateo raised one claw above his grandmother.
“Consume it,” Ethan said.
His shadow opened its mouth.
The symbol of the kneeling man emerged from the darkness and was pulled apart like smoke caught in a violent wind.
[Preserved shadow consumed.] [Shadow energy acquired: 8.] [Residual trait detected: Reinforced Arms.] [Trait rejected due to low compatibility.] The darkness around Ethan thickened.
For the first time, he felt it.
Something cold moving through his veins.
Not power exactly.
More like a second heartbeat.
[Shadow energy available.] [Temporary reconstruction permitted.] A silhouette formed beside Ethan.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Wearing the remains of a security uniform.
Daniel stepped out of the floor.
He was no longer flesh.
His body was made entirely of black mist and hardened shadow.
Silver light burned where his eyes should have been.
Mrs.
Ortega stared in horror.
Mateo turned toward the new figure.
Daniel moved without waiting for an order.
He caught the boy’s wrist before the claw could descend.
The collision cracked the wall beneath their feet.
Mateo shrieked.
Daniel twisted the arm aside and slammed him into the ground.
Once.
Twice.
The floor splintered.
Ethan felt every impact somewhere inside his own chest.
The reconstruction was draining him.
[Shadow energy: 6.] [Shadow energy: 4.] “Hold him,” Ethan said.
Daniel pinned Mateo’s arms.
The corrupted boy thrashed wildly, snapping his teeth at empty air.
Mrs.
Ortega crawled closer.
“Mateo.” The creature froze again.
Its white eyes trembled.
“Grandma.” The voice was faint.
Human.
Mrs.
Ortega broke.
She pressed one hand over her mouth and sobbed.
Mateo’s face twisted as the corruption returned.
“Run,” he whispered.
Then he screamed.
The bone spikes along his back extended.
One pierced Daniel’s chest.
The shadow soldier flickered.
[Shadow energy: 1.] Ethan picked up the revolver.
Mrs.
Ortega looked at him.
Their eyes met.
She understood before he spoke.
She placed a hand against Mateo’s face.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“I’m so sorry.” The boy stopped struggling.
For one final second, his eyes cleared.
Ethan fired.
The sound echoed through the corridor.
Mateo went still.
Daniel collapsed into smoke beside him.
The shadow flowed back into Ethan’s feet.
[Shadow energy depleted.] [Reconstruction ended.] [Defeated target detected.] [Shadow Mark unavailable.
Preservation limit reached.] Ethan stared at the notification.
“The shadow was consumed.” [Original mark remains imprinted.] [Reconstruction available once sufficient energy is acquired.] Daniel was still there.
Not alive.
Not gone.
Something in between.
Mrs.
Ortega held her grandson’s body and cried without making a sound.
Ethan lowered the gun.
Outside, the city continued to burn.
A new system message appeared across the sky.
This one was visible to everyone.
[PHASE ONE WILL END IN 23 HOURS.] [REMAINING HUMAN POPULATION: 78.6%.] [SURVIVE UNTIL THE GATES OPEN.] Ethan looked through the broken wall toward the distant horizon.
Dozens of black pillars had appeared throughout the city.
Each one reached from the ground into the fractured sky.
Creatures circled around them.
Some walked on four legs.
Others flew.
One of them was large enough to wrap itself around a skyscraper.
Then Ethan’s shadow whispered from beneath him.
Not hungry this time.
Afraid.
“They found us,” it said.
Ethan went cold.
“Who?” The shadow’s silver eyes opened at his feet.
“The gods you tried to eat.”