The chamber shook again.
Dust rained from the ceiling as Caleb backed away from the glyphs glowing beneath his feet. The energy coursing through the symbols was now surging into his skin, filling his chest with a current that felt barely containable—like lightning coiled beneath the surface of his veins.
From the far tunnel, the shadows coiled tighter. A shape began to form within them—tall, warped, and wrong. Not a creature, not quite human, not quite beast. Its body pulsed with veins of obsidian energy. Its eyes were hollow voids, like it had been carved from fear itself.
"What is that?" Caleb asked, his voice hoarse.
Jarek's blade sang free of its sheath, a curved weapon forged of living black steel. "A Shade Warden. Manifestation of corrupted Aether. This one's been tracking you."
"Why me?"
"Because you're waking up—and that thing feeds on chaos."
The Shade Warden shrieked, and the tunnel behind it collapsed. They were trapped.
Jarek leapt forward with unnatural speed, his cloak unfurling like wings. He struck with precision, his blade clashing against the Warden's claws in a burst of sparks. For a moment, Caleb watched, frozen. Jarek was faster than any human had a right to be—his movements calculated, smooth, almost like he was dancing with the darkness.
But the Shade didn't bleed. It only twisted, howled, and struck again.
Jarek was holding his own—but barely.
Caleb felt the pressure rising inside him. His hands trembled, blue sparks crackling across his fingers like static. The Aether was reacting again. His Aether. Not a weapon yet. Just raw. Untamed.
He didn't know what he was doing—but instinct didn't ask for permission.
He took a step forward and thrust his hand out toward the creature.
The glyphs beneath his feet lit up like a starburst.
A sound like thunder cracked through the chamber as a surge of energy erupted from Caleb's palm. Not flame, not lightning—something between. The force collided with the Shade and sent it reeling into the wall, stone shattering from the impact.
Silence.
Then the creature screamed. And it wasn't dying.
It was adapting.
Its body twisted again, its edges glitching like a corrupted memory. It turned its eyeless face toward Caleb, recognizing him now. Fixating on him.
"Oh no," Caleb muttered.
Jarek appeared beside him. "You woke it up. Good. Now kill it before it learns more."
"I barely know what I just did!"
"Then learn fast."
The Shade lunged.
Caleb raised his hand again, the Aether crackling stronger now. He didn't aim—he couldn't. The energy burst from him in a wide wave of blue force, knocking the Shade back a second time. This time, something inside Caleb clicked—like a door opening.
The world slowed. For a second, just a second, he felt the Aether moving around him.
He could see it—the patterns in the air, the currents beneath the surface of the world.
The creature moved again, but Caleb was already there—his body moving before his mind caught up. He ducked, slid beneath the slash, and brought his hand up with a blast of energy straight to the creature's chest.
The Shade let out a soundless roar as its form began to unravel—dark tendrils whipping through the air, breaking apart like smoke. It collapsed into the glyphs, which pulsed once… and dimmed.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Jarek sheathed his blade slowly. "You're adapting quickly."
"I almost died."
"You didn't. That's what matters."
Caleb dropped to one knee, gasping. His body ached, but the adrenaline hadn't faded yet. The power inside him buzzed like a second heart.
"That thing… it was after me."
"It won't be the last," Jarek said. "The Aether is waking across the world. And creatures like that? They can smell the change. They hunt it."
Caleb stared down at his hands. "What am I becoming?"
Jarek looked at him—not unkindly, but with the weight of someone who had already lost too much.
"Something the world hasn't seen in a very long time."