Chapter 4– The Awakening
2015 Words
The portal shut.
Darkness hit like a fist.
The kind that eats light and sound and hope and shits out silence.
A growl rolled down the tunnel.
Low. Wet. Thinking.
B-rank.
Maybe C-rank.
Doesn't matter. Both were dragons to an ant. Both were death to a F-Rank.
I was not brave. Not smart. Just _run_. Boots slamming stone, breath tearing my throat, pocket almost empty because I'd given them everything — food, water, potions, dignity.
All I had left was the dagger Caelum gave me. The one I didn't know how to use. The one he called "training" when he tossed it to me on Day One.
The growl got closer.
Not faster. _Closer_.
Because it wasn't chasing.
It was _herding_.
The B-rank beast was intelligent. Not like the wolves. Not like the minotaur. This thing _thought_. I heard claws on stone — _click, click, click_ — slow. Deliberate. Like a predator walking behind a child to see how long it takes them to break.
"s**t," I whispered. "s**t, s**t, s**t—"
My lungs burned. My legs burned. My F-Rank body was built for carrying, not running. Twenty kilos of Silver Vane supplies for three days straight, then nothing. No food. No rest. They took the rations when they sealed the door.
They planned this.
"Please," I gasped, not to it. To nothing. To the Oracle. To Caelum. To my mother, if she was watching from wherever the Underkingdom buried its dead. "Please."
I rounded a corner. Dead end.
Of course.
Of course the heroes cleared the path to the boss and left the side tunnels full. Of course they "didn't waste time" killing the leftovers. Of course the Silver Vanes wanted me to die tired, scared, _alone_.
The clicking stopped.
It was here.
I turned.
And saw it.
Six legs. Cat body. Scales instead of fur. Three tails, each tipped with bone blades that scraped the stone and threw sparks. But the head — gods, the _head_. Human-ish. Too many eyes. Six, running down its temples like a crown, all of them yellow and slit-pupiled and _aware_. And a mouth that split its face ear to ear, full of teeth that weren't for eating.
They were for _smiling_.
It was smiling now.
It knew.
It knew they left me. It knew I couldn't fight.
It was going to play with its food.
I backed up, hit wall. Stone cold against my spine. The dungeon was sweating. Or maybe that was me.
My life flashed.
Not the good parts. There weren't any.
Bread in the dirt. Garren's boot on my fingers. Laughter when I flinched. Cold. Hunger. "Underkingdom trash." "Pack mule." "Good girl." Luna patting my head like I was a dog that learned a trick. Caelum: "You've been more useful than we expected."
Useful.
Not person. Not partner. _Useful_.
Why?
Why wasn't I satisfied with scraps? Why did I take the bath? Why did I eat the food? Why did I believe when they call me "partner"? Why did I think I could sit at their table?
Why did I want _more_?
Rage hit.
Hot. Clean. Better than fear.
I was angry. At them. At me. At the whole damn world that made "hope" into a leash. At the Oracle for calling me Null. At the system for ranking me F. At myself for surviving this long just to die in a hole.
The beast launched.
No roar. No warning. Just _speed_. Six legs, three tails, one mouth, all coming for my throat.
I closed my eyes.
Not brave. Not accepting.
Just done.
_I curse my whole existence._
_I curse wanting._
_I curse the day I crawled out of the Underkingdom._
_[SYSTEM SEAL REMOVED]_
The world _stopped_.
Sound vanished. The beast hung mid-air, claws inches from my face, drool suspended like glass beads. My heart stopped. Time stopped. Dust motes froze between us like stars.
And a voice spoke. Not in my ears. In my _bones_. In my blood. In the hollow space where my rank should've been.
_[CRITICAL TRAUMA DETECTED. HOST TERMINATION IMMINENT.]_
_[SYSTEM ACTIVATION]_
_[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL: VISUAL SKILL AWAKENED.]_
Light.
A translucent screen ripped open in front of me. Blue. Flickering. Like the Oracle's crystal, but _angry_. Like it had been waiting. Like it _hated_ being caged.
_[USER: KALEAN]_
_[DESIGNATION: NULL — CORRECTING… ERROR… ERROR…]_
_[NEW DESIGNATION: KUMUI WIELDER]_
_[VISUAL SKILL: OBSERVATION UNLOCKED]_
Text scrolled. Fast. Too fast. But I _saw_ it. All of it. Like the words were carved into my brain with a hot knife. Like I'd always known them.
_[OBSERVATION (UNLOCKED)]_
_- Enhanced vision and perception_
_- Ability to see mana flow and colors_
_- Predict opponent's movements up to 3 seconds_
_- [LOCKED] Copy any mana art or combat skill witnessed_
_[KAMUI — "AUTHORITY OF THE GODS"]_
_- Primary: Long-range Void Stride (right eye)_
_- Secondary: Short-range / Intangibility (left eye)_
_- Creates barrier space: Kamui Dimension_
_- Partial Void Step: Shift specific body parts_
_- Pocket Storage: UNLIMITED_
_[MINDWEAVE (LOCKED)]_
_- Cast powerful illusions via eye contact_
_[VISUAL SKILL (AWAKENED)]_
_- Condition met: Near-death trauma + betrayal by trusted party_
_- Drawback: 5 minute intangibility limit. Eye strain. Due to weak body or overuse = blindness. Permanent._
_[ASTRAL COLOSSUS (LOCKED)]_
_- Requires: Full mana network integration_
_[DEMONIC STATUE OF THE OUTER PATH (LOCKED)]_
_- Requires: Consumption of 9 Calamity Cores_
_[DOMAIN] (locked)
Time snapped back.
The beast's claws hit—
—and passed _through_ my face.
No pain. No blood. No impact.
Its teeth closed on my neck.
On _nothing_.
I felt it. Cold. Like mist. Like I was a ghost and the world was the one that was fake. Like the dungeon was the dream and I'd finally woken up.
The beast landed. Stumbled. Confused. Its six eyes blinked, all at once.
It whipped around.
Because I was _behind_ it.
I didn't move.
I _phased_.
_[Partial Void Step activated — left arm shifted to Kamui Dimension]_
I looked down.
My arm was gone. Not cut. Not bloody. _Gone_. From the shoulder down, it just… ended. Smooth. Clean. Like a painting with a piece erased. I could still see and feel it. Fingers. Palm. But they weren't _here_.
Then it was back.
Flesh. Blood. Mine.
Holy _s**t_.
A throwback hit me like a slap. The portal closing. The growl. The way my body had just… stopped existing for a second.
“How?” I whispered. “How did I....... I'm I dead?”
A voice answered. Inside. Calm. Mechanical.
_[HOST: YOU ARE NOT A GHOST. YOU ARE PARTIALLY SHIFTED. A PORTION OF YOUR BODY WAS SENT INTO THE KAMUI DIMENSION. IF A PART IS IN THAT SPACE, IT DOES NOT EXIST ON THIS PLANE. YOU CANNOT BE STRUCK THERE.]_
I jerked back, hand going to my dagger.
“Who—who’s there? Who said that?”
_[I AM THE SYSTEM. THE SEAL PLACED ON YOUR ABILITIES HAS BEEN RELEASED.]_
Seal?
Before I could think more about it, the beast launched again.
_[Partial Void Step activated — left arm shifted to Kamui Dimension]_
I looked down.
My arm was gone. Not cut. Not bloody. _Gone_. From the shoulder down, it just… ended. Smooth. Clean. Like a painting with a piece erased. I could still feel it. Fingers. Palm. But they weren’t _here_.
Then it was back.
Flesh. Blood. Mine.
Holy _s**t_.
The beast screamed. Sound came back all at once—roar, echo, my heartbeat like a war drum, stone cracking from the force of it.
It charged again.
And I _saw_.
Not with my eyes. With the new ones.
_[Observation Active]_
The world changed.
Lines. Colors. Flow.
Red threads in its legs—muscle, tension, _intent_. Blue swirls in its chest—mana, building for a pounce. A flicker in its left eye—it was going to feint right, strike left. A pulse in its throat—it was going to roar to disorient me first.
I saw the future. Or was I predicting its movement? One second. Two. Three.
And I stepped _into_ it.
The roar came. I’d already covered my ears.
The claw came.
I tilted my head.
It passed through my skull. Cold. Nothing. Like dunking my head in winter river water.
I reached out my hand. The air rippled.
Holding a sword.
Not my dagger.
Garren's sword.
The beast screamed. Sound came back all at once — roar, echo, my heartbeat like a war drum, stone cracking from the force of it.
It charged again.
And I _saw_.
Not with my eyes. With the new ones.
_[Observation Active]_
The world changed.
Lines. Colors. Flow.
Red threads in its legs — muscle, tension, _intent_. Blue swirls in its chest — mana, building for a pounce. A flicker in its left eye — it was going to feint right, strike left. A pulse in its throat — it was going to roar to disorient me first.
I saw the future or was I predicting it's movement. One second. Two. Three.
And I stepped _into_ it.
"Hi," I said.
And I _swung_.
The blade went in under its jaw. Up. Through brain. Through crown. Mana surged down my arm — mine and the sword's — and _detonated_.
It didn't even have time to be surprised.
It dropped.
Dead.
B-rank.
One swing.
I stood there. Breathing. Not crying. Not shaking.
_Seeing_.
The dungeon lit up. Not with torches. With _flow_. Every crack in the stone had color now. Mana. Trails. The dead beast was red and black, fading, its six eyes going dull. My sword was silver-blue, humming, drinking the kill.
And my eyes — gods, my eyes — burned.
Not pain. _Power_.
A new growl.
Then another.
Then five.
The "leftovers." The B-ranks and C-ranks Crain didn't "waste time" killing. The ones the Silver Vanes left to clean up their mess. To kill _me_.
They came.
Pack of them. Scales. Teeth. Wings. One looked like a bear made of knives. One had a scorpion tail and a human face. One was all mouth.
I should've run.
I didn't.
I _walked_.
Into them.
A claw swiped. I phased. Chest, arm, half my head — gone, then back. The air where I'd been _shivered_.
I reached into Kamui. Pulled a Fūma Shuriken. Didn't know I had one. Didn't care. My hands remembered. Or the eyes did.
Threw it.
It spun. Vanished mid-air. Reappeared _inside_ a beast's skull with a wet _thunk_.
It dropped.
Another lunged.
I touched it. Palm to scaled hide.
_[Kamui: Long-range — left eye]_
A barrier spiraled open in my vision. Black. Red. Screaming. A spiral galaxy that ate light.
The beast _folded_. Bones. Muscle. Screams. Sucked in. Gone.
To the Kamui Dimension.
Where it could starve.
Where it could _think_ about what it did.
I laughed.
It sounded like Caelum's.
Not kind. Not cruel. _Free_.
I was intangible. I was untouchable. I was _here_ and _not here_.
For five minutes.
I had five minutes of godhood.
*[Intangibility: 4:12]*
I used them.
I phased through claws. Stored heads mid-roar. Void Stepped behind wings and cut tendons and watched them fall. I pulled potions from Kamui and drank them without stopping, mana flooding back into my veins. I pulled arrows and threw them and stored them mid-flight and made them reappear from behind, from above, from _inside_.
I was everywhere.
I was nowhere.
When the last one died, the dungeon was quiet.
Bodies. All B-rank. All C-rank. All dead.
All _mine_.
*[Eye Strain: 44%]*
My vision swam. The edges of the world went gray. But the center — the center was sharp. Sharper than ever.
I stood in the dark. Sword red. Eyes burning. Chest heaving.
I reached into Kamui.
Not for a weapon.
For _food_.
The rations I'd carried for them. The bread. The meat. The wine. The good stuff they never shared.
I ate.
Slow. Deliberate.
Tasting every bite.
Because I wasn't hungry anymore.
I was _starving_.
*[Kamui: Pocket Storage — Activating]*
I took the corpses. All of them. Six B-ranks. Three C-ranks. Cores, claws, scales, fangs. Proof. Wealth. _Weapons_.
The Kamui Dimension took them. No weight. No sound. Just _gone_.
- Writer
