Only moments earlier—
Xalier had returned.
Crossing the barrier, he immediately froze.
"...What..."
Before him—
His son stood completely covered in black and white flames.
Still somewhat wounded.
Blood soaked his torn clothes.
The ground around him had become nothing but shattered stone.
For the briefest moment—
One ridiculous thought crossed Xalier's mind.
'...What did he do this time to make Elah this angry?'
The next instant—
His expression completely changed.
'No... Space...?'
'He's already touching space...?'
His eyes widened.
'He's one step away.'
Without hesitation—
Xalier stepped forward.
Following his son.
The world froze around him as he entered the same timeless space.
He immediately understood what was happening.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"...Good."
His voice carried no panic.
Only pride.
"Say its name."
Temorsth looked toward him.
He smiled.
Not because he needed help.
Because he finally understood.
He wasn't borrowing his father's road anymore.
He was creating his own.
His lips slowly moved.
"Shadow Step."
Yet, its name was still given as such.
The frozen world shattered.
Time resumed.
The pressure vanished.
The torn space quietly healed.
...
"This was..." Xalier arrived just a step from where he was standing, but just as he started to speak to Temorsth, he shut up.
"Uh? Son?" Turning his head to look around, he called out, and after he saw nothing, he released his divine sense to search the surrounding area.
And following him, Elah was doing the same.
And as she too found nothing, "No! Where is my baby!?" she screamed.
...
"Where am I?" Temorsth turned to look around.
"Why is every color so dark?" The colors of the world around him changed.
Everything was either different dark shades of white, blue, and green, or it was completely black.
The place he was in was strange, the surroundings looked almost the same as his home and outside the barrie, but there were slight differences.
"Where is the big sycamore tree...?" The tree that was the gate to his home was missing.
"Dad, are you here?"
"..."
"Hey, is anyone here!?" He called for help, but the only thing that answered was again silence.
"..."
'Hey Aidana, do you hear me?' After a thought, Temorsth called for someone who was looking at him all the time.
'Aidana?' But even she didn't answer now.
"I can't communicate with anyone, and no one is here... Hmh, what a troublesome predicament." Even in the strange situation, Temorsth didn't panic.
Raising his hand to his chin, he started to think.
"What can I do?" And just as he asked himself.
"Did I make a mistake? I thought someone came to challenge me again." A slow and ambiguous voice sounded.
"...!?" And hearing this distorted voice, Temorsth started to look around to find the source.
"Who?" Just as he asked, not seeing anyone, a body without any features, looking exactly like a white male mannequin, appeared high in the sky.
As it stood in the air, with hands behind its back, it looked around for someone.
"Hm?" And with a slight downward motion of its head, the mannequin looked at Temrosth.
"Uh?" Temorsth got surprised as, without any action or movement, the mannequin appeared right before him.
"Oh, a mortal Knight?" As the mannequin slightly leaned forward, a voice came from the featureless and empty face.
As he looked Temorsth up and down, he raised one of his hands to his chin.
'Knight...?' Temorsth didn't move away.
At the same time, he tried to understand what the mannequin said.
He looked at its blank face, which didn't even have a mouth, but the voice clearly came from it.
After a moment of silence, the mannequin started speaking again.
"Hey, little boy, why did you come to the World of Shadows?"
"Aren't you afraid of death?"
'World of Shadows?' Temorsth filtered the mannequin's words and understood where he was.
"Hey, are you so scared you can't speak?" With the words, he waved his hands before Temorsth's face.
"No, I'm not. And no, why would I be scared of death?"
"Hm... Why do I feel arrogance in your tone? You are just a little Knight of Darkness."
"Do you even know who I am?"
"No, I don't." A light answer.
"Uh?" Temorsth didn't look bothered by the raised tone.
"..." Yet it was apparent that the mannequin didn't expect this answer, since its movements completely froze.
'Knight of Darkness...' And all the while the mannequin stood in silence.
Temorsth made note of every word he thought could be important.
"Then... Then why are you so high? Aren't you afraid that I could kill you a thousand times?"
The mannequin tried to sound eloquent.
"No."
"But why?" But his act was quickly shattered again.
"Because I am immortal."
"...?" Temorsth's nonchalant words, which told something unbelievable, froze him again.
But then...
*HAHAHA...* Laughter resounded from the emotionless, empty face of the mannequin.
"Hm? Don't laugh, I told the truth!" Temorsth frowned.
He didn't like that his truthful words were laughed at.
*Haha...haha...*
"..." The laughter continued for a little while before...
It stopped with the loud sound of the mannequin slamming its hand onto its face.
"You deny death..."The mannequin leaned back.
His back bent deeply, he spread his arms open and started laughing again.
*HAHAHA... HAHA...*
But then... the laughter died out.
"...in my presence!?"The voice turned heavy and dark.
Followed by a dark aura, just as heavy, bursting out around the white body.
*Bang* He stomped his foot on the ground.
Quickly rising, leaned over Temorsth.
"..." This time, eyes appeared and opened on the mannequin.
'Green...' While the mannequin stared down at him, Termorsth looked at his green eyes.
"..."
Silence stretched for a while.
"No..." After a moment, another light answer was formed.
"...?" A slight confusion appeared on the featureless face from hearing the word without any fear.
'What is this little one...'
'I just wanted to scare him a little, but despite releasing energy that would make any Mortal, even an Immortal, shit themself in fear, this little kid isn't even fazed?'
"I was just stating a fact." Temorsth fished his words.
Trying to make clear he wasn't denying anything.
"...!" A slight surprise showed on the blank white face before it continued.
"I like you..." Straightening his back, he took a step back to give Temorsth some space.
"I'll spare your life." The mannequin closed its eyes. They disappeared, and his face went back to complete featurelessness.
"Thanks, I guess..."
"Now go back to where you came from." He said as he turned around.
"Uh, wait..." Seeing that the mannequin started to dissipate and leave, Temorth stopped him.
"Hm?" The mannequin turned solid again.
"How can I leave?" Seeing that he turned his head to listen to him, Temrosth asked for help.
"How did you come here?"
"I think I used the ability I have just learned."
"Then use it one more time." He said without thinking or delaying.
If Temorsth had used something other than a skill, it wouldn't be weird if he couldn't go back, but a skill can most definitely travel back and forth.
"Hm, alright. Thanks for the help." Hearing the certainty the mannequin had, Temorsth accepted it as certain too.
"Go go, before I change my mind."
"Goodbye..." As Temosrsth raised his leg, he waved goodbye to the one who helped him in a dire situation.
"..."
"This was strange..." Feeling Temorsth's energy vanish, the mannequin spoke to itself.
"Hmh... This little thing..."
*Mhmhm* With a low chuckle, his words continued.
"It was quite refreshing seeing something so silly."
...
[Notice: You survived the meeting with a "Great Creature of Darkness".]
[Congratulations: Your authority over the darkness has greatly increased.]
"Hm... I'm back?" Looking around, Temorsth recognized the part of the forest he was in.
It was a space still under the barrier.
[Hey! Where have you been!?] Aidana's voice was filled with worry.
It even sounded angry, but maybe not at him.
'Uh... I'm not really sure...' Temorsth didn't lie.
Even though he had a guess, he wasn't sure.
Temorsth didn't want to hurt or lie to Aidana.
The problem was that he still didn't know why she was helping him.
[Ugh... Are you hurt anywhere?]
'No, except the already existing wounds, Mom didn't heal, I'm not hurt.'
[Uh... I got scared... my connection to your system was cut for a moment. I thought something bad had happened.]
'Hm... So there is a way to get severed from her...' Brilliance instantly saved this moment in his mind.
"No! Where is my baby!?"
"Mom?" Hearing Elah's scream, he turned in that direction.
"Hm?" As he was about to start running, a thought came to his mind.
'Should I try it one more time?' Even though he was questioning, he was already raising his leg to use Shadow Step one more time.
"It's the same..." As his feet hit the ground, his world slowed for a moment.
"Hm... this feeling..." Noticing something from the energy around him, he called to Aidana to calm her beforehand. 'Aidana, I'll be back in a second.'
[Uh? Where are you going...] As Temorsth finished his step, Aidana's voice got cut off.
...
"Hi." Temorsth waved.
"..." The mannequin had already turned around to look at him before he even arrived.
"It looks like I can come here with my skill."
"What the...?" The mannequin was confused, feeling the disturbance of his world's barrier again.
"Can I come to explore this gray World of Shadows?"
"..."
Since the silence was long, he asked again.
"Can I...?"
The new words woke up the white mannequin.
"You can't! Disappear this instant!" His words were loud and angry.
"Oh... sad..."
"Then..."
"Bye-bye..." Temorsth waved goodbye one more time and used Shadow Step to go back.
"..."
"What is this little thing? He really isn't afraid of me..."
...
[Congratulations: Your Ruler of Dark authority is starting to break through the limits of the Knight rank.]
'Knight? Oh, was he referring to my authority with the title?' Hearing the system, he understood why the mannequin called him the Knight of Darkness.
[What the hell was this!?] As Temorsth arrived a little farther away from the point of his step, he heard Aidana's scream in his head.
'Hm... it looks as if this Unique Ability takes me somewhere else you can't reach or something.'
[I know, but that is not the problem! I have never heard of a skill that can do this. It's almost like you travel to a completely different plane of existence... Ugh...] Yet again, saying something she wasn't supposed to, Aidana groaned from noticing the loss of plausibility.
'Different plane of existence?'
[I can't...]
'Thought so, but I think I already heard of this, no?'
'Hmh, anyway, I think I understand it. You don't need to worry.' Temorsth already placed the pieces together, so he already understood the situation even without the explanation.
[...]
"Baby!" Elah's scream sounded one more time, but this time it had a different tone.
'I think mom noticed me...' Temorsth raised his leg for a step.
'If I'm thinking correctly, I can use it like...' Temorsth used Shadow Step again, but this time he didn't step into the World of Shadows.
He simply stepped into a shadow.
'Yes! I understand how this ability works.' This time, he simply appeared a few steps away in the shadows of a tree.
"I'm coming!" With the words, Temorsth activated Shadow Step.
Since he couldn't travel as far as his father, he activated it again and again until he arrived outside the forest.
"Sorry, I think I used the ability wrong or something, so I arrived in the forest." Scratching the back of his head before his parents and Antanasia, Temorsth apologized for scaring them.
"Used it wrong?" Xalier told himself the words to calm his suspicious mind.
'I alone will be the ruler of the heaven and the earth...' Remembering the words and the dark tone it had, Xalier's eyes darkened.
'That voice... was that really my son?'
*AHAH* Hearing his father's words, an awkward laugh sounded from Temorsth.
"Sorry..."
"..."
'Right... I, too, and everyone said stupid things when they were kids...' Seeing Temorsth now, Xalier gave up on the useless thought.
In the first place.
It wasn't that he was suspicious of his son.
It was just that he was worried for his safety.
"But don't worry, Dad, I can do it now, look-look." With excitement in his voice, Temorsth used Shadow Step to arrive right in his father's shadow.
"See? And I can do it many times too..." He used his energy and took one more step, arriving at the shadow of a tree, and then another step.
"Ah... Son..."
"Yes?" While Temrosrsth was jumping from place to place, Xalier raised his hand with a slight worry.
"Using it so many times..."
"Uh..." As Temorsth arrived at his last destination and turned around to take one more step.
"I'm dizzy..." He raised his hand to his head.
"...times it will deplete all your..." As Temorsth started to fall, Xalier stopped and lowered his hand.
"Baby!" Seeing this, Elah reached for her falling son, but since she wasn't the closest one, it was not she who got him.
"Uh..." As Temorsth fell into her embrace, Antanasia shuddered from the stare she felt on her back.
"Oho, he is growing up so fast."
"...!" Elah's stare turned towards Xalier.
"You!"
"Uh... Me?"
While pointing at himself.
This time it was Xalier who shuddered.