"How are you able to fly?" Sylvia shouted, her eyes shut tight as she held onto him.
Daniel adjusted his movement mid-air, his footing shifting as if he were stepping across invisible platforms.
"I'm not flying," he said, his tone steady despite the speed. "I'm just covering distance. Flying is different."
Ahead of them, the Shadow King moved fast, leaping from one structure to another with unnatural agility. His body didn't follow normal motion, clinging to walls and shifting direction mid-movement like something that didn't obey weight or balance.
Behind him,
The shadows reacted.
Spikes erupted from the surfaces around him, sharp, dark projections shooting outward in rapid succession, aiming to pin him in place.
The Shadow King noticed instantly.
His body twisted, movements becoming erratic and animal-like as he dropped low and shifted sideways, clinging to the side of a building while avoiding the spikes. His limbs bent at unnatural angles, his form distorting just enough to slip through narrow gaps.
Daniel watched it for a second.
"Alright…" he said quietly.
His focus shifted to his hand.
The clock within the mark began to move faster, the needle rotating with controlled acceleration as if adjusting something precise rather than random.
Then he moved.
The distance between them collapsed instantly; one moment he was behind, the next he stood directly in front of the Shadow King, the sudden shift catching him off guard—he froze for a fraction of a second, and that was enough.
Daniel's leg came up and drove forward, the kick landing clean against his face with full force.
The impact was direct.
The Shadow King lost contact with the wall and was hurled off the building, crashing toward the street below. Daniel paused briefly to watch, then dropped after him, landing with controlled precision as chaos had already taken hold around him.
Cars were crashing into each other, some still skidding—SCREEECH—!—before slamming into barriers or flipping sideways. People were running in all directions, shouting, pushing past one another in panic, trying to escape whatever had just appeared.
At the center of it,
The Shadow King had changed.
His body twisted and expanded into something grotesque, growing into a five-meter-tall giant with swollen, unnatural muscles.
His form no longer resembled anything human, his surface shifting with dark, crawling shadows that pulsed like something alive. He moved without restraint, smashing everything in reach as if the street itself was nothing more than an obstacle.
A swing of his arm sent a car flying.
CRASH—!
Metal bent and shattered as it slammed into another vehicle.
"Ummm… Sylvia," Daniel said, his tone steady despite everything around them. "Fair warning—don't open your eyes. There's something seriously unhealthy for your vision standing in front of us."
She didn't listen.
She opened her eyes.
And saw it.
The creature turned toward them, its massive frame shifting as its distorted face locked onto their position. It let out a deep, guttural roar that shook the air around them.
Sylvia froze.
Her eyes widened, all color draining from her face in an instant as the reality of what she was seeing hit her all at once.
Then she screamed.
"AHHHHHHH—!"
The sound cut through the chaos.
Daniel winced slightly, the volume hitting harder than expected.
Before he could say anything, she grabbed onto him, her hands clutching his neck tightly as she buried her face into his shoulder, refusing to look again.
Daniel adjusted his stance automatically, supporting her weight without losing balance.
"Yeah… that's why I said not to look," Daniel muttered, adjusting his stance to keep Sylvia steady as she clung to him.
The Shadow King moved.
For something that size, he was fast.
His massive frame shifted with unnatural speed as he bent down, grabbing two wrecked cars from the street. Metal groaned under his grip as he lifted them overhead, his distorted face twisting into something that almost resembled a smile.
Then he hurled them, both cars tearing through the air toward Daniel—but Daniel didn't step back, and the scythe moved.
A single, clean swing.
The first car split apart mid-air, metal breaking into fragments that scattered across the street.
The second followed instantly.
CLANG—! CRASH—!
Shards of steel rained down around him.
"Die!" the Shadow King roared.
He brought his foot down hard.
The ground shattered, and in the same motion, dark spikes erupted upward, spreading outward in a violent pattern meant to trap and impale everything in range.
Daniel moved before they fully formed.
"Yeah… die," he said, his tone flat.
The mark on his hand shifted, and in the next instant he disappeared. The spikes finished rising—but he wasn't there.
He reappeared behind the Shadow King, the scythe already in motion. A single swing, precise and controlled, cut through the moment—then everything went still.
The Shadow King's body froze mid-motion, his massive form locked in place as if time itself had paused around him.
A dark line cut through his body, energy splitting him from within as the giant frame destabilized, the shadows holding him together collapsing until his form began to disintegrate—not into pieces, but into nothing.
Daniel stepped back, watching without emotion, then raised his hand.
"Harvest."
The effect triggered instantly, pulling what remained of the Shadow King's essence inward as it twisted, compressed, and vanished into him, leaving only the broken street behind.
*****
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