Now it was time to take.
Dver stepped from the branch and let himself fall. He dropped through the rain and landed behind the two Enforcers without a sound, the mud shifting beneath his feet before settling again. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then the air changed—not colder, but heavier, as if something unseen had begun to press inward. "Proceed," the Void God murmured.
Dver raised his hands. The lantern light warped, and the shadows beneath the Enforcers' feet thickened, stretching unnaturally before peeling away from the ground like something alive. The first Enforcer turned too late. Darkness wrapped around his legs and surged upward. His body jerked, but there was no wound—his flesh tightened, then collapsed inward as though something beneath it had been removed. His mouth opened, but no sound came. In the next instant, he folded into himself—bones, flesh, and Qi compressing into a single point before vanishing into Dver's palm.
The second reacted faster, his Qi erupting outward in a panicked surge. Dver watched. The shadows met the Qi and slowed. Resistance. Dver adjusted. His fingers shifted slightly, and the shadows tightened. The resistance broke. The man screamed as his chest caved inward, his spine arching violently before his entire form compressed and disappeared, drawn into the same point. Dver inhaled and paused, measuring the intake. Impure. Fragmented. Poor circulation. He discarded nearly half.
The scarred leader turned. At first, he saw nothing. Then he saw Dver. Recognition struck, followed by instinct. "You—" His aura detonated. Crimson Qi burst outward, vaporizing rain and cracking the ground beneath him, the pressure violent enough to tear a mortal apart. Dver did not move. He observed. Stable output. Inefficient control. Over-reliance on force. Inferior.
The shadows spread again. This time, they did not rush—they crept. The Enforcer stepped back, blade raised. "What are you?" he demanded, but the question had already lost its force. Dver stepped forward, calm and unhurried. "You failed your task. They were meant to be taken alive." The Enforcer roared and lunged. The blade struck, passing through Dver's shoulder—then stopped. The shadow there thickened, catching the weapon without resistance, absorbing the force as if it had never existed.
The Enforcer froze. Dver glanced at the blade lodged in darkness, then back at him. "A crude method." The shadows moved. They climbed the Enforcer's legs slowly, not consuming—testing. The man slashed wildly, cutting into his own limbs as panic overtook him, but the darkness had already seeped deeper. Dver observed without interruption. Entry point confirmed. No external damage required.
He raised a hand. Inside the Enforcer's body, something tightened. The man dropped to one knee with a broken gasp. His veins bulged and twisted, shifting visibly beneath his skin. "What… did you—" Dver closed his fingers slightly. The scream that followed was no longer just pain—it was loss. The shadows had reached his meridians. They pulled, not all at once, but piece by piece. Thin strands of Qi were drawn out first, unraveling slowly from his core. The Enforcer clawed at his chest, nails tearing through flesh as if he could hold himself together.
"I'll serve you!" he shouted, voice breaking. "I'll give you everything—my techniques, my—"
Dver did not respond. He increased the pull. The dantian began to collapse—not shattered, but emptied. The Enforcer convulsed as decades of cultivation were stripped from him and drawn out like threads from rotting cloth. Dver absorbed it, compressing the flow as it entered him. Denser. Better. Still insufficient.
"Go deeper," the Void God said softly.
Dver obeyed. The shadows sank further—beyond Qi, beyond flesh—into the root. The Enforcer froze. For a moment, there was silence. Then the scream returned, higher, thinner, no longer entirely human. His body began to lose coherence. His limbs trembled as if they no longer belonged to him. His skin dulled, then cracked—not from injury, but from absence.
Dver watched carefully. This was the threshold.
When he tightened his hand again, the man did not fall—he unraveled. From the inside out, his existence collapsed. Flesh broke into fine black fragments that never reached the ground, dispersing into nothing before the rain could touch them. The scream cut off. Nothing remained.
Dver lowered his hand. The rain continued to fall.
He stood alone in the clearing and assessed the result. Higher intake tolerance. Improved structural stability. Reduced waste.
Acceptable.
He turned. There was nothing left to take.