The moment my foot settled fully onto the fractured stone, the three shadows reacted.
Their forms shifted. Until now, they had stood empty-handed, featureless silhouettes born from darkness alone. But now, something new emerged from within them. Their arms moved slowly, and from their grasp, darkness condensed and hardened, shaping itself into weapons.
Staffs.
Not blades like the ones Theras had faced. Staffs identical in form to my own.
I froze for a fraction of a second, staring at them. The staffs were long, straight, perfectly balanced, their surfaces smooth and unbroken. They did not carry aura. They did not emit Essence. Yet their presence alone was enough to unsettle me.
This was not an imitation but a complete replication of my staff. Before I could process further, all three shadows vanished.
They did not accelerate.
They simply disappeared and reappeared around me, their teleportation clean and absolute, without distortion or transitional movement. One appeared above me, its staff already descending toward my skull. Another materialized to my left, its weapon sweeping horizontally toward my ribs. The third formed behind me, driving its staff downward toward my spine.
Their attacks were perfectly synchronized.
My body reacted instantly.
I threw three punches in a single motion, my fists driving outward in different directions with enough force to collapse even entire moons. The strikes landed before their staffs could reach me, connecting with their bodies directly.
The impact released a violent shockwave. The shadows were pushed back.
But only by a meter.
My eyes narrowed.
That should not have been possible. They had absorbed the force.
I saw it happen.
The energy from my strikes did not disperse into the environment. It did not fracture their forms. It did not destabilize their structure. Instead, it flowed into them, pulled inward as though consumed.
And then I saw it gather. Their staffs darkened. The surface of each weapon grew denser, heavier, as the absorbed force condensed within them.
Before I could react, something else happened. Essence churned within their bodies. My perception sharpened instantly. There was no Essence in this place. I had confirmed it repeatedly. This entire city existed in absolute absence.
I focused harder, isolating the sensation. The Essence was not leaking into them from the surroundings. It was forming at their core, emerging from a central point within their existence and spreading outward through structured pathways.
Exactly like mine. For a brief moment, I stopped seeing enemies.
I saw reflections. Their internal structure mirrored the function of my Generator Core. Essence formed where none existed, shaped by something intrinsic rather than external supply. This was not absorption. It was creation.
Which meant one thing.
They were not constructs built from borrowed power. They were hosts.
The realization sent a quiet unease through me. This place had no Essence, no System anchors, no environmental support for existence as I understood it. And yet these entities stood before me, generating their own power, sustaining themselves through internal authority alone.
Just like me.
My gaze hardened. This was no coincidence. This place was not merely reacting to my presence. It was answering it.
Their staffs ignited. Essence flowed along their length, coating the weapons in dense, controlled patterns. The three shadows raised their staffs together, their movements synchronized perfectly.
Then they struck forward. Their attacks did not release separate blasts. They merged. The Essence from all three condensed into a single point before erupting outward in a unified strike, a concentrated wave of pure destructive force that tore through space as it rushed toward me.
I activated Chrono-Severance Step.
Time froze.
The wave of Essence stopped mid-motion, suspended in space like a frozen storm. The shadows remained locked in their attack posture, their forms held in perfect stillness.
Within that halted moment, I moved.
Space folded beneath my will, carrying me forward instantly. I appeared directly in front of one of the shadows, so close that my hand could reach its face without effort. I sealed space around us. The area locked completely, isolating us from everything beyond its boundary.
The shadow could not move. I raised my hand and tapped its forehead.
Space rippled. Fractures spread across its form instantly, thin cracks forming along its surface as its structure began to collapse. The fractures multiplied, splitting its body into countless fragments.
The shadow shattered. Its form dissolved completely. But something remained.
A blue glow emerged where it had stood.
A transparent figure.
An old man.
His form was faint, fragile, yet unmistakably human. His face was lined with deep wrinkles, his beard long and unkempt, his posture slightly hunched. His eyes moved slowly, filled with confusion as he looked around, trying to understand where he was. Then slowly recognition settled into his expression.
He bowed with gratitude in his yes. His lips moved, though no sound reached me. And then he dissolved. His soul dispersed into countless particles of light. Behind me, the frozen attack from the remaining shadows collided against the locked space boundary, their Essence crashing against the barrier but unable to penetrate it.
Time resumed.
I stood there, unmoving.
Human.
It had been human. Not a construct. A soul. My mind raced through the implications. These shadows were not empty. They were vessels.
Prisons.
I turned slowly.
The remaining two shadows stood before me.
My aura erupted.
Essence surged outward from my body in a violent wave, tearing through the surrounding environment. The ground beneath me collapsed into a crater, stone fracturing and disintegrating under the pressure. Buildings near the central district shattered instantly, their weakened structures unable to withstand the force.
I raised my hand. The shadows froze. Then they exploded. Their bodies fragmented into countless pieces, disintegrating under the force of my will.
Two more souls emerged.
Both human.
Both old.
Their clothes ancient, worn by time beyond recognition. Their backs bent from age, their eyes filled with relief as they looked upon me.
They bowed. Deeply. Then they dissolved. Their soul energy flowed into me. I stood there in silence, staring at the space where they had vanished. My body trembled suddenly.
I froze.
My perception turned inward instantly, scanning my internal state. My soul had changed. It had not grown larger. It had grown denser. The energy from the freed souls had infused into it, compressing its structure, strengthening its foundation. My existence felt heavier, more defined, more real.
I lifted my head slowly and stared forward.
Whatever this place was—
It was not a battlefield. It was something far more important.
And I intended to uncover its truth.