Chapter 29 – The Path of No Return

  The ruins trembled. The ground beneath Akari's feet cracked, veins of darkness slithering outward like an infection.

  The Arbiter remained motionless, watching her with a quiet intensity.

  > Now, we see how far you can truly go.

  Their words still echoed in her mind.

  Tsubaki, her nine-tailed fox, stood beside her, its spectral flames flickering uncertainly. The battle had ended. She had won.

  But the air felt wrong.

  A slow, rhythmic sound cut through the silence. Drip. Drip. Drip.

  Akari’s fingers tightened around her blade. She turned toward the source.

  A pool of ink-like liquid had formed where the last beast had fallen. At first, it was still. But then—

  A hand emerged.

  Thin. Twisted. Too long. Its fingers bent at unnatural angles as it clawed its way out.

  Akari took a step back.

  The creature crawled upward, its body pulling itself from the abyssal sludge. No eyes. No mouth. Just an endless void where its face should be. Its skin was stretched thin over its jagged bones, its movements a grotesque mimicry of life.

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  > A Shadeborn.

  A name surfaced in her mind, though she had never seen such a thing before.

  But she knew.

  This was something beyond the system’s design.

  The Arbiter smiled.

  “You should run,” they said.

  The Chase Begins

  The Shadeborn moved.

  One second, it was there—

  The next, it wasn’t.

  Akari’s instincts screamed at her. She dodged just in time as its claws sliced through the air where her head had been. The wind pressure alone sent a sharp pain through her cheek.

  Fast. Too fast.

  Tsubaki snarled, leaping forward with a burst of fire, but the Shadeborn blinked out of existence again.

  Akari twisted, searching—

  There.

  Behind her.

  Too late.

  The Shadeborn’s hand pierced through her chest.

  Cold.

  That was all she felt. A numbing coldness spreading outward from the wound.

  But there was no pain. No blood.

  She looked down, expecting to see her body impaled—

  But her form was fading.

  Like smoke unraveling in the wind.

  > LOG-OUT FUNCTION DISABLED.

  ERROR: CONNECTION TO THE REAL WORLD LOST.

  Her heart stopped.

  “Wha—?” Her voice distorted, as if it didn’t belong to her.

  The Shadeborn’s fingers curled inside her chest, gripping something that wasn’t physical.

  Akari’s soul.

  It was tearing her apart.

  The Choice

  Panic surged through her.

  No. No, no, no. She wouldn’t die here.

  Not like this.

  Her body reacted before her mind caught up.

  Burn it.

  Flames erupted from within her. Not Tsubaki’s fire—her own. A deep crimson blaze surged from the core of her being, engulfing the Shadeborn’s hand.

  The creature screeched, recoiling as blackened mist poured from its wounds.

  Akari staggered back, gasping. Her vision flickered. The world blurred.

  She was falling.

  No ground. No sky. Just endless nothingness.

  And then—

  A voice.

  Not the Arbiter. Not the Shadeborn.

  Something older. Deeper.

  > "Will you surrender… or will you claim what is yours?"

  Akari’s mind reeled.

  The weight of the question crushed her.

  Surrender?

  No.

  She had nothing in the real world. No home. No family.

  This world was hers.

  And she refused to be its victim.

  She reached out—

  And something answered.

  Power.

  It rushed into her.

  The darkness that had nearly consumed her was now bending, twisting, obeying.

  The Shadeborn lurched forward, but this time—

  Akari didn’t run.

  She commanded.

  The very shadows that had tried to devour her coiled around her hands, forming into twin blackened blades.

  The Arbiter’s voice whispered on the edge of her hearing.

  “Ah. Now this… is truly interesting.”

  And as the next battle began, Akari smi

  led.

  She would never be a victim again.