The chaos was immediate. I lost track of Khagnio, Kostis, and everybody else instantly, almost like they disappeared from my plane of existence. Fuck. I couldn’t even hear anything because of that stupid monster’s stupid power—

  A large spiky claw tore through the darkness to slash at me. I threw myself backwards reflexively, trying to channel my mana into my Augmentations because that had been pure physical instinct. It was the reason my evasion wasn’t fully successful, the metal of my armour ripping apart as blood spurted out of my chest wound.

  I swallowed down my scream and got to my feet as fast as I could. Red warmth streamed down my chest and I felt my mana core stuttering. But first things first. I channelled Reflection via Illumination once again, turning my whole body into a glowing mirror.

  Just in time. The storm pressed in on me, but every single thread that tried to attack just got reflected instead. White-limned black spears shot out in every direction, and the monsters trying to swoop in on me just got pierced and stabbed instead for their efforts. My hearing was slowly returning, and the cries I heard were now shrieks of agony and regret, not battle cries.

  My hand automatically clutched my wound. The next worry was what in the world had happened to my core.

  That scratch from the monster hadn’t just torn open my armour and my ribcage. It had slashed my mana core as well, and now it too was wounded. It too was bleeding.

  Bleeding pure black.

  My panicked eyes followed the stream of dark energy erupting from my core, seeping through my fingers like water no matter how much I tried to close the wound. Unlike the Netherthreads that the Nether Vein’s storm was trying to attack me with, these ones remained unaffected by my Reflection, likely because they weren’t trying to hit me.

  They were coming from me instead, landing straight on the shadow that had accompanied me all this while.

  A shadow that was growing stronger and more corporeal every second.

  I could only stare at what was going on. It was probably a small blessing I could stare. Everything that was trying to attack me so far was just getting repelled one way or another. I should have felt powerful, like I would be able to make my way through the Nether Vein.

  All I felt just then was relief. Plus a whole lot of growing alarm and worry as I watched my shadow become more and more real. More and more me.

  From its figure, its build, its facial structure, everything about it was a dark mirror of myself. There was even a mana core forming right in the centre of its chest, right where I had mine lodged too.

  What in the world was that thing?

  The Councillor had mentioned something about dark echoes. I recalled everything I had seen and witnessed from the strange, menacing shadow. I remembered how every little memory on Ephemeroth I detested seemed to swirl in its depths.

  Even as I thought, I kept an eye out on my current state and that of my surroundings. While the dark storm’s reflected threads were keeping most of the monsters at bay, I still had to be wary. A few bullish claws bulldozed their way through the pain, forcing me to dodge—much easier now thanks to Reflexive Mana.

  I tried to see what had happened to the rest of my companions. Flashes of powers gleamed here and there.

  Several Se-Targa were trying to maintain some sort of formation while they fought together. The smell of smoke confirmed that Kostis was still out there, still alive and surviving and fighting in his own way.

  I was sure that I even heard Khagnio’s cursing and shrieking somewhere in the distance through the din. It was comforting in its own way. I was glad I could hear again.

  All of that was overshadowed by the Councillor’s battle against the strange white monster. I still couldn’t exactly see them, not fully. Just flashes of tremendous power. Moments where one forced the other to an instantaneous standstill. Impacts that made me feel like space itself was cracking apart.

  My companions were fighting. My compatriots were still alive, still kicking, still standing strong against whatever the Nether Vein threw at them.

  Which meant I had to do the same.

  When the next claw came, I bashed it aside with my mace. The force behind it made me stagger, but I ignored it and channelled Field Manipulation with Siphon, creating a wide field of repulsive force around me. There. That should keep the monsters at bay even more.

  It gave me a little room to focus on what I needed to do. The problem here was that my senses were dampened. My hearing and smell were suppressed, and my sight was almost next to nil. It was too dark. Too gloomy. Even with an Aspect that could create light, that could chew through the darkness given physical form, I still couldn’t see what was attacking me.

  The solution to that came to me in the next moment. Light wasn’t what I needed. Rather, I needed Illumination. I needed to be illuminated about everything that the darkness hid away.

  So, I forced out my Aspect’s light even further. With Manifestation coming on, I could create the golden glimmers far away from me, could make them appear within the storm of Netherthreads assaulting us. And all the while, in between dodging more monstrous attacks and keeping one eye on the thickening shadow, I emphasized that light wasn’t what I needed.

  I needed the truth.

  Wounded or not, my mana core had no trouble energizing itself to a greater state of potency. My chest buzzed with power like I was inserting an engine in place of my lungs.

  [ Affix Unlocked!

  You have acquired a new Affix for your Illumination Aspect.

  Affix: Highlight ]

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Illumination Aspect has risen by one Rank.

  Illumination: Silver II ]

  Colours burst to life an instant later. A rainbow of hues that let me see far beyond what I was expecting.

  I staggered, trying to absorb the new avalanche of visual information fast enough to not accidentally get myself killed. Staying within the bounds of Field Manipulation was definitely helping with that.

  Everything had taken on a very different cast compared to what my eyes were normally used to. The black strands were now a deep shade of navy blue. While that wasn’t a significant change compared to before in and of itself, the other important difference was that they were now more or less see-through.

  Because beyond them, I finally saw the monsters trying to attack us.

  I was right. They were more of the oversized insects that had been trying to kill us for a few days now. The Blight Swarm was indeed inside the Nether Vein, just like we had planned.

  In contrast to the “cold” Netherthreads, the bugs were livid “hot”. They glowed in shades of orange, red, and yellow, their outer edges dressed in the same deep blue as the darkness. That made sense, with how they were essentially integrated with the Netherthreads.

  I cursed them, then increased the effect of Field Manipulation. They really were struggling to reach me.

  Even better was the fact that I could see past them all at the actual battles my compatriots were embroiled in. Khagnio giving the monsters as good as he got. It got me wondering how he was doing so well. There was a strange protrusion coming off his back, like a flapping sail or—

  Were those wings?

  I couldn’t even begin to wonder about it. My brain formed the lousy connection that I had seen wings on Councillor Lassikhio, who was a Scalekin, so maybe wings were some sort of Racial Aspect for Scalekin?

  My sight was arrested farther up where Kostis had entrapped an enormous number of the bugs in a huge storm of smoke. At least, that was what I assumed my new Highlight Affix was showing me. A spinning cyclone of heat was drawing the monsters in towards it, even those that tried to escape, and while I didn’t see my master, there was really only one suspect.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Beyond Kostis and the trapped monsters, beyond us all in the Nether Vein, were the cold metallic walls. I was tempted to stare because the walls seemed to be dotted with stars. Except, instead of twinkling, the light within each of those distant blobs was spinning and swirling. Kostis had said something about the walls. About them being embedded…

  And then my eyes were finally drawn to the brightest thing in my vicinity. In normal sight, I probably would have outshone everything here thanks to Illumination.

  Right now, that crown belonged on the head of my ever-strengthening shadow.

  It was almost solid now. I could feel it somehow, even without needing to touch it.

  The artificial mana core at the centre of its chest glowed a molten white, like a little sun taking birth. It was so bright, I was almost forced to squint. I stared at it. Its surprising growth was alarming, but what had concerned me even further was the way it was interacting with the storm of darkness.

  I hadn’t noticed yet—maybe because my actual sight was a lot more limited in current circumstances compared to Highlight—but the threads were swirling around my shadow like it was their source. Not the Nether Vein.

  Unless my shadow was somehow a manifestation of it. I couldn’t even begin to investigate and decipher whatever strange magical complexities were at work.

  All I did was step forward. All I focused on was reaching the being with its glowing arms spread out wide, drawing in and expelling more and more Netherthreads with every passing heartbeat.

  “Enough,” I growled.

  I couldn’t tell if it heard. Didn’t care in the slightest whether it did or not. This thing, this monstrosity of Netherthreads that seemed to be amplifying the Nether Vein’s destruction around us, this was mine. I had borne it long enough. It was ending. Here and now.

  So I stepped closer to the shadow with its arms upraised. The world twisted as I neared the weird creation of me and the Nether Vein. Space warped, planes of gravity shifted, time seemed to speed up in areas while slowing to a crawl in other spots. All the wild sensations tried to distract me, but I forced my mind to focus. To draw on Sacrifice.

  It didn’t work.

  The white threads sparked to life, burned towards the shadow intensifying the storm of Netherthreads all around us, but failed to land. It was like my dark reflection wasn’t really there.

  I paused and took a deep breath. Besides me and the figure of swirling shadow, everything else appeared to be superimposed on a grainy film. Almost like I was slowly getting transported into whatever strange plane of existence my dark echo occupied.

  So then why couldn’t I affect it with Sacrifice yet?

  At least I didn’t even have to worry about the bugs above me anymore. That funnel of heat, the smoke used by my Opal-ranked master, had grown enough that it had started dragging in the monsters trying to attack me. I could put my entire focus on whatever messed-up activities my shadow was participating in.

  “If you’re not going to stop,” I said, raising my hand to reach for the shadow. “Then I’ll make you stop.”

  The dark echo looked at me. Not it. Everything it was made of. The memories of the day I had been pulled into Ephemeroth only to be immediately Sacrificed. The recollections of the times I had been scoffed at, dismissed, scorned, all because I was just another human from Ring Four. The day I had lost Escinca and irreparably traumatized Tural at the same time.

  All the failings I had grappled with since coming here. All the things I hadn’t still come to terms with.

  I had dealt with them in the same way I dealt with my literal transmigration into this new world. Something to just accept as a part of my new reality and forge onwards with the goals I set for myself. But not dealing with them was letting them fester. I had foisted the anger and rage of being dragged away from my old life onto an unattainable target I had no hopes of reaching.

  Doing the same to all the other negativity, swiping them under the rug like the dust I refused to let others see, was only giving this stupid, bastard shadow more and more ammunition.

  A dark echo. Something for me to deal with.

  A darkness, it seemed, that wasn’t that different from the threads around me. From the broken hopes and dreams of the monsters determined to find their long-lost source of happiness. From the grand glory that this Nether Vein had once been in my vision.

  My outstretched hand touched the creature swirling with the Nether Vein’s power. This being that was made of me, that was part and parcel of who I was, and using my inherent power to boot, this was something I had to end.

  Because now, I was pretty sure it was guzzling on my mana core’s unique property to claim tons upon tons of mana.

  The walls. Kostis had been fascinated by them too. Now, I knew why. The Nether Vein ran itself on mana cores. Those swirling threads of light were mana, trapped in cores that were somehow embedded into the walls of the Nether Vein.

  My theory felt crackpot to me too, especially since I hadn’t even observed the lights up close.

  It didn’t matter right then. All I was seeking was to stop this shadowy madness.

  “I told you to stop,” I said. All around me, the battles raged, the fighting went on, and here I stood, trying to get my own shadow to stop trying to kill us all. “Because I accept it. I do. All that you’re trying to show, all that I’m supposed to be. I shouldn’t need to distract myself from it. I shouldn’t have to focus away from any of it. They’re me. They’re all a part of me.”

  I closed my eyes as I concentrated. It felt like the only thing my hand touched was a breezy coolness, a chilling rush scraping over my skin where it met the shadowy figure.

  The only possible reason Sacrifice didn’t work was either because it didn’t belong to me or because it just wasn’t a tangible enough thing that could be Sacrificed. Sure, I had the Experientiality Affix, but that wasn’t really working here unfortunately. So, I decided to investigate the option I could actually do something about.

  I tried focusing on Gravity. That would me give an idea about the tangibility of—

  The Netherthreads came off the dark echo and latched onto me. I gasped. My body turned cold, my mind lost its train of thought. I couldn’t even move. What was it doing to me?

  Memories seemed to drain out of me. The sound of laughter was no longer something I could fathom, nor was the warmth of a hug. Every smile I had ever seen seemed to evaporate out of my mind. The rate at which I was being reduced to a wreck who kept seeing the Elder’s death, who was stuck in a constant time loop of getting summoned and getting shot in the head was alarming.

  I screamed, but I wasn’t sure anyone heard. I couldn’t pull free from it, couldn’t get back the memories that were mine and no one else’s.

  Couldn’t even make Gravity work on it because it was still too incorporeal despite that fact the threads had latched physically onto me. Too incorporeal. Too intangible. Too absent…

  I gasped. Present. I needed to make it present. I had to make it permanent.

  Because I understood one more thing. It was only after I had gained Manifestation that this shadow had started becoming truly real. It was only after my Path had begun to evolve that I had this annoying dark echo to contend with.

  So if it could feed on the power of my Path Evolution, if it could manifest with Manifestation, then it could become real, tangible, permanent with Permanence as well.

  Now more than ever was when I needed a miracle. Now more than ever, I needed to believe. I needed—

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Fervour and Thauma Attributes have risen by one Rank.

  Your Path of the Apostle has risen by one Rank.

  Fervour: Gold II

  Thauma: Silver I

  Path of the Apostle: Silver X ]

  [ Augmentation Unlocked!

  You have acquired a new Augmentation for your Thauma Attribute.

  Augmentation: Permanence ]

  There. Just what I needed. The connection went both ways now. It wasn’t just the dark threads that had latched on to me. For the first time, I was holding onto those cold, metallic strands of the Netherthreads.

  That finally stabilized the strange draining effect the threads were having on me. A crystal-clear memory burned in my head then. The first moment when I had met Tural. When I had told him that he was the same as me, in the sense that his new reality as a Scarthrall wasn’t in essence that different from my new reality as a denizen of Ephemeroth and Zairgon.

  Cracks burned through the solid, tangible dark echo.

  More memories flooded in. More recollections contrasting the ones the shadow was trying to attack me with.

  Now I saw Escinca again. Not his death. Not just the pain and failure his passing felt like it represented. But rather, everything his life had given me was what I felt just then. The home he had provided me, the acceptance he had shown, the constant, positive support he had backed me with.

  I couldn’t even begin to repay all that, especially now that he was gone. Instead, I was just paying it forward. I couldn’t be who he was, yet in my own ways, I was handling the cult, taking care of all its members, being there for them just as Escinca had been there for them. For me.

  A home for the homeless, a sanctum for the ardent, a place where almost anyone could find belonging.

  More cracks threaded through my shadow. The more corporeal it grew, the more it turned fractured and broken. It tried to fight back, tried to lash out with the Nether Vein’s storm. My Reflection Affix was there to safeguard me.

  When I channelled Sacrifice next, white threads burned through the air to connect with every crack, seeping into the shadow. I might have considered it strange that I could finally affect it with Sacrifice. But unlike before, it really was solid now. Existing tangibly. I suspected that if any of my companions were next to me, they’d have been able to see and interact with this dark echo of mine.

  It took only seconds before the whole shadow was covered in white. Moments later, my shadow dissolved into white sparks. My mana core started whirring into a storm as the Weave’s notices appeared.

  [ Sacrifice

  You have Sacrificed 1 [Major] Soulshard of an Ascendant’s Work [1] / 1 [Moderate] Heart Demon [2]. Windfall bonus activated.

  Reward [1]: Soulshard link with host established due to presence of the same Soulshard of current Ascendant’s Work. Ascendant Soulthread remains Unaffixed till Affixable Weave-property is obtained.

  Reward [2]: Second Mana Core manifestation has now been established. Core establishment rate increased by 2x. ]

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Sacrifice Aspect has risen by one Rank.

  Sacrifice: Gold II ]

  [ Path Evolution

  Your Path of Burning Starlight has finished evolving.

  New Path: Path of Starforged Firmament [Gold I] ]

  I should have felt empowered. Should have sunk into the triumph coursing through me as powerfully as the new burst of energy from my evolved Path. But the sensations dimmed as the black threads didn’t fully disappear.

  Beneath the writhing, constricting Netherthreads, mist-white bone formed, quickly overtaken by flesh grey as ash and skin paler than ice.

  The shadow that had been haunting me was becoming a person in truth, a tall and fanged figure.

  A familiar figure.