After consuming the elves, Aren turned around and started walking. Aiden watched him walk past him. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. "I could have handled it," he muttered.

"Yeah, but we don’t have the time to delay," Aren said and walked past. Aiden looked at him go. He gritted his teeth, lowered his head, and kept walking.

The group left the town soon after and vanished, leaving behind all the destruction that they had come with. When they got outside the town, the plan was to keep moving, but much to their dismay, the skies were turning black and night was coming.

"It’s best that we leave the navigating for tomorrow," Lucy suggested. The winds were biting cold, the skies were filled with small lights that looked like stars, and the distant sounds of monsters could be heard.

"Lucy is right, we all need some rest," Aren said. He turned away from the group. "We also do not know what is lying out there."

He walked off without saying anything else. The group left him alone as they made their fire. They felt something was off with Aren, so they decided to give him his time alone.

Aren found a rock a small distance away. He sat down on it and looked into the darkness. Something had happened when he had almost passed out. Every bad dream that he had had before entering the domain suddenly came rushing back to him. He had not had those dreams in many months, and suddenly they came back, but that was not all.

He had seen new things, something that caused his stomach to churn and fear to grip him. He saw the depiction of a massive warrior that encompassed the entire universe, with all the stars and galaxies in his core. This massive being seemed untouchable until one day he was suddenly killed.

Aren could not tell how exactly it happened, but he watched it happen and then he felt a weight press on him. He felt like something had gone wrong, and he didn’t know why, but now he felt the drive to keep moving and move fast.

"What’s going on with me?" he muttered, looking at his palms. They had changed. They were hard from gripping the blade too much. They were stained with so much blood, and yet he felt very little about it.

"Feeling down?"

Aren heard a voice, one he was not expecting. It was the voice of the One Before. Aren looked up immediately, and suddenly he was no longer on the rock but rather standing before the One Before in the Shadow Mind.

"It’s been a while, Aren," the One Before said.

"Yeah."

"I’m sure you are wondering why I suddenly snatched you here," the One Before said and then summoned a chair. He sat down and looked at Aren. "I believe the time is right now that you are a Shadow King."

"Up until now, you have been making use of Nameless Shadow and wielding the power of shadow at a very rudimentary level. I could not tell you all that you needed to know," he said. He looked at Aren, knowing that Aren had a lot of questions to ask. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Why could you not tell me?" Aren asked first.

"Because any state under the level of Shadow King cannot handle the truth, and up until you, there have been many who have failed to reach this level. I began to feel that it is not even possible."

"What do you mean by many have failed? Have there been other people with the power of shadow?" Aren asked.

"Oh no, no. All those were still versions of you, of us, reincarnated and reborn through hundreds and thousands of lives in an effort for even one to reach the level of Shadow King."

"You may not understand it, but shadow is a power that erodes the body and mind of whoever it takes control of. It demands constant consumption to make it through. Those before that had shadow either had weak bodies that could not take the weight of shadow, some did not have the guts enough to consume, and some simply failed to harness this power.

"Our soul has gone through time, seeking the right moment, right combination, and right setting to grow. And even when they managed to survive, they were hunted as anomalies before they could even fully bud.

"You are the first in over hundreds of years to actually use the power of shadow properly and rise to the level of Shadow King."

"So you mean I have lived for so long? Why?" Aren asked.

"No, I have lived for so long. You are another version of my soul," he said in a way that made his voice sound a bit pissed. "And the reason is simple. Shadow cannot be killed. Shadow is the very essence of all things, like chaos and like light.

"IT CANNOT DIE!"

He rose to his feet as he spoke and began walking toward Aren.

"You have managed, in your own way, to ensure the continuity of shadow, and because of that, I shall show you the truth of who we are and what your purpose is, why all those dreams led you to the domain, and why you are considered an anomaly.

He spread his hands apart. "You believe that you have seen a lot. Now you shall know more and finally become someone that can stand for the power of shadow."

Aren looked at him, and for some reason he felt something was very wrong. The way the One Before spoke rubbed him the wrong way. It made him feel like he was some sort of puppet that was set to be used. That alone had caused a bad taste in his mouth. But regardless of all that, he wanted to know what he had to say, what he had to show.

"Fine, show me the truth and the reality you want me to see."