The ruins still smoldered. The air was thick with cinders, silence, and awe.
Lidow sat in the ashes of what once was his home. His hands still glowed faintly, raw with power. The same power that had incinerated the assassins. That had scared him.
Shadow stood beside him, arms crossed, cloak flickering with shadows that refused to obey gravity.
"You saw what you could do," Shadow said flatly. "But you don't understand it. Not yet."
Lidow looked up, unsure. "Was it me? Or was it them?"
Shadow's eyes narrowed. "It was both. But if you want to survive what comes next… you need to see what it means to carry both the light—and the abyss."
Without waiting, Shadow stepped forward. He raised his hand to the sky.
A thunderclap split the clouds. Black lightning coiled around his arm. The ground trembled.
"Watch."
From nothing, the sky opened—ripped in half. Through it descended a massive beast, conjured by ancient magic. A titan from the old wars. Twisted. Hungry. Ten stories tall, wreathed in fire and bone.
Lidow stumbled back. "What is that?!"
"A memory," Shadow replied. "An echo of the wars I survived. Of what hunted me."
The beast roared, shaking the land. Then it lunged.
Shadow didn't move.
Instead, his aura ignited—pure shadow erupting like a black sun. Wings made of flame and void unfurled from his back. Horns emerged, eyes burned white, and his voice deepened—layered with ancient echoes.
"I am the end of kings," he whispered.
He vanished.
In an instant, he was on the beast's head—driving his arm straight through its skull. The titan howled. Then exploded.
Black and gold fire washed over the valley. Mountains shook. Trees were torn from the earth. Lidow had to shield his face.
When the smoke cleared, Shadow stood alone.
Not a scratch.
His eyes turned to his son.
"This is the power you carry," he said. "But power means nothing if you fear it."
Lidow stared, silent. Something inside him stirred—not fear, but fire. Resolve. And a question.
"Will I ever be able to do that?"
Shadow walked past him, resting a hand on his shoulder.
"You'll be greater."
The sky had never been quiet in this part of the underrealm.
But today, there was no thunder. No storms. Only the calm hum of flame and stone, as father and son stood on the edge of the obsidian cliffs.
Lidow's fists were clenched, sweat on his brow, breath ragged. Across from him stood Shadow, unmoving as a mountain.
"You hesitate," Shadow said, voice low. "Again."
Lidow lunged, his blade trailing golden light. With a sharp twist, he brought down a strike full of anger, light, and confusion.
Shadow raised a single hand.
The blade stopped mid-air, frozen in black flame.
"You fight with fear. That's not power. That's desperation."
Lidow jumped back, teeth gritted. "I'm trying! I— I don't want to be like you!"
That silence. Cold.
Then Shadow stepped forward.
"You won't be like me." His voice cracked slightly. "You'll be… better. That's the point."
The black flames around Shadow's arm vanished. He lowered his guard. And slowly, his gaze softened – just enough for Lidow to see something human behind the godlike mask.
Shadow knelt.
"Do you know why I brought you here?"
"To train me," Lidow said, still catching his breath.
"No," Shadow replied. "To protect you from what's coming."
He tapped Lidow's chest with two fingers.
"You carry both light and shadow. That makes you stronger than any pure being. But it also makes you a target—for both sides."
Lidow's voice dropped. "You think they'll come for me."
"I don't think," Shadow said. "I know."
A long pause.
Then: "That's why I need you to choose. Not sides. Not war. But what you stand for."
Lidow stared at the black blade embedded in the earth beside him—his own. Gifted by Valarie. Its hilt shimmered in faint white.
He nodded. "Then teach me."
Shadow smiled. Not wide. But real.
"Then we begin tomorrow," he said. "And when they come for you…"
He turned, eyes glowing like twin void-stars.
"They'll remember why they feared me."