Into Her Darkness

Dawn.

The first silver rays broke across Ascendria's horizon, slicing through storm-clouds that hadn't been there the day before. The temperature dropped five degrees in the span of a heartbeat. Birds stopped singing. The very air seemed to tense.

Jace stood at the edge of the main platform outside the Skyspire Gate—a massive stone circle used only for high-level transfers. Behind him, the Academy loomed like a gilded cage. Before him, the world opened to a storm-gray sky.

And waiting at the center of the Gate was Selira Veyne.

She stood barefoot on the rune-etched stone, dressed not in armor or battle robes—but a flowing coat of raven-black silk that trailed like smoke behind her. A silver clasp at her neck bore the sigil of the Shadow Court: a blade coiled by a serpent, crowned by a broken sun.

She didn't move.

Didn't call out.

She was simply there—a presence too large for the space she occupied.

And behind her, shadows flickered in the gate's swirling portal. Something waited with her. Something that recognized the Codex in Jace's blood and hungered.

---

Jace clenched his fists.

The Codex had been vibrating in his veins since midnight. Now it buzzed like a second heartbeat. His skin shimmered faintly with moving sigils along his arms, across his collarbone.

He had made his decision.

But the moment he took his first step forward—

BOOM.

The tower behind him exploded.

---

A figure launched from the flames, hurtling toward him with blinding speed.

He barely had time to raise his arms before the impact slammed him off the platform.

They crashed into the upper terrace, tearing through marble and steel supports.

Jace rolled and came up bleeding, vision spinning. Across from him stood Callen Drake, face charred, armor cracked, but alive—and burning with energy he shouldn't have had.

Red lightning arced around his arms. His eyes glowed unnaturally.

> [System Alert: Unknown Enhancement Detected – Corrupted Catalyst Active]

Threat Rating: A-Class+ (Temporarily Boosted)

"You're not leaving!" Callen snarled, voice guttural and layered. "You think you can just walk out of here like a king?! You think you get to escape judgment?!"

Jace blinked. "You were in the med bay…"

"Until they upgraded me!" Callen roared. "You got the spotlight. I got the blade."

He charged.

Faster than he had any right to be.

Jace moved to counter, triggered Blood Fang Slash, but Callen ate the strike, charging through it like it was mist. His shoulder slammed into Jace's ribs, lifting him into the air, sending him crashing into a stone column.

Pain screamed through Jace's spine.

> [System Alert: Physical Integrity – 67%]

Callen stood over him now, lightning crackling down his arms. "They offered me Ascension, Thorn. All I had to do was bring back your corpse."

Jace spat blood. "Guess they didn't tell you the part where I don't die easy."

He triggered Strength Surge, pushing off the ground, landing a clean elbow to Callen's jaw. The noble staggered. Jace followed up with a roundhouse kick to the ribs, then spun and stabbed his elbow into Callen's back—

But again, he didn't fall.

The corruption was holding him up.

Suddenly—Callen twisted and stabbed a curved blade into Jace's side.

> [Critical Damage – Internal Bleed Detected]

[Codex Reaction: Trigger Threshold Met – Soul Weapon Manifestation Available]

Jace collapsed to one knee.

And then…

He heard it.

A voice from within.

> "You do not choose your weapon. Your will chooses you."

A burning light erupted from his back.

Sigils exploded across his skin. A wave of black flame consumed the entire platform, forcing Callen back. The blade in his hand melted.

Jace stood.

His eyes blazed violet-red.

And in his right hand formed a weapon unlike anything seen at Ascendria in a generation:

A living glaive, forged of bone, shadow, and crimson metal. Veins of runes ran up its blade, pulsing with Codex energy. Its hilt curled around his palm like a creature holding him.

> [Soul Weapon Unlocked – Form 1: Revenant Glaive]

– Type: Adaptive Weapon-Class

– Abilities: Shadow Hook, Blood Echo Slash, Condensed Sweep

– Trait: Weapon evolves with Codex Integration

Jace exhaled.

And stepped forward.

Callen screamed, charging one final time.

Jace vanished.

Reappeared behind him.

The glaive struck once.

And Callen dropped—alive, but unconscious, all his enhancements burned away.

> [Victory – Threat Neutralized]

Codex Sync: 21% → 24%

Soul Weapon Stability: 92%

Jace stood over him, bleeding but unbroken.

And from above—

Selira watched with narrowed eyes.

Then she turned to the portal.

And walked through it.

---

Jace didn't hesitate.

He grabbed his glaive, nodded once toward Violet—who had just arrived in time to see Callen fall—and stepped into the swirling shadows behind Selira.

The portal closed.

And Ascendria trembled in his wake.

"The Court That Devours the Sky"

The moment Jace stepped through the portal, the world changed.

Colors bled away. Light bent unnaturally. Time itself stuttered for a breath. When his boots hit solid ground again, he wasn't in Ascendria anymore.

He was in a land that hadn't seen sunlight in centuries.

A vast valley stretched before him, rimmed by towering peaks carved into the shapes of fanged skulls and clawed hands. Rivers of red mist flowed through the canyons like veins. Above, the sky was a fractured mirror of black and violet, filled with drifting shards of starlight that pulsed like heartbeats.

This was the Cradle of the Shadow Court.

A place that had been sealed away from the known world. Hidden. Forgotten. Feared.

Selira waited ahead, her bare feet hovering inches above the stone path that cut through a field of bonegrass.

Jace took a breath—cool, metallic. His Codex hummed louder here. No longer restrained. No longer suppressed by Ascendria's suppressive fields.

It was awake.

Fully.

> [Codex State: Free-Realm Access Detected]

System Synchronization Accelerated – Integration Flow Unlocked

Next Milestone: 30% – Soul Armor Potential Available

Warning: Shadow Court trial incoming. Refusal is not permitted.

He caught up to Selira in silence, but she didn't speak until they reached a wide blackstone bridge leading into a massive gate carved from dragonbone.

"Welcome," she said finally, "to the place where kings and monsters are the same thing."

Jace glanced at the walls rising around them—statues of long-dead beings lined the ramparts: humanoids with wings, fangs, horns, and halos shattered at the crown. All of them bore Codex marks etched into their chests.

"This is where the original Codex was created?" he asked.

"No," Selira said, stopping before the gate. "This is where it was buried."

She raised a hand.

The bone gate groaned open, shadows pulling back like curtains of liquid night.

And what lay beyond… was not what he expected.

A city.

Alive.

Thousands of beings—humans, hybrids, monsters cloaked in flesh—moved through the streets. Floating towers drifted above glowing plazas, tethered by chains of bloodlight. Market stalls brimmed with relics, artifacts, even weapons that hissed at him as he passed.

No guards.

No surveillance.

And yet… order.

Every citizen turned slightly as he passed.

Not hostile.

Appraising.

Selira led him to a temple at the city's heart—an obsidian monolith with a single entrance shaped like an open mouth.

Two figures stood before it.

Twins.

Pale-skinned, eyes like inverted stars, armored in flowing red cloaks made of stitched memories—literal strips of memory crystal engraved with ancient scenes.

"The Witnesses," Selira whispered. "They decide whether you're worthy of training here."

"Wait—you don't?"

She smirked. "Not even I get to bypass them."

One of the twins stepped forward. His voice echoed in Jace's bones.

"You carry the Codex."

The other continued without pause. "But you do not understand it."

The first extended a hand.

"Then kneel. Let it judge you."

Jace hesitated.

And then… dropped to one knee.

The world snapped.

---

He fell—not through air, but through time.

Memories that weren't his slammed into him like blades. Wars fought beneath twin moons. Betrayals inked in blood. Gods devoured by their own champions. A boy—another version of himself—screaming as fire consumed his city.

A thousand deaths.

A million screams.

And through it all… the Codex pulsed.

Watching.

Learning.

Forging.

Then—calm.

Jace stood in a void, chest heaving, soaked in sweat that evaporated into the air.

Before him hovered a new screen.

> [Codex Acceptance: Confirmed]

Trial Passed. Training Authorized.

Codex Integration: 24% → 27%

Next Unlock: Soul Armor Core Blueprint Acquired – Locked Until 30%

Gift Received: Shadowblood Seed (Passive)

– Enhances absorption from darkness, shadow-element crystals, and void-attuned bloodlines

– Required for future Vampire System fusion

Jace dropped to his knees.

Selira caught him as he stumbled back into reality.

"You did well," she whispered. "The Witnesses never allow second chances."

He looked up, chest still burning.

"And now?" he asked.

Selira's smile returned.

"Now, we teach you how to wield darkness as a weapon."

---

Meanwhile…

Back at Ascendria, Violet knelt inside the inner sanctum of the Covenant, surrounded by masked elders.

The head elder's voice echoed coldly.

"You allowed the hybrid to leave with the heiress."

"I didn't stop him," Violet replied.

"You encouraged him."

Silence.

Then the final blow.

"Your mission is terminated. You are no longer bound by the Covenant."

Violet didn't flinch. "Good."

She stood.

"I never served you. I served him."

And walked out, leaving the seals behind her shattered.

"Trial by Shadow"

They didn't ease him into training.

Not with speeches.

Not with hand-holding.

Not even with time to recover.

The moment Jace stepped into the inner sanctum of the Shadow Court's training grounds—a cavernous arena carved from obsidian and rib-bone—Selira tossed him a dagger.

And then tried to kill him.

---

CLANG.

Jace barely parried, sparks bursting as Selira's shadow-wrapped sword struck his glaive at a savage angle. Her movements were a blur—silent, exact, predatory. Not once since they started had she used her full strength.

Because she didn't need to.

"You're hesitating again," she called, voice cool. "Do you think your opponents will let you breathe?"

Jace ducked, rolled, came up swinging—only for his blade to meet empty air.

Selira was already behind him.

"You rely on your instincts too much."

She swept his legs.

He fell, breath stolen from his lungs.

Selira stood over him, her sword pressed to his throat—not cutting, but reminding.

"Power without discipline is just noise."

Jace growled and surged upward, pushing her back with a burst of Shadow Hook, yanking her blade off-line with tendrils that lashed from the glaive. She slid back two meters, heels dragging across the arena floor.

Her smile twitched. "Better."

> [Codex Update – Combat Memory Stored]

Technique Logged: Shadow Retaliation Counter]

Codex Integration: 27% → 28%

He stumbled, panting.

"Again," she said.

"Seriously?" he wheezed.

Selira just raised her blade.

---

Elsewhere in the Court…

The Council of Shades convened.

Twelve figures, cloaked in glass-threaded shadow, seated around a floating altar of black flame.

"His integration is proceeding too quickly."

"He may breach the 30% threshold within the month."

"Selira pushes him too hard."

"She knows what he is."

"And if he becomes what the last bearer did?"

"Then he must be tested."

A ripple passed through the chamber as a new presence emerged—older than the rest.

A woman with silver bones and hair made of woven shadow.

"Then send Varik."

---

Later that night, after Jace had collapsed into a healing pod inside his Court quarters, the Codex stirred on its own.

> [System Prompt: Soul Armor Path Available]

Blueprint Unlocked: Phase I – Shadowblood Carapace

– Soul Armor Type: Hybrid Vampiric | Adaptive Regeneration | Essence Leech

– Condition to Manifest: Survival against a superior Codex bearer

Opponent Assigned: Varik, Ranked Guardian of the Second Circle

Time Limit: 3 Days

Jace sat up in the pod, chest still sore from the third fractured rib.

"Let me guess," he muttered. "No one's ever beaten this guy before?"

Selira, sitting nearby, looked up from her blade maintenance.

"No," she said. "But then again… no one like you has tried."

---

Meanwhile…

In a quiet grove of ruined thorns at the edge of Ascendria, Violet sat beneath the moonlight, alone.

Her Covenant seal was gone. Her records had been erased. She was nothing now.

Except one thing.

Jace's bondmate.

And she could still feel him.

Even from a world away.

Her fingers curled around her sword's hilt as the wind shifted—carrying whispers of something rising.

Something calling.

And with it… a need.

A pull.

Toward him.