Velarion stood up, shook himself off, and said, "You still have some time left. Go explore, then just pull on the tether, and you’ll return to your body."

  I got that teach by doing was the modus operandi of my so called guardian, but this is different. There was bigger risk here. I could get corrupted if I wasn’t careful.

  The stag must have sensed my unease because he let out a sharp snort. "It’s only an hour or so. You’ll feel the urge to return long before the astral affects you."

  Reassuring, but still.

  Since he seemed to be in a sharing mood, I seized the opportunity to ask the question that had been nagging me. "So the reality barrier prevents me from returning to my body when I’m in an unanchored world?"

  Velarion sighed, a deep, exaggerated thing. I was starting to think it was just for show, he enjoyed giving these lectures.

  "Yes, obviously. But there are other factors, distance, the strength of the barrier, and how familiar you are with the world."

  That made sense. "So how did the elves I met arrive and leave without assistance?"

  He stretched his entire body, somehow making it look effortlessly regal. How does a damn stag manage to look that dignified?

  "That’s another topic, but to summarize, they used something called astral portals."

  That actually sounded exciting. "How do they work?"

  Silence.

  I blinked. How the fuck did he disappear? No sound, no disturbance, nothing. Just gone. That trick is getting old.

  Sighing, I did some stretches, more out of habit than necessity, then started walking around my room on the astral side.

  I knew that this new reality worked on intent, but here, it was far more immediate. The moment I thought about it, I started floating. A quick status check confirmed it was still consuming energy.

  Interesting.

  Next, I tried altering my surroundings. Even something simple, like making my old, torn gaming chair look brand new.

  For a second, it worked. Newish. But then it snapped back to its original, sorry state. And as a bonus, I got a wicked headache.

  Yeah, let’s not go through that whole blocked skill ordeal again.

  I decided to stop experimenting for now.

  ———————————————

  The clash between the astral and Earth’s reality barrier loomed over me, a chaotic storm of golden lightning strikes that somehow felt impossibly far away and right on top of me at the same time. It was terrifying and mesmerizing all at once.

  One thing that felt almost instinctual was traveling. I just had to think about it, and I was there.

  I drifted through the city, hesitant to stray too far now that Velarion had left me alone. The streets were nearly empty at this hour, only a few cars passing by, their headlights muted and ghostly like everything else in this place.

  For a moment, I was tempted to look inside houses, to see how people appeared through the lens of the astral but I shut that thought down. It was the same as using my new charisma on people. If I let it slide once, I’d start making excuses to justify it.

  Nope. Not going down that road.

  Instead, I decided to test out my new boots.

  I walked up to a building and braced myself against the wall. At first, my feet just slid down. But the moment I focused my intent, the boots stuck.

  I hopped a few times, then joined the other boot. It worked perfectly.

  Except… I didn’t expect it to take so much core strength.

  A second later, I lost balance, smacked the back of my head against the pavement, and just hung there, feet stuck to the wall, dignity somewhere else entirely.

  Not my finest moment.

  I kept trying, but walking perpendicular to the wall just wasn’t happening without any initial momentum . So I adjusted. I tucked my legs in, focused, and manifested small hooks on my hands. With them, I slowly climbed up.

  It was exhilarating, exactly the kind of thing I dreamed about as a kid.

  I reached the top, floated down, then moved on to another building, doing my best to imitate a friendly neighborhood spider.

  For the next fifteen minutes, I climbed anything that looked climbable.

  After that, I started floating from rooftop to rooftop, listening in. Even the occasional sound of a car or a late-night TV show felt muted, like I was hearing through plugged ears.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  It smelled different too. Instead of the crisp winter air and faint city smells, all I got were a few distant echoes of scent, like memories of something that wasn’t quite there.

  As I was looking around, something yanked my focus, a spot in the middle of the street that felt wrong just to look at.

  A deep, instinctive dread settled over me as I carefully approached. The closer I got, the stronger it became, like my very being was rejecting its presence.

  I stopped a few yards away.

  It looked like the portals Velarion made, but this one was jagged, its edges shifting and warping like reality itself was struggling to contain it. Impossible colors bled into each other, hues that didn’t, shouldn’t exist. It hummed with a vibrating, grating noise, layered with the shattering of glass, over and over again.

  Then, something broke.

  Before I could react, a tentacle shot out from the rift, coiling around me in an instant.

  It yanked me forward.

  I barely had time to scream before I hit the ground, dragged across the asphalt. I thrashed, reaching for anything to hold on to, but it kept pulling me toward the opening.

  I shaped my hands into spikes and dug in, carving deep gouges into the street. It slowed, but not enough. My hands started cutting through the asphalt, like I was digging trenches instead of stopping me.

  With no other options, I shaped my feet into spikes and kicked wildly.

  The moment my boots vanished, the tentacle shuddered.

  A thick, black ichor started seeping from where my spikes tore into it, and then

  A scream ripped through the air.

  It wasn’t just a sound. It was a physical force, a wail that rattled my skull and made my ears feel like they were about to burst.

  The tentacle whipped me up, flinging me through the air like a ragdoll.

  I crashed into the side of a house, the impact knocking the breath out of me.

  And then more tentacles emerged.

  They lashed out, anchoring themselves to trees, streetlights, anything they could latch onto. The rift pulsed violently as something forced its way through.

  It shouldn’t have fit.

  But its flesh twisted, contracted, and pulsed, shrinking and contorting in unnatural ways until it finally slithered free.

  The creature looked like something ripped straight from a horror novel.

  It was twenty feet long, its massive frame standing seven feet tall on four clawed legs. Its face shifted, flickering between two nightmarish forms,

  One moment, it had the snarling visage of a tiger, its fangs stretching two feet long, gleaming like curved daggers.

  The next, it had the haunting face of a sheep, its eyes empty and soulless, curling horns twisting unnaturally as if they were writhing under its flesh.

  And from its back

  A mass of tentacles jutted out, flailing, writhing, moving independently.

  It had emerged.

  Zyrrithak (Lev ???)

  A rare anomaly among shadow beasts.In the rare instance when one corrupted entity devours another, it doesn’t simply consume its prey, it merges with it, undergoing a violent and unpredictable mutation. Flesh twists, minds entangle, and instincts warp beyond recognition.

  No two Zyrrithak are ever the same.

  The moment the Zyrrithak’s gaze locked onto me, my instincts screamed to run.

  I didn’t.

  I barely had time to move before a tentacle lashed out like a whip, slicing through the air with a wet, sickening crack. I twisted my body, just barely avoiding it, but another whipped from the side and caught my leg.

  A jolt of raw pain shot through me as the tentacle constricted, its surface slick but covered in barbed ridges that dug into my skin. It yanked, hard, dragging me across the asphalt toward its waiting jaws.

  Jaws that shifted mid motion, flickering between razor lined tiger fangs and the solid, crushing skull of a ram.

  I reacted on instinct.

  With a burst of energy, I shaped my free hand into a blade and slashed at the tentacle. The first strike barely cut through the oily black flesh, but I pushed harder, sending raw force through the blade.

  The tentacle snapped apart, spraying thick black ichor that hissed where it touched the ground.

  I hit the pavement and rolled to my feet. No time to breathe. The monster was already on me.

  It lunged, its form blurring, and its face snapped into the tiger's just as it struck.

  I barely had time to drop and slide underneath, the fangs clamping shut inches from my head. I felt the force of it in my bones. It twisted immediately, its form shifting mid turn, the sheep’s head ramming forward.

  I had no chance of dodging.

  I braced and manifested a shield but the moment its skull collided, the shield shattered like brittle glass, and the force hit me full in the chest.

  I flew.

  I crashed through a bus stop, glass exploding around me as I tumbled across the concrete. Every nerve in my body screamed. My ribs felt like they’d been caved in.

  I forced myself to my feet, panting.

  I needed a new approach.

  I set an energy trap in the ground, using the biggest sphere I could . The moment the Zyrrithak came at me again, I baited it, staggering like I was barely holding on.

  It took the bait.

  It lunged, tiger jaws stretching open wide,

  And the moment it stepped over my trap, the air exploded.

  A golden pole erupted beneath it, sending the Zyrrithak flying backward, its tendrils writhing.

  I didn’t let up.

  I surged forward, manifesting twin energy blades, slicing through its flailing tentacles. Black ichor sprayed in thick, burning ribbons, and the beast screamed, its head flickering in and out of form.

  I pressed my attack, hacking and dodging, but even as I carved into it,

  I wouldn’t be able to down it fast enough .

  I needed something stronger.

  Something else…

  I reached for the void.

  And it answered.

  It felt like stepping off a cliff into freezing black water. My limbs locked up. My mind reeled as something alien and endless coiled inside me.

  A slow, creeping corrosion spread through my hands, twisting the energy blades into something darker.

  The moment I swung again

  The effect was instantaneous.

  Where my void infused blade struck,something changed.

  Its flesh corroded on contact, black ichor bubbling and dissolving into nothingness.

  It screamed, a sound of pure, raw hatred and for the first time, it hesitated.

  I felt a surge of desperate triumph. I could win this.

  I attacked again, pushing the void further but it pushed back.

  A sudden cold fire burned through me, spreading from my hands up my arms. I felt my own skin cracking, something dark eating away at me from the inside.

  My vision blurred.

  The Zyrrithak noticed.

  And it struck.

  Icouldn’t dodge.

  A tentacle wrapped around my throat, lifting me off the ground before I could even react. Another latched onto my arm, squeezing hard enough to crack bone.

  I struggled, void energy flickering, but my limbs felt numb, distant, like they weren’t entirely mine anymore.

  The Zyrrithak snarled, its form flickering wildly then settled on the ram.

  And then

  It charged.

  A solid wall of raw force slammed into me.

  I barely even felt the impact.

  I was already unconscious before I hit the ground.