Shadowbound - 01 Jordan

Jordan raced across the desolate wasteland,  and a horde of ravenous ghosts followed. Their cries shattered the dense silence, blaring through the skeletal remnants of long-abandoned structures.

The barren expanse of this dead world stretched beyond his vision, shrouded by a perpetual sky and musky, billowing clouds. A cloak of eerie darkness enveloped everything like a mercurial veil, gripping down on all the faint signs of life that desperately clung to cracks and crevices. Even moss and lichen withered before the implacable oblivion.

The hungry ghosts, the shades, were similar to this suffocating darkness but infinitely more terrifying.. Unlike the slow, and somewhat merciful consumption of darkness, the shades were violent, eager to devour any signs of life they detected. Like the darkness, they feared one thing: light. However, light was as scarce on this dead planet as signs of life were. Occasionally, a reddish-golden glow shimmered on the horizon, hinting of a hidden sun at sunrise, of better days.

Those were rare days when he didn’t have to fear the shades.

The shades slithered through the tangible darkness. They came in different shapes and sizes, mostly resembling their former selves before death, but the darkness and their hunger had twisted and deformed their spectral forms into misshapen, grotesque figures, like monsters straight out of a nightmare.

On a good day, Jordan could handle a pack of them. Today, however, dozens of such packs pursued him. His saving grace was that only four possessed a semblance of intelligence, the rest were merely deformed creatures acting on instinct.

A humanoid shade, towering over two and a half metres tall with an imposing spear, landed in front of him, its eyes radiating a malevolent hunger. The fifth deadly opponent. Jordan sucked in a deep breath. How far had his broadcast bad reached to call up five of them?

“Dieeee!” it screeched in a high-pitched, eerie voice. “Dieee! Dieee! Die!”

Conversation was not their forte. But berserk insanity certainly was.

Tendrils of darkness moved with the shade as it swung its spectral spear with fluid grace, aiming for his chest. Jordan swept his arm, summoning the tangible darkness. A blade as dark as night materialized in his palm, blocking the strike.

This dead world and its dark power had not only transformed the deceased; it had altered him as well. Since arriving in this sunless realm through an unfortunate spatial vacuum of a dungeon, Jordan's life had been a constant battle for survival. He had to predate the predators themselves to survive.

He had changed in many ways: his eyes adapted to see in darkness, and his body could draw sustenance from the life force that animated the living, much like the shades that existed in a state between life and death. Most importantly, Jordan had learned to harness the nether’s darkness, to wield its power as his own.

It sure took a toll on his mind, but what was a little headache when his survival was at stake?

He refrained from engaging in a fight and manoeuvred around a broken archway. Drawing on the darkness, he let it envelop him completely, concealing his form. The remnants of towering columns and crumbling walls from an ancient order of mages stood in ruins, their glory days long forgotten. Runes and withered ancient symbols were etched into those decaying structures. He crept towards the tallest structure among them.

The spectres slithered around him, their distorted howls clawing at his heart, making him question the sanity of his plan.

It is what it is, he thought. Jordan couldn’t bear the thought of remaining in this dead world anymore... Ignoring the lack of sustenance, the isolation and darkness predate his sanity. Even if he dies, he would die in a fight.

Besides, it wasn’t as if there was no merit to it. While his plan was madness, it was the only glimmer of hope he had seen during his time here.

He darted forward, his figure blurring through the twisting darkness. The ghosts’ cries of hunger intensified as they focused solely on him.

“Come on, I don’t have all day,” he shouted, leaping atop the ruin where he had placed his last trump card. Black wings of darkness unfurled from his back, boosting his speed as he ascended.

“Dieeee! Die! Die! Dieee!”

We’re going to see, he swore inwardly, positioning himself at the centre of the formation. An ancient Star Gate stood a dozen paces on his rear, but his entire attention was on what was in front of him.

An intricate runic magic circle lay beneath his feet, spreading throughout the remains of the structure. It had taken months of preparation and tireless effort to reach this moment... to give himself one chance... One opportunity to grasp everything... To open a portal back to earth…

Jordan didn’t let the chance slip by, activating the formation prematurely. A moment could mean the difference between victory and defeat. He waited until all the shades were within the magic circle...

As their distorted cries echoed from every direction. The two humanoid shades a mere metre away, prepared to pounce on him. Jordan drew the essence of darkness and channelled everything into the magical structure. He linked the formation with the shrouding veil, establishing himself as the singularity between them.

The enormous magic structure sprang to life, glowing with a malevolent purple light. All the shades froze, not in awe, but in apprehension.

Having already tested countless smaller versions of this formation, Jordan had left no room for error. Failure meant death, and he refused to die.

The shades screamed in existential agony as the formation began to drain their very essence. Drop by drop, bit by bit, the spectral and dark essence was siphoned into the formation, flowing through Jordan as he activated the ancient Star Gate with the siphoned energy.

Jordan had no idea where the Star Gate would lead, possibly Earth, but honestly, any destination was preferable to this forsaken planet. He hoped it was where the mages of the ancient order had fled when doom befell their world... He would find out soon.

The wanning cries of the shades were music to his ears, yet Jordan had to clench his jaw to remain upright. The power coursing through him surpassed anything he, a young mage, had ever experienced. All theories suggested his body should have withered upon contact with such force, but they hadn’t accounted for his mutated physique.

The Star Gate shimmered in luminous purple and azure as space began to warp within it.

“Come on!”

Electric currents surged through the ancient structure of the Star Gate, making Jordan fear it might crumble at any moment. Half of the shades had been drained of their existence, while he struggled to maintain his sanity under the overwhelming force.

Then, a dark flicker of light appeared in the Star Gate... Jordan summoned the Wings of Darkness once more and propelled himself into the portal opening, not that he needed it. The portal sucked everything closest to it until he stopped supplying power to it.

A surge of currents wracked his body as Jordan phased through the portal. He was stunned, blinded, and his stomach twisted in agony.

Jordan collapsed on all fours, his bare limbs met a cool surface. As his vision adjusted to the new reality, he realized the malevolent darkness was the same, but the surrounding structures had not withered away yet. He was in some kind of… shrine.

“Jordan Alexander Frost, we have watched your progress with great interest,” announced a voice, regal and ancient, echoing through the space.

Unable to contain it within himself any longer, Jordan vomited. A tar-like substance flowed from his mouth, leaving a foul taste. The terrible power of the nether still surged within him.

“Gah!” The disorientation from the teleportation worsened his condition. Nevertheless, Jordan pushed himself to his feet and faced the entity.

It had three pairs of eyes, a pair on both sides and a pair of slightly bigger eyes in the middle, all shimmering in malevolent red. A sense of foreboding washed over Jordan as he assessed the creature’s spectral form. It was a scorpion-like thing, painted in jet-black, as big as a mammoth. But more importantly, it talked.

“You haven’t disappointed us, although it took you some time.”

“Well,” Jordan spat the remaining corrupt essence onto the ground, “I am certainly disappointed in you.”

“Do you know of us?” it asked, its state unchanged except for the pulsating red lights in its eye sockets. “How could you not... after all, it was we who led you here... empower you... showed you the way to harvest the essence of shades...”

“Less talking,” Jordan said, stretching his limbs. “Are we doing this or what?”

He swept his arm through the still air; the darkness responding to his command and forming a double-headed spear, double of his size.

“You wish to fight me? With that?” The eldritch scorpion-being observed him. “Unnecessary, even in this form, you’ll only embarrass yourself in the presence of—”

Jordan had already lunged forward, his spear tracing a sinuous path aimed straight at the scorpion’s eye.

“Foolish human, you have no idea what’s at stake here,” the eldritch creature screeched, its stinger ready to intercept the spear. “Against our—Gahhhh!”

The spear of darkness split into two; one half was thrust into the stinger while twisting and rolling over its sinuous stinger, Jordan launched the other half into one of its central eyes. While the attack on the stinger caused minimal damage, the spear succeeded in blinding the eye.

Jordan landed atop the creature, the blow easing some of his frustration. Unlike regular shades, it had a robust physical form.

“How long must I fight ghosts?” he yelled, stomping on its back. With each step, darkness heeded his call, sending jagged projectiles into the eldritch creature’s back. “I’m so fucking sick of it!”

“You are mad!” the scorpion-shaped shade hissed.

Jordan's eyes glowed with a malevolent light, a menacing aura surrounding him as tendrils of darkness converged. He raised his arms, grasping at something unseen... A massive spear of darkness formed, large enough to pierce the scorpion through.

“You are mad, human!”

“And who’s to blame for that?” Jordan clenched his fists and slammed them downward. The colossal spear of darkness plunged with the motion, piercing the creature’s tough exoskeleton.

The scorpion screeched. “I was going to offer you the chance to become my Champion... to transform you into a weapon and strike at the very heart of the system... but you—”

“You talk too much.”

“So be it,” the scorpion said, rising to its feet with the spear still protruding from its back. “Have it your way...”

Darkness swirled from his grip, and the scorpion burst with maddening darkness, its sinuous form disintegrating into pure darkness. But not all of its forms had disintegrated, however. Before Jordan could grasp what was happening, the stinger plunged into his chest.