"I see you."
The pale-skinned man with goggles suddenly spoke out in a low, ominous tone. There was nobody else in the room he could be speaking to, saying those words with his back turned to the man skulking in the shadows.
Even though he has yet to make a single sound, nor become visible to the figure, he felt as though eyes were on him, as if being watched intently.
'He sensed my presence?' Jin realized.
Krimjaw didn't bother turning to face him, placing the accursed heart and liver onto a circular mechanism made out of black steel. The device was embedded into the wall, which was connected to a network of tubes filled with black liquid, feeding into the circular rim as the maddened figure pulled a lever.
Whatever it was, the abnormal mechanism embedded into the wall seemed to act as some sort of grandiose blender, beginning to grind the accursed organs down into a liquid.
"Heh," Krimjaw quietly laughed.
No longer finding any time to try and lay low, the silver-haired man popped out of the shadows, tossing a few throwing knives made out of shadows towards Krimjaw.
"Very intriguing," Krimjaw said as he turned around, raising his hand.
At the simple gesture of the figure, the artificial arms made of blackened wood extended from their post rapidly, shielding the man as the dark blades were blocked.
The wooden arms moved abnormally; their mechanical joints extended, able to move swiftly like the limbs of a spider.
Turning to face him, the goggle-wearing man of worn age smiled, moving his arms as he seemed to command an army of the black-wood, mechanical limbs to sprout from the holes in the walls.
"…Very, very intriguing. It is not often at all that one reaches this corner of hell. Tell me, are you all the way there?" Krimjaw asked, tilting his head with a twisted tone to his words.
Before he even had the chance to respond, the silver-haired man found himself quickly surrounded by nefarious reinforcements; the nebulous, quiet members of the organization, dressed head-to-toe in black robes, stood around him with daggers ready.
'Surrounded already, huh? They're diligent, I can give them that,' Jin thought.
Krimjaw placed his arms behind his back as if seeing no reason to engage in combat himself, moving back towards the circular device that was grinding the accursed organs into a liquid, "Kill him. If you can capture him, do it and bring me his broken body."
The orders from Krimjaw immediately set the assembly of cultists into action as Jin's eyes darted around, reacting just as thrown daggers came from every direction.
Even as the lone man's heart ached in his chest, he moved as though the incoming blades traveled through water and not air, leaning back as he avoided the first set. As a pair of the black-handled daggers passed by, he caught them in mid-air, immediately tossing them back with perfect precision as the thrown daggers struck two of the cultists through their mask-covered heads.
"Ghh–!"
"Pyuh–!"
The afflicted cultists dropped like sacks of potatoes once the tossed blades pierced their skulls. For a moment, the black-robed grunts froze at the unexpected proficiency of the intruder, allowing Jin to dash in towards a pair of them.
"--!"
The cultist in front of the half-elf waved his hand, conjuring a ring of fire around his arm, preparing to unleash a fiery spell before–
SQUELCH
Dashing by with an instantaneous step, Jin appeared behind the cultist, moving on without hesitation as the hooded figure's head fell from his shoulders.
A group of the cultists, with some positioned on the arches of the large chamber, summoned a mixture of fireballs and conjurations of black-stone spears, tossing them towards the half-elf intruder.
"Shadow Step."
Utilizing this breathless spell, Jin was able to bypass a short distance entirely within an instant, momentarily turning into a shadow that reemerged wherever he desired, so long as it was within a certain rage.
As he reappeared again after stepping past the tossed, magical attacks, he slashed with his shadow-mage daggers, cleaving through the throats of the two cultists on either side of him.
"Pick it up, you useless, depraved, weak, mogs! Don't let him slaughter you so easily!" Krimjaw shouted from the otherside of the room.
Jin set his sights on the maddened man across the chamber, attempting to dash straight over with a series of Shadow Steps, though found himself intercepted as a dozen cultists appeared in front of him.
There wasn't a thought in his mind at that moment as instead, his body solely moved towards the singular purpose of annihilating his enemy; before the first spell could even begin to be cast by one of the members, he used his instantaneous step through the shadows, swiping his dagger through the neck of one.
As he spun around, he was greeted by the warmth of fire being coalesced around him by a trio of the cultists, about to unleash their fireballs in his direction. In a swift counter, he swiped his hand, releasing numerous blades made out of shadows in their direction.
The fast, weightless projectiles pierced through the cultists, boring through flesh like a hot knife through butter.
It was as natural as breathing for him; cutting through the faceless numbers of the malignant organization was something his body could do solely off of instinct.
"...Pfff…" He exhaled through his barely-parted lips, "Ghh!--"
Just as he landed back onto the ground after finishing the nearest enemies, his chest tightened as his heart felt as though it was being squeezed in the fist of an angered man. He nearly keeled over onto a knee as he clutched his chest, finding this attack to be worse than the previous ones by a wide margin.
As he stood there, clutching his chest as sweat left his pores, the enemies around him did not wait as countless fireballs came in from every direction, plummeting downward like arrows shot into the clouds.
A barrage of fiery explosions rang out through the laboratory, shaking it to the core as it rumbled with the volatile heat. Some of the containers shattered as liquid spilled out, causing Krimjaw to grip his own hair as he yelled out, angry and saddened.
"--Don't damage my precious workshop, you damned, idiotic, stupendously reckless fools!" Krimjaw shouted.
Enraged, the snow-haired, goggle-wearing man raised his hands as he screamed out with nothing intelligible coming from his throat, causing the mechanical arms that sprouted from the walls to swipe around.
Some of the silent, dutiful members of the cult tried running from the angered rampage of their superior, though failed.
The elongated, black-wood limbs struck multiple underlings of the man, tossing them across the chamber and shattering their bones completely, killing those that were hit in a single blow like a fly swatted by a human.
Krimjaw breathed out, calming down, "One must reprimand the mistakes of his underlings, yes. I believe that was an appropriate response taken. Now that the intruder is taken care of, let's–"
From the billowing flames, projectiles made out of shadows launched in every direction, piercing through a number of the cult underlings, though Krimjaw was defended by his sentient, wooden arms that shielded him.
"...Hm, I am becoming deeply irritated by your persistence, stranger," Krimjaw looked back, grossly twisting his neck back to spill the words from his mouth.
Appearing from beyond the remnants of the fiery explosions, Jin walked out, lightly scathed as a cut bled from the side of his head, though he remained mostly unharmed.
'I'm lucky I managed to hide in the shadows at the last second,' he thought, '--I need to act quickly. My condition is rapidly decreasing…There's no time to play around.'
pαndα`noν?1--сoМ With this resolve cemented in his mind, the silver-haired man exhaled sharply just as an onslaught of fireballs and daggers were tossed in his direction. As he breathed out, his entire self turned into the essence of shadows, becoming an intangible darkness.
"Requiem of The Unseen."
The fireballs passed straight through him, some of which soared straight past and hit the casters' fellow comrades.
While taking on the form of a shadow himself, Jin concentrated on maintaining his same form, not allowing himself to break apart as he maintained his element before suddenly: he burst away.
The cultists looked around, spinning around as they tried to locate the man, but failed as the shadow-turned figure instantaneously moved around with a single step each time.
"March of Shadows."
Dashing by with consecutive steps through the shadows, the lone adventurer allowed his blades to cleave through their numbers. Lines of darkness stretched across the dreaded room, cutting straight across the cultists.
Jin reappeared, shifting back into his tangible form after his dance in the shadows, coughing out blood as his chest tightened again, "Hkk…Hff…"
Krimjaw watched as his underlings were all cut down before him, seeming a bit more intrigued now, "It's interesting, you know. That element you wield–"Darkness". It only births itself in those that share a deep bond with death itself. How is it that a reaper like yourself shows himself here as a 'Hero'?"
"Hero…?" Jin wiped the blood from his mouth, looking at his hand as it trembled somewhat, finding his condition deteriorating by the moment, "Never thought of myself as one. Never interested me. Still, if that's what I am for wanting you freaks wiped off the map, then yeah, I guess I am."
Krimjaw held a mildly amused expression, "You're mistaken if you think you've accomplished anything of worth. Killing a few grunts has no effect on us. Even myself, I am merely middle of the rank among all of this–my life is expendable."
Hearing the wicked words of the figure, who looked off towards the ceiling as if he held no worry of his own mortality, Jin felt disgusted; it was the thing he hated most about the members of the abhorrent cult.
'Death isn't even a punishment for them. They welcome it. There's no "winning" against them–it feels like they always get the last laugh,' he thought.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel