No fucking way.

Jered wrestled out of Evelyn's concerned grasp, and staggered towards a panting, crying Seline, "You..." he coughed, his hand easily finding her neck, "You bitch! What have you done!?"

He didn't know where he found the strength to lift her. It must have been the rage. The frustration of knowing they would be stuck in Archiland for who knew how long. Seline gurgled out an apology, but it was not enough for Jered. She had to pay. Of course, with a river of blood streaming down his stomach, it was easier said than done. He felt his eyelids getting heavy, his strength slipping away.

She dropped to the ground.

"Jered, stop!" Evelyn ran after him, cradling him within her arms just as he was about to fall, "You fool!"

Seline coughed, rubbing her throat. All around her was destruction, and death. The Ginnungs didn't survive the blast, and now lay dead somewhere beneath the rubble. She couldn't help but grimace at that. The expedition was not a failure, but it wasn't a success either. It was a pyrrhic victory. Not worth it. She scooted backward until her back hit a wall.

"We have to get him out of here, he's dying!"

If Jered had any mana left, she wouldn't have been worried. He would have healed automatically in due time.

But that was not the case right now.

"I'm... fine..." Jered croaked out, sweat pouring down his forehead, "... I'm..."

"Shut up!"

"..."

Evelyn looked up at Seline, "Please... we have to get him out of here!"

She didn't even dare to think about the possibility of Jered dying.

Seline pointed her head at the dungeon's entrance, a mournful look flashing past her eyes, "I'm sorry..." she said, simply, deliberately.

Evelyn followed her gaze, and she nearly fainted.

The staircase was destroyed, the entrance filled with rubble. If they wanted to get out of there, they either needed to dig through the chunks of stone, or a teleportation spell—which none of them was capable of.

"No..."

Was it over for him? He needed immediate medical care. And it would probably take them days to clear the dungeon's entrance of the rubble. By then Jered would have been a corpse.

"If he recovers some mana, he should survive..." Seline didn't sound too sure, but she was responsible for what happened. And as much as she didn't like humans, they did help them fight off the strays.

"I... I... don't have any mana left... I'm drained..." Evelyn bit her bottom lip, tears slowly sliding down her cheeks, "Do you have any?"

She shook her head.

"Fuck..."

"Evelyn..." Jered wheezed out.

She snapped her gaze down, running her fingers through his hair, "Stay with me, Jered. Please, don't die..."

"Evelyn..."

She sniffed, "W-What..."

"Calm... the fuck... down."

"..."

Jered was in pain. A lot of pain. It was a good thing that the adrenaline toned it down, somewhat. His breathing was weak, his heart refusing to pump out a sliver of mana. He didn't know what to do. And Evelyn's sobs were of no help. It was the first time he thought he was really going to die. When they were in the Barren Battlefield, there was still hope. They were alive, uninjured, and ready to fight for survival.

Now he was wounded, bleeding, mana-drained, dying.

He wondered if his life was going to flash past his eyes in a movie-like sequence, but so far nothing.

It was probably a myth.

Then he thought about his sister. If he died, what would happen to her?

What would Rainey do?

"Jered..."

Evelyn's voice sounded so far away. Was she still there holding him? He couldn't tell.

'You look miserable.'

Someone told him. Someone he knew. No, more like used to know.

That person wasn't alive anymore, so Jered reasonably thought he was already dead, or very close to it.

'I wasn't supposed to make an appearance so soon, but you were not supposed to die either.'

"Fa...th...er?"

He fluttered his eyes open. It was a difficult task making them focus. Surprisingly, even though everything else was blurred behind a hazy curtain, the man smiling at him was perfectly clear. He walked up to Jered, crouched down, and nodded approvingly, 'You've come a long way, son. You should be proud of your achievements,' his voice was faint, like a soft whisper. His eyes were green, with a tinge of crimson within them. Jered didn't recall that particular feature, but he was too dizzy to puzzle two pieces of thought together.

"I... I..."

What was he about to say again?

He didn't remember.

'You're dying, son. We can't have that. Your mother and sister would be devastated,' John stretched a hand over Jered's forehead, 'Here. A little help from your father.'

Jered's heart stopped for a few seconds, and the very sensitive Evelyn thought he was dead.

She didn't have the time to cry his name out when a sphere of darkness punched through his chest, kickstarting his heart again. The beats started weak, then grew stronger, more intense, filled with an energy that would have made Vozremeth frown. The hole in his gut wiggled with ungrown flesh before it closed at a speed that left Evelyn and Seline speechless.

"W-What is going on..." for fear of interrupting the process, Evelyn let go of Jered, watching from a safe distance.

The darkness shot up like a fountain and rained down all over his body, until he was sheltered inside a black cocoon.

[You have unlocked part of your heritage.]

'This won't be the last time you see me, son. But I sincerely hope that next time you'll be able to look right into my eyes.'

With a few, slow steps back, John faded into nothingness.

[5% of your Shadow's blood has been activated.]

[Your mana regeneration has been enhanced by 25%]

[Your mana pool attribute has risen by 20 points.]

[Your Soul has been upgraded to Mortal | Superior.]

[You have been bestowed with the title 'Son of Shadows'.]

[You have unlocked the Royal-Tier spell 'Shadowport', Lv.1]

[Sleep tight, host.]

At first, it was warm, like sleeping in front of a fireplace, rolled inside a slew of blankets. Then it became cold. Unbearibingly so.

He wanted to get out of there.

A crack appeared overhead, a thin line of light filtering in.

Jered instinctively blasted his mana outward. A few more cracks appeared on the black carapace of the cocoon. He could hear Evelyn's distinct voice fretting over him, "Jered!" she called out, her fingers digging through the crack and attempting to tear apart the shell. He knew it was a foolish choice. Only his mana worked against the cocoon.

So he pushed harder. The pieces began to fall, the crack widening.

He didn't know why, or how, but something had changed in him. It might have been his blood pumping faster, the way his mana reacted almost aggressively, or just his imagination. But something had indeed changed. He clenched his teeth, slowly getting up from his curled position. The cocoon crumbled as his head, shoulders, and upper body plowed through the surface and breathed in the damp, stale air of the dungeon.

"Jered!" Evelyn dropped to her knees and hugged him, "You're alive..." she strangled back a sob, but the tears flowed freely.

It was a bit too sudden. And he had to yet register many things—like the fact that he was still alive, for example. He looked down, at the fragments of the cocoon fading into black wisps of smoke. Then at the notifications hovering by his side. He didn't have time to focus on them. Evelyn's hands cradled his cheeks, tilting his line of sight towards her.

"You're here... you're alive... I... I..."

"Calm down, Evelyn."

"Calm down?" she gaped, "How can you be so calm?"

He grunted, running a hand across his face, "How long have I been out for?"

"Roughly... one day and a half," Seline butted in, staring at him from the other end of the dungeon, "Frankly, I thought you were done for... while she believed that you would have woken up as if nothing happened. Hard to believe at first, considering you're a human. Now I'm doubting whether you really are one."

"She's just spitting nonsense," Evelyn frowned, though at that point she couldn't rule out the possibility that her student was not normal at all. At the very least, there was something about him that didn't add up. Even now. She could notice a slight difference, an almost tangible oppression that seemed to stem from his soul, "But... how are you feeling?"

Honestly, he didn't know.

"I'm fine... I guess?"

Jered slowly climbed back to his feet, his joints cracking. He pored over the notifications, and then everything started to make sense. Well, sort of. Was he the descendant of a Shadow? Was his father a Shadow? He vividly recalled what Rainey said when they were in that alleyway.

'...you have already been chosen by another entity. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I can’t help it.'

'Ohh, you can't see it, but it's there, right next to you. Now that I think about it, it has always been there.'

He also vividly recalled those times he'd randomly hear his father's voice. He thought it was all in his head, but apparently not.

"You can't be fine," Evelyn muttered, not knowing where to touch him. She scanned every inch of his body. Besides the signs of wear and tear on his clothes—and the dried blood—there was nothing else. No wounds. No bruises. She blinked, "You're actually fine..."

"I told you," he rolled his eyes, "You should worry about yourself first..."

Evelyn was a mess. It was not something a simple 'Cleanse' could fix. Her eyes were red, swollen, and her hair was a disheveled mess. She looked tired, about to collapse at any time. Seline, on the contrary, fared way better. It was probably because she didn't care whether he lived or died. Her mind was not under that burden. The difference made him realize how much Evelyn cared for him.

"I'm fine... I was not the one whose stomach was penetrated by an eldritch creature."

"Maybe, but see? I'm all peachy now. Stop worrying so much."

"I can't not worry when you were bleeding out to death just yesterday... what happened? What was that... cocoon thingy you were in?" Evelyn thinned her lips into a line, her eyes conveying just how sad she had been.

Jered wished he could give her an answer. An answer that she could accept, "I don't know..." the truth could do more harm than good, and with Seline listening in, there was no way he'd spill the beans about what presumably was his ancestry.

She didn't seem to believe him, but didn't voice it out. And here he thought he was a good liar.

Maybe it was because they had sex. Women had a sixth sense for that kind of crap.

"I'm surprised you didn't kill me when I was in there," Jered stared at Seline, who stared back defiantly, "I was about to kill you, after all..."

She chuckled, finding some twisted humor in his words, "Oh, I did think about killing you. You're stronger than me. So strong that even Vozremeth wanted you dead. Then I thought, 'Why not use this situation to my advantage?' You want to go back to the human realm, don't you? Without my father here, you can't. But what if I told you that I have a way that would let you go back? A relic, to be specific."

Ah, so that was why she didn't kill him.

"Alright, alright," Jered smiled, raising his hands up in the universal sign of peace, "What do you want?"

She gave him a feral smile, her demeanor shifting to that of a ruler. As much as he didn't like her, in that very moment, he respected her.

"A partnership. Preferably between the Ginnungs and your organization. Then again, that sounds quite far-fetched and probably not particularly useful. So let's say... a partnership between us and you. With my father gone, we're weak. Oh, I was aware of that when I stabbed him in the back. That incestuous freak had it coming. Anyway, you're so young, yet you have an overflowing amount of potential. I have no doubt you'll advance to the next tier within ten years. And the next within fifty."

"You want to use him?" Evelyn growled.

Seline scoffed, "I don't want to use him. I want a partnership. A friendly relationship where our ideals match, so we can spearhead towards the same goal, together. I'm not as talented as you, but I'm confident that it won't take me long to become a Royal-Tier either. It would be beneficial cooperation. The price of going back home is to sign a magical contract with me. Whatever you do next for me would be properly rewarded. But this is a long-term plan. Right now, all you have to do is sign a simple contract."

She smiled sweetly, her eyes narrowing into what would have been considered devilish.

But Jered had been there before.

Rainey was like her. Ambitious and power-hungry.

Fortunately, he was just the same.