"Silas?" That was his name, but more importantly, Jacob called him Silas. He turned around and looked at him.

"What’s the matter, Silas? We’ll be right behind."

He didn’t need anything else; those words were all the proof in the world. He bit his teeth with force and let his anger out.

"How dare you!" His knuckles were white from clutching them so hard. "One thing is making me hallucinate or show me my fears, but using my memories. My guild, my friends, my parents!"

He grabbed the green sword hanging on his waist. "You chose the worst option. I swear, I’m going to make you pay 100 times!"

The world turned dark, and the faces of everyone turned from smiles to empty expressions. Their eyes hollowed out, and their mouths began to bleed. Jacob spoke with a deep, grunting voice, almost like a demon trying to speak.

"If you want fear, I can show it to you. Fears so great that your soul is going to beg for mercy."

The shadows took over, and the sand became a swamp. He could no longer move.

"Shit!" He moved the sword to his arm. If this was a hallucination, he had no way of breaking free from it. The only way he could think of was to hurt himself. In most MMOs, causing damage to the target is enough to break the mind control or other status effects.

The shadows were growing and covering his body. He mustered all the courage he had and stabbed himself in the arm.

"Aaaaahhhh!" It hurt. It hurt more than anything else. This was real pain. His mind broke free and went back into the real world.

***

"Uf, uf, aaaahhhh!" he gasped for air and looked around. His arm was still hurting, but he wasn’t wounded.

But if he wasn’t hurt, why was he covered in blood?

"I knew it. You’re still there, you're not going to let any shadow control you, right Silas!"

"Nathan?" He was pinned to the ground; the shield was immobilizing him. He couldn’t move, but he saw the price of his negligence.

"Guh!"

The floor of the building was covered in blood; three pix soldiers were wounded on the ground. There were several scratches on the walls and ceiling. A fight took place here, and he was the one who initiated it.

"How? Is Silvano okay?" Nathan looked into his eyes. "Tell me what I did, Nathan!"

His voice was cracking with tears and pain. He knew it was his fault; he was put under some kind of illusion, and the shadow controlled him like a puppet. He had to know how much damage he had caused.

"Your eyes are looking better. They aren’t dark anymore. You’re back to your senses," he said, raising the shield and hugging him. "Don’t fucking scare me like that again!"

"I had no idea what I was supposed to do. The only thing I could do was pin you down and talk until you answered me."

"Nathan, please tell me what I did. I need to know."

"I heard the noise coming from outside. Silvano was wounded, but he took a potion. He told me you woke up with shadows around your body and black eyes. He tried to stop you, so you stabbed him. I follow the trail, and you end up wounding a lot of soldiers coming here, to the portal back home."

There was no excuse; this all happened because he was careless in the persecution of the shadow. He caused so much pain and maybe even killed some of the soldiers. His own soldiers.

Before he could formulate a plan, the screams filled his ears. They ran to the outside of the building and watched the soldiers fighting each other. Some of them were covered in shadows; a slimy shadow controlled them like strings, and their eyes were completely black.

"The wounded soldiers are being controlled?" Nathan was shocked. They had massive wounds, but they were moving with dexterity.

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"The ones being controlled are those I wounded." The conclusion was obvious; somehow, he infected the shadows on everyone else and turned them into mindless servants.

No, if it is the same as me, they are trapped in illusions. There has to be a way to help them.

"They’re coming!"

A group of ten soldiers were running toward them. Silas looked back and realized their objective. "They are coming for the gate. They’re trying to cross to the capital and infect it."

"How do they know about the gate?"

"It can read the memories of those it infects. He saw the capital in my head and now is trying to take over." He used his power to learn something about the enemy or the infection, but he still got nothing.

This isn’t its main body, but how can he control so many people at once? Is this a power of the System or is it a natural power of a rak?

He could deal with a dozen pix soldiers, but once they got into the capital, there was no stopping them.

"Nathan, I need you to close the gate. Use the mechanism in the top of the building."

"What are you going to do?"

"We can’t let the shadow inside the capital, but if it forces Silvano to open a portal, it's all over." He didn’t have time to waste and ran straight back to his bedroom.

The battle was still raging, but the pix were losing. A single wound turned them into another mind-controlled puppet for the shadows. He still felt bad for causing this, but there was no time for mercy.

He cut off the head of a pix and advanced into the building being used as a dormitory. He kicked the door to the hall open and found Silvano wrapped in darkness.

"Silvano!" He ran to his side and tried to slash the shadows. It was futile; they reformed and grabbed the body again and again.

How do I free him? He tried to think about his own circumstances, but there was no way to help him from the outside.

"Resist Silvano. It’s not real; it's a trick, an illusion. Don’t let him control you!" He grabbed him by the arms and legs, but he started to move like a wild animal.

He used all his strength trying to keep Silvano under control, but he was too weak. The shadows forced Silvano to use power beyond his normal limit. Portals started to appear around the walls and the floor. He had no more options and struck him in the back of the head to knock him out.

He didn’t have time to measure his strength, so he hit him hard. Silvano fell unconscious, and the portals disappeared. He carried him on his back and went back to the central building with the portal.

"All soldiers who are still alive and sane, retreat to the tower and defend it!" he yelled as he ran through the battlefield. There was no time to help them; he was more worried about the fact that the tower was still open.

"Why hasn't he closed the entrance?" He went straight to the building and saw Nathan at the top of the tower trying with all his might to move the lever.

"Close! Close already!" He couldn’t see from above, but the mechanism had been damaged when the soldiers he killed before heading up used the last of their strength to throw themselves at the gears of the gate.

It was a mess of body parts and blood; the door was stuck, cracking the bones. There was no way to close in such a short time. They had no way to deactivate the portal; Nadine was the only one who knew how to stop the portals from working. If they destroy the portal, all the work they did to gain the World Stone in the first place would go to waste.

The soldiers arrived and helped block the entrance with furniture. Silas put Silvano against a pillar.

Destroying the entrance could damage the portal. If we can close it, we have to protect it.

He wasn’t going to make any excuses. He walked to the front and ordered the soldiers to stay behind and defend the area; they also had to check for wounds or shadow infections. He jumped over the barricade and used his power.

His ears became pointy, and his skin turned green. This was the proof he needed.

"You and I are no longer allies, but it was my fault. I'll make it quick," he said as he fell in the middle of the group.

Despite being mindless, their movements were precise and full of power. They were also wearing the armor and weapons of the army, so it wasn’t easy to kill them with a single strike. He cut tendons and kicked them in the chest, broke jaws, and slashed faces.

The more he killed, the more his hatred grew. He didn’t have a name, but he remembered the demonic voice and swore to himself to make it pay.

Having to cut down my own army. You like going for psychological damage, don’t you? but this isn’t torture or pain. Putting them down is the only way I can atone.

A soldier got too close and was about to slash at him when suddenly a shield crashed on top of the pix. Nathan crushed him with his fall; he had tears in his eyes and was enraged.

"Stop trying to do it alone. I’m the Tank, stay behind me and focus on their weak points." He pushed them back with a hit of his shield, and Silas nodded.

"Sorry, you’re correct." The guilt wasn’t for him to bear alone. Both made mistakes and were ready to take the blame.

The soldiers attacked, but against the shield of Dawn, they stood no chance.

The battle ended; of the sixty soldiers stationed in the city during the attack, only five survived. Of the three members of Dawn, two were infected by the power of the shadows.

Silas looked over the massacre. The smell of death filled the cave while he cleaned the blood from the sword.

"Nathan, I need you to do something."

"I’m not going to let you go alone."

"Don’t worry, it's not that. I’m not trying to fight alone; I need someone to take the soldiers back and inform the army to keep an eye on them. Maybe they got infected by the shadows, but the control is dormant. Also tell them not to send anyone inside; you’re the only one I can trust to defend the gate."

"What about Silvano?"

"We’re both infected, so we have to stay here. You can look over us and restrain us while we try something. Once we recover, we’re going to look for the bastard who did this and kill it."

Nathan took the soldiers back to the capital.

Silas couldn’t sleep in case the shadows tried to take over his mind, but he heard the laugh echoing inside his head.

A laughter mocking him for his biggest loss yet.