I stared at the crystal. It pulsed softly, casting strange shadows across the clearing.

Lucien’s voice trembled slightly. “My Lady… whatever lies ahead, we must tread carefully.”

I took a deep breath and stepped toward the crystal.

The rune flared brightly, flooding the courtyard with harsh purple light. The tree’s branches creaked, and the faint smell of burning ozone filled the air.

Another message appeared:

[SHADOW’S AWAKENING INITIATED.]

[WARNING: INSTABILITY DETECTED IN PLAYER CLASS DATA.]

The light intensified, and static crackled through my HUD. Lucien stumbled back, shielding his eyes.

“My Lady!” he shouted over the rising hum.

Suddenly, the light snapped off, and everything went silent.

Then… a voice spoke.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

It wasn’t Devon. It wasn’t Lucien. The voice was metallic, distorted, and layered with static.

My HUD glitched violently, red warning text flashing in the corner of my screen:

[CONNECTION TO MAIN SERVER STABILIZING…]

[ERROR: DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED.]

Lucien stepped closer to me, his dagger drawn now. “Who… who goes there? Show yourself!”

I turned sharply, scanning the courtyard. The tree’s bark was shifting like it was breathing.

Then, out of the shadows, a figure stepped forward.

A player.

Their armor was sleek and black, edged with faintly pulsed neon blue lines. A reflective visor obscured their face, and their stance was relaxed but purposeful.

[PLAYER: ???]

[LEVEL: ???]

They tilted their head slightly at me, and for a brief moment, I could see faint static flickering around their outline, like they weren’t entirely stable.

“You shouldn’t have accepted that message,” they said flatly.

I reached for the Midnight Fang instinctively, shadows curling at my feet. “Who are you? What do you want?”

They didn’t answer. Instead, they raised one hand, and their palm glowed faintly with lines of glitching code.

“You’ve made a mistake, Succubus Demon Lord. Now… you’ll have to deal with the consequences.”

Before I could react, the courtyard flooded with red warning signs:

[ALERT: HOSTILE ENTITY DETECTED.]

[INITIATING COMBAT SEQUENCE.]

Lucien lunged forward with a shout, but the stranger flicked their hand, and Lucien was flung backward into a crate with an unnatural force.

“Lucien!” I shouted.

The stranger lunged at me with a glowing blade, and I barely parried with the Midnight Fang. Sparks erupted as our weapons clashed, the force sending shockwaves through the courtyard.

They were fast. Faster than anything I’d fought before.

My HUD flashed red:

[Health: 68%]

I stumbled backward, shadows swirling protectively around me.

“Abyssal Barrier!”

A dome of dark energy erupted around me just in time to deflect another strike.

“You don’t understand what you’ve done,” the stranger said coldly. “And if you think you can just walk away from this… you’re wrong.”

My hands trembled as the shadows pulsed violently around me.

This wasn’t just a fight. It was something bigger—something I didn’t understand yet.

But if this stranger thought I was going down without a fight, they had another thing coming.

The courtyard felt like it was folding in on itself. The air crackled with static energy, faint red pixels flickering at the edges of my vision. The stranger stood across from me, their blade glowing with neon light, their armor reflecting fragments of the glitching environment.

Lucien groaned behind me, struggling to stand, his lute cracked beside him. “My Lady… this foe… they are not natural.”

No kidding.

The stranger tilted their head slightly, their visor flashing faintly as lines of code flickered across it.

“You shouldn’t have accepted that email.”

I raised the Midnight Fang, shadows curling around my feet, flickering like living smoke. “Yeah, well, it’s a little late for regret now.”

[COMBAT INITIATED]

[OPPONENT: ???]

[LEVEL: UNREGISTERED]

The stranger lunged, their blade slicing through the air with inhuman speed. I barely managed to activate the Abyssal Barrier in time. The glowing shield of dark energy flared up around me, deflecting the strike, but the sheer force of the impact sent me skidding backward across the cobblestones.

[Health: 82%]

The stranger’s glowing blade smashed against my Abyssal Barrier, sending sparks into the night air. The force of the attack rippled through the barrier, cracks spreading along its surface like fractured glass.

[Barrier Integrity: 64%]

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

They didn’t stop. In a blink, they were in front of me again. Another strike. Then another. I couldn’t even process their movements—they were too fast.

“Absolute Command!” I shouted.

The shadows around me pulsed outward, freezing the stranger mid-attack. Their blade stopped inches from my neck, flickering in and out of existence as if caught between frames.

[Absolute Command Activated]

[Enemy Immobilized: 3 Seconds]

I didn’t waste time. My HUD highlighted my skills, and I lunged forward with Venom Kiss, driving the Midnight Fang into their side. The blade sank into the glitching armor, purple poison hissing as it seeped into the wound.

[Damage Dealt: 145 HP]

[Poison Status Applied]

The immobilization broke. The stranger staggered backward, clutching their side, faint blue code leaking from the wound instead of blood.

“You’re… adapting fast,” they said, voice crackling like distant radio static. “But it won’t be enough.”

They raised their hand, and a glowing code sphere began to form above their palm. The HUD flashed:

[WARNING: HIGH-DAMAGE ATTACK INCOMING]

“Lucien!” I shouted. “Move!”

The bard scrambled to his feet and threw himself behind an overturned cart as the stranger unleashed the attack. The energy sphere exploded outward, shattering the stone courtyard and sending me flying backward into the tree.

[Health: 38%]

I coughed, shadows flickering wildly around me, responding to my emotions rather than my commands. The ground beneath me cracked, and the faint hum of corrupted code filled the air.

The stranger advanced again, blade glowing, movements precise and unyielding. I clenched my fists, shadows swirling violently at my feet.

And then I felt it.

In the back of my mind, I could feel pressure like a door creaking open. The Demonic Dominion tab in my HUD pulsed faintly.

[New Skill Unlocked: Abyssal Howl]

[Description: Unleash a wave of abyssal energy, temporarily disrupting enemies and lowering their defense.]

Fine. Let’s see what this does.

I slammed both hands to the ground and roared:

“Abyssal Howl!”

A shockwave of dark energy burst from my body, rippling outward and colliding with the stranger. Their armor cracked, the blue code splitting at the seams, and they stumbled backward, clutching their visors.

[Enemy Defense Reduced by 20%]

[Enemy Status: Disrupted]

Lucien used the opening, rushing forward with his dagger. “For my Lady!”

He slashed across the stranger’s arm, landing a clean hit.

[Damage Dealt: 45 HP]

The stranger let out a sound—half growl, half static. They straightened, visor flickering, armor sparking with stray data streams.

I activated Crippling Aura, the air around me thickening with oppressive energy. The stranger hesitated for the first time, their movements slowing as the debuff took hold.

[Crippling Aura Applied: Enemy Attack and Speed Reduced by 20%]

“Interesting,” they said, their static-laden voice tinged with curiosity. “So the system is letting you use that class after all. Fascinating.”

“Fascinating this,” I growled, firing a Shadow Bolt directly at their chest.

The blast of dark energy connected, sending them skidding back several feet. For a moment, I thought I’d gained the upper hand.

But then they straightened, their flickering visor reflecting the moonlight. “If you’re this sloppy with your power, they’ll find you before you’re ready.”

“Who’s ‘they’?” I demanded, summoning the Abyssal Barrier again.

The stranger didn’t answer. Instead, they raised their free hand, and the air shimmered as jagged lines of glowing code spread outward.

[WARNING: DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED]

The ground beneath us glitched violently, pixels distorting and warping into jagged, unnatural shapes. My HUD flickered, warning messages flooding my screen.

Lucien staggered backward, looking around in alarm. “My Lady, this place—it is unraveling!”

“I noticed!” I shouted, barely dodging a chunk of corrupted ground as it exploded upward.

My HUD flashed red again:

[ESCAPE SEQUENCE INITIATED]

[Objective: Flee the Corrupted Zone Before Stability Drops to 0%.]

I glanced at Lucien, who was struggling to stay upright as the ground beneath him warped and shifted. “Lucien, move! We’re getting out of here!”

“But the foe—”

“Forget the foe!” I grabbed his arm, dragging him toward the alley we’d entered from. The stranger didn’t follow but watched us go; their blade lowered as if they had no intention of pursuing.

“You’ll have to face them eventually,” they called after me. “And when you do, don’t expect to walk away unscathed.”

I didn’t answer, focusing instead on staying upright as the corrupted ground cracked and splintered around us.

“This isn’t over,” they said, voice distorted and cold. “You’ll wish you had never seen that email.”

Then, with a sharp flick of their wrist, their entire body shattered into streams of blue and red pixels.

They were gone.

We burst through the door of The Midnight Hearth, the warm light of the inn starkly contrasting with the chaos we’d just escaped. Lucien was panting heavily. His usual composure was gone.

I collapsed into a chair by the fireplace, my hands shaking as I tried to steady my breathing.

[ESCAPE SUCCESSFUL: CORRUPTION ZONE STABILIZED]

Lucien stood beside me, clutching the back of the chair for support. “My Lady… what just happened?”

I opened my menu, and my HUD still flickered faintly with error messages. The Demonic Dominion tab pulsed faintly, its contents still locked behind a cryptic requirement.

“I don’t know,” I said quietly. “But whoever that was knew something. About my class, about what I’ve become.”

Lucien frowned, his usual confidence replaced by concern. “You wield power that defies understanding, my Lady. But power without control is a curse.”

I stared at the flickering UNKNOWN tab in my inbox. A new message was waiting, but I couldn’t open it. Not yet.

The silence that followed was suffocating. My HUD slowly stabilized the flickering edges, calming into faint pulses of purple light.

Lucien stumbled to my side, clutching his bleeding arm, his face pale. “My Lady… are you unharmed?”

I nodded, my breath still ragged. “I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“I’ll live.”

Devon’s voice crackled through the party chat, tense. [Devon]: Kiera… are you there? I couldn’t get a connection for a second. Your HUD’s still flickering. I saw what you were fighting. That… that thing you fought—it wasn’t a normal player, was it?]

“No,” I said softly. “It wasn’t.”

My hands still trembled, and my HUD glitched faintly at the edges. My Demonic Dominion tab pulsed again, but I dared not open it.

Lucien leaned against the cracked tree trunk, breathing heavily. “My Lady… I fear this is only the beginning.”

I looked at the rune on the ground, now cracked and fading. The quest marker was gone, replaced by three faint dots in my HUD:

[AWAITING FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS FROM UNKNOWN…]

“We need answers,” I said softly.

[Devon]: Kiera, listen to me. Stay at the inn. Right now. I know someone who might be able to help. We’ll figure this out. Just… don’t touch anything else.

Lucien looked at me, his usual playful arrogance replaced with genuine worry.

“What now, my Lady?”

I hesitated, staring at the flickering edge of my HUD. The shadows coiling around my feet seemed to have a life of their own.

“Devon says we should stay at the inn.”

But even as I said it, I knew staying still wouldn’t work.

Something had started tonight. Something bigger than me, bigger than Devon, bigger than whatever that stranger was. And deep down, I already knew whatever it was wouldn’t wait quietly.