Though small, even one of Them could drain his Shadow in less than a minute. Dozens were going to reach him in a handful of seconds. Hundreds, likely thousands, had formed and were coming in from far afield. The clumps of entangled, merging groups were scattered here and there and everywhere as they mindlessly closed in and inevitably began to encounter one another. None of that matter, because even if none of Them were there, he was going to die. Of this, he was supremely confident.

Based one what? No experience he could recall having. No special insight or knowledge. No voice speaking to him. Based on some unfounded instinct? Based on animal fear, if such a thing applied to his wraith-like existence?

Yes. Yes to both. Rather, though, the instinct was not entirely unfounded. His Shadow visibly rippled with increasingly violent waves, resonances building and shifting and creating chaotic peaks and valleys interlaced with an eerie stillness for a brief pause which was still latent with the sensation of a monstrous amount of energy. Mana continued to drain, drain, drain from his core. It was shocking, actually, how much had drained. Half of everything he’d added to it since the first time it was filled was trapped in an infinite loop of absolute maddening energy within the distorted Arcane Spark spell.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

One way or another, it would be released. Given how he could feel with the metaphorical fingers of whatever part of his mind touched and moved Mana, that the modified section of the spell was about to splinter apart… well, it seemed like he could see the avenue it would go. Most of the spell was not even energized. Sitting dormant. Waiting. The only thing he was confident of was that the Mana had taken on a flavor that was both lightning and not. Hotter, more potent, yet far less controlled. Even closer to pure Chaos than it had been prior to the change.

A mistake! He again berated himself internally for forcing the pairing. The Artifact hadn’t felt like it would combine neatly! The spell was already inherently volatile, it didn’t need to be more volatile! Then after he’d managed to make them merge, he’d just cast it. In the same step, he’d cast away whatever facsimile of life he had been clinging to in this forsaken world hell bent on sucking away his very existence.

He felt one of Them touch his Shadow. The brief, momentary feeling of it consuming a piece of him against his will. Then?

Absolute blinding light.

When it cleared? Instants or seconds or minutes later? When whatever had occurred had done its do to completion? When that passed, he blinked, or tried and failed to blink, as the greyscale came back into vision.

Then the wave of Chaos and Shadow slammed into him, blocking his senses once again.