I didn’t know what was coming. I didn’t know what this would mean, but I felt that my journey was just beginning. The journey to save Melissa. The journey to discover the price of the power I had just accepted.

The darkness around me was absolute, as if the night itself had extended into me. I couldn’t feel my body, and everything was still. There was no sound except for the distant echo of the storm that seemed to have become part of me. The fury of the wind, the roar of the waves — it was all now inside my mind. It was as if the very chaos of the world was dissolving into a deep void, and I found myself lost in that endless abyss.

But then, a sensation began to grow within me. It wasn’t physical, but something else, something I couldn’t yet comprehend. I couldn’t move, but it felt like a presence, a strange energy, was infiltrating my being. Something I didn’t recognize, but at the same time, it felt as if it had always been there, waiting for the right moment to manifest.

That’s when I looked up at the dark sky above me and noticed something strange. My right eye, which had once been a light brown, began to slowly fade, as if it were being consumed by an invisible shadow. The color shifted, disappearing to be replaced by a deep black, the darkest black I had ever seen. It wasn’t just a physical change. I felt the Black Eye pulsating, as if it had finally been awakened completely. It was no longer just a distorted image of me in the mirror — it was something real, alive, conscious, and hungry.

My body trembled as that energy passed through me like burning poison. My skin, once soft and familiar, now felt as though it was hardening, as if a higher power was shaping my form. I felt stronger, more powerful, as though the weight of the world was nothing in the face of my new shape. But this power didn’t come without a cost.

A sharp pain ripped through my mind when a voice echoed in my subconscious. It was cold, empty, but carried an undeniable authority:

— You asked for power. Now, the contract is sealed!

I struggled against it, trying to hold on to who I was. Melissa. I was doing this for her. To save her. But the more I clung to this thought, the more the voice seemed to laugh, as if my desire were a fragile joke in the face of that vast power.

My hair, which had once been red, began to darken slowly, until it became as black as the darkness around me. It floated, no longer as loose strands, but as if being pulled by an invisible force, a force that seemed to connect me to something beyond my understanding. I was no longer in control. Something, or someone, was taking the reins.

Stolen novel; please report.

And then, the tattoo appeared. It started as a thin line on my skin, but soon it spread, covering my body like a dark mantle, intensifying with each second. From where it originated, a dense shadow emanated, as if it were the reflection of an evil power. And at the center of it all, the Black Eye burned with a dark, pulsating light in my right eye, as if it had finally broken free from its chains.

Inside my subconscious, a terrifying vision began to form. A tall, imposing figure, wrapped in dense shadows, with long dark-red hair floating in the air, as if defying the laws of gravity. Its eyes were deep, empty, and seemed to carry death in their essence. But what terrified me the most was its right eye — the very Black Eye that now burned within me.

The figure raised its hand toward me, and I felt my heart tighten. It was as if it were calling me, trying to drag me into an abyss from which there would be no return.

— Who are you? — My voice sounded weak, almost inaudible.

The figure smiled, but it wasn’t a human smile. It was something predatory, hungry.

— I am the one who has always been watching you in the shadows of your soul, in the fear of your heart, in the fleeting thoughts of a pathetic being, and even in the darkest nightmares within you. And now, Zarte, the contract is sealed, and I have awakened.

Suddenly, the figure lunged toward me, and I felt as if I were being pulled into it. My mind was flooded with visions — cities in flames, bodies fallen amidst chaos, and at the center of it all, me. Or something that looked like me, but was no longer human. A monster, with the Black Eye shining like a beacon of destruction.

— You wish for power to save Melissa, but... are you willing to lose your soul? — The voice of the entity echoed again, but this time, there was a tone of curiosity, as if it were testing me.

I trembled, fighting against that dominion, but doubt began to seep into my heart. What if I became something Melissa would never recognize? What if, in trying to save her, I was only condemning myself to a worse fate?

The storm around me continued to grow in intensity. The thunder sounded like the screams of a cosmic rage, and the sea seemed to want to swallow me at any moment. But I no longer feared it. I was no longer the Zarte who had felt the weight of helplessness, the one who had begged for power.

But deep down, an uncomfortable truth pulsed in my heart: What if, in order to save Melissa, I was becoming something she could never recognize?

I didn’t fully understand what was happening. I didn’t know if something else was waiting for me or if I was destined to be consumed by this new entity inside me. But there was one thing I knew for sure: my journey, the journey that started with the simple quest for power to save Melissa, had now taken a different turn. I had released something much greater than I had imagined. And now, there was no turning back.

I was about to discover what the true cost of all of this would be.