SHADOW BEFORE CREATION

Darkness of the Heart

With those words, a black portal opened in the heart of the sky, its edges twisting as though they were the mouth of a hungry beast.

Arthur almost rushed toward it immediately, but his body suddenly stopped.

He took a deep breath… then turned back.

"Sung, do you have something like a spatial storage device? A storage ring, a necklace, anything like that."

Sung did not ask why. He simply nodded and quickly began searching while Arthur stared at the portal suspended above them, as though it were watching him with mocking patience.

After a few moments, Sung returned, holding a simple black necklace.

"This necklace works on the same principle… You could consider it a storage necklace."

"Thank you, Sung."

Arthur took it, but just as he was about to move, he heard Sung's voice behind him.

"Arthur… wait a minute."

He stopped and turned around.

"What?"

Sung lowered his voice and bowed his head slightly.

"I… I'm sorry. I know an apology won't change anything, and it won't bring Rath back, but… I'm truly sorry."

Arthur looked at him for several seconds, then smiled calmly and placed his hand on Sung's shoulder.

"Sung, my brother…

This isn't your fault. Believe me, if it were your fault, you wouldn't be breathing right now."

He said it in a lightly sarcastic tone, as though the matter meant nothing to him.

But Sung could feel it.

The anger.

A dark, dense, merciless anger was boiling from Arthur's body like a bottomless black sea.

What's happening to you, Arthur…?

In the span of a single second, his body disappeared.

---

"Where are you, you damned bastard?!"

Arthur's roar echoed through an ancient, dark forest.

Twisted black trees, suffocating air, and darkness so thick it could almost be touched.

He stood before a deep cave, its mouth open like a grave.

{My father is inside.}

A soft feminine voice emerged from the darkness. Then, a nearly naked woman appeared, smiling with false gentleness as she pointed toward the depths of the cave.

Arthur did not answer.

He entered immediately.

He walked… and walked… yet the end never seemed to draw any closer.

Damn… am I going in circles?

He stopped.

He calmly closed his eyes.

"Darkness Perception."

He moved the darkness energy within his body and directed it toward his eyes.

His eyes turned into absolute blackness, with a glowing vertical red line running through their centers.

"So… you were deceiving me within the darkness."

{Hehehehehe…}

Atlach-Nacha's daughter laughed as she clung to the ceiling of the cave like a spider.

{If you want to see my father, you must—}

She did not finish.

Sacred light erupted from Arthur's body, violently sweeping through the cave.

"I don't have time for this bullshit."

He pressed against the ground beneath his feet, leaped forward, and seized her by the neck with one hand.

A horrifying sound of bones breaking… followed by silence.

He threw her corpse aside and continued walking.

With every step, the cave trembled.

"Damn you, Nasha… Come out and face your death!"

Then—

A voice.

"Father… please run."

Arthur froze.

Rath's voice… frightened… trembling.

He turned around quickly, his eyes blazing with heavenly fury…

Then the light faded.

He saw his son.

Six arms.

A distorted, animal-like face.

Eight eyes, with tentacles rising from the top of his head.

"Fath… fatherrrr… ruuunn…"

His voice trembled, weak and frail, as though every word were breaking apart as it left his mouth.

Atlach-Nacha's daughter—the one who should have been dead—stood beside him, smiling arrogantly.

"Rath…"

His son's name escaped Arthur's lips like a whimper.

His power faded completely.

He lowered his defenses.

He took one step forward… then another.

"Rath… is that really you?"

He knelt before him.

Rath's body was about the size of a large cat.

Arthur slowly extended his hands, with a gentleness that contradicted the storm raging within him, and placed his palm against his son's face, covered in empty hollows.

"Rath… I'm your father."

Rath's body trembled slightly, then rested his head against his father's hand.

He closed his eyes… and became still.

"Rath?"

"…"

"Rath… please… not you too…

I beg you… don't do this…"

Arthur embraced him, his body trembling.

He broke down in tears.

"Please wake up…

I wasn't a good father… Please don't leave me…"

But it was useless.

Rath had not died by being killed.

Rather… he had committed suicide.

Atlach-Nacha, God of Spiders, the One Who Wanders in the Darkness.

Those who survived his poison would become his children… spiders like him.

But his children possessed a special ability:

They could transform between humans and spiders.

However, the transformation could not be completed without one final step.

Eating their parent.

Rath had to eat Arthur for his transformation to be complete.

Every instinct within him screamed for him to do it.

Every sense urged him to devour his prey.

But when he saw his father's face…

His small heart trembled.

{{I will not be the cause of his death…

And I will not cause him pain.}}

He chose the harsher path.

He shut down the core of power within his body…

And destroyed his organs from the inside.

"I love you, Father…

And I beg you… don't stop… keep going until you reach your dream."

Those were his final words.

His body evaporated as the transformation failed.

Arthur sat in the darkness, staring at his empty hands.

Nothing remained…

Except those words.

{He resisted my father's poison…

He could have been a wonderful brother to me.

But unfortunately, he chose you over my great father.

What a truly unfortunate thing.}

Atlach-Nacha's daughter spoke mockingly.

She approached and stood beside him, then whispered softly into his ear:

{To be honest…

I was hoping he would die.

I am my father's only daughter… and I want nothing else.}

----

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