Soulbound: Dual Cultivation

At first light, when the sky was only just beginning to pale and the shadows still clung stubbornly to the edges of the town, Lucas and his group moved. There were no loud preparations, no drawn-out goodbyes, only quiet efficiency and the kind of silence that came from knowing exactly what lay ahead. The streets were still, the enforced curfew not yet fully lifted, and that brief window between night and day gave them just enough cover to slip away unnoticed.

They exited the building one after the other, keeping low, their movements controlled as they blended into the lingering dimness, Patrick taking point almost immediately, his senses already stretched ahead, scanning for any early patrols or hidden movement. Tom followed close behind Lucas, the others falling into position without needing to be told, their formation tight, disciplined, and ready.

Cecilia, Flora, and Gwen stood just inside the doorway as they prepared to leave, the three of them watching in silence at first, as though committing the moment to memory, because they all knew that once Lucas stepped out, what he was walking into would not be simple, and there was no certainty in when or how he would return.

Lucas paused just outside, turning back to face them, his expression calm but firm, his voice low so it would not carry beyond them. "We'll be back," he said.

Cecilia stepped forward slightly, her eyes fixed on him. "You don't have to say it if you're not sure," she replied quietly.

Lucas held her gaze. "I am," he said.

There was no hesitation in his tone.

He continued, his voice steady. "We'll see Valerion first. We confirm everything. And when we return…" he paused briefly, "…we come back for Isabelle and Sage Raph."

Flora gave a small nod, her expression calm but carrying a quiet hope. Gwen stood beside her, her hands clasped together, her eyes reflecting both fear and trust at the same time.

Cecilia looked at him for a moment longer, then stepped closer, her voice softer now. "Then come back alive," she said.

Lucas gave a faint nod. "That's the plan."

There was nothing more to add.

He turned without another word, signaling the group forward, and they moved, slipping into the fading darkness of the early morning, leaving the town behind them as they headed toward Valerion.

Toward the capital buried beneath the Abyss.

Toward answers.

And toward whatever waited in the darkness.

Less than a day later, after moving with relentless pace, the group finally reached the outer stretches of Valerion's territory, and even before the capital itself came into full view, they felt it.

The air changed first.

It grew heavier, thicker, as though something unseen pressed down on the land, muting the natural flow of life, dulling even the wind that moved across the plains. The further they went, the more pronounced it became, until conversation itself died without needing to be silenced, each of them instinctively aware that they were approaching something far beyond ordinary danger.

Then they saw it.

From miles away, before the walls of the capital could even be clearly distinguished, the Abyss revealed itself, stretching across the horizon like a living nightmare. It loomed above Valerion, vast and suffocating, a mass of swirling darkness that devoured the sky itself, blotting out light and casting an unnatural shadow over everything beneath it. It did not look like clouds, nor mist, nor anything natural, but something deeper, something that seemed to move with intent, slow and oppressive, as if it were breathing.

No sunlight pierced through it.

No warmth escaped it.

The capital of Valerion was buried beneath it entirely.

Tom let out a low breath, his voice barely above a whisper. "That's… not something we just walk into."

Patrick didn't respond immediately, his eyes fixed on the sight ahead, his usual composure tightening slightly. "It's worse than I imagined," he said quietly.

One of the others shifted uneasily. "How is anyone even alive in there?"

Lucas said nothing at first.

He stood at the front, his gaze locked onto the Abyss, his expression unreadable, but his mind was already moving, calculating, analyzing, because this was no longer just confirmation of what they had been told. This was something far more severe, far more dangerous than any report could have conveyed.

The Abyss was not just covering the capital.

It was consuming it.

Lucas took a slow breath, his voice calm when he finally spoke, though the weight behind it was undeniable. "We move closer," he said. "But carefully. We don't rush this."

No one argued.

Because as they stood there, staring at the unnatural darkness swallowing an entire city.

They all understood.

This was no longer just a rescue mission.

It was a descent into something far worse.

They advanced slowly after that, every step measured, every movement deliberate, as the land beneath their feet grew more lifeless the closer they drew to the capital, the grass thinning, the soil darker, the very air carrying that same faint corruption Lucas had noticed back in the town, only stronger now, more concentrated, more oppressive.

No one spoke.

Even Tom, who usually had something to say no matter the situation, remained quiet, his eyes fixed ahead, his instincts warning him that whatever lay beneath that darkness was not something to provoke carelessly.

They stopped at a distance that felt safe enough, far enough that the Abyss did not fully press down on them, yet close enough to observe, and from there, the scale of it became even more terrifying. The black mass above the capital churned slowly, like a storm that had no intention of passing, its edges shifting and folding into itself, swallowing what little light dared approach it. The walls of Valerion were barely visible beneath, faint outlines swallowed in shadow, as though the city itself had been erased from the world.

Lucas narrowed his eyes slightly.

And then he felt it.

Not the Abyss itself.

Something within it.

His body stilled almost instantly, a subtle but unmistakable shift that Patrick noticed immediately. "What is it?" he asked quietly.

Lucas didn't take his eyes off the darkness above the capital. "It's there," he said.

Patrick's expression hardened. "What is?"

Lucas's voice lowered slightly, more serious now. "The shadow dragon."

The words settled heavily.

Tom's grip tightened slightly. "You're sure?"

Lucas nodded faintly. "I can feel it," he said. "Its aura… it hasn't left the Abyss."

There was a brief silence as that sank in.

Patrick exhaled slowly. "So that thing is still alive… and it's inside that?"

Lucas didn't respond immediately, but his gaze remained fixed, his senses stretching carefully, cautiously, just enough to confirm without provoking, because he knew something the others didn't fully grasp yet.

That creature was not something you casually approached.

And more importantly…It was not something you alerted.

Lucas took a slow step back. "We don't go any closer," he said firmly. "Not yet."

Tom frowned slightly. "You think it'll notice us?"

Lucas finally looked at him. "If it does," he said calmly, "we won't make it back out."

That was enough.

No one questioned him after that.

They remained where they were, watching from a distance, observing, thinking, because whatever plan they were going to make next…It had to account for the fact that the Abyss was not empty. It was guarded.

Lucas stood there in silence, his eyes fixed on the suffocating darkness that had swallowed the capital whole, and for the first time since they arrived, his thoughts drifted beyond strategy, beyond scouting, beyond the mission itself, and settled on the people trapped beneath it.

Civilians.

Families.

Children.

People who had no power, no understanding of what was happening, no way to defend themselves against something like that.

His jaw tightened slowly.

He tried to picture it, what it must be like inside, beneath that endless black sky, where no sunlight reached, where the air itself was likely thick with corruption, where fear would spread faster than any army ever could. Streets that once held life now drowned in silence or chaos, homes turned into prisons, and above it all, that monstrous presence lingering, watching, waiting.

And the shadow dragon…

Lucas exhaled quietly, his chest tightening slightly as the image formed more clearly in his mind, the same creature he had barely survived now looming over an entire city, its presence alone enough to crush weaker minds, its inferno capable of devouring anything it touched.

"It's a nightmare…" one of the men muttered under his breath, unable to hold it in.

Lucas didn't respond to that.

Because it wasn't just a nightmare.

It was reality for those people.

His eyes hardened, a quiet anger settling beneath his calm exterior, not explosive, not reckless, but controlled, focused, the kind that didn't burn out quickly but instead stayed, steady and cold.

"They didn't deserve this," he said finally, his voice low.

No one argued.

Because there was nothing to argue.

Valerion had taken a hit, yes.

But this…

This was beyond war.