?Umbra walked through the darkness, one paw in front of the other, unafraid of the nothingness before her, for this was her domain.

The moment the people outside had passed through the door, they had entered the Shadow World that Umbra cast over the entire shop. She did so every night in case someone unwanted walked in.

Today, someone had.

She could tell it was not someone she knew, and so she walked on, going to meet them.

The Shadow world was large, almost unending. One could walk for thousands of meters here and barely take a single step outside.

Umbra could skim through this place too, like walking through a dream that one could control, forcing the world around her to succumb to her demands. But today she wanted to walk through.

Since she knew there was nobody important trapped inside, she could walk through without worrying about the people.

She had come to the Shadow World many a time, but even after all those times, this place still surprised her deep to her core. How could such a fascinating place exist?

Before meeting Ning, she was used to a technique that she learned from the memories carved into her blood. A technique that was called Shadow Leap.

Using the technique would allow one person to leap from one shadow to another. But to do so, one had to first plunge into a shadow, and drown in the darkness with no sound, sight, or even air to breathe.

Then, one would have to concentrate on the shadows around them and look through them to see where they could come out from. Every time Umbra used that technique, she remembered the feeling of dread that came with the sudden lack of… everything.

However, with Shadow World, there was no such problem. She no longer sank endlessly, she could see, hear, and smell everything in the air, and most importantly, she could hold a calm mind and not worry about dying inside.

She knew very well that if she didn’t come out from the shadows during Shadow Leap, she would die inside of it. This one was fortunately different.

A bright light shined far in the distance, glowing bright and brighter. People were running frantically to find the end in an endless world. After running for a while, a group appeared close to her.

Even close, they couldn’t see her. She was the lord of Shadows in this world, and it obeyed her commands to hide her until she was much closer.

She walked, step by step. She could smell sweat in the air, odors of humans. She didn’t remember how long it had been since she tasted bare flesh. And from the memories carved into her, she knew human flesh tasted better than most.

She arrived next to the group and grabbed onto one before immediately moving a large distance away. She could hear the crowd panic and search for their friends while hearing the scream of that friend fade in her mouth as he was crushed into mince beneath her teeth.

The taste was just as remarkable as her memories said it would be. She savored the flavor of the dead man and then went for another.

Another and another and another.

By the time she was done eating the fourth one, the remaining three were fighting each other, claiming that they were doing something. Umbra watched the men kill each other out of sheer paranoia and then went ahead to eat the last remaining man. Googl search ovel(ꜰ)re.nt

The charred skin gave a certain flavor to the human flesh, but she didn’t like it as much. She couldn’t understand why the humans liked their meat cooked. Raw meat picked off the bone was so much better after all.

She continued walking through her domain, arriving in front of another group. This time, she didn’t try hiding herself. She pounced immediately, jumping on a man who couldn’t turn around in time to protect himself.

He entered her mouth and was dead within seconds. The others ran away in terror. Some turned around to attack with their weapons and techniques to buy themselves time, but that wouldn’t work in the world of her shadows.

Shadows swirled around the figures that ran away, catching them in their clutches, and holding them to the spot. The ones caught cried, screamed, and used every ability in them to try and escape, but to no avail.

Slowly, they were picked off one by one as that group died as well.

Umbra was large in body, so she could still eat a lot more. In fact, she wanted to eat a lot more. Humans were tasty. It was time to hunt for some more.

7 groups had entered the shop, nearly 45 humans. They had scattered early on and were frantically running around to find a way to escape.

Umbra could see where they were now and moved toward them.

Another group fell to her, and then another. She didn’t eat everyone, but she ate enough that she was starting to get used to the taste of humans. The excellence of the initial bites was no longer there.

She felt no more thrill in hunting them. It was time to kill them all.

Shadow encroached from all around the Shadow World, a thick mist of blackness darting for the bodies of all men with thick spikes.

Paul stared around with the bright orb of light floating in between them and knew their death had come.

Spikes of shadow pierced through everyone. Head, chest, stomach, arm, legs; nothing was missed. Pain filled the lot of them, terrible pain. However, as soon as the pain came, it went away quicker.

For death had come for them, and the sweet embrace took all the pain away.

Umbra remained alone in the Shadow World, every other existence dead and discarded. They would remain here for a while, and she would have to get rid of them when she had the time.

For now, it was time to go back to her—

She paused and turned around.

Someone strong had just entered the shop and into her world.