Shadow Ascendance

Winter came early to Ethren Village. Bitter winds howled between stone buildings, carrying the first snowflakes of the season. Children huddled together in the village square, their ceremonial robes offering little protection against the cold. All except one.

Kriel stood apart from the group, wrapped in threadbare rags that hung from his skeletal frame. His hollow eyes watched the proceedings with an unnatural calm that made even the adults uncomfortable.

The Awakening ceremony occurred once each year when children turned six. A sacred ritual where the chosen received their Astral Marks, determining their place in the world's hierarchy.

[System: Initiating Mass Scan]

[Candidates Present: 31]

[Compatibility Analysis Beginning]

The notifications appeared in everyone's vision—a standard feature of their world's magic system. But where others saw soothing blue text, Kriel's blazed crimson. Even the system recognized him as different.

Elder Varun ascended the ancient stone platform, his pristine white robes billowing in the wind. The Astral Staff in his hands pulsed with golden light, each beat sending ripples of power through the square.

"Today," his voice carried across the gathering, enhanced by celestial magic, "we separate the worthy from the weak. The chosen from the forgotten. Step forward, children of destiny."

One by one, children approached the platform. Golden light would envelop them, and marks of power would appear on their skin. Fire, water, earth, wind each element choosing its vessels but some chosen received special abilities for beyond mere elements. Parents cheered, futures were secured, and social hierarchies crystallized in moments.

Kriel watched each Awakening with predatory focus. His gaze lingered on the marks as they formed, studying their patterns with an intensity that made the newly-blessed children shrink away.

[Processing Candidate: Kriel]

[Warning: Anomaly Detected]

[Celestial Resonance: NULL]

[Ethereal Attunement: ERROR]

[Status: Calculating...]

When his turn came, silence fell over the square. Elder Varun's lip curled in disgust as Kriel approached, his bare feet leaving bloody prints in the snow. No one had bothered to give him shoes.

The golden light from the Elder's staff reached for Kriel and vanished. Not gradually, not with a flash, but as if it had never existed. A void appeared where the light touched his skin, invisible to others but burning in Kriel's awareness like a brand.

[Hidden System Activated]

[Void Walker Path Detected]

[Warning: This path leads to damnation]

[Accept destiny? Y/N]

Elder Varun's face paled. In six hundred years of recorded ceremonies, the light had never failed like this. It had either marked or rejected, never... vanished.

"Markless," the Elder pronounced, but his voice trembled slightly. "Remove this... thing from the sacred ground."

The crowd's reaction was immediate. Mothers pulled their children away, fathers spat on the ground, and the newly-marked children sneered with their first taste of superiority.

"Look at him," one child whispered loudly to another. "He's nothing but a beggar."

"Yeah! He doesn't even have a mark!" another laughed cruelly.

But they couldn't see what Kriel saw:

[Initial Status:

- Physical Condition: Critical

- Mental Fortitude: SSS

- Void Affinity: Immeasurable

- Current Threat Level: Negligible]

[Special Condition Unlocked: Pain Enhancement]

[Each instance of suffering increases void resonance]

[Current Progress: 0.01%]

Snow fell heavier now, but Kriel didn't feel the cold. His fingers traced the invisible void mark on his skin, and for the first time in his short life, he smiled. It wasn't a child's smile. It was the expression of something ancient awakening something that remembered when the world was dark and cold and void of light.

"Why do you smile?" a girl asked him with a mix of fear and curiosity as she stepped closer despite her parents' warnings to stay away.

"Because I am free," Kriel replied softly, his voice barely above a whisper yet filled with conviction that resonated deep within him.

"Free? You're nothing!" she shot back defensively but couldn't hide her intrigue as she continued to watch him closely.

Kriel's smile widened slightly as he met her gaze directly. "You'll see one day," he said cryptically before turning back to watch Elder Varun dismiss him with a wave of his hand.

"Get out!" Varun barked again with more authority this time as if Kriel's very presence sullied the sacred ground beneath them.

Kriel took a step back but did not leave immediately; instead, he stood tall amidst their disdainful looks and whispered insults that flew around him like arrows seeking flesh to pierce.

"I will show you all," he murmured under his breath as he turned slowly away from them his heart thrumming with newfound purpose amidst chaos swirling around him like a storm waiting patiently for its moment to strike!

[Quest Alert: Survive and Evolve]

[Reward: First Evolution Step]

[Time Limit: None]

[Accept? Y/N]

"Y," Kriel whispered.

The world shuddered, though none felt it but him. In that moment, as the crowd dispersed and the blessed children were led away to begin their privileged lives, a contract was sealed. The void had found its vessel, and Kriel had found his purpose.

Years of torment lay ahead. He would be beaten, starved, and cursed. But each moment of pain would feed the void within. Each humiliation would strengthen his resolve. Each curse would become a prophecy of vengeance.

For now, he was weak Markless despised.

But the void was patient.

And Kriel had all the time in the world to become a monster.

[System Log: Anomaly has begun integration]

[Warning: Reality distortions detected]

[The path of the Void Walker has been established]

[All future outcomes recalculating...]

The ceremony ended as the sun set, painting the snow blood-red. Kriel remained in the square, his small shadow stretching impossibly long across the crimson snow. Above, stars began to fade as if something vast and dark had opened its eyes.

As he turned to leave, he overheard snippets of conversation among some villagers lingering nearby.

"Did you see how Varun looked at him?" one man said quietly but loud enough for Kriel to hear. "It's like he's cursed."

"Cursed or not," another replied disdainfully, "he'll bring misfortune upon us all."

Kriel clenched his fists at their words but remained silent; anger bubbled within him like molten lava ready to erupt at any moment yet tempered by an understanding that he needed patience now more than ever before!

"Better keep your distance," an older woman warned her child who glanced curiously back at Kriel before being pulled away sharply by her mother's hand gripping tightly onto her arm while casting fearful glances over her shoulder toward him an instinctive reaction bred from generations steeped deep within tradition passed down through time immemorial!

"Let them think what they want," Kriel muttered under his breath as he walked away from them into deeper shadows where no one dared follow where only darkness awaited patiently until summoned forth into light shining bright illuminating path ahead guiding way forward toward future brighter than ever imagined possible before now!

The hunt would soon begin...