A NEW BEGINNING IN ANOTHER WORLD WITH MY SHADOW ARSENAL SYSTEM

His eyes locked onto mine the instant I rounded that corner. A predator recognizing prey. He abandoned his victim—left her broken and bleeding in that godforsaken alley—and stalked after me with the patience of a hunting wolf.

I ran. gods help me, I ran. But the maze of backstreets had become my tomb, every turn leading deeper into his web until brick walls rose around me like prison bars. When his shadow fell across my escape route, I knew the hunt was over.

He smiled. The kind of smile that strips flesh from bone.

Elsa's voice fractured, each word dragging up from some bottomless well of buried terror. Her fists trembled—not with weakness, but with the effort of keeping the darkness contained.

"He whispered that he'd 'show me pleasure' before sending me to join his collection. Said he'd been watching me for weeks—learning my routines, my habits, waiting for the perfect moment when no one would hear me scream."

Drake's knuckles drained of all color, the bones threatening to tear through skin.

"He shredded my dress like paper. Told me that if I made even the slightest sound, he'd open my throat and watch me drown in my own blood. Then he pinned me to that brick wall and..."

Her voice died to a whisper that barely disturbed the air.

"...forced my legs apart."

The temperature plummeted. Even the ever-grinning Bronns had gone silent, his usual smirk withering into something hollow. The very walls seemed to lean in, as if the building itself held its breath.

"I thought I was already dead. Just another broken thing for the morning patrol to scrape off the cobblestones."

Tears carved silver tracks down her cheeks.

"When I stopped fighting, when my spirit finally shattered... he tasted me. His tongue on my skin like a slug's trail. I could feel his arousal pressing against me through his clothes—this sick, throbbing thing that wanted to tear me apart from the inside."

Drake's jaw locked so tight his teeth might have cracked.

"He couldn't contain himself anymore. Freed himself right there, this grotesque weapon he'd used to destroy so many others. Pinned my arms above my head and stared down at me in that cold moonlight... like I was meat. Like I was nothing."

The words came faster now, tumbling over each other in their desperate need to escape.

"I thrashed against him with everything I had left, but he was impossibly strong. I could feel him positioning himself, ready to split me open—and that's when the panic truly hit. I screamed. Not words, not pleas—just pure, animal terror ripped from my lungs."

"Then his fist connected with my skull and the world went black."

Her breath hitched, caught between past and present.

"As consciousness slipped away, I saw her through the haze—a figure in mage's robes moving through the shadows. Somehow, impossibly, she'd heard my cry across that maze of stone and mortar."

"When I came to, Havoc was using me as his shield, my throat pressed against his blade. The mage couldn't risk a killing blow with me in her line of fire... but then I saw it. His dagger, still slick with his previous victim's blood."

Elsa's eyes hardened to flint.

"My mind crystallized with perfect, cold clarity. I reached for that blade—and I severed the very thing he'd used to terrorize so many innocents."

"One clean cut. I castrated the monster who'd made countless families weep, who'd stolen the light from so many girls' eyes."

"His scream could have shattered glass. The agony doubled him over and I rolled clear—just as the mage's spell turned him into a smear against the brick."

"She approached with the gentlest smile I'd ever seen... I collapsed against her robes, sobbing not from joy but from the crushing weight of what I'd had to become. I'd ended his reign of terror... but I'd also carved away part of my own soul in the process."

"The Solar Knights arrived. They dragged away what was left of him. The girl he'd been attacking survived. I was returned to my parents like a damaged package."

"Father demanded immediate execution. Mother tried to heal what couldn't be healed with soft words and warm embraces. But I was... fractured. Barely able to comprehend how close I'd come to complete annihilation."

"Word spread like wildfire through the kingdom. My name became synonymous with survival and vengeance in equal measure."

"So I fled. Convinced father that travel would forge me into something stronger... and perhaps, if I stayed away long enough, the whispers would fade to memory."

"He agreed, desperate to see his broken daughter become whole again. Years passed. My Echoform awakened—a mage type, just like the woman who'd saved me. Destiny or coincidence, I've never decided."

"Three years of brutal training. Three years of transforming weakness into weapon. And then I returned... to be the shield this kingdom never had."

A single tear traced her jawline as she finished.

"That's the blood-soaked history between Havoc and me."

Havoc's laughter erupted like broken glass, his eyes dancing with malicious delight.

"Magnificent! I wondered if that little girl's memories had survived the trauma. Even without recognizing my face, you remembered every... intimate... detail."

His voice dripped with poisonous satisfaction.

"All these years, I assumed you were rotting in some asylum or had taken your own life from the shame. But here you stand... still breathing my air."

Elsa's glare could have melted steel. "Haven't you butchered enough innocents? How many more families need to bury their daughters?"

Drake stood paralyzed, pieces of a horrific puzzle clicking into place with sickening clarity.

*This is the truth behind her smile... the wounds she's been hiding beneath that brave facade.*

The Bronn thug leered. "So what's the play here, Havoc?"

Elsa retreated a step, but her stance remained defiant.

Havoc's voice turned arctic. "When I clawed my way out of that prison, you became my obsession—the brat who unmanned me. I didn't possess an Echoform then, but pure hatred has a way of awakening dark gifts. When I discovered you'd fled the kingdom, my rage crystallized into something beautiful."

His smile became surgical in its precision.

"I swore an oath to find you... and destroy everything you hold sacred, just as you destroyed me.

Since the Solar Knights proved incompetent... I'll finish what they started."Elsa said her eyes glowing faintly

Elsa raised her hand, power crackling between her fingers. "I'm not that helpless child anymore. I'll send you to hell myself."

Havoc's laughter turned hysterical. "What will you do? Cast pretty lights at me? You're still the same pathetic, mewling victim from that alley."

The Bronn cackled his agreement.

Drake's teeth ground audibly. "This psychotic bastard... I want to cave in his skull so badly my hands are shaking."

*But they're both blind to what she's become. Elsa isn't the broken girl from their shared nightmare—she's been reforged in fires they can't imagine. Honestly, I almost pity the monster's manhood. But for the atrocities he's committed... hell is too good for him.*

"Show them what a gorilla noble can do!" Drake shouted, immediately regretting his word choice.

Elsa's death glare could have carved stone.

Drake swallowed hard. "Uh... sorry?"

"Havoc..." Elsa's voice carried the weight of avalanches. "I'm not who I used to be. I've become the shadow of my former self."

The words hit Drake like lightning to the spine.

*A shadow of her old self... That's everything I've ever wanted to become. Look at her—she's already achieved what I've only dreamed of.*

"FLUFFBUN! PHASE SHIFT!"

Light exploded... then faded to reveal nothing.

"Fluffbun?" Confusion cracked her composure. "I called for Phase Shift—where are you?!"

A muffled whimper echoed from beneath a pile of debris.

"I'm coming!" Elsa dove toward the sound, frantically tossing aside chunks of stone and fashion debris until she uncovered her starry-eyed Echoform, trembling like a leaf.

Havoc's laughter turned savage. "Pathetic! For a moment, I almost believed you'd evolved beyond that sniveling child."

"End this charade now," the bronn snarled. "Before she frees that useless furball."

"My pleasure," Havoc purred, his cannon humming to life with malevolent energy. "Time to repay an old debt... with interest."

"I'll paint that wall with what's left of you. Nothing but blood and pulverized bone."

The weapon's core blazed like a miniature sun.

TWOOOOP!

THUUUUMPPP!

A sphere of condensed destruction erupted from the barrel, trailing smoke and the promise of obliteration.

Drake and Elsa's eyes widened in perfect synchronization.

*I can't dodge it. Too fast, too close,* Elsa's mind screamed as terror froze her limbs. *Is this how it ends? Has all my training... been worthless?*

She squeezed her eyes shut, awaiting annihilation.

*Please... just like before... someone save me...*

Drake's heart detonated in his chest.

*Elsa...*

He launched himself forward with inhuman speed.

*Who would save someone as weak as me...?* Elsa's tears fell like rain.

TUFFFF!

THUUUUD!

"AHHHHHH!!"

Elsa's eyes snapped open. The world tilted sideways.

"D-Drake?!"

He stood between her and death itself—blood fountaining from a crater in his chest where the blast had punched clean through. His arms spread wide in perfect protection.

"Are... you okay...?" Blood painted his lips crimson, but his smile remained steady.

"Yes, but you—!"

He collapsed into her arms like a falling angel.

"DRAKE!!"

The bronn snorted dismissively. "What an idiot. Taking a cannon blast for some girl. He's finished."

"Silence," Havoc growled, but his eyes remained fixed on the unfolding drama.

Elsa cradled Drake's head, her hands coming away slick with blood. "Why... why would you do something so reckless?"

Drake's smile never wavered, even as life leaked from his wounds.

"Because... I told you not to cry. Your face is far too beautiful for tears."

"You impossible fool! How can you flirt when you're *dying*?!" Elsa shouted, her cheeks burning despite everything.

"Says the one who's blushing, gorilla noble..." Drake chuckled, blood speckling his lips.

"Don't call me that!" Elsa huffed—then smiled through her tears, unable to maintain anger at a dying man.

"I'm so sorry, Drake... this is all my fault. If I hadn't—"

Drake raised a trembling, blood-slicked hand to her cheek.

"Hey. I'm not dead yet."

"What do you mean?! You're dying!" Panic cracked her voice.

"Just... calm down and watch."

Drake winked with infuriating, impossible confidence.

The air itself seemed to fracture.

"SHADOW LOTUS TECHNIQUE... LIMIT BREAK: OBLIVION STRIKE!!"

Reality screamed.

From pure darkness materialized a figure wrapped in shadow so dense it bent light around him—the real Drake, moving with the fluid inevitability of death itself. His fist, wreathed in shadow energy that devoured illumination, drove forward like a meteor carved from concentrated annihilation.

Time dilated. The world held its breath.

WHAAAAAM!!

The impact landed with the force of a thousand trucks. Bone met shadow-enhanced flesh in a collision that shattered the laws of physics. The sound transcended mere noise—it was the death cry of the universe itself.

SLAM! CRASH! BOOOOOOM!!

Havoc's body became a projectile of flesh and regret, carving through obstacles like they were constructed from morning mist. SMASH! through the first wall—wood exploding into splinters. CRACK! through the second—stone crumbling like aged parchment. SHATTER through the third—steel bending and screaming as it tore.

Blood erupted from Havoc's mouth mid-flight, his eyes rolling back as consciousness abandoned him entirely.

RUMBLE! CRASH! THUD!

From the settling storm of dust and devastation, the real Drake emerged with predatory elegance. Shadow aura writhed around his form like living smoke, his sapphire eyes burning with an intensity that could incinerate souls through sheer force of will.

"Everyone still breathing over there?" His voice carried casual indifference, as if he hadn't just rewritten the laws of combat.

Elsa blinked, her mind struggling to process the impossible transformation.

Clone-Drake managed a cocky thumbs-up despite the gaping crater in his chest. "Told you I'd keep you safe. I'm just a shadow clon. That guy—" he gestured toward his original, whose mere presence made reality tremble, "—is your Drake. And just like me, he'll die before letting anyone hurt you."

He turned toward the obliterated wall where Havoc lay buried beneath tons of rubble, barely visible and completely motionless.

"That's for trying to hurt Elsa..." Drake's voice dropped to a whisper that somehow carried more menace than any shout.

"...and for being a sick, twisted monster who doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as decent people."