The journey to the black market led through dark alleys and lonely streets. The meeting point was an abandoned warehouse complex, its walls covered in graffiti. Inside, there was a bustle of activity: smugglers offered stolen paintings, dealers touted ancient artifacts with dubious histories, and the air was filled with cigarette smoke and muffled voices.
Lukas made his way through the crowd until he came to a gaunt man with a sharp-featured face, wearing a heavy coat. "I have something you might be interested in," Lukas said coolly.
The man looked him over and nodded. "Show me."
Lukas led him outside and opened the trunk. His parents' bodies lay carefully arranged. The man frowned. "That's not enough," he said finally. "You want everything here? You need something bigger."
Lukas grinned coldly. "Then it's time for the next step." He knelt beside the corpses and began to quietly mutter ancient words in an unknown language.
The air became heavy, and suddenly a piercing scream echoed through the night. Out of nowhere, the monster materialized: a grotesque creature with sharp claws and glowing eyes, roaring and rushing into the crowd. Panic erupted.
"Sealing!" Lukas cried loudly, and the monster froze in mid-movement, frozen like a statue.
The gaunt man, trembling with fear, gasped, "What... what is this?"
"This is your merchandise," Lukas said with a sharp smile. "Trade all your artifacts and paintings for it."
The black market men didn't hesitate for long. In a mixture of greed and fear, they took the frozen monster and handed over all their possessions to Lukas.
As Lukas drove away in his car, he muttered softly, "Seal broken."
The next day, the news reported: "Major scandal on the black market: massacre! Everyone brutally disfigured and murdered. Officially, it was a shootout. But the truth remains unclear."
Lukas drove through the empty, dark street, the faint hum of the engine underscoring the eerie silence of the night. His gaze was fixed straight ahead, but his mind raced. He had safely stowed the artifacts, tightly enclosed in an old box lying on the passenger seat.
Suddenly, the streetlights flickered, and an icy chill crept through the car. Lukas's eyes darted to the rearview mirror—there was something. A shadow flitted through the darkness, faster than he could follow with the naked eye.
A faint crunch broke the silence, followed by a dull thud on the car roof. Lukas's heart skipped a moment. He slammed on the brakes, and the car came to a screeching halt.
"Are they really thinking of beating me at my own game?" Lukas murmured, slowly opening the driver's door.
A deep, throaty growl sounded from outside, and two shadowy figures emerged from the darkness. Their eyes glowed with an unnatural light, and their movements were jerky, almost mechanical.
Lukas closed the door behind him, leaned back against it, and studied the two figures. "So someone decided to adopt some monsters," he said mockingly, his voice cutting through the darkness. "I hope you've learned how to control them, too."
The creatures growled again, more aggressively this time. One of them, a massive shadow with elongated claws and a twisted grimace, lurched forward. Lukas didn't flinch. Instead, he slowly raised a hand, as if calming a dog.
"Go ahead and try. But believe me, I'm not as easy to take down as you hope."
The monsters seemed to be waiting for an invisible signal. And then—simultaneously—they lunged at Lukas.
Time seemed to stand still for a moment. Lukas dodged the first attack with uncanny precision, ducked beneath the giant claws, and turned sideways in a flash as the second creature charged at him. A foul stench spread as the creatures drew closer, and their leathery skin seemed to glisten in the pale light.
Lukas slid his right hand as if grasping something invisible. The next moment, an angry, purple light flickered, and a ghostly dagger materialized in his hand. With a single swing, he plunged the knife into the first creature's chest.
A horrific howl filled the night as the monster staggered back. But it wasn't finished—not even close.
"You're truly persistent," Lukas hissed, turning in time to absorb the second creature's blows with a shield of dark energy. The force of the impact shook the ground beneath his feet, but Lukas stood his ground.
"Your master wasn't thinking when he sent you," Lukas said coldly. "He should have known that I know my own creatures better than anyone else."
Suddenly, silence fell. The creatures backed away briefly, as if awaiting new instructions. But that delay was enough for Lukas.
"Time to send you back," he said, and the air around him began to vibrate. The offerings sealing him responded to his anger, and an ancient ritual was set in motion.
Lukas allowed the ritual to grow, his eyes glowing with a cold, intense light. The creatures stared at him, suddenly feeling the stinging pressure in the air. Their movements slowed as the spell he cast upon them deepened. "You want to fight, but against me..." Lukas' voice grew darker, almost ominous, "you're just another mistake."
The air began to warp as the darkness drained from it. The first waves of magic lashed against the creatures, and a tremendous hiss filled the night. One of the creatures screamed and staggered backward, the strike it attempted no longer with the force of a living being, but more a desperate attempt to save itself.
Lukas seized the moment and stepped forward, ramming his fist through the fading darkness and grabbing the monster by its twisted head. A searing pain shot through him as he intensified his magic. Resistance was minimal as the creature contorted, the spell's energy increasingly tugging at it.
"You should know you can't win here," Lukas murmured, concentrating on forcing the creature to retreat.
But it wasn't enough.
The second creature, the larger and more robust of the two, lunged and hurled itself at him with full force. A blow that rippled through the air in waves struck him in the back. Lukas staggered briefly, but he stayed on his feet, a grim smile spreading across his face.
"You'll have to get better if you want to defeat me," he said, dark, ghostly energy coiling around his body. It was the same energy that kept him sealed, the offerings that had never let him slip away. But this time was different—he didn't want to hold it back. He wanted to unleash it.
Suddenly, the darkness around him faded, and the creatures that had seemed so powerful and determined just a second ago fell to the ground. Their bodies twitched briefly before melting into a mist of smoke and shadow, engulfed by the magic Lukas summoned.
"Mistake..." Lukas whispered. "Now I know who's behind this whole game."
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The name of the one attacking him became clearer in his mind—a whisper in the shadows. Lukas's eyes opened with a cold, determined gleam.
"The hunt begins now."
Lukas's footsteps echoed in the darkness as he began to move. The night had closed in even more, as if the shadows themselves were beginning to work against him. But Lukas was undeterred. His gaze was steady, the air around him almost seemed to shimmer. Every step was calculated, every breath an echo of his determination.
"Lina," he murmured into the night, the name tasting bitter on his tongue. "You should have known you couldn't take me on."
He knew she was after him, knew she was trying to acquire his artifacts. But what she didn't know—what no one knew—was that Lukas was more than just a man. He was the master of darkness, and he had power over all he had created.
A hiss tore him from his thoughts. Another attack. Lukas turned in a fluid motion, and the creature that had approached flew toward him in a swirl of dust and shadow. The creature, a mixture of grotesque flesh and metal, tried to strike with its claws. But Lukas was faster.
"This is just too easy," he said with a grin as he quickly tossed the creature aside. But the next moment, two more appeared, this time even larger and more menacing. Their eyes burned an unnatural red, and their movements were faster than anything he had seen before.
"You can try," Lukas said as the creatures attacked him again. "But it won't do you any good."
He let the darkness rise around him, the magic that permeated him and gave him power over his creations. With a whoosh of air, the creatures fell, one by one, to the ground as the magic dissolved them. But they kept coming back. And faster and faster.
"Really?" whispered Lukas as he turned back to face the next attack. "You don't want to learn, do you?"
The creatures lunged at him again, but this time Lukas didn't let them hit him so easily. With a powerful blow, one slammed into an invisible shield he'd built around himself, while the other vanished into a thick mist of energy Lukas created.
"This is getting boring," he muttered as he landed a well-aimed blow on the last creature. "If you won't stop, I can't stop you. You'll all fall to pieces."
When the air finally calmed again, Lukas stepped into the silence of the night and continued on his way. His destination was clear: Lina. The name continued to echo in his head as he overcame the final hurdle. But he knew the real battle was still to come.
Lukas was not intimidated by the darkness. The path ahead seemed endless, the shadows began to move around him like living beings, as if waiting for the right moment to ambush him. But Lukas remained calm. Every step he took seemed to dispel the surrounding darkness, the air thickened around him, but he was the one in control.
"I don't have time for games," he muttered, quickly scanning his surroundings.
Suddenly, he heard it. A faint crackling in the air, followed by a ponderous growl. Another monster—or rather, what was left of one of his monsters. The thing took the form of a distorted, almost human body, crisscrossed by black threads that snaked serpentinely through the room from its eyes and exposed skin.
"So these are the remains of my work," Lukas said with a bitter smile as he fixed his gaze on the monster. "You shouldn't fight me. You don't know how little mercy I have."
The monster roared, a bloodcurdling sound that shook the air and made the streetlights flicker. It lunged at Lukas with a speed that would have been fatal in an ordinary fight. But Lukas was no ordinary.
With a fluid motion, he swept his hand through the air, and a barrier of pure energy materialized between him and the creature. The monster slammed into it with full force and staggered back. Lukas took a step forward.
"That was a mistake," he muttered as he drove the creature into the ground with another forceful thrust. It hissed, but Lukas didn't allow it to rise. With a powerful flick of his wrist, the creature crumbled into black fragments that blew away in the wind.
"What's next?" Lukas asked, his voice cool and ragged. But he knew the true enemy still lay ahead.
He continued walking, the ground beneath his feet creaking and groaning as if it, too, were burdened by the chains of his own magic. Something was wrong. The creatures' attack was merely a distraction, and Lukas knew he was far more deeply involved in the game than he wanted to admit. The darkness no longer seemed to come solely from outside.
"Lina," he repeated, louder this time. The name was now more than just a cliché. It was the only truth that mattered this night.
Lukas could feel himself approaching the moment when he would finally meet her. And as the last echoes of his own creations faded, he knew one thing: She would not escape. She had made the mistake of challenging him.
Lukas's pace quickened, the pulse in his veins like the rhythmic beating of a dragon's heart. Every fiber of his being was ready to end the chase. The air around him seemed to thicken, as if the darkness itself were trying to hold him back, but Lukas wouldn't stop. He knew the true test was now beginning.
"Lina," he whispered as he turned a street corner, the darkness itself seemingly becoming a part of him. "Come out. It'll only get worse for you."
That's when he felt it—the tingling on his skin, that was the presence that haunted him. Lina had managed to hide, but not enough to escape. Lukas's eyes searched the shadows, ready to ward off the next attack. But no attack came. Instead, a sound. A low, scraping rustle that seemed to come from further ahead.
"She wants to play," Lukas said with a grim smile as he pulled the weapon from the inside pocket of his coat—a dagger, the artifact of his last offering. "I hope she has enough courage."
Lina was smart. She knew she couldn't take him on directly, so she relied on what she could control: his own creations.
And there they were, around the corners, emerging from the shadows, like phantasmagorical nightmares. They were the monsters he had once created, but they were changed, distorted. Their forms were now darker, their eyes blazed with blood-red light, and their movements were faster, deadlier. Lukas didn't have time to wonder how they had changed—he simply had to defeat them.
"I told you," he muttered as he moved toward the first monster, which snapped at him with a sharp claw. "I shouldn't be attacked with my own creatures."
Lukas twirled the dagger in his hand, the sharp blade slicing through the air as he sliced the creature in half in one swift, fluid stroke. But the next moment, another monster appeared, prepared to attack him from the side.
"You're like flies hitting a wall," Lukas said as he dodged the creature with a powerful sidestep and, in an elegant arc, pierced it with another well-aimed mid-air swing of the dagger.
But it wasn't over yet. More creatures—all a mixture of flesh, shadow, and magic—appeared. Lukas remained calm, moving with deadly precision. He knew he couldn't make any mistakes now. Another monster leaped at him, but Lukas blocked the attack with an energetic shield that absorbed the blow. The creature staggered back, and he took the opportunity to disarm it with a lightning-fast movement.
"Haven't you had enough yet?" Lukas said, sneering.
As the last of the creatures staggered to the ground, a heavy, oppressive moment of silence fell. The monsters were defeated, but the feeling that someone was behind him never left him. The hunt continued, and he knew Lina was waiting for him somewhere in the darkness.
"You won't escape," Lukas murmured as he ventured further into the murky labyrinth of dilapidated buildings and forgotten streets.
He heard her. Her footsteps. The faint hissing in the air. This time, he knew she was closer than ever.
Lukas stopped and listened intently. A sound emerged from the darkness—a slight rustling that grew louder. Turning, he saw Lina step out of the shadows. Her golden dog mask shimmered in the dim light, and her movements were fluid and precise, like those of a big cat.
"So you're here to mess with me?" Lukas said with a slight smile. He could sense her determination, but it didn't bother him. "I hope you're ready."
Lina didn't reply, she was just focused, her eyes sparkling in the darkness. She reached for the sharp claw on her wrist and suddenly, with incredible speed, she lunged at him. Her movements were lightning fast, but Lukas dodged effortlessly and watched her calmly.
"You should know," Lukas said in a cold, almost bored voice, "I shouldn't be attacked with my own creatures."
He raised his hand, and from the darkness rose a menacing hiss. The air shifted as a huge, black snake formed from the shadows. Its body was covered in shimmering, sharp scales, and its teeth glinted as it writhed through the night. Its eyes glowed a deep red as it lunged at Lina.
Lina fought back with her claws, but the snake was too fast. With a violent hiss, the reptile snapped and bit off her right arm, which fell lifeless to the ground. Pain shot through her, but she didn't move. Her eyes burned with rage.
"Funny enough, ever since I can remember, I've detested reptiles," she said calmly, her voice laced with icy fury as she scrambled to her feet and lunged at the monster with a furious scream.
With a brutal blow, she struck the snake, her claw ripping through the monster, and in a last desperate attempt, she ripped the creature apart. The snake shattered beneath her attack, and the dark shadow vanished into nothingness.
But it wasn't over yet.