Going back in time, to when Endyr and Sia were cornered by Selena's associates. Sia was critically wounded and unconscious, while death stared down Endyr in the form of a flaming blade. He was crippled and immobile, with no way out of this situation. Even his powers as a Denizen of Infinity were inaccessible, locked away by whatever force was gripping his soul. In was in this moment of absolute despair that Endyr threw himself into what he perceived as his sole salvation.
[Emergency protocols activated. System Administrator is using Privileges to access the soul of {Endyr-Altair Atrazark}. Permission from target has been recognised...buying Skills. Protocol enacted...please sit back and relax.]
The words of his System had barely registered in Endyr's mind before a curtain of darkness severed his connection to the land of the living. At the same time, an explosion originated from his body, throwing everything in the room into the air. Yet this was only the start. The assassins were still in the air when everything came to a stop. Space, time, gravity and physics itself were erased faster than a heartbeat, leaving only an empty void to fill the gaps.
Then, everything began to be sucked inwards, towards Endyr...or to be precise, his shadow. Everything, whether it be physical like furniture or conceptual like light and darkness, were pulled in and devoured. Only the people in the room were spared, as Ring and Shorty looked on in mute horror. They were awake and aware, but frozen like everything else. Their skin started to crack and turn grey, like the life was being sucked out of them. Wisps of white light started escaping their pores, filling the two assassins with untold agony.
Elsewhere in the room, Sia lay. Unlike the two assassins however, the space she took up was untouched by whatever force was being exerted. She lay on safe ground, unbothered and avoided, and continued to sleep peacefully. However, the moonlight that tried to fall into the room was also absorbed, limiting her regenerative abilities and stopping her from awakening sooner.
Back to Shorty and Ring, they desperately tried to struggle, but their bodies remained out of grasp. The horror in their eyes only grew however, when they spotted Endyr's shadow wiggle and expand. His was the only shadow in the room, bar the place Sia lay, so the changes to it were all the more obvious. Under the terrified gazes of the assassins, the shadow rose and solidified into a humanoid shape.
It was tall and pitch black, with two flaming pits for eyes. Apart from that, it had no facial features and looked decidedly inhuman, like a statue made in human image rather than an actual human. It's two arms ended in five jagged claws that gleamed like black obsidian. The figure emitted an aura of destruction and erasure, like it could swallow everything in existence and still have room for more. Ring and Shorty felt an abrasion towards the creature arising from their every souls: they identified this thing as the antithesis to their entire being.
The creature took notice of the two men suspended, and the third assassin collapsed nearby: Bracelet. Unfortunately for him, he was submitted to the entire force the creature had put out, causing his body to calcify. As the creature gazed on, Bracelet crumbled away, leaving only his equipment. An ethereal white light left his remains and flew into the creature, which accepted. Next, it turned towards Ring and Shorty.
"Wai-" before Shorty could speak and plead, the creature flexed it's claws and swung it's arm. Five claw marks appeared in thin air in front of Shorty, which glowed purple. A second later, Shorty screamed as his body was viciously divided in five chunks. He went from a man to an unrecognisable slab of meat in an instant, brutally torn apart by the creature. Another white light arose from the corpse of Shorty and the creature took that too.
Ring looked on in dread as his two comrades were snuffed out without a word. He knew he was next, so he threw every fibre in his being to try and escape. But despite his rather valiant effort, he achieved nothing. The creature watched his struggle with perceived interest, but stepped closer upon seeing Ring fail. It raised it's other arm and extended the claws. With a slow and deliberate motion, it pushed the claws into Ring's chest, slowly and one at a time.
It punctured his lungs and kept it's hand there, watching as Ring gurgled and choked on the blood slowly filtering into his lungs. The creature knew what it was doing: it did not cut deep enough to spill open too many arteries, leaving Ring to slowly and painfully drown in his own blood. That was why it did not remove it's claws either, as the opening would allow blood to flood faster and speed up his death.
As Ring burbled and pleaded with his eyes, the creature watched impassively. But Ring could swear he saw devilish delight deep within the pits that served as it's eyes, enjoying the suffering he was going through. After several drawn-out minutes, Ring's head slowly lowered and his rasping stopped. After noticing this, the creature clenched it's claws and pulled back, ripping out Ring's entrails in a brutal show of barbarism. It cast the bloody bounty aside and looked into blank space, or so it would seem to anyone else. It was reading, in fact.
[Warning! Insufficient base established to develop Split Double! Please find sufficient souls/materials to properly establish the birth of your Split Double!]
The creature read the System's warning as it absentmindedly absorbed specks of light form Ring. It looked towards Sia and it's claws began to vibrate. Only for a moment however, as it restrained itself and looked towards the other child in the room. Endyr lay in the same spot, the exact same as normal except for the lack of a shadow. The creature raised it's arm and surveyed it, before going for a deeper analysis from the System.
====================<<♉︎♉︎>>==========================
Name: ▮▮▮▮▮
Species: ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ of ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮
Age: ?????
Level: ???? (??? Tier)
Rank: EX
Titles: Abomination, Split Doubler, Vessel of ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮, Seed of ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮
Skills: Mana Manipulation (EX), Archaic Dialect (EX), Split Double (???), ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ (EX), ▮▮▮▮-▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ (EX)
Authority: 0 pts
Remarks: An abomination by all regards. But fate is fickle, and has use for even the vilest of it's creations....
====================<<♉︎♉︎>>==========================
The creature's Status was all screwed up, with large swathes of information being obscured. Even it's basic information like age, name and species was hidden. And it's Skills and Titles were censored by some strange black bars. What bothered the creature the most however, was the lack of Authority Points and new Remark from the System. Putting everything together, the creature came to a realization.
'I see...so that's how it is. I am a clone created from the Split Double Skill, and my original body is that boy over there. But why haven't I gained any memories from my host? Clones are just that: clones with identical characteristics to the original. Yet my Status is undeniably different from whatever he would possess. Just what is going on here?'
The creature inherited no personality, no memory and no connection to it's host, yet it was self-aware and sentient. It instinctively knew how to use the System and all bodily functions, forming a paradox. It was empty of personality, yet filled with knowledge on how to exist. In it's current shape, the creature was closer to an AI than a biological organism. And just like an AI, it knew it's purpose and what it needed to do.
'I need sustenance.'
The creature directed it's gaze outside the room, where two figures were battling. Water and lightening clashed, a sword and a spear each aiming to pierce the owner of the other. The fighters were strong: the creature could tell. While it may possess godlike capabilities, the creature was weakened without a proper foundation, so death was all that awaited it if it tried to attack either fighter. Luckily, fate seemed to smile upon it, for the hotel began to collapse and separated the two fighters.
The creature hesitated between who to go after, before ultimately choosing the woman. It felt vague recognition from the man, just enough to make the woman a more appealing target. It's eyes lit up, and the creature vanished from the wrecked room. It appeared at the base of the hotel amidst fire and wreckage. After looking around, it sensed the pulsing life-force of the woman and headed for her. There she stood, weakened and bloody, but still alive. She noticed the creature and raised her spear threateningly, but it disregarded the weapon. The creature could tell: the woman was spent.
"Come any closer, and I'll gut you!" she warned. Yet, the creature only sped up lightly in response. A crack formed on it's smooth face, transforming into what was assumed to be a misshapen mouth. "With what? You gonna poke me with that stick of yours?" it spoke. The creature felt no sense of danger from the lady, and knew she could not resist it. The creature felt a slight disappointment towards this fact: it was genuinely looking forward to a fight. 'Before she was too strong, and now she is too weak. A pity.'
The woman recoiled upon hearing the creature's words and blood poured from her ears. The creature payed no mind and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off the ground. It studied her sleek silver hair that glistened like ice crystals and rose-red eyes, her porcelain face and physique, her bust and everything else about her. More than that, the creature peered into the brilliant glowing lightly in her chest, where her heart was. It nodded to itself, pleased by what it observed. "You will suffice then"
The creature followed it's instincts and...devoured her existence. She simply vanished, every last scrap of her being consumed by the creature. The light remained for a split second longer, before being absorbed by the creature too. Once it was gone, deep satisfaction swelled up inside the creature, like it had finally been made complete. Almost in triumph, the System appeared.
[Sufficient material collected...base successfully established! The Skill {Split Double} is undergoing modifications. Please dismiss the clone!]
The creature took heed of the System's words and returned to the collapsed boy and girl. It spared them each a glance, before scowling at the boy-it's original body. "Pathetic" it growled. Without further ado, the creature receded into the boy's body, where it returned to being a normal shadow. The man appeared shorty after, none the wiser as to what had occurred. As he left, carrying the two children, the bloody remains of the three assassins were consumed by the blaze.