Lord of Shadows: Rise of the Grand Talisman

A cold silence settled over the room, stretching endlessly as the presence before Julius remained kneeling. The title—The Obscured One—echoed in his mind, carving itself into his very existence.

His breath was steady now, his earlier panic dulling into something colder. Calculating.

"I should be afraid."

That thought crossed his mind, but the fear never came. Instead, there was a strange clarity.

The body he inhabited—the memories that weren't his—belonged to Julius Cross. And yet, he wasn't Julius. He was someone else entirely. Someone whose very presence had forced the darkness itself to kneel.

He exhaled slowly. The featureless entity before him did not speak again. It simply waited, as if expecting something.

Julius straightened his back. His clothes were damp with dried blood, his limbs still carried the stiffness of death, but he ignored the discomfort.

"First things first."

His gaze flickered back to the corpse. Whoever this man had been, his death wasn't random. The bloodstained floor, the dagger discarded nearby, the ritualistic markings carved into the wood—it all suggested something far more deliberate.

A sacrifice.

Julius's fingers twitched. His instincts screamed at him, telling him that the act of killing this man had served a purpose. But the memories—Julius Cross's memories—were too fragmented to confirm what it was.

"Did I kill him?"

No. That much he was certain of. The blood was old, and his body bore no fresh wounds. He had woken up after the fact. Someone else had done this.

The question was: who?

And more importantly… why was he here?

Julius shifted his gaze back to the shadowed figure kneeling before him. A thought crossed his mind—if this thing had recognized him as its master, then maybe...

"Tell me," he spoke, his voice hoarse from disuse. "What am I?"

The entity did not hesitate. Its voice slithered through the room, neither loud nor quiet, yet resonating in his very bones.

"You are the one who should not be."

Julius's jaw tensed. That wasn't the answer he wanted. "And yet I am."

The entity's head tilted slightly. The shadows around them pulsed.

"Yes. You are."

A realization clicked into place.

Whoever—or whatever—Julius Cross had been before his arrival… he wasn't meant to exist in this world.

And yet, something had forced the world to make space for him.

He exhaled through his nose, forcing himself to think rationally. The key to survival wasn't blind panic—it was control. Control over himself, over the situation, over the unknown forces moving against him.

If the world itself rejected him, then he would bend the world to his will.

Julius took a step forward. The floor creaked beneath his weight, the air thick with the scent of wax and blood. He glanced down at his own reflection in the dark pool at his feet.

A stranger's face stared back at him.

Dark hair, pale skin, tired but sharp eyes. He was young, but there was something older lurking beneath the surface. A presence that did not belong to a mere man.

He lifted his hand, watching the faint flicker of shadows coil around his fingertips. Not magic. Something deeper.

Something inherent.

He looked back at the entity before him. "You recognized me as your master."

"Yes."

"Then what does that make you?"

The entity shifted slightly, and for the first time, it spoke its own name.

"I am the Watcher in the Dark."

Julius's fingers curled slightly. The name carried weight. Not a being of immense power—no, something more insidious. Something that observes.

A spy. A guide.

A herald.

The pieces clicked into place. This entity wasn't his servant in the traditional sense. It was waiting. Testing.

And it was not alone.

Julius tilted his head. "There are more like you."

"Yes."

"How many?"

A pause. Then, a whisper that seemed to stretch beyond the room itself.

"As many as the stars that do not shine."

A cryptic answer. But one that confirmed his suspicions. There were others.

And if they were like this entity—like the Watcher in the Dark—then they weren't mere monsters lurking in the abyss.

They were pieces of something far greater.

Something that, for some reason, had chosen him.

Julius exhaled slowly. There was no point in chasing questions he wasn't ready to answer. For now, he needed power. Control. Understanding.

If the world rejected him, then he would carve his own place within it.

He took a step forward, passing the kneeling entity, and approached the wooden table where the scattered documents lay. His fingers traced the surface of the aged parchment. Symbols. Diagrams. Names he did not yet recognize.

But one thing was clear—this had all been set up for something.

Something he had interrupted.

His gaze flickered back to the Watcher in the Dark. "What was this ritual meant to do?"

The entity hesitated. Not out of uncertainty, but as if considering its answer carefully.

Then, it finally spoke.

"It was meant to summon you."

Julius's blood ran cold.

He had been brought here.

Not by accident. Not by fate.

Someone had performed a ritual—a blood ritual—to drag him into this world.

The implications sent a shiver through his spine. If someone had gone through this much effort to summon him, then that meant…

They were expecting something else.

Something that wasn't him.

Julius closed his eyes for a brief moment, processing the weight of that realization. He had replaced something.

Something that was meant to be summoned in his place.

And if the ritual had been interrupted…

Then whoever had done this was going to realize very soon that they had summoned the wrong thing.

His lips curled into the faintest hint of a smirk.

Good. Let them find out.

But before he could begin planning his next move, the Watcher in the Dark spoke again.

"They come."

A chill ran down his spine.

Julius didn't need to ask who they were.

He had no allies in this world. No place to hide.

Whoever had performed this ritual—they were coming. And they wouldn't be pleased with what they found.

Julius turned away from the corpse and the bloodstained room, rolling his shoulders. His mind was calm, his heartbeat steady.

If they wanted a monster, then that was exactly what he would become.

As he stepped into the darkness, the shadows around him moved in tandem.

The Obscured One had taken his first step.

And the world would never be the same.