My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 779: Chapter 780: Pedestal of Accusation

[You have slain The Murder That Wasn’t]

He heard the soft sound of the system in his head.

Damon let out a shaky breath. He had managed to avoid those creatures and killed the first one, but he was too damaged and he also didn’t have any healing potions with him.

The mirror seraph was a creature of the mirror, so it healed itself with mirrors and could teleport through reflections.

Sadly this library didn’t have any reflections, which was why Damon had used the fragments of its body to teleport.

By scattering them in the distance he had managed to escape the encirclement.

His understanding of this body and its abilities was very shallow. While it was powerful, Damon didn’t understand all its specs.

He leaned on a shelf as the books begged for help. Damon was in no mood to enjoy whatever tales existed of their past sins.

Damon had to admit this was truly a vile place. So far they had been successful navigating Eidolon, the imaginary prison, but that was not because Damon was particularly strong.

It came down to two factors: Lazarak and luck.

When they had reached a dead end Lazarak would step forward, and when they had to go into a new trial Lazarak would tell them its nature.

However the trial of sin was different. Lazarak didn’t have a deep understanding of it, only that its warden was called the Archivist.

Each of the wardens was different in their nature, first was Root Ore who only oversaw and didn’t take any action to stop them from leaving after completing the trial.

Then the mirror seraph who actually fought to keep them there even when they passed the trial.

”Which means the way out is wherever the Archivist is.”

That was also the most dangerous part of the trial. This place had many prisoners and so far all of them were trapped in the forms of books with a record of their sins.

”Where would I find someone in charge of a library...”

The creatures called the murder that wasn’t were in the form of hands. Those things didn’t just attack, they were in the form of hands because they had the duty of maintaining the library.

Damon nodded to himself. That made sense.

Though it would be unwise to face whatever the Archivist was in his current state.

”I can try finding Matia and Lazarak but I doubt that would help very much.”

Not because they couldn’t help, but because the trial would not allow him to find them easily. This library was too big and had many rows and levels.

”The wisest choice would be to find the Archivist. Matia and Lazarak would be heading there.”

Damon had the body with enough power to face the Archivist, he just needed to heal from the damage first.

Besides he didn’t do much in the trial of truth, with Matia and Lazarak saving him and dealing with the mirror seraph.

He forced himself to stand up as he began to walk through the shadows of the shelves.

The creatures were on the hunt for him, so Damon broke off a few more mirror fragments and began to hide them in random shelves. This was so if he was cornered he could just teleport to another mirror.

As for his body there was still a lot of it left, and he had seen the mirror seraph use mirrors to fix its broken body. Damon closed his eyes as he willed his body to change, closing damaged parts and regrowing shattered limbs.

Of course this came at the price of having less mass. He was now half his size. Damon now looked like when he had been ten years old, at least in height.

Damon stopped as he heard the sounds of many footsteps. Knowing it was one of those creatures he touched a mirror fragment and teleported to the farthest one he could sense.

When he appeared he was in a place that seemed to have a sitting area with a few books opened. The tables were molding and had human veins pulsing out of them.

He felt a deep sense of revolt from the scene, his expression twisting into a wince. Slowly walking forward he looked at a sign at an arch made of white yellowish tissue like substance.

Poking it with his fingers he felt how soft it was. This was not an unfamiliar thing, rather he had seen this before.

It was fat, raw fat from a living entity.

Damon passed under it as he saw what was written there.

Record Halls

He felt a small bit of unease but he was not about to back away. He took a few mirror fragments and scattered them all around just in case he needed to escape.

Walking in he began to hear a familiar sound. It was a sound he had heard many times, one he had made himself, except not this fast or focused.

”The sound of writing.”

There were soft flaps as if some hand was flipping through pages.

Damon continued forward past several shelves until he saw a wide opening. When he looked there was someone sitting in a large chair at the middle.

Or something. It was dark, still there was a small flame like a willow o wisp that floated around it as it scribbled on paper.

Then it raised its head in Damon’s direction. He ducked behind the shelf hoping it didn’t see him.

There was a pause as it continued to write. Raising its hand, a thin white bony hand, it closed the book it was writing on.

”We have been waiting for you, guilty one.”

Its voice was a thin hiss that echoed through the air as a chill spread through the library.

”Come forth, do not delay the inevitable. We must write your many sins.”

”Stand in the Pedestal of Accusation and plead. Absolve yourself of your guilt.”

The shelves slowly parted as Damon was surrounded and forced to stand before a podium.

”Your name is sinner...” the voice hissed.

The trial had begun.