My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 1096: Chapter 1097: A Woman’s Win

Half the sky was consumed by rising shadows while the other half had become a world of absolute white ice, and within those endless shadows razor-sharp snowflakes danced around Matia’s darkened form, drifting in violent spirals around armor now fused with living darkness itself.

Her aura had become so overwhelmingly oppressive that even Faldren found himself instinctively intimidated by it, and though he despised the very thought, he could feel some deep subconscious part of his mind acknowledging the terrifying depth of her power.

That realization alone filled him with rage. How dare she grow so powerful while standing upon the corpse of his son.

Matia was everything he would have ever wanted in an heir, strong, ruthless, talented beyond reason, everything worthy of carrying his legacy forward, and yet fate had cursed him by making her nothing more than a woman.

The deafening collision of their blades erupted with such catastrophic force that any lesser being standing nearby would have had their ears ruptured instantly, their brains liquefied by the sheer violence of the sound itself.

The impact carved a massive crater stretching for miles while fractures began spreading through space itself, the frozen land beneath them warping violently as the sky above bled black snow carried by drifting shadows.

Battles at this level no longer simply damaged the world around them, they rewrote it entirely, permanently altering the laws governing the surrounding region and rendering vast stretches of land uninhabitable to weaker lifeforms.

Even the remnants of their attacks lingered unnaturally in the air, fragments of power refusing to disappear as though their wills themselves had embedded into reality.

Far below, the knights of the city had already begun assembling, instinctively preparing to rush forward and aid their lord, but Faldren merely shifted his gaze toward them and released a glance so cold that one of the approaching knights froze solid instantly before shattering apart where he stood.

The others stopped immediately. He did not need help disciplining his foolish daughter.

Matia had already expected this.

Even she knew taking on everyone present at once was impossible, and so without hesitation she raised one hand calmly and activated one of her skills. Frozen Ruins.

The frozen earth trembled violently before splitting apart as hundreds, then thousands of towering frozen pillars began erupting upward from the ground itself, and sealed within each pillar were souls.

The souls of enemies Matia had slain.

There were many. Far too many. She had vanquished warriors from civilizations ancient enough that history itself had forgotten their names.

She had slaughtered corrupted abominations that should never have been allowed to exist.

She had hunted and killed enemies from every race imaginable, humans, demons, monsters, creatures so unnatural they had no names at all.

Matia was a slayer.

That was her new class.

She was the King’s Slayer.

[Sword of death wielded by the crown, may you visit death upon all who defy your lord.]

As a Slayer she gained a tenfold increase in power whenever carrying out a direct order from her lord, but Damon was not always present to issue commands and so Matia had long ago developed her own workaround.

Reaching beneath her armor she retrieved a magical artifact, not some divine relic or powerful weapon, merely a simple recording device. Then she tapped it.

Even amidst the violent screaming winds, she heard the voice clearly.

”Dark Fairy, I order you to vanquish my enemy.”

It was Damon’s voice.

The moment those words reached her ears the visor covering her face glowed brighter while her eyes became colder, the shadows around her body twisting violently as power surged through every part of her being. Then she moved.

Her sword descended so suddenly that Faldren’s instincts reacted too late.

He barely registered the explosive increase in her strength before the blade sliced cleanly through his right arm, severing it instantly as blood sprayed violently into the frozen winds.

The sudden increase in power had caught him completely off guard, but Matia had no intention of allowing a stronger opponent time to recover. Even with ten times the power granted by her class ability he still surpassed her, which meant hesitation would only result in death.

She surged forward immediately, her hand shooting outward before grabbing him directly by the face, and with monstrous force she drove him downward toward the earth beneath them.

Their bodies tore through the sky so fast the sound barrier shattered repeatedly around them while the world blurred into streaks of white and black. Yet Faldren was no amateur.

Ice formed instantly in his remaining hand and with a sickening crunch he drove a spear of divine frost directly into Matia’s left abdomen, the force shattering sections of her armor as the ice spread inward through her wound. It was not merely a stab.

He was forcing divine cold directly into her body, sending freezing power toward her core itself in preparation to kill her from within, and as he did so he whispered the activation phrase of his domain.

Matia did not react.

Her expression remained completely unchanged.

Her eyes did not even flicker.

She simply stared at him and whispered softly.

”I knew you would do that.”

The words had barely left her mouth when horror spread across Faldren’s face for the very first time.

Below them Matia’s domain had seemingly disappeared, but only because she had deliberately condensed the entirety of it into a single concentrated area no larger than half a kilometer directly beneath them, a tiny world composed entirely of dancing snow and sleeping shadows.

She had intentionally withdrawn the domain because she already knew she could never defeat him in a direct clash and throughout the entire battle he had never even noticed what she had done.

Faldren looked downward in disbelief while Matia tightened her grip around his face, blood dripping from her lips as she spoke quietly.

”You never saw me father. But I... I have been watching you. So many times. I know you, even if you never knew me. You only ever saw that frightened little girl...”

There was bitterness in her voice now, but also something else, something far heavier.

”But you never realized... I became a woman.”

That was what mattered most.

She no longer cared whether he acknowledged her as a warrior. She had long surpassed that childish desire. What she wanted was simple.

She wanted him to see her.

To acknowledge her existence.

Not as a daughter.

Not as a soldier.

Not as a failed son.

But as a woman.

The scared little girl crawling through the snow had died long ago.

The moment Faldren entered the condensed center of her domain, soft harmless looking snowflakes began drifting gently around his body. Beautiful snowflakes.

Then suddenly his flesh began shredding apart.

His soul followed moments later.

The resulting explosion of force created a massive avalanche of snow that surged outward for miles in every direction, swallowing entire sections of the frozen world as Faldren’s body crashed deep beneath the earth itself, Matia pushing him downward as far as she possibly could before finally stopping.

He convulsed violently.

But he was not dead.

Matia froze.

Not because she was exhausted.

Not because she pitied him.

She stopped because she was confused.

Because for the first time she was seeing something she did not know existed.

They had fallen deep underground.

Far beneath the kingdom itself.

Ancient stone walls surrounded them. Massive forgotten pillars stretched into darkness while strange architecture unlike anything she had ever seen stood buried beneath the frozen earth.

Her eyes narrowed beneath the glowing visor.

”Where is this...” she whispered quietly.

Beneath her feet Faldren coughed violently, blood spilling from his lips, but for the first time since the battle began his face no longer carried arrogance.

Only fear.

True fear.

”Get out...” he rasped weakly, panic visibly overtaking him. ”Get out of this hallowed ground, you lowly woman...”

His breathing became uneven.

Then finally he snarled.

”A woman may not step foot here.”