My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 1221: Chapter 1222: A Familiar Face

A few days had passed since Damon’s return, and the lively air in the capital had become far more intense. Except this time, there was an invisible pressure filling the air.

It was a weight that could be seen on everyone’s faces.

Troops moved through the city, transporting supplies, weapons, and equipment. Different banners and flags flew above the streets alongside those belonging to the Empire, showing just how many forces had gathered here.

Damon sat inside a carriage, wearing armor with his hair done to perfection. He had considered wearing a dress, but it wouldn’t really do for him to walk around looking like a lady who needed to be protected.

For that reason, he had chosen armor.

Naturally, it was his Ascendant Armor, manifested through his soul. It had taken a few adjustments to make it work with this body, but it was better than nothing.

Damon almost forgot what it felt like to be this weak.

At the Third Class advancement, he had once considered himself powerful. Now, he was accustomed to possessing strength of a much greater magnitude, and being forced back to this level felt almost suffocating.

He was a Sixth Class cultivator, and he had already reached the very peak of the class. He hadn’t really pushed toward the Seventh Class because he already had the means to enter it by absorbing Ashcroft’s fragments.

But the last two fragments remained important to Ashcroft’s will.

’I wonder where Matia is right now,’ he thought to himself.

She had gone on another mission for the Unknown Order.

”Are you feeling tense? That’s a new one.”

A cold and arrogant voice suddenly echoed inside his head.

”Tense? Why would I feel tense?” Damon replied coldly to the remnants of the Demon Lord of Domination trapped within his sea of consciousness.

Ashcroft seemed to sneer.

He knew full well Damon was in trouble. After years of lies, he had finally found himself cornered, with fewer and fewer places left to hide.

”Really now. How did you feel when that Emilia woman saw her son? Did you feel happy? Guilty?”

”I felt like a million Zeni. You happy now? What are you, some sort of mind demon?” Damon sneered back at Ashcroft.

”Look here, I can do the whole demon-creating-doubt thing. I shouldn’t be hearing that from you. We both know that whenever I’m not in my mindscape, you’re just bored and lying around doing nothing. But whenever I show up, you conjure a chair to aura farm. Yeah, I know you’re a bum.”

Ashcroft was quiet for a moment.

Then he scoffed.

”Whatever happens to you, I hope you know you deserve it, insufferable wretch.”

His tone was twisted, and Damon could tell he had clearly hit a nerve.

With the Demon Lord of Domination finally quiet, Damon was once again alone with his thoughts.

Tomorrow was the day of the summit of world leaders and major powers. They would discuss their plans and offensive against the outsiders who had remained walled off inside Lysithara.

The path through the Whispering Forest had taken years to complete, but the Goddess races and the demon races had finally managed to collectively overcome the Death Zone.

Many good men and women had perished there, and many heroes had risen during those years.

The threat of the outsiders was very much real.

However, today Damon was attending a Noble Gathering, where they would discuss the Temple as well as its actions against him, a high noble.

It was a good opportunity.

Damon had even sent letters to the Temple. Of course, if they were truly working with Aetherus, they wouldn’t come.

Or so he had expected.

But the Temple had sent a representative.

Who it was, Damon did not know.

They were quite secretive about such things.

As for Aetherus, according to their Temple spy, he was in the ruins of the Holy City with Damon’s body and a few members of the clergy, doing Goddess knew what.

”He better not be doing anything weird to my body. I know I’m too good-looking to resist.”

It wasn’t long before the carriage stopped.

When it did, the door was slowly opened from outside, and Damon stepped out.

The moment his feet touched the ground, the warm rays of the sun fell across his skin.

Several knights immediately assembled around him, forming a protective formation.

After all, he was weak now, and Damon had many enemies who would love nothing more than to see him dead. He had offended almost everyone, from commoners and nobility all the way to the criminal underworld.

’I hope Renata finishes my new shadow drone soon. I need a powerful body.’

The knights boxed him in with a triangular formation of armor and steel, their weapons ready as they escorted him toward the entrance.

They continued like that until they reached the inside of the building.

The moment they entered, they stopped.

Damon felt a heavy aura pressing against him from ahead.

He could guess what it was.

Someone must have stopped him to make trouble.

How typical.

Nothing new here. Just someone looking to get rid of him and gain a little fame in the process.

”Stand out of the way, boys. I got this.”

Damon stepped forward, casually walking out of the knights’ formation.

He expected some arrogant young noble who wanted a few moments of fame.

But then he stopped.

His expression suddenly fell.

The arrogance disappeared from his face as he stared at the person standing in front of him.

No wonder the knights had been nervous.

Damon slowly turned toward them and punched himself lightly in the forehead.

”Seriously, guys. Seriously. No one thought to give me a heads-up about this?”

The knights didn’t even know how to respond.

He was the one who had walked out of their formation himself. Why was this his response?

Damon turned back toward the person in front of him.

He took a deep breath.

”Kadelas. It’s been a while.”

This was the Elf King, Kadelas Moonveil, the White Ruler.

In all the years that had passed, he had not changed a single bit.

Elves naturally had much longer lifespans than humans, even among the unawakened. Among those who had reached Class advancement, their lifespans were even longer.

”Damon Grey... Every day I think you can’t fall any lower, and you take that as a personal challenge.”

Damon glanced down at his body.

His perky breasts, nice subtle rear, and long hair were all quite different from his usual appearance.

He nodded slowly.

He understood what Kadelas was talking about.

”Right, you’re right. My mistake. How can I just call you by your name? I mean, Father-in-law.”

Kadelas’s expression immediately grew ugly.

His brows twitched, and his jaw tightened as he stared down at Damon.

”Sir, you are a married man. You can’t be attracted to this body. She’s too young,” Damon added softly, his expression completely serious.

A white aura suddenly spread from Kadelas’s body.

The surrounding knights stiffened.

Damon’s lips twitched.

Kadelas had finally had enough of this wretched man.

”That’s enough. That’s not why I’m here. I came here for a specific reason.”

”Yes, I know. The nobles’ meeting. That’s why everyone is here,” Damon said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Kadelas’s expression twitched again.

He was visibly angry, but after a moment, he released a long breath and forced himself to calm down.

”It’s about Sylvia. May I have a word with you, please?”

When Damon heard that, his expression changed.

The humor disappeared from his face.

He stared at Kadelas for a moment, a frown slowly forming between his brows.