My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

There was a distant, dazed expression on the face of the dark-haired young man. His raven-black eyes stared blankly into the void.

He sat in silence, the bleeding figure of a white-haired elf cradled in his arms.

Occasionally, a low chuckle escaped his lips, one that carried no joy—only the hollow sound of a mind teetering on the edge. It was the kind of laughter that made the air cold, as if the world itself could sense the despair he couldn’t hide.

Fuska the Face Stealer was dead. Damon had killed him—devoured him.

He had gained the skill Blitz.

But the price… was Matia.

His friend was dead. Gone. She had fallen into the hole, and no matter how much he screamed inside, there was no bringing her back.

All her dreams… her laughter… the tiny things she valued… all of it, gone.

Because of him.

All because of me…

“You were the one who let her die,” Carmen’s voice echoed from the void beside him.

“Just the same way you let me die.”

“You killed her.”

Damon didn’t flinch. He only laughed. Sylvia still lay unmoving in his arms. He had forced his body to give her a basic healing potion, but that was all. That was all he could do. His body refused to move now. His soul even more so.

They say the height of joy is tears… and the height of sorrow is laughter.

Perhaps that was why he couldn’t stop laughing.

Or maybe… maybe it was because with every second that passed…

His sanity kept crumbling.

“What’s he even waiting for?” Back-to-Back’s snide voice echoed within the hollow chambers of his mind.

“I always knew you didn’t deserve to live… your birth was a mistake. Hopefully your death will fix it.”

Damon remained there, still and broken, his armor soaked in blood and failure.

He could already sense the shadows of his party approaching. Valarie had defeated the monster above. The way out was open.

They were finally able to go home…

A pair of human lips descended from the sky—light flickering weakly around them, as if trying to shield themselves from the weight of the bloodied spiral tower.

“Whe… where is Matia…” the words barely carried.

And just like that, Damon felt something inside him tear.

He smiled.

Raised his head.

“I… I killed her… hehehe… it was me… I was the one who killed her…”

Valarie watched Damon force himself to his feet, gently setting Sylvia aside like something fragile—something he might never see again.

“After everything… I still let her die…”

He walked to the edge of the crumbling platform, staring into the abyss that spun endlessly below. The countless rifts in space and time pulsed like the breaths of a dying world.

“It was right here… I let her die… do you know why?”

Valarie hovered close, her light tense and trembling. She wanted to say something—anything to tell him it wasn’t his fault. But she remained silent, afraid of what might come next.

“When we first entered this cursed land, I made every one of my friends swear themselves to my cause. In exchange, I swore I’d keep them alive.”

He sank to his knees.

“Back then, I barely knew Matia. She wasn’t part of our inner circle. Just a classmate… another terrified student, like all of us. I never forced her to make a promise… and I never made one to her.”

He tilted his bloodied face to Valarie.

“Do you know why?”

She bit her lip. ‘Don’t say it… please don’t say it…’

“I planned to sacrifice her if necessary,” he whispered.

“That’s the truth. She was supposed to be expendable. Someone I shouldn’t have cared about.”

His voice was steel wrapped in sorrow.

“But somehow… we got close. Somewhere along the line, she became someone I trusted. Someone I would’ve died for. And as if fate was mocking me for my original thoughts… it put me in a position where I had to choose.”

Valarie’s lips moved—offering the wisdom of an ascendant who had walked the world for centuries.

But Damon couldn’t hear her.

All he could hear was the jeering madness clawing at his sanity.

“Are you really blaming fate now?” Back-to-Back sneered. “Have you forgotten what the unknown god said? Fate… is nothing more than a series of choices.”

Carmen laughed. “This was your choice. Your leadership. Take responsibility.”

“…How?” Damon muttered weakly.

Carmen glanced at the rift below.

“Isn’t it obvious? Atone.”

Back-to-Back cackled. “Yes. If she’s alive—bring her back. If she’s dead? Hehe… either way, you don’t deserve to live.”

Damon stood, a dark smile bleeding across his face as the chime rang.

[Mastery: Insanity Level 3]

“Right… I can still save her.”

Valarie was speaking, but she stopped abruptly.

His party had finally arrived, their faces horrified as they saw what was left of Damon.

Before anyone could react—Damon laughed.

“I’m going to save Matia. Or die trying.”

And then—he jumped.

Valarie screamed his name as she launched after him, her golden light splitting in two. One piece soared back, protecting the party. The other—descended like a meteor—after the boy who had stopped caring about his life.

The glowing lips that remained heard the others scream his name, but they couldn’t answer.

Down in the void, Damon’s expression was unreadable, a shard of Valarie’s light pressed against his chest, shielding him from the devouring chaos.

And as he fell, he heard it—the voice.

A familiar one. Deep. Cold. Eternal.

[Once a dealer in death… now you seek it.]

[You have awakened the Unique Class: Death Seeker]

[Class Skill: Deathless — You are rejected from this desire.]

[Your Fable Grows.]

The world whispered as his body crashed into the depths below.

Bones shattered. Organs ruptured.

Blood pooled around him like spilled ink.

But Valarie’s gentle light kept him whole—barely.

The pain meant nothing now.

He raised his head, breath ragged, gaze filled with iron and madness.

And what he saw around him…

Was a nightmare.

A tree made of bone reached toward a sky of screaming mouths. The ground pulsed like flesh.