My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 618: Chapter 619: Incorrigible

The war game was a large event, a grand tournament of power, but at its base, it was actually a religious festival.

The origin of the war games was to fight in order to venerate the goddess, however later people modified it to suit their own needs.

One of these people was Athor, the founder of the Aether Academy. He was a sage who thought it would be a good opportunity to have his students compete with the students of other sages.

Which may have been part of the reason the War of the Five Sages was fought, but that wasn’t what Damon was thinking about. Even though the war was the cause of intense rivalries between the various academies today, especially the Aether Academy, which even after so many millennia had not lost.

Damon could have tried to ponder about the thousands who died in the war simply because five supposedly wise men had a little contest between their students and had caused some casualties.

Why did that have to involve thousands of others?

“If they were so wise, why fight a war… the one who wins in war is the one who never picks up a sword.”

He muttered those words aloud.

“Take your own advice…” the cold voice of Lilith Astranova came from his side where she sat glaring at him.

She didn’t really know what he was thinking, but she guessed it was related to the war games.

“Look, I’m certain you aren’t in fighting shape or in good enough condition to compete..”

Her gaze stretched out to the window. The streets were packed with people from all sorts of goddess races: humans, beast kin, elves, fairies, dragon kin to name a few.

It was bustling and lively even though this was supposed to be an executive part of the capital city.

Merchants sold war banners, armor, weapons, mounts. They showed off warriors who would compete and the houses they represented.

Some fought mock duels, already eager for the grand event.

Food stalls were everywhere, and flowers and decorations filled the streets with confetti raining from the sky, made of roses and hundreds of flower petals.

The sky was filled with wyvern riders and griffins, accompanied by large airships that hovered slowly in the air.

It was lively outside, a sharp contrast to Damon who was on his deathbed but still stubbornly wanted to compete.

“You’ll die before you prove anything.”

Damon smiled mischievously.

“Then let me die spectacularly..”

She narrowed her eyes, glaring at him.

“Renata… what do you think… your lord might need another resurrection favor from the unknown god.”

Renata bit her lips. Damon had just barely scraped by after surviving an attack from Godwin Ravenscroft… the Singularity.

He was in no condition to fight in the war games after getting attacked by someone in the seventh class.

She was worried.

“My lord… your life is far more valuable than… I… I do not think you would lose to mere mortals but…”

Damon could feel Renata’s confidence falter. He sighed, coughing lightly before clearing his throat.

They weren’t wrong. The longer he stayed conscious, the more he realized how badly the old man from the Ravenscroft household had wrecked him by killing his shadow clone.

“Do you know what I hate…”

The two women glanced at him, his tone getting soft but serious.

“I hate when someone works hard and gets so powerful… but decides to hide how powerful they are and pretend to be weak.”

He clenched his fist as that thought alone was a valid enough reason for him to convince Lilith to let him dive headfirst into what was practically suicide.

“What’s the point of having power if you can’t abuse it… I gained my power doing horrible things you don’t even want to imagine… I have killed many people to get it… this power is mine and mine alone. I alone decide what to do with it.”

His power had come from killing and cannibalism on people just like him. Damon had struggled to accept this horrible price. The unknown god was a sick god, for even putting Damon, a sixteen-year-old, through all that.

What made it even worse was the fact that his system could have been feeding on anything else, but the unknown god just chose that.

Power must come at a price, and that was his price.

“A lot of people have wanted me dead over the years… I am here, and they are dead…”

He glanced at Lilith with the same gaze he had whenever he set his mind on something.

It was the one expression she hated, especially when it was dangerous for him, but that stubbornly defiant expression that said I will jump into hell even knowing I will turn to ash was what had made her so smitten with him.

The look of the man who would go down carrying his ideals on his back, even if there was an easier option.

That was what she….

“I hate you…” she smiled, knowing she meant the exact opposite, but telling him that would only make him more reckless.

’The possibility I end up as a widow in a distant future is very open…’

That thought crossed her mind before she shook it off.

Renata stood there wearing a flabbergasted expression before she slowly smiled, nodding her head.

“Yes… I see my lord… this must be part of your plans… yes… you let yourself get injured by Godwin Ravenscroft… so you can give those young goddess race talents a handicap… your goal must be the world dungeon, but it’s beneath you to bully the weak.”

Damon sneered, looking at her turn him into some eminent manipulator.

“That’s definitely not what happened…” he shot her down before she accidentally built some unnecessary image of him.

The last time he had this kind of misunderstanding he had to deal with Leona.

Renata smiled seductively.

“There’s no need to be humble my lord… I shall try my best to work… towards your plans for the world dungeon…”

She glanced at Lilith.

“You were planning to get in to obtain a cure for Luna Grey…”

Damon paused.

“Right, that was the original reason I was fighting in this war game… totally forgot about that..”

Lilith’s eyes twitched.

“You were being this adamant even after forgetting… your main goal..”

He scratched his head awkwardly. If he didn’t participate, Lilith would have stopped at nothing to find Luna the cure.

“What… I didn’t forget… I really didn’t..”

She closed her eyes then sighed.

“You’re incorrigible.”