My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Ashcroft took a deep breath, or at least he thought he did. There wasn’t really a concept of having a body here. What they possessed was merely the shape their minds were comfortable with, an illusion of flesh imposed upon something far less tangible.

If they had actually been allowed to experience this place properly they would cease to exist in more ways than one.

’He,’ Damon thought.

She had put emphasis on that word.

He.

Did that mean there was someone above Doom?

No, that couldn’t be it.

No one stood above a true god.

Nothing could.

“Forgive my impudence but you’re not referring to the Unknown God are you?”

Damon made sure to add that first part. The last thing he wanted was for her to lose her temper and erase him from existence. He still wanted to see his daughter again.

The mass of destructive light that vaguely resembled a woman lifted a hand to what could only be described as her chin. The gesture looked thoughtful, almost elegant, before she scoffed dismissively.

“Why would I go out of my way for something like the Demon God… I couldn’t care less about him.”

Lilith shot Damon a warning glance and slowly shook her head.

She already knew what was happening.

Damon was about to ask a question that would get him killed.

Unfortunately curiosity had never been one of his strengths.

Damon rubbed the back of his neck and inhaled slowly, already imagining a future where he was reduced to ash before he could finish speaking.

“I… I well I didn’t say it but I heard from someone who heard from another person your holiness.”

He paused awkwardly, studying her reaction.

The Unknown God was terrifying.

Damon knew that.

But oddly enough he wasn’t worried about dying by the Unknown God’s hand. At least not until he had fulfilled whatever purpose that being had planned for him.

Doom simply looked at him.

Or perhaps she had always been looking at him.

She was a goddess.

Unlike the Unknown God, who deliberately restricted himself so he could still be surprised by things he could easily predict, Doom had no such habits.

She already knew how everything would end.

She knew every path.

Every possibility.

In most of them Damon and his companions were already dead.

The outcome had been decided long ago.

She was simply moving through the steps.

“You want to ask me, go ahead. As long as you are not intentionally impudent you may not meet your demise.”

Damon nodded quickly.

The fact that she hadn’t killed him yet gave him confidence.

A very small amount of confidence.

“Very well then, you have my gratitude. I wanted to ask you about Bride of the Demon God. When you said he I imagined you meant the Unknown God but that doesn’t make sense since you hate him.”

For the first time something shifted.

Perhaps it was an expression.

Perhaps it only felt like one.

“Bride of the Demon God.”

Her voice became colder.

Older.

Touched by something distant and wistful.

“I’ve had that since I was a mere mortal. I was born that way, with this curse. Although I wasn’t the only one born that way. There was another. The Unknown God you see is a god of duality. My iteration of this attribute leaned more toward the darker aspect of his nature. For that reason I was constantly besieged by perils.”

She lowered her hand.

“My hatred is justified.”

Damon blinked.

Somehow that sounded far more reasonable than he had expected.

“Time passes and eventually I’ve come to care less about it. I once believed if I became a true god I would be rid of it. Alas, I myself am the one who keeps bringing it back.”

“Why?” Lilith asked quietly.

Doom became silent.

For a brief moment even the drifting ruins seemed to pause.

“I do not know. There is a me in the distant future who insists I keep it. Perhaps it may prove useful for dealing with that wretch.”

’That’s no way to speak about your husband.’

The thought crossed Ashcroft’s mind before he could stop it.

Immediately Doom’s gaze settled upon him.

Ashcroft stiffened.

Then Doom slowly shook her head.

“Correction. The Unknown God and I do not have that type of relationship. The attribute is the only thing that links us. It has some advantages. One of them being granting me access to the Unknown God’s authorities even though he cannot use any of mine.”

Then she moved.

Or perhaps she didn’t.

One moment she was standing several paces away.

The next she was directly beside Ashcroft.

There had been no transition.

No movement.

No passage of distance.

It had simply happened.

Her hand slipped through his chest as though his body did not exist.

“Things that fall within his domain such as you, wretched soul, can easily be brought into mine, to be slowly tormented until the end of time.”

She whispered the words into his ear.

Ashcroft felt something crawl across his scalp.

For the first time in a very long time he felt genuinely uncomfortable.

Nearby Damon realized his hands were shaking.

He clasped one wrist with the other and squeezed tightly.

It didn’t help.

Doom turned her attention toward him.

Her gaze carried neither anger nor hatred.

Only cold certainty.

“You lived. I knew you would. Do not assume for even a moment I thought you dead, especially after what you learned. However know this. You will perish should you ever attempt to speak of it. What you know can never be known.”

Damon nodded so quickly his neck almost hurt.

Sweat rolled down the side of his face.

What he knew was insane.

A simple secret.

A fundamental lie.

A truth that completely reframed the reason the gods had signed the No Absolutes Accord.

The reason they were confident none of them could ever obtain all the Pillars.

Because the final Pillar was impossible to obtain.

Or at least it had been.

Until now.

The Thirteenth Pillar.

There had always been one more.

That was what Damon had learned in the library of Lysithara.

That was what Nemoriel had been guarding.

It had been hidden in plain sight.

And somehow Damon learning it had always been part of the plan.