My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Damon only saw Renata three times since his return, and even then it was very briefly. Each time she seemed more worn down than the last, fatigue clinging to her like a second skin, dark circles settling under her beautiful eyes as though sleep itself had stopped recognizing her.

If Lilith was known to run the organization, then Renata was its backbone.

She did everything from bookkeeping to logistics. She partially controlled and staffed both sides of their organization, secret and hidden, moving pieces across systems most people never even knew existed.

It was her who kept Amon’s reputation alive all these years, even though Damon had been gone for three years.

Part of her work extended into the creation of shadow drones, feeding more into their evolution and recruiting people from all around the world who wanted to join them. She oversaw their indoctrination, turning desperation and conviction into structure and purpose.

This tomb had humans here for a long time. They had been knights who fought the orcs. When the orcs joined Damon, they were brought in as prisoners.

Soon they were retrained and brought to the cause.

She created many spies and inserted them into different groups. At this moment Renata knew a lot, and she had so many spies that the very fabric of society across all walks of life carried fragments of her network. People who did not even know they were part of the same organization continued to receive directives that originated from a single unseen center.

Then again, the organization called Lazarak had a lot of money.

Damon walked into a chamber in the Tomb of Lesser Gods. It was designed like an office, though the design had long been overwhelmed by disorder. Large piles of paper rose in unstable towers, reaching high enough to obscure the person behind the table entirely.

He sighed, stepping further inside, his gaze moving over the chaos of documents before settling on a young woman who slept soundly at the desk.

”Sleeping on the job, Renata. We’re gonna have to cut your pay.”

She stirred at the sound of his voice, her eyelids lifting slowly as a faint violet glow flickered into focus beneath them. Her gaze sharpened on him through lingering exhaustion.

”Then please deduct it from the nothing you already pay me.”

Damon let out a quiet chuckle, the sound brief and understated, as though even he found no real argument against it.

He glanced at her, then toward Lilith beside him.

”Welcome back. You guys have been gone a while,” Renata said, pushing herself up slightly from the chair, shoulders stiff as though her body resisted the motion.

”This isn’t the time for your antics, Renata. We want to see that.”

She tilted her head up a little more, studying them through half-lidded eyes, then exhaled slowly as if weighing effort against inconvenience.

”Alright, I guess it’s no problem.”

They were taken to a research area designed solely for one purpose: making soldiers.

On the way there, Damon heard the distant clash of weapons, rhythmic and constant, echoing through the structure like a heartbeat carved into stone.

”That’s where our non-artificial members train. They are people who joined because they wanted to change the world or had nothing left, which right now thanks to the war is a lot. Some of them just want to see the temple burn, and some the whole world.”

She glanced at Damon as she walked, a faint smile tugging at her lips.

”Which is kind of cute. They remind me of you when you were slightly younger, so dark and edgy.”

Damon rolled his eyes.

”I was more of a contrarian.”

As they moved, he took in the scale of what surrounded them. Creations filled the corridors and adjoining spaces, some shaped like animals, particularly horses, designed as mounts for different terrain and combat conditions. Their movements were eerily precise, as though purpose had been etched directly into their frames.

Logistics, healing, attack, defense, production, all of these existed within the shadow drones.

Right now, within this tomb, there was also a large city where people lived alongside them, integrated into the same silent ecosystem of control and function.

”Each of them are people who cannot live in the world run by the temple,” Renata said, pausing by a large glass window, her reflection faint against the distant movement beyond.

”You saved them. Well, at least that’s the story. All of them owe you their loyalty.”

Damon nodded slowly. For a moment, his gaze lingered outward as he measured the sheer scale of what had been built without him. He had underestimated how far Lilith and Renata had pushed things in his absence.

”I doubt all this could be kept under wraps, at least not completely.”

”Where there is smoke there will be fire. Naturally the temple, the four great houses, have some idea of our existence, speculative for now, but two troublesome women are looking into us.”

Damon raised his head slightly.

”Who?”

”One you are intimately familiar with, the other maybe an acquaintance,” Lilith said with clear annoyance.

”Abellona I can guess. The latter is too broad. Who is it?”

”Terra Hightower,” Lilith said slowly.

Damon frowned. Wasn’t she Emilia Highgon’s half sister? Technically she was now Emilia Hightower, or Lady Ravenscroft, depending on which name she chose to wear that day.

Whatever the case, Damon knew she was not easy to deal with. The Hightowers preferred silence, and even the other great houses avoided interference in their affairs.

The foolish often mistook their silence for weakness. It was not.

Damon reached the place where the shadow drone waited. He felt it before he saw it, an oppressive presence that made the air feel subtly divided, as though space itself had been sharpened.

It stood thin and still beneath a black hood.

”What did you feed Maw to make this?”

Renata crossed her arms over her chest, studying it with a detached calm.

”Well, I happened to find some seven class corpses when the outsiders first appeared, and I gathered many powerful creatures and resources.”

She tapped her chest lightly as she spoke, shifting her posture. The motion made Damon briefly glance away before he caught himself, clearing his expression.

”I bet this thing can even take on Ashergon the great dragon.”

”Ridiculous. Paltry creatures stand no chance against greatness.”

A booming voice rolled out from Damon’s shadow.

Damon’s body went rigid. His breath caught as he slowly looked down. From his shadow, vast draconian eyes opened, vast and ancient, staring back at him.

”Ashergon,” he whispered.