My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

The earth rumbled and all across the Holy City panic had begun to spread, still while knights and inquisitors were mobilizing in response to the escalating crisis there were areas of the city that seemed strangely quiet.

The inside of this large building was one such place.

Footsteps echoed through the silence, it was as if he was not even trying to hide the fact that he was here because he was in fact here.

A figure that had become the source of fear in the hearts of many, a great enemy whose identity was still nothing more than speculation. Some said he was the Dominator Ashcroft returned, some claimed he was a faceless entity unknowable to all and that should anyone see his face they would die from a curse.

Some believed the heavens had favored Damon Grey too greatly and so a rival had been created to check his future potential.

Some believed he was an angel of death sent to bring about the end.

Over the years many rumors of what this entity was or was not had spread.

He was called Amon the Unknown Ruler.

A faceless being whose powers and identity remained unknown.

Damon walked into the Ruin Cathedral, though it was not actually a ruin, that was simply its name. This was where the temple kept all the things it wished sealed away, many cursed and evil artifacts had been locked away here over the years and because the temple feared such evils would grow too strong they began keeping holy artifacts here as well in order to balance and keep that evil at bay.

Of course as time passed and since this place was considered one of the most secure in existence they began keeping a vast majority of their wealth here as well, the so called offerings from the masses.

After all what better place was there to store such wealth.

This wealth was the backbone of their entire operation, centuries upon centuries of accumulated riches.

Now here too were the tombs of previous saints and many great men of faith, powerful men whose corpses would serve a great purpose.

If someone were to somehow break in here and loot everything then the temple would be placed in a very difficult position.

Of course no one would.

No one could.

And no one would dare.

Of course they forgot to account for one thing.

Amon was no one.

He had no face.

So technically he met all the requirements.

Damon almost felt like humming a tune.

After all he was Amon, or rather Amon was his shadow clone and how exactly did this shadow clone end up here?

Simple.

Damon had created this clone inside the Holy City days ago.

And for the last several days he had been constructing runes specifically designed to hack barriers so he could bypass any wards and defensive formations.

There had been human guards of course but they had all rushed off to respond to the unprecedented attack on the Holy City.

He sat down and began creating runes, writing layer upon layer while weaving together a complex syntax. Holding the condensed sphere of runic formulas in his hands he evenly distributed them against the barrier and after several minutes the barrier itself rippled.

There was a scoff.

”Labyrinth magic... were they hoping I’d get lost?”

Damon possessed the skill Appraisal and with this skill he could analyze any barrier and immediately understand its functions. In truth he could appraise nearly anything or anyone, though some things were far more dangerous than others. At least back when he was weak that mattered.

Now he was powerful.

Not many things could remain hidden from him.

The few things that could simply had the power to kill him.

[Skill: Appraisal]

[Description:]

The Unknown God had countless skills; strangely enough this was his favorite. His lightless eyes saw too much but learned too little.

[Effect:]

Reveals name, rarity, condition, known effects and origin of target item or being. Accuracy increases with user’s power and the less guarded a target is. Be wary, you may lose your sight to things beyond its reach.

[Type:]

Active.

[Cooldown:]

0 seconds.

”I can see why Unknown likes this skill... it is incredibly useful to anyone with a decent understanding of runes.”

Alas now he stood before a grand door. He had killed several people on his way here but it had all been silent so he was not worried about anyone coming to help them and from the sounds outside it seemed the battle was only growing more intense.

Still he did not have all the time in the world.

He reached out his hand and runes spread across the door before opening a tear in space itself, bypassing the door completely.

’How sneaky... they have secret alerts that activate if the door is physically touched.’

The moment he stepped inside his mouth fell open.

As far as the eye could see there were glimmering treasures and magical artifacts stacked endlessly before him.

”Ahh... ahhh...”

He could not stop a tear from rolling down his cheek.

This was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

”I... I cannot believe they were so generous to keep so much money for me... thank you.”

What kind of ungrateful bastard would fail to thank them for this.

Outside on the streets Damon’s true body was shedding tears.

One of the Knights Templar looked at him and saw those tears running down his face.

”The Holy Son... he is saddened seeing how they have destroyed our religious sites...”

Several inquisitors nearby could not help but shed tears as well, moved by Damon, a man who always seemed as cold as ice.

”He truly is a man of faith... Goddess bless him.”

No.

They had gotten it completely wrong.

He was simply overwhelmed by happiness after discovering so much wealth.

Meanwhile inside the Ruin Cathedral his shadow clone smiled before raising a hand and from his shadow dozens of drones began rising.

These were not the combat types.

Some held digging tools.

Some carried shovels.

Some pushed wheelbarrows.

Others were much larger shadow drones with massive bodies and oversized arms.

”Spread out. Some of you start digging out the corpses of the dead saints. Some of you begin packing all the treasures.”

Then he released several aerial drone types which immediately hovered above them.

”You lot keep watch.”

Then he pointed down at the floor tiles themselves.

”These are Merlite tiles, very expensive stuff. Take that too. Anything that sells for even a single zeni gets packed.”

He looked around sensing fragments of Ashcroft nearby.

Perhaps the last remaining fragments in the entire world had been sealed here.

”I’ll go collect a few things myself.”

”Aren’t you being a little too greedy?” Ashcroft’s voice echoed inside his mind.

Damon scoffed.

”Of course not. Isn’t it wrong to leave all this wealth sitting here unused? I’m simply circulating it back into the world economy.”

”Forget that. Go recover the last of my remains. If you devour them you should be able to regain the Domination attribute at full power.”

’Okay... that was not suspicious at all,’ Damon thought.