My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

She glanced at Damon before finally speaking, slowly taking off her helm. As the metal helmet slipped free, it revealed fresh bruises scattered across her pale face. A few loose strands of silver hair clung to her cheeks, damp with sweat, while a fading cut stretched across the bridge of her nose.

”I’d hate to see the other guy...” Damon muttered, letting out a low whistle. He adjusted Godric slightly in his arms before looking back at her bruised face. ”Guess you finally got to kill your father. Good on you.”

Matia slowly shook her head.

”I didn’t kill him.” Her fingers tightened around the helmet resting against her hip. ”He is still very much alive.”

Damon blinked in surprise. He shifted Godric onto his other arm as the little boy continued reaching toward his hair with tiny hands.

”You forgave him?” Matia added quietly.

The words were so foreign to Damon that he simply stared at her, squinting as though he had misheard.

”You forgave him...” he repeated. ”Wasn’t that man the person you hated the most? I mean...” He gestured vaguely toward her with his free hand. ”He made you cross-dress and hide that pretty face of yours. Sounds death-worthy, and that’s not even the worst thing he’s done to you.”

There was far worse.

He had beaten her within an inch of her life every chance he got for no fault of her own. He treated her as something beneath even a servant, stripping away her confidence until the timid girl Damon had once met had learned to survive behind armor and a false identity.

She had overcome that fear.

She had become the lethal weapon standing before him now.

But scars did not disappear simply because they could no longer be seen.

Matia lowered her eyes.

”I wanted to kill him...” she admitted after a long silence. ”But that would not have changed my past.”

She slowly lifted her gaze again.

”So I forgave him.”

A faint smile touched her lips.

”I don’t have to carry his shadow in my heart anymore.”

Damon didn’t know how to react.

He remained silent for several moments, absentmindedly patting Godric’s back while his thoughts raced.

”Foolish girl.”

The blind old Daoist’s voice echoed across the tomb.

He let out a dry chuckle before speaking again.

”Cut down the weeds and remove the roots.”

”You just left a potential enemy behind.”

His chained body remained perfectly still in the middle of the Lake of Tears.

”That is how it is in the cultivation world.”

”Spare no one.”

”Otherwise they will return one day to hunt you.”

Damon couldn’t help agreeing.

That was exactly what he had been thinking.

He slowly turned toward Matia, giving her a look that clearly said he would have done exactly what the old Daoist suggested.

Matia understood immediately.

She knew Damon would never have spared his own enemy.

”I am fine with that.”

She didn’t waver.

”Forgiveness is hard...”

She looked down at her scarred hands before slowly clenching them into fists.

”But it was liberating.”

When she looked back up, there was a strange peace in her eyes Damon had never seen before.

”Now...”

”I am truly free of my father’s shadow.”

Damon still didn’t like it.

Every instinct in him screamed that leaving an enemy alive was a mistake.

Even so...

He respected that it had been her choice.

”Well...” he sighed, giving a small shrug. ”That’s fine.”

A faint smile appeared on his face.

”Welcome back.”

Matia gave a small nod.

Yet the light within her blue eyes dimmed ever so slightly.

”When I fought my father...”

She hesitated.

”I discovered a ruin.”

”And I found a prophecy.”

Damon immediately noticed the unease in her expression.

His own smile disappeared.

He gave a single nod, silently urging her to continue.

Matia took a slow breath before lowering her voice almost to a whisper.

”When the Nameless End doth bear witness, then shall it be known... the vessel of the gods walks among us.”

”And he shall cometh.”

”He shall cometh bearing destruction.”

”From this world he shall take, and in his wake shall spread a darkness vast enough to leave behind naught but ruin and shadow.”

”Then shall our god fall, and in our terror we shall cry out unto the Creator.”

”Yet the answer shall not be salvation...”

”For we shall meet the very Doom we ourselves invoked.”

”For as our god falls...”

”So too shall his world perish.”

”And we shall fade into silence...”

”An empty remnant adrift within the endless cosmos...”

”Where once our existence was heard as a voice.”

Silence settled over the tomb.

Even little Godric, who had been happily babbling moments ago, became strangely quiet in Damon’s arms, his tiny fingers curling around Damon’s sleeve.

”Hmm...”

The blind old Daoist slowly stroked his beard.

”I see...”

”Your situation seems worse than I thought.”

Damon turned toward him immediately.

”Do you know what this means?”

He narrowed his eyes.

”In all your vast experience?”

”I have some idea.”

The old Daoist smiled.

”But why would I tell you?”

Damon scoffed and turned to leave.

”Wait.”

The old man called after him with a grin.

”If you give me some liquor...”

”I don’t mind sharing my thoughts.”

Damon sighed.

With a casual wave of his hand, several bottles emerged from his shadow before dropping one after another onto the stone beside the old Daoist.

The blind man immediately reached down, feeling around until his fingers wrapped around one of them.

His grin widened.

He uncorked it without hesitation and took several long swallows.

”Not bad...”

He smacked his lips.

”Not bad at all.”

”Now I have something to quench my thirst.”

”Ahem.”

Damon deliberately cleared his throat.

The old Daoist chuckled before finally speaking.

”From what I can tell...”

”This prophecy speaks of the doom of your world.”

”The Nameless God here is Unknown himself.”

”And from the looks of it...”

”He’s going to use a vessel to descend into this world.”

”He shall cometh...”

”Bearing destruction.”

”He will take something from this world.”

”I imagine...”

”The Pillar of Conflict.”

The old Daoist lightly tapped the bottle against his knee.

”The trail of darkness...”

”The ruin...”

”The shadow...”

”I’m less certain about those parts.”

”But one thing is clear.”

”The god of this world will die.”

”Doom will descend...”

”To face Unknown.”

”And with the death of your world’s god...”

”The world itself will begin to die.”

His smile slowly disappeared.

”You...”

He gestured vaguely toward Damon.

”...will all be gone.”

”Leaving behind...”

”Nothing but silence.”

Hearing those words, Damon slowly drew in a deep breath.

His chest felt unusually heavy.

Without another word, he turned back toward Matia and rested one hand firmly on her shoulder.

”Tell me...”

His voice was calm.

”What else did you learn?”

Matia glanced toward the blind old Daoist.

”The Pillar of Conflict...”

She hesitated.

”He originally came here looking for it too.”

Damon shook his head.

”He’s sealed.”

He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

”And besides...”

”Our situation can’t get any worse.”

”We need his input.”

Matia nodded.

”It’s in Soltheon.”

”The Pillar is supposed to resemble a club...”

Damon took another slow breath before tightening his grip slightly on her shoulder.

”Tell me everything.”

She did.

She explained everything she had learned.

Everything her father had told her.

Apparently the prophecy had originally been passed down among the Frost Fairies by the Lunar Moth race.

Except...

The Lunar Moths were extinct.

All but one.

The image of a single figure immediately surfaced in Damon’s mind.

The strange moth he had once encountered.

The one who had introduced himself simply as...

Dred.

Damon’s eyes slowly narrowed.

”I need to find that moth.”