My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

It had felt impossible back then, but now, after so many years, after so much death and so much cruelty, the world had finally decided it had enough of the Temple and the faith that ruled through the people’s belief.

They had challenged powerful houses and brought ruin upon those they did not like. They had condemned and prosecuted those who were different from them, using their authority and the people’s faith as a weapon.

Lilith almost felt a tear slip down her cheek when she thought back to the death of Ishana all those years ago.

Now, she would be vindicated.

The Emperor made his decision after a unanimous vote from those present.

”The Temple shall hand over Aetherus and relinquish its military might. The faith will be overseen by the nobles or government of the region in which they find themselves. Furthermore, they will be subjected to taxes on the properties they own and the earnings they make, payable to the governments and ruling authorities of any region in which they operate.”

The Emperor went on to list more and more stipulations and rules for the Temple.

Most of them stripped the Temple of its power.

Should the Temple refuse, then the Empire and all the nations of the world would act immediately and dismantle them completely.

”You can’t do that!”

The Holy Emperor finally lost his temper.

However, the Emperor remained calm. He simply looked around the chamber, taking in the nobles, kings, and rulers from all around the world who had gathered here.

His action made the Holy Emperor remember where he was and why he had even come here.

”We... we will comply,” he said coldly, his teeth gritted.

As long as the Temple remained, they would regain their power soon enough.

The lesser gods would awaken.

It wouldn’t be long now.

Not with Seras Blade making her way inside the Tomb of the Lesser Gods.

The Emperor and everyone else knew what the Holy Emperor was thinking.

But would they really give the Temple the opportunity to regain its power?

”We will march upon where Aetherus is, and he will hand over the body of Damon Grey. Should he refuse, we will take that as an act of aggression and destroy you all. Aetherus will be captured, for a god should serve the people.”

Hearing his decree, Damon couldn’t help but smile.

He really liked the way they did things.

They carried the same noble hubris he had always hated, but now, he found their arrogance quite refreshing.

’God should serve the people.’

Better words had never been spoken.

As for Aetherus, he would never comply.

After all, he still had something he wanted from Damon’s body.

”To show the light of the Goddess Races and solidify our place in this world, we will broadcast everything to the world and let all who stand with us know that man needs no god. For this world belongs to humanity!”

The Emperor raised his hand, signaling the indomitable spirit of the Goddess Races.

The nobles, kings, and rulers immediately followed.

”We shall march to Aetherus, defeat him, and then proceed to Lysithara, destroying all our enemies in one fell swoop!”

”All hail the Goddess!”

”All hail the Goddess Races!”

”Hail! Hail! Hail!”

The cheers echoed throughout the chamber.

Damon almost felt like crying.

To think all of this was for him.

Or rather, it had been manipulated by him.

Having political influence and owning a large portion of the global economy was quite useful.

Now all he needed to do was wait.

And since he was heading to Lysithara after Aetherus was defeated, he might as well go pick up that spear he had gotten.

Just to give Morticai a little surprise.

A small smile appeared on Damon’s face.

He turned to leave.

************

Damon soon found his way to the Tomb of the Lesser Gods.

Funny enough, the whole world was trying to reach this place, while Damon could simply walk in whenever he wanted.

He did feel a little bad that Seras had to brave the Abyss below the Sky Continent, but he was sure she would have given up by now if she had realized it was impossible to get past.

Then again, this was Seras Blade.

Giving up simply wasn’t her style.

”I certainly hope she’s okay.”

The Abyss was a terrible place.

He walked into the dark chambers, where Shadow Drones stood as guards by the entrance and along the halls. There were also many orcs and demons lurking within this place, all of them serving him, their overlord.

Amon.

Soon, he reached the center of the tomb.

There they slept like the dead.

This place was a tomb, after all, and each of the Lesser Gods had been placed here in a deathlike slumber, waiting for the day they would awaken.

At the center was the Lake of Tears, born from the grief of a peaceful god who knew he was outmatched and insignificant.

A helpless god who wanted peace and spent his life seeing himself as a failure, nothing more than a shadow of Aetherus.

He was the God of Darkness.

Lazarak.

Damon admired Lazarak.

His scheming yet gentle friend had wanted to change the world, and he had succeeded. The world wasn’t ideal, but the way it was now, it was still beautiful.

He had taken the world from the hands of selfish gods and given it to men.

It was a shame that men soon became no different from the gods.

They became selfish too.

And so, the world was divided between the powerful men and the weak men who served them.

Damon stopped in front of the Lake of Tears.

Or rather, it no longer looked like a lake of tears.

Instead, it looked like a dark, thick sludge of screaming blackness, filled with countless whispers that seemed to come from far and near, constantly trying to lure anyone foolish enough to approach.

A barrier of runes separated the pool from the rest of the chamber, repelling anyone who tried to get close.

Those runes had been placed there by Damon himself.

They were meant to keep Ric away from the Lake of Tears.

Inside the black mass of whispers was a spear.

Its tip had been placed inside the lake, and for the last few years, almost a decade, the spear had slowly absorbed the corruption within it.

Years of absorbing corruption and rot had transformed the already terrifying weapon.

It now looked as though it had been made from bone and flesh.

Countless eyes moved across its surface, blinking and twitching independently, while its body was covered in a sticky, disgusting texture that resembled toad skin.

Above the pool floated an old man, struggling to keep himself above the corruption rising from below.

His eyes were closed.

Then he opened them.

He was blind and could not see.

Or at least, that was how it was supposed to be.

”Junior, how long do you intend to punish this old man?”

He seemed to glance at Damon with his blind eyes.

This was natural for the old cultivator who called himself the Blind Old Daoist.

Since he was trapped within the area surrounding the Lake of Tears, he could not leave. And since Damon had been using the Lake of Tears to channel corruption from the Metaverse, the old man had been in a rather difficult position for the past few years.

He had more resistance to corruption than most entities because he had once looked into the Abyss.

That was also why he had become blind.

Even so, not even he wanted to be anywhere near something this vile.

”That’s not the point. I’m not even targeting you,” Damon said calmly.

”Then let this old man out,” he replied, his expression bitter.

Damon remained quiet for a moment before sighing.

”Maybe soon. But not yet.”

”You want to corrupt this old man to death? Ahh, this level of heartlessness. You really are a demon. You trap me in this place, you’re just like Jade Heaven.”

Damon tilted his head.

Jade Heaven.

That was a name he knew.

He lifted his head slightly.

”That’s one of the True Demons, right? You seem to say his name rather casually.”

”Jade Heaven, the True Demon who supposedly guards the Pillar of Ascension. After Unknown is done with that sorry lot, he’s going after Jade Heaven, assuming he can even find him. Even if he does, getting the Pillar won’t be easy since Jade Heaven always carries it with him in his trusty jade bottle.”

”If you know all this, doesn’t that mean Unknown already knows it too?” Damon asked.

It was obvious that Unknown would know.

”Why do you think I lost my eyes? Obviously, it’s so I can see better.”

Damon stared at him for a moment.

”So basically, Unknown knows, so you learned it from him. Well, since you can see, why don’t you see yourself a way out of here?”

Damon scoffed before walking past the runes.

He kept his hands over his ears to block out the sounds and whispers coming from the lake.

He also made sure not to look directly at the pool.

He had no intention of accidentally summoning something simply because he happened to see it.

He reached out and used a tongue-like appendage to carry the spear, lifting it out of the corrupt pool.

The moment it came free, the tongue wrapped around itself, twisting and turning until it transformed into something that looked disturbingly like human organs, almost like a mass of intestines.

Damon stared at it for a moment.

If he wasn’t mistaken, they were human intestines.

He tossed the disgusting thing away.

The black mass immediately began growing its own face.

Damon didn’t even give it a chance to finish.

He incinerated it.