My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

”What is this?” Damon whispered as he looked around at the white world.

He clenched and unclenched his fist, surprised by the realization that his consciousness was somehow inside Morticai’s mind. The very world around him felt wrong, empty and strangely peaceful despite the faint sense of something terrible spreading through it.

Xander glanced at Damon before looking toward the blackness that was slowly spreading across the white world.

”Do you feel it?”

Damon nodded slowly. He could feel an intense heat surrounding them, one that continued increasing with every passing moment.

”You’re not going to ask me anything?” Damon whispered to Xander.

”No. You’ll just lie,” Xander responded, tightening his grip around his spear.

”You know me well.”

”Sadly,” Xander scoffed.

The thought of saying something else crossed Xander’s mind, but he stopped when he noticed a man approaching them. The man was clutching his head with both hands, muttering words that made no sense.

”So that’s Morticai, right? Or is this someone else?” Xander asked.

The figure did not look anything like the Morticai they knew.

His entire body was peeling apart and regenerating at the same time, pieces of flesh falling away before new flesh formed in their place. He clutched his head and screamed, the sound echoing through the white world.

Damon didn’t waste any time.

”Whatever you do, don’t touch the black, and don’t let it touch you!”

Black flames suddenly erupted from Damon’s body as he rushed toward Morticai. His body left a streak of destruction behind him as he crossed the distance and punched toward Morticai’s face.

Morticai simply raised one hand.

Flames exploded in every direction.

But Morticai didn’t move an inch.

Damon’s eyes widened when he realized that his fist had been caught.

Morticai’s fingers were wrapped around his wrist.

For a moment, Damon could only stare.

He knew Morticai was more powerful than him, but this...

Morticai smiled as he looked down at him.

Then he squeezed.

A sharp crack echoed through the white world.

Damon felt the bones in his wrist break.

His expression changed for the briefest moment before instinct took over. He jumped upward, planted both feet against Morticai’s face, and kicked with all his strength, using the momentum to tear his hand free.

Damon landed and immediately glanced at his wrist.

It was broken.

His powerful flesh and bones had been unable to withstand the force Morticai had exerted upon them.

The pain was nothing worth worrying about.

Damon simply shrugged and pulled out a healing potion, quickly swallowing it as the broken bones began knitting themselves back together.

A sharp spear suddenly tore through space and slammed toward Morticai’s eye.

Xander had attacked.

The spear entered Morticai’s face, but before it could pierce deeper, Morticai caught the shaft with one hand.

”Discordant... discontented... disrepair... disregard... disreputable... disordered...”

He continued muttering words that made no sense, his voice becoming increasingly incoherent.

”His mind is breaking,” Ashcroft’s voice echoed inside Damon’s mind. ”The more the blackness spreads, the more of him is lost to Rot. I’m impressed he lasted this long.”

”So now what?” Damon asked.

”Leave as soon as possible or remain trapped inside his broken mind forever. Worse, you could become corrupted here.”

Damon didn’t even need to think about it.

He glanced toward Xander, who was now being chased around the white world by Morticai.

”Xander, we need to go.”

”How exactly are we going to do that?” Xander asked.

Damon paused.

Then he bit his lip.

”Erhm... how do we leave?”

Ashcroft’s voice immediately became irritated.

”Ah, you’re so useless. How did you manage to beat me? It’s obvious. You need to run to the edge of his mental world, toward things that make sense.”

”I really don’t know how that’s obvious,” Damon scoffed.

”Run, dumbass!”

Ashcroft screamed the words as if he were the one who had figured everything out.

Before Xander could even respond, Damon had already bolted.

Xander groaned and ran after him.

Behind them, Morticai suddenly fell to his knees and screamed.

Then his body erupted into a sea of golden flames.

The flames rushed toward them.

Damon glanced back once and saw a tsunami of golden fire spreading across the white world, blanketing everything in its path as it rapidly closed the distance.

He didn’t look back again.

He simply ran.

His feet and armor grew hotter and hotter. The metal began turning red from the overwhelming heat, and burns appeared across his face and exposed skin, but Damon didn’t stop.

He continued running until he took one final step.

And suddenly, he was somewhere else.

”Huh?”

Xander looked around in confusion.

”Where are we?”

They stood within a world of golden light and vibrant red.

Everything here seemed ethereal and beautiful. Vast lakes of red stretched across the land beneath a brilliant crimson sky, while enormous parasol trees spread their branches overhead, their leaves painted in various shades of red.

Flame phoenixes flew through the sky in great numbers, their bodies creating the image of a celestial realm.

The land was covered in gigantic motifs and statues of phoenixes, while enormous temples and strange structures rose in the distance, their architecture completely alien to Damon.

It was beautiful.

Everything seemed to have been created from shades of gold and red.

”It’s beautiful,” Xander muttered.

Damon thought the exact same thing.

”Is this a memory?”

”This must be Morticai’s home,” Ashcroft muttered. ”To think I get to see the Upper Realm.”

Damon was about to give him a tired response when he blinked.

The world had changed.

The golden beauty was gone.

Now everything was Rot and ruin.

Blackness spread through the world in dull waves of hideous grey, consuming the beautiful landscape as Morticai fell from the sky and screamed.

At the center of the ruined world burned a bright flame.

Xander pointed toward it.

”I take it that’s our way out.”

”Then let’s not waste time.”

Damon took a step before suddenly accelerating, creating a sonic boom as he rushed toward the flame.

When he emerged on the other side, he found himself within a world of shadows.

At its center was the form of Morticai, screaming and thrashing as enormous cracks spread throughout the shadowy world.

Then the final ember of Morticai’s light faded.

Only black flames remained.

The shadow prison shattered.

Damon’s domain shattered with it.

The world could no longer contain Morticai.

Damon was thrown out into the open battlefield, his body covered in blood. A dull ache spread through his entire body as blood spilled from his mouth.

Black flames rained down across the battlefield, tearing chaotic rifts through space wherever they passed.

And where Morticai had once stood...

There was now a creature.

A flaming bird-like entity with blood-red tears flowing from its eyes.

Its beak was dull grey and twisted, opening into a mouth filled with serrated teeth. A human arm protruded from its chest, while a grotesque line of human eyes stretched across its body from its beak downward.

The creature blinked.

Then it slowly looked around the battlefield.

Everyone stopped.

Even the Outsiders.

Orbitus had already trapped Aetherus within a massive magical circle that filled the sky. Zhang Dafei had suffered a few scratches, but otherwise seemed fine.

Ittorath had been blasted back by Damon and Evangeline, who had combined Light Magic, Dream Domination, and anything else they could find that was capable of harming it.

Yet everyone had stopped.

They were staring at what Morticai had become.

Damon slowly stood.

Then he laughed.

His laughter boomed across the battlefield.

Even though he was injured and barely able to stand, Damon spread his arms and laughed at his enemy.

The being who had once stood so high and mighty.

The pure phoenix.

A sacred being of divine origin.

Now reduced to nothing more than a rotten abomination.

A corrupted horror.

A creature so hideous that one might wish for death rather than be forced to look upon it.

There was no longer any place for Morticai among his kind.

And to make matters worse, the Spear of Rot was still buried inside his body.

This was only the beginning.

Everyone watching the battle, both those present on the battlefield and those watching from afar, could see Damon laughing at the fall of an Outsider.

Sylvia bit her lips.

Then she lowered her head.

He had not won.

From the trees that made up Ythar’s enormous body, a woman appeared.

Then another.

Two women emerged from the darkness.

”Damon Grey!”

She clenched her hand against her stomach when she screamed his name, pouring all the frustration she had carried for years into those two words.

Every eye turned toward her.