The Broken Halo

A stream of information entered Simon’s mind as the baptism came to an end.

He remained seated and allowed the knowledge to settle naturally. The information did not arrive in the form of words or a voice. It felt more like an instinct that had always existed within him, but had only now awakened.

ShadowSense had evolved into ShadowEye.

The original ability did not disappear.

In fact, the evolution strengthened it.

Simon closed his physical eyes and spread ShadowSense through Pipeline Inn.

Darkness moved outward from his shadow, passing beneath the bed, slipping through the gaps around the door, and entering the shadows within the corridor. From there, it travelled into the nearby rooms, down the walls, and toward the floor below.

None could see the darkness, only him and those with a strong perception and high shadow affinity.

His perception followed.

The shadows appeared far clearer than before.

In the past, several overlapping shadows sometimes felt like one large and unclear mass. Now, Simon could separate them easily. He could distinguish the shadow beneath a chair from the one cast by the demon sitting on it. He could sense the exact movement of feet, the shift of clothing, and even the faint trembling of a demon’s shadow when the demon suddenly moved.

Its distance had also increased.

ShadowSense continued expanding until it covered almost seven hundred metres around him, more than twice its previous reach.

The formations protecting certain buildings interfered with it, while areas lit by extremely bright flames felt faint and uncomfortable. Even so, the improvement was obvious.

Simon slowly opened his eyes.

’Not bad.’

However, the improvement to ShadowSense was only a result of the evolution.

The true ability was something else.

Simon looked toward the shadow beneath the table.

He placed his right hand against its edge and released a small amount of shadow energy. At the same time, he separated a thin fragment of mental energy from his Sea of Consciousness.

The two energies gathered beneath his palm.

A small black rune appeared inside the table’s shadow.

The rune was shaped like an eye.

Its eyelids were narrow, while a vertical pupil rested in the centre. It was so dark that it almost blended completely with the shadow around it.

After a few seconds, the rune changed.

A small and strange black eyeball opened beneath the table.

It did not possess flesh, veins, or any other physical feature. What appeared to be an eyeball was only the form the skill showed to Simon. Its true existence remained the eye-shaped shadow rune hidden within the darkness.

Simon’s perception shifted.

He saw the room from beneath the table.

The floor was close to his sight, and the legs of the furniture rose around him like dark pillars. He saw his boots, the chair he sat upon, and the pieces of the broken cup lying close to the wall.

He could also hear.

The sound of his breathing reached the ShadowEye clearly. Beyond the room, footsteps travelled through the corridor, accompanied by the low voices of two demons discussing the ruined district.

The ShadowEye could not see through the door, but it heard the voices passing through it.

Simon then focused on the demonic energy around him.

The ShadowEye sensed the energy within his body immediately. It also noticed the faint presence of the demons moving outside the room, although the closed door and protection array weakened what reached it.

Its senses were not as powerful as Simon’s own.

That was expected.

The Eye was only a separated piece of his perception, not another complete body.

Still, it could see the area around the shadow, hear nearby conversations, sense demonic energy, and notice whenever something stepped into or disturbed the darkness carrying it.

Simon moved one foot beneath the table.

The moment his boot entered its shadow, the ShadowEye reacted.

A faint warning passed through the connection and appeared in his mind.

He removed his foot, then pushed the table several steps toward the window.

Its shadow moved with it.

The black eye moved too.

’I see. So it is attached to the shadow of the object.’

If Simon placed a ShadowEye beneath a table and someone carried the table away, the Eye would travel with the table’s shadow.

The same rule applied to living beings.

If he successfully placed an Eye inside a demon’s shadow, it would follow the demon as long as the shadow continued to exist.

However, Simon had to touch the shadow first.

He could do so with his physical body or his own shadow.

Simon looked down at his shadow with a slight frown.

’Can I?’

Simon closed his eyes and tried to do something he had never tried before.

Moving his shadow.

His shadow affinity was not high and he had never bothered to practice or learn how to manipulate his shadow because such books were not easily accessible to just anybody.

Also, he was limiting himself in the Shadowgrave Clan.

Now, he tried moving his shadow using his own experience and knowledge from his past life.

His brows were furrowed deeply and a drop of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Some minutes later, his brows became relaxed and his frown disappeared.

He opened his eyes and shook his head with a disappointed expression.

’A failure. If I had a B grade affinity at least, I might have succeeded on the first try.’

Simon did not think too much about this failure however.

Manipulating shadows was something he had never tried in any of his lives or even learned.

If he had been successful, then quite a lot of talented shadow users would not know how to feel about that.

Simon exhaled softly, then he took a few steps to the door.

His shadow travelled across the floor and entered the shadow cast by the door.

Then he formed a second eye-shaped rune in the door’s shadow.

Simon did not touch the door or move from his position.

The rune opened.

Another ShadowEye stared into the room from the darkness beneath the door.

Three viewpoints entered Simon’s mind.

His physical eyes saw the table.

The first ShadowEye watched him from near the window.

The second observed the room from beside the entrance.

The sudden increase in information caused a faint pressure to appear behind Simon’s eyes, but it did not make him dizzy like before.

He separated the three viewpoints carefully.

His physical perception remained the most important. The two ShadowEyes stayed beneath it, waiting whenever he was not focusing on them.

Simon tried to create a third.

Shadow energy gathered beneath the bed, and the beginning of an eye-shaped rune appeared. However, before the pupil could form, the rune became unstable and scattered.

The attempt also consumed a noticeable amount of mental energy.

’Two is the current limit.’