Primordial Heir: Nine Stars

The fifth monster nearly killed him.

A gigantic black bear with three eyes.

Its body was covered in natural armor.

It possessed incredible regenerative ability.

Nero fought it through an entire valley.

His sword strikes barely slowed it.

Every wound healed.

Nero finally stopped attacking its body.

Instead, he looked at its shadow.

He remembered Nyx.

Darkness could devour.

It didn’t always need to attack the physical body.

Nero reached toward the shadow.

His Darkness touched the bear’s.

Then—

He pulled.

The monster staggered.

Its shadow began stretching toward Nero.

The creature resisted.

Nero’s expression hardened.

He poured more Darkness into the connection.

Slowly—

The shadow detached.

The bear’s regeneration stopped.

Nero’s sword flashed.

The fifth Shadow Slave was born.

Nero looked at his hand.

He had discovered another technique.

Shadow Extraction.

Not the complete technique.

Not yet.

But the foundation was there.

Nero’s hunt continued as one would expect, he was yet satisfied.

The sixth monster was a gigantic wolf-like creature made almost entirely of Darkness.

Nero stared at it.

The monster stared back in defiance.

For the first time, Nero laughed.

He couldn’t help it.

It was almost ironic.

He had been hunting monsters turning them into his shadow, most of them wield the other laws, never he had faced one using the Law he was currently using.

Now one had appeared specifically to challenge him.

The creature attacked.

Nero met it head-on.

Darkness collided with Darkness.

BOOOOOOM!

The battlefield disappeared beneath black energy.

The monster’s claws became blades.

Nero’s sword became a shield.

The shield became a spear.

The spear became smoke.

Nero began copying the monster’s fluidity.

He wasn’t controlling Darkness anymore.

He was allowing it to move.

The battle became increasingly strange.

Neither fighter relied on conventional weapons.

They fought with shifting bodies, shadows, blades, tendrils and constantly changing forms.

Nero finally understood.

Darkness had no fixed shape.

Its true strength was its lack of limitations.

The monster lunged.

Nero’s body dissolved.

The creature passed through him.

Nero reappeared behind it.

His sword pierced through its shadow.

The monster froze.

Nero pulled.

The entire creature collapsed into Darkness.

He absorbed it.

Then summoned it again.

The sixth Shadow Slave appeared.

A creature composed entirely of black energy.

Nero looked at it for several seconds.

Then nodded in satisfaction.

Finally came the next one, the seventh monster was the strongest.

A gigantic armored lizard you could mistaken for a dragon, well, a fake dragon.

It possessed enough power to devastate the surrounding terrain.

Its roar shook the sky.

Nero stood before it alone. For some reason his presence put pressure on the monster, on its bloodline.

Seven hours had passed since he began his hunt.

He was tired.

His body was covered in scratches.

His prana reserves had dropped considerably.

But his eyes remained sharp.

The fake dragon opened its mouth. He had to get rid of this human reeking that annoying presence he found disturbing.

A massive attack gathered.

Nero raised his sword.

Darkness condensed around him.

He didn’t create a shield.

He didn’t transform his body.

He didn’t summon his army.

He simply stepped forward.

The fake dragon attacked.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The valley disappeared beneath the explosion.

When the dust cleared—

Nero was still standing.

Darkness covered only one arm.

He had used the minimum amount necessary.

The fake dragon roared.

Nero charged.

Their battle shook the entire region.

Sword against claws.

Darkness against overwhelming power.

Nero moved beneath every attack.

His sword constantly changed.

Every strike became more efficient.

His Darkness flowed naturally.

At one point, the dragon attempted to crush him beneath its enormous foot.

Nero disappeared into its shadow.

He emerged behind its head.

His sword became a spear.

He struck.

The monster stumbled.

Nero followed with another technique.

His shadow expanded beneath the beast.

Black chains erupted.

The monster broke them.

Nero expected that.

The chains shattered into fragments.

The fragments became blades.

The blades became threads.

The threads wrapped around the dragon’s limbs.

Nero pulled.

The dragon fell.

Nero appeared above it.

His sword became completely black.

He brought it down.

BOOM!

The dragon finally collapsed.

Darkness spread across its body.

Nero stood silently.

Then the dragon’s body dissolved.

The seventh Shadow Slave emerged.

A towering black dragon stood behind him.

Nero looked at his army.

The White-Horned Wolf.

The black-scaled lion.

The serpent.

The giant bird.

The three-eyed bear.

The creature of pure Darkness.

And finally—

The fake black dragon.

Seven powerful monsters.

Seven Shadow Slaves.

Nero looked at them.

For a moment, he simply stood there.

Then he raised his hand.

All seven creatures dissolved into shadows and returned to the black star.

He didn’t need them outside yet.

They would remain within his inner world until he needed them.

Nero exhaled slowly.

He looked at his sword.

The weapon had changed.

Not physically.

But the Darkness surrounding it was different.

More refined.

More obedient.

More natural.

He had experienced plenty enough with this new Law, creating various skills out of it.

Those skills are the following:

Darkness Body.

A temporary transformation into pure Darkness.

Shadow Extraction.

Using Darkness to interfere with an opponent’s connection to its own shadow.

Darkness Edge.

Condensing Darkness along a weapon’s edge until it became almost impossible to detect.

Shadow Threads.

Controlling countless fragments of Darkness independently.

And—

Darkness Reinforcement.

Concentrating the Law into specific parts of his body for brief bursts of power.

None were complete.

But they were his.

Nero smiled.

He had found another reason to enjoy this trial.

Every battle gave him something new.

Every monster became another lesson.

He turned toward the deeper darkness.

But then—

Something changed.

Inside his inner world—

The enormous vortex of prana suddenly trembled.

Nero stopped.

His consciousness immediately returned inward.

The vortex spun faster.

Faster.

Faster.

Then—

BOOOOOOM!

A massive wave of energy erupted.

Nero’s eyes widened.

One of the nine stars was shining.

The fifth star.

The green star.

The star that had been originally surrounded by the last black chain.

It was the last chain waiting to be unsealed and now he had done it.

The essence Nero had absorbed from the monsters had continued flowing into his inner world.

The final chain shattered.

CRACK!

The sound echoed throughout his inner world.

The remaining fragments disappeared.

The green star awakened.

Wind erupted across the inner universe.

A vast green radiance illuminated the darkness.

The Law of Wind surged outward.

Nero stood before the newly awakened star.

His crimson eyes reflected its green light.

The fifth star—

The Law of Wind—

Had finally been unsealed.

Nero’s expression slowly changed.

A faint smile appeared.

He had now unsealed six star only three remain but he was not in hurry, he had to digest the ones he unlocked, perfectly control them, those are one of requirements to unseal the remaining ones from Nyx’s words, it wouldn’t be easy but his path had been an easy one.