My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 1005: Chapter 1007: The Coil

Damon didn’t wait to be told twice.

He turned and ran.

Or tried to.

He slammed face-first into an invisible barrier so hard his vision burst into white sparks. The impact snapped his head back and left his ears ringing.

”Where do you two think you’re going.”

The voice came from the little girl standing calmly at the top of the stairs.

Damon’s scalp tingled.

You two.

That meant she could sense Ashcroft inside him.

”Hmph. Don’t be so surprised. If a creature from the metaverse cannot sense a metaphysical entity, it would be a disappointment,” Ashcroft said inside his mind.

Of course.

Ittorath was a nightmare.

And nightmares were not physical beings.

Damon straightened slowly, wiping blood from his nose with the back of his hand.

”How did you end up here, Ittorath,” he asked, forcing his voice to stay level despite the anger boiling underneath. This was the entity that had once cursed him. The one that had damned him to a path where survival itself had become a burden.

Ittorath’s expression remained calm, almost adorably confused, like a child who didn’t understand why adults were upset.

”Whatever do you mean... It wasn’t difficult to come here. This Nexus is marked by the power of a god whose nightmare I was born from.”

She spoke of it as if explaining something trivial to insects.

”Buy me some time. I have a plan,” Ashcroft’s voice echoed in Damon’s head.

Damon’s eyes stayed on Ittorath, searching for a flaw. Taking this form had to come with a weakness. It had to.

”Yes. I was thinking the same thing,” Ashcroft added.

Damon exhaled slowly through his nose and, for once, chose to trust him.

”Why is it that you stopped us?” Damon asked, tilting his head slightly. ”I hope you realize a Demon Lord can come through that gate any minute now. I doubt you can beat someone in the Seventh Class the way you are now.”

Ittorath scoffed and placed her tiny hands on her waist.

”Yes, this body has limited power. For that reason, I got some help from some friends. No matter. I’ll be taking something from you.”

Before Damon could react—

Ittorath vanished.

Time seemed to slow.

Damon raised his hand to strike, but she was already in front of him. Something slammed into his chest with crushing force and tore outward.

He didn’t even feel pain at first.

He only felt the impact as his body was hurled backward into the wall. Then the pain came all at once. He coughed violently, blood flooding his mouth as he slid down the stone.

He forced his eyes up.

Ittorath stood there calmly, holding two small vials.

One was filled with a blackish-reddish energy that pulsed like a living heart.

The other glowed with a silver-gold light that shimmered softly.

Damon glanced down at himself.

His ribs had caved inward. His chest felt hollow. His throat was thick with blood.

”I see...” Ashcroft said slowly. ”He was after your demonic energy and your divine energy. But why?”

”What... are you trying to achieve...” Damon forced out as he pushed himself upright, one hand pressed to his ruined chest.

Ittorath waved her hand and the vials vanished.

”I simply hope to free some friends. For that, I need to perform a ritual. This is magic you lower-realm creatures would never understand.”

She lifted her hand casually.

The ceiling shattered.

Stone the size of carriages broke free and fell toward Damon. The ground beneath his feet cracked and gave way at the same time.

Then, to make it worse—

Ittorath turned and destroyed the Nexus she had used to come here.

The fragments exploded outward as space behind it collapsed into a forming black hole.

”Hurry, move, move!” Ashcroft yelled.

The gravity hit like a god’s hand.

Even at this distance, anything that drifted too close was stretched into thin strands and swallowed by the event horizon.

Damon screamed as he pushed himself away, activating [5x] and forcing his body past its limits. His speed exploded as he clawed his way forward through the crushing pull.

He broke free—

And then something appeared in the air behind him.

”Don’t look at it!” Ashcroft screamed.

But it was too late.

Damon had already seen it.

His eyes locked open.

His body froze mid-motion.

His mind filled with a horror so vast it had no shape, no form, only the certainty that what he was seeing should never be seen.

He could not look away.

He could not move.

He could only watch as death approached him.

Then—

Something sharp stabbed into his shoulders.

Pain tore through him as blood sprayed from the wounds.

His body was yanked violently to the side.

He crashed into a wall as someone grabbed him and dragged him out of the pull.

”What are you doing, let’s go!” Wendy screamed, pulling him by the arm with desperate force.

Damon stood stunned for a moment. Wendy’s lips moved, but he could not hear a single word. The horror he had just witnessed had not yet reached his thoughts. It lingered inside him like a silent scream.

Only when his palms pressed against solid stone did his body finally react.

He staggered forward, grabbed the wall, and vomited violently. His shoulders shook with each heave. His eyes turned bloodshot as his stomach emptied onto the floor.

Wendy glanced at him, then stepped closer and rubbed his back in slow circles.

He dragged in a shaky breath.

”Thanks.”

His knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. He pushed his hair back with trembling fingers. Around them, the sounds of battle intensified. Steel clashed. Stone cracked. Distant screams echoed through the temple. Seras and Paimon were still fighting the expedition force and the priestess, but the battle had turned desperate.

”We have to find Ittorath,” Ashcroft said inside Damon’s mind.

”What. Shut up. You didn’t do anything. I almost died,” Damon snapped aloud, anger spilling out with the last of the bile.

”Erm... I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I was actually looking all over for you,” Wendy said awkwardly.

Damon glanced at her and shook his head.

”Not you. I was talking to somebody else.”

She stepped closer and placed her palm on his forehead, checking his temperature out of old human habit, making sure he was not feverish or delirious.

”I’m not sick,” Damon said, irritation flaring even though he knew she was worried.

”Could’ve fooled me,” she replied once she confirmed he was fine.

Damon pushed himself to his feet.

”Ittorath is here. And if I’m not wrong, he is here for the Ouroboros Coil.”

Wendy frowned. ”Isn’t that only useful to demons? He is not a demon, right? Why is that thing even here?”

Damon shook his head. That was exactly what he needed to understand.

”Hey, you bastard. What do you know about him being here? You have been all around the world.”

Ashcroft sighed. There was no time to argue.

”He is probably looking for a way to tamper with the Boundary Maker authority.”

”Boundary Maker,” Damon muttered. He had heard names like that before. Dream Maker. Titles that ended with Maker.

”Is that an authority of the Unknown God?” Damon asked.

”Yes. Gods can grant their authority to their followers. Mugu was a prophet of the Unknown God. You could say he agreed with that god on everything, so the Unknown God was not stingy with power. Only chumps like us get a system. Mugu received something far greater,” Ashcroft said with open mockery as Damon ran through the battle-torn temple with Wendy close behind.

”What do you mean?” Damon asked.

”Mugu had a falling out with the outsiders. There was a conflict of interest. He used that authority to seal them away, but he supposedly perished afterward. The fledgling demon race he created was left for a future of suffering until I came along,” Ashcroft said with a low chuckle.

”When I was born into this world, this continent was a wasteland. Demon kin were hunted by other demon types and by humans. I made the difference. I united the demon races. I built on the foundation he created. This temple was one of them. Of course, I took credit for most of it.”

Ashcroft paused.

”The more I learned, the more I realized there was no nobility in my actions. I was not a savior. I was a tool leading toward the Unknown God’s design.”

”The Ouroboros Coil was part of that design. It contains a fragment of the Unknown God’s authority, the Karma Maker. That is what allowed demon lords to pass power from one generation to another. They inherited the fate of previous demon lords.”

”So he can control fate?” Damon asked.

”No. Cause and effect. Fate and everything between. More importantly, only an authority can cancel out another authority.”

Ashcroft fell quiet for a moment before continuing.

”I know some things, but my knowledge cannot compare to those who have seen farther horizons. There could be more.”

”I get it,” Damon said as he took a sharp turn, ran up a broken pillar, then glided down and crashed through the ceiling into a lower chamber.

”If he succeeds, this is bad for us, right?”

Damon raised his head.

Ittorath stood in front of him.

Behind the entity rested an object shaped like a dragon eating its own tail.