My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 829 - 830: Echoing Words

Such a despicable man. Truly, a wretched and horrific soul.

A man might sacrifice his very crown for just one instance of sincere, unadulterated love.

But when that devotion is met with betrayal and his spirit is crushed, his rage possesses the power to forge empires. A man who has been stripped of everything becomes an unstoppable force, for there is no darker abyss left for him to inhabit.

If that were true, why did Damon remain so reckless and consumed by madness?

He still possessed things of great value. He had far too much to lose.

Sylvia was well aware of this.

However, she also recognized that in his own mind, he was accustomed to possessing nothing at all. Because of that mindset, he pledged his soul to the only thing that could never turn against him.

"Damon’s greatest loyalty is to defiance."

What else could he possibly rely on that wouldn't betray him, if not his own spirit of rebellion? This was his fundamental way of life. Even the act of dying—even death itself—served as a final act of revolt. He was essentially spitting in the face of a god.

Lilith understood this perfectly.

She had witnessed it with her own eyes.

With a black spear piercing through his chest, he had gazed toward the heavens, laughing like a madman. Though blood flowed out without restraint, his manic laughter only intensified.

He ridiculed the heavens for assuming his faint, desperate cries were insignificant. He was weeping and laughing simultaneously, fueled by the knowledge that he had defied them.

Had she not been in love with him, the macabre beauty of that moment might have stolen her breath. Instead, the sight simply tore her heart to pieces.

The only memory of sound she retained wasn't the clash between Lazarak and Seraph Null, but her own fractured, raw scream that drowned out the rest of the world.

"Love cannot override his philosophy," Lilith eventually whispered, her voice barely audible.

He refuses to hold onto love because love is capable of leaving.

He refuses to hold onto people because people are capable of dying.

He refuses to hold onto gods because gods are capable of lying.

He clings only to defiance, for defiance only perishes when he does—and even in that moment, he treats his passing as a final insult to existence.

Sylvia tilted her head to the side, her eyes wandering back to the concluding sentence of the tome.

"Do you think this is a riddle?" she inquired.

"The unknown god appears to have a penchant for puzzles, particularly when the solutions are hidden in plain sight."

Lilith looked up as Sylvia recited the final line once more.

"Time is linear, simultaneous, and unbreakable. We are all imprisoned by time."

A faint smile touched Sylvia’s lips, showing her self-satisfaction.

"It is quite ironic, coming from a deity who holds dominion over time itself."

Lilith’s brow furrowed, her face tightening with tension.

"Are you implying that this last sentence is some kind of coded message?"

Sylvia shook her head.

"No. I am merely highlighting an observation that might serve as a lead."

She cast a sidelong glance toward Lilith.

"In any case, the unknown god isn't our primary concern. It’s Damon."

She gestured toward Lilith, her pale hair fluttering slightly even though the air was perfectly still.

"Explain to me exactly what occurs."

Lilith gave a nod, though she paused briefly.

"I cannot recall every single detail," she admitted.

"Only the major events. Besides, this flower alters the course of things, making it linear yet unpredictable at the same time."

Sylvia folded her arms, nodding in contemplation.

"Hmm. Much like how I can sense the shifts in this world. As time moves forward, certain individuals become faintly aware. They experience sensations of déjà vu and similar phenomena."

Lilith nodded in agreement. She was about to speak, but Sylvia halted her with a raised hand.

"If that is the case, I doubt it will change much. Just inform me if anything truly out of the ordinary happens."

Lilith shot her a sharp glare.

"This is already out of the ordinary," she snapped.

"You and I actually cooperating. Normally, we are trying to kill one another."

Sylvia looked down at the flower, noting its faded, withered petals.

"If you look at it objectively, this object is actually a weapon."

Lilith’s eyes narrowed, but Sylvia signaled for her to wait.

"Think about it. Each time you return to the past, you birth an entirely new reality while annihilating the original one. That makes this little blossom a weapon of mass extinction."

She leaned back in her seat slightly.

"Consider what that final line actually implies."

Lilith muttered the words softly to herself.

"Time is linear, simultaneous, and unbreakable. We are all imprisoned by time."

Sylvia nodded.

"This contradicts the concept of standard regression. Theoretically, regression doesn't shatter time; it merely bypasses it for a while. The butterfly effect and such."

Sylvia Moonveil was essentially a living archive. Beyond that, she was a scholar who grasped the nature of rules much better than she understood the complexities of people.

This subject was perfectly suited to her expertise.

"The constraints are straightforward," she stated calmly.

"We must recognize our boundaries and operate within them."

She held up three fingers.

"Three for the time being."

"Lilith is not free."

"Sylvia is not omniscient."

"And lastly, Damon is not immortal. Those are the limitations we face."

Lilith exhaled a shaky breath, her fingers grazing the flower tucked in her hair.

"I have been obliterating everything this entire time."

Sylvia permitted her a moment of silence to process that weight before continuing.

"We might be forced to fight Damon," she remarked flatly.

"But that alone won't secure a victory. I suspect you have already attempted that in the past."

Lilith shut her eyes.

"He is immensely powerful. Far more than I ever guessed. But the true obstacle is the elixir capable of saving Luna. Once he obtained it, he felt he had no further reason to live."

Sylvia stood up suddenly, a scowl forming on her face as her armor began to manifest onto her body, piece by piece.

"How unfortunate," she said.

"Then our plan is to seize the elixir before it reaches his hands."

Lilith let out a scoff, rolling her eyes in disbelief.

"That is far easier to say than to do. Even Damon had to ignite a global war just to claim it."

A small smile played on Sylvia’s lips as she looked at Lilith.

"Then we will simply take it right now, won't we?" she said softly.

"No one can stop me from getting what I want."

She was repeating the very words Lilith had spoken back at the academy, a long time ago.

She tilted her head and recited the following part, verbatim.

"I’m prepared to take on the world and watch it burn. Are you?"

Lilith was stunned for a moment. Then she burst into laughter—a sound that was brittle and directed at herself.

"When did I become so pathetic?"

She shook her head.

"Ha... ha ha ha..."

She stood tall, the familiar spark of confidence returning to her emerald eyes.

"There are two petals remaining," she declared firmly.

"And I am finishing this here and now."

"I’ve been ready to burn the world for years."

Sylvia scoffed and turned away, but a smile remained on her face.

She would never permit a rival of hers to be so weak.

"Good," she replied.

"Then it's time to move. I have already made the necessary arrangements."

She walked toward an altar etched with a multitude of runes.

"When it comes to the art of rune magic, no one in my circle can even compare to me," she added.

"Not even Damon."

As she stepped onto the platform, the runes began to glow beneath her feet.

"Let’s go put an end to that suicidal fool," Sylvia said quietly.

"He still has a vow he needs to fulfill."