My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 886 - 887: Those For Or Against

Damon offered her only a weary smile. That expression filled her with loathing. She despised the gaze he fixed on her in this instant.

Anger from him would have been easier to bear. If he had unleashed his full might against her. Yet he chose that same exhausted, yielding look, leaving her gripped by intense irritation.

The warped dagger gripped in her palm felt icy, despite being no physical item. It served as a mystical creation infused with the essences of countless mortals... plus one deity.

This ordeal ought to have concluded. The torment should have ceased, yet it lingered on.

Seraph Null had perished. Victory was theirs. The end had arrived.

Exhaustion weighed on Lilith. Pain afflicted her. And deep down... fear clawed at her.

Doubt clouded her mind now. This act represented her sole path forward. It stood as the one choice she held firm belief in.

’I just want us to go back home together...’

That single wish dominated her thoughts.

Returning alongside him was her desire. To Luna and Iris. To those peaceful times at Iris’s home, where Matia shaped snowmen with Luna in the garden.

With Lilith enjoying tea while bickering with Renata.

The moments when Damon would cease his lax instruction and truly guide Iris’s growth.

Such simplicity was her longing. Nothing extravagant. Especially not in these circumstances.

Her teeth ground together until blood trickled from her gums.

Conquering the world held no appeal for Lilith. The Goddess of Doom meant nothing to her. Razing the temple didn’t matter.

Home and rediscovering normalcy—that was her sole pursuit.

No fault lay in that desire.

So why did the one soul who ought to comprehend her now oppose her?

Why did he fixate so fiercely on terminating his existence?

Boom.

An afterimage trailed as she lunged at him. Cracks spiderwebbed the earth. Damon swung his sword in one fluid motion, clashing with the dagger amid a burst of flying sparks. Astral gales erupted, scattering wreckage through the crumbling realm.

The surrounding world unraveled gradually from its god’s demise. It had become a realm devoid of divine presence.

Chaos reigned nonetheless, but their focus remained locked solely on one another.

Frustration boiled within Lilith.

"Why... why are you looking at me like that," she cried out, shedding her typical poise and restraint. Her shout echoed through the hall.

Damon held her gaze steady.

Then, in a soft murmur, he said, "Because... you’re crying."

His words came so faintly she nearly missed them. In that instant, awareness struck her. The damp heat tracing her face.

Not from wounds.

Tears flowed freely.

Her hand rose, tearing the gap between them. Reality warped as mana churned wildly. Cracks in space yawned open, with eerie beastly gazes from the abyss hungering to consume a divine-less domain.

"I... I... I don’t know," she uttered, slashing the dagger toward him.

"I do," Damon responded.

Amid all possible moments, for every conceivable cause, anger or betrayal eluded him.

He had never envisioned another battling so fiercely merely to safeguard his insignificant existence.

Witnessing such devotion from her—

Haggard and blood-soaked, she appeared. Rivulets of tears poured from her eyes. Weariness sapped her strength, yet her resolve to fight endured.

"For... me..."

Damon’s grip faltered as he aimed to strike. She countered with a kick that sent him reeling.

His eyes averted from her.

When had genuine conversation last passed between them? A true exchange of words.

"I... I’m sorry, Lilith. For everything."

She halted abruptly.

If only briefly.

"I’m not going to fight you anymore," he went on in hushed tones. "I’m just so tired... of all the fighting. Fighting is what turned me into... into this."

Gradually, he pivoted away and advanced toward the spear awaiting him.

Opportunity presented itself.

Lilith seized it without delay.

She surged forward at Damon, dagger poised.

...

Blades gleamed as loyalties blurred amid the fray.

Abellona alongside Damon’s companions arrived at the tower’s entrance without hindrance.

A lone knight in female form barred their way, her plate seeming crafted from fractured frost.

Upon their approach, she directed her blade at them, visage concealed under her visor.

"I’m afraid I cannot let you pass."

Evangeline, soaked in crimson from slaying the Wind Apostle solo, advanced.

"What are you doing, Matia? We have to go. Damon and Sylvia might need help."

Matia denied with a shake of her head.

"I cannot let you pass."

Xander’s brow furrowed. Unease stirred.

Leona’s gaze sharpened.

"You’re awfully chatty today. What’s happening."

That clinched it.

Verbosity didn’t suit Matia. Not since Lysithara’s return. Silence defined the knight.

Matia hesitated, then leveled her sword once more.

"My lord is about to end his suffering in this mortal plane. I cannot let you interfere."

Sorrow laced her tone.

Evangeline inclined her head gradually.

"I see. So that’s what’s going on."

Comprehension dawned.

Loyalty bound Matia to Damon. Her knightly vow forbade defiance of his will. Even against her desires for his survival, his choice to perish stood inviolable.

Thus, she revealed the truth to them.

Victory over her would grant access to the Black Tower, allowing intervention in Damon’s self-destruction.

Words proved futile.

Evangeline unsheathed her weapon.

"Thank you. I’ll be sure to talk some sense into that bastard."

Under her helmet, Matia’s lips curved faintly.

Before action stirred, a shadowy form without features materialized at their rear.

"None shall pass."

Xander caught the declaration. Chill settled over his features.

He whirled, rage surging, to confront the being that had slain his kin mercilessly.

"Amon."

Spear aloft, he pressed onward. Emilia Highgon inhaled deeply and trailed him.

"You guys go stop that son of a bitch. I’ll deal with Amon."

Matia lifted her sword deliberately. Frost bloomed from her wings, chilling the atmosphere.

"Apologies. While I wish for you to pass, I shan’t allow it."

A barrier of ice etched itself around the portal. Her wings summoned a domain of unrelenting freeze.

"Whoever steps forward shall die."

Folly drove one to test her.

A treasure-seeker adventurer bolted ahead for the elixir.

He breached her guard.

Moments later, his form crumpled.

Head severed from body.

Evangeline gritted her teeth.

"You can’t hope to take us all together. Even you aren’t that powerful."

A violet-haired maiden emerged.

"Who said she was alone?"