My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 887 - 888: Choice Was An Illusion

Renata appeared with a faint smile curving her lips, streaks of blood marking her face, yet not a drop belonged to her.

Her gaze shifted to Xander, positioned directly opposite Amon, who served only as Damon's shadow duplicate.

This version didn't appear particularly formidable, leading her to conclude that Damon hadn't invested much power into its creation.

She moved to stand next to Matia and surveyed the rest of the group.

"Well then... shall we?"

Abellona's brow furrowed, her fingers clenching tighter around her spear's shaft.

"Why are you getting in the way?"

Renata let out a sigh, her face remaining serene.

"I may not be a knight, but I am someone who can respect his decision. This world is shit anyway."

Evangeline's gaze turned icy, a wave of killing intent seeping from her.

"Move."

Renata let out a soft laugh.

"Someone’s getting fired up. You underclassmen may have had one great adventure in Lysithara and come back overpowered, but your upperclassmen are still in a whole other league."

Evangeline's eyes shimmered with a golden light.

"Time to find out."

She surged ahead in a streak of brilliance. A burst of dazzling light erupted outward in every direction. Renata lifted her palm, summoning a shield that weakened the assault's force.

Matia unleashed an icy assault that almost skewered Evangeline. Bolts of lightning crackled as Leona deflected it with a swing of her blade.

"Argh!" Leona rushed toward Matia, aware that any hesitation could spell her doom.

Clashing ice and lightning birthed a furious tempest. Several lunged at Matia, yet she remained rooted in place. Unfurling her wings, she unleashed chilling gusts that shrouded the area, plunging sight into total obscurity.

...

Xander fixed Amon with a glare full of murderous resolve, prowling around him deliberately, his features etched in chill determination.

Emilia Highgon readied her incantation, luminous magical patterns materializing between her palms.

Amon—or more precisely, Damon—felt exhaustion as he eyed the shadow drones.

"Kill anyone who tries to get into the tower."

The shadow drones pivoted, arming themselves, and plunged into the fray over the tower.

His attention then shifted to Bakemon Baal, the head of the Demon Heirs.

"You too."

Bakemon clenched his jaw, blood staining his visage.

"My lord, we have a truce with them. I signed a contract. We can’t kill them."

Of course. Abellona had forced that mutual pact upon them.

Damon gave a nod.

"Then stop them within the limits of your contract."

The moment those words left his mouth—

"Amon wants the elixir! We can’t let him have it!" a voice yelled from the throng, prompting everyone to form combat arrays against the encroaching drones.

Overhead, the sky pressed down under Lazarak’s enchantment, its hues gradually shifting.

Damon sensed the fundamental laws of nature fraying apart. Weightlessness crept in. The air grew lifeless. The very essence of reality folded inward on itself.

Xander vaulted skyward and thrust his spear down in a fierce arc.

"That’s your opening move? How predictable."

He extended his arm and struck at the incoming spear, frost encasing his knuckles.

Emilia unleashed her spell, but he evaded it with ease.

...

He refused to glance back, despite sensing her approach. He seized the spear.

And spun around.

Boom.

A thunderous shockwave rattled the atmosphere. The dagger hovered mere inches from his torso—

So perilously close.

"Why... why aren’t you trying to stop me?"

"Why aren’t you trying to fight for your life?"

"Why won’t you just... live?"

"Why won’t my words reach you?"

"Why is my love not enough?"

"Why am I... not enough?"

"Why don’t you love me?"

Damon's lips curved into a gradual smile. He extended his hand to hers and carefully pried the dagger free, flinging it away to clatter on the stone.

She sank to her knees.

He dropped down in front of her, enveloping her in his embrace.

He tilted her chin up and brushed away the tears staining her cheeks.

"I’m not stopping you because I know your love is not coercion."

"I’m not fighting because I chose to stop. This is my choice."

"I am tired," he murmured in response to her third query.

"Your words reached me... but I can’t choose not to try. I’ll never know if I don’t. I wish to know if I truly had a choice, if I was truly free or if my choices were just illusions created by an all-powerful god."

Her fifth question followed.

The reply came straightforward.

"It’s everything to me"

He pressed his brow to hers.

"You are plenty."

He leaned in for a kiss.

"I do. I love you."

Her eyes flared wide, yet the tears kept streaming. Sylvia bowed her head, sobs escaping unchecked.

Damon clenched the spear harder, poised to plunge it into his own heart.

"Ugh. Disgusting monkeys"

Damon tilted his head just a fraction.

A young woman loomed directly at his side.

He hadn't detected her presence at all.

In that instant, she thrust the dagger into his chest with swift, seamless motion.

Lilith's eyes bulged in terror as the blade melted within Damon's body, morphing into myriad runes that raced over his skin. He crumpled to the earth, convulsing in torment while the curse reshaped his heart.

His longing for death flipped into a fierce, insatiable drive to endure.

It echoed the desperation from his early departure from the village—

Amplified a thousandfold.

Survival became his sole imperative, no matter the price.

Nothing else held weight.

Across his chest, a mark like a scar emerged before vanishing.

Lilith remained rooted in stunned silence.

Sylvia did the same.

She hadn't spotted the intruder either. One instant, absence; the next, presence—as though an omnipotent storyteller had inserted her precisely then.

Lilith wasted no time on inquiries.

She struck out.

The girl seized her wrist with ease and snapped it, then booted her away.

Her eyes then dropped in contempt.

"Don’t touch me, you lowly savage who couldn’t even complete such a basic task."

With that, the girl pivoted and strode off toward the doorway, dismissing all else as irrelevant.

Sylvia's eyes flew open wide. She nocked her bow and loosed an arrow at the intruder.

"Who... who are you."

The girl halted, her stare lingering on Sylvia's armor.

Her tone dripped with frost.

"Ah. I see. You’re the one who inherited Valacara’s ascendant armor. I’ll make sure you suffer before you die, alongside that golden bitch who inherited Valarie Sunwarden’s armor."

Sylvia's fingers shook. Unbidden, a single name rose in her thoughts.

"Y... you. You’re Ittorath... aren’t you."

Ittorath flicked her gaze to Damon, who had hauled himself upright, glaring at her with blazing rage.

The apocalypse failed to arrive. Damon lived on. And that petrified him beyond measure.

She let out a laugh.

"I see not all you monkeys are stupid."

Her focus locked on Damon. Then it drifted to the wilted bloom clutched in her palm.

Lilith's hand darted to her locks. Ittorath had snatched the gardenia bestowed by the enigmatic deity.

"Farewell. My god has great plans for you."

And in a blink—

She vanished.