My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

His feet touched the Lake of Tears, and a cold sensation crawled up through his soles and into his bones. The chill was not merely physical. It felt invasive, as if something had slipped beneath his skin and begun to move through him.

Then Damon felt himself falling. He felt like he had been falling forever even if his body was still.

He was submerged in a bottomless body of water. There was no surface, no floor, no sense of direction. Even with his skill Water Celebration, which prevented him from drowning in any body of water, he could not breathe.

It was heavy and vast, spreading out fat beyond his senses, deeper than any shadow.

It was in that brief, suffocating moment that Damon realized he was not simply inside water.

He was inside something.

The realization came with a wave of instinctive dread. The fluid around him was too uniform, too warm in some places and too cold in others. It pulsed faintly. The walls were not walls but living membranes, translucent and shifting.

Damon had found himself inside the belly of a creature.

The creature itself swam through a vast and incomprehensible realm. Through its translucent flesh, Damon could see shapes outside. Horrible shapes. Things that seemed too vast to comprehend and too alien to name. Forms that twisted in ways that broke perspective. Distances that made no sense. Movements that did not obey direction.

They were things that could be seen but not understood.

Damon blinked.

When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed.

Before him was a massive maw that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was not attached to anything he could comprehend. It was simply there, waiting, open, patient. The creature he was inside swam directly toward it, helpless, drawn like prey toward a predator that dwarfed existence itself.

And then.

Gasp. Gasp.

Damon fell violently onto the stone beside the Lake of Tears, coughing and clutching his head. His vision swam. His heart pounded so loudly he could hear it in his ears.

Lilith was kneeling beside him, one hand gripping his shoulder tightly. Her emerald eyes were wide, and her breathing was shallow. She had pulled him out just before the creature and the maw became one.

There was a faint tremble in Damon’s hands. The things he had seen, what he had witnessed, what he had felt, could not be put into words. His mind struggled to process images that refused to remain still in his memory.

“The Metaverse,” the Blind Old Daoist said quietly. “Truly a harrowing place to be. Second only to the Abyss, though some may beg to differ.”

Even his voice carried a trace of unease.

Damon slowly pushed himself upright and drew a long breath into his lungs. That had been too close. He had truly believed, for a moment, that he had reached the end.

“You seem to know a lot about the Metaverse. Come to think of it, did you Outsiders not first come into this world through the Metaverse?”

The Blind Old Daoist smiled faintly.

“We did. Even then, we had the protection of the Unknown God. The Metaverse is not a place meant to be traveled freely. Only a few entities can claim they can traverse its infinity safely. Then again, even infinity is a product of imagination. Any rules you think exist do, and any you do not think exist still do.”

Lilith folded her arms slowly across her chest.

“I heard the Metaverse was a collection of the minds of every single entity in existence. Past, present, and future, all at once. It is the realm where all minds meet.”

The old man nodded.

“Indeed. Everything that is thought or imagined lives there. Every dream and every nightmare. You have no idea how terrifying that is. For everything that should remain a thought to come to life. Some monster you fear might only be the imagination of a harmless child. Or the shadow of someone’s tormented mind.”

Damon did not like that description.

On a normal day, he imagined many terrible things. He wrestled constantly with dark thoughts, with fear, with doubt, with memories. The idea that all of that existed somewhere as reality was deeply unsettling.

The Metaverse did not judge thoughts. It gave them form.

“If that is the case, should not good things exist there as well?” Lilith asked softly.

The Blind Old Daoist leaned slightly forward.

“Tell me, girl. Does this world look like the type to breed dreamers?”

Lilith fell silent.

Their world was not kind. It did not nurture gentle minds or hopeful fantasies. It shaped people through pain and survival. It was easier to imagine horrors than miracles.

“Hmmm. Then how do we use the Lake if it just sends us to our deaths? Lazarak certainly did not leave an instruction manual,” Damon muttered, rubbing his temple.

“Yes. Reasonable. However, Junior, you forget. The Metaverse is a place of the mind. You must have a target in mind.”

He tapped the side of his head.

Lilith looked uneasy.

“You are saying he needs to be certain of who he is reaching out to. Is that even safe?”

Damon closed his eyes briefly.

“I am not certain who I want to meet. My options are thin. The first option is the Goddess, but she might kill me before I say anything. The second option is those who dwell within the Crystal Palace. The Unknown God’s kin.”

The Blind Old Daoist chuckled dryly.

“I would not do that if I were you. Both options are terrible for you. Especially since you are deeply involved with the Demon God. You even have a custom made system. The Goddess would obliterate you before you speak a word.”

Damon’s head snapped toward him.

“Did you just say what I think you did?”

“What would that be?” the old man asked mildly.

“You mentioned my system. I do not remember saying I had one.”

The Blind Old Daoist smirked.

“Of course I know you have a system. Those things are expensive. You can buy a basic one from the God of Adventurers, but custom made ones are very high maintenance. Yours seems to be top tier, with admin privileges still linked to your sponsor.”

Damon stared at him blankly.

Systems were not rare?

“Furthermore, you did not set it to incognito mode.”

Inside his mind, Ashcroft burst into laughter.

“Ahh, right. I forgot to mention that. I thought you left it visible because you wanted to show off. To people in higher realms, it is like having a flashy new device.”

Damon did not know what that meant, but he quickly willed the system to hide itself. The Blind Old Daoist’s eyes flickered subtly, and Damon knew he had succeeded while Ashcroft continued to mock him mercilessly.

Lilith turned back to the lake.

“What about the Unknown God’s kin? Would they help?”

The Blind Old Daoist bit his lip.

“Fearing them is the beginning of wisdom. I would not approach them even if I were desperate. Asking them for help against one of their own shows you do not value this world as much as I thought.”

He spoke more slowly.

“Those monsters would tear this universe apart before they turn on one of their own. Consequences be damned.”

Damon could tell the old man feared them more than he feared the Goddess of Doom.

“So what now?” Damon asked.

The Blind Old Daoist was quiet for a moment.

“How many other gods do you know? You could try leaving a message, though I doubt they would help. This is Doom’s domain. The other option is to rely on true demons, which I do not advise.”

Lilith opened her mouth, but the old man shook his head.

“True dragons will not help. Anyone else is too weak.”

He inhaled slowly.

“I do not wish for the end of all things. I have only lived for less than a million years. I am still young. I do not want to see the Omniverse reduced to uncreation.”

He turned his sightless gaze toward Damon.

“With that in mind, you will have to brave meeting the Goddess.”

Lilith’s expression turned sour immediately. She did not need to hear Damon’s answer to know he would hate that idea.

“She is the Goddess of Doom, mistress of the inevitable. When you meet her, bow your head, prostrate yourself, and pray.”

Damon bit his lip, thinking.

“Does the Goddess even deserve that? I have no faith in her.”

He slowly clenched his fist.

“But I want to make sure my Ranar has a future. My pride is a small price to pay.”

Lilith’s eyes widened slightly at his decision.

Damon stepped forward into the Lake of Tears again. This time, his voice was steady.

“Hail Minerva, Goddess of Doom.”

The surface of the lake began to ripple, darkening as the water slowly took on the color of encroaching doom.