My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Deep within Anarchy City, a massive throne began to pulse with blood. A shockwave spread across the entire city, and the city lord’s body suddenly began to expand as his aura erupted with terrifying intensity.

Damon collapsed to the ground as a wave of redness entered his soul. His body began to twitch as his heart was ignited by a deep and unsettling desire for conflict.

The city lord’s body became covered in red armor, and around him, weapons of all kinds began to materialize. Some Damon had seen before. Others were completely unfamiliar.

”Die.”

The city lord struck a weapon shaped like a bell.

A wave spread through the city.

Damon felt his body begin to rot.

Then weapons of all kinds, weapons used by humans and countless races across the Omniverse, began to manifest around him and rain down from every direction.

His body was torn apart.

Blood and pieces of metal scattered across the ground until nothing remained but a ruined mass.

Yet even as his body was destroyed, Damon’s eyes remained filled with a cold madness.

He pushed his soul out of the remnants of his destroyed body.

The moment his soul emerged, the world seemed to freeze.

A vast pressure descended upon him, instantly pressing against his exposed soul, threatening to crush it.

But Damon had not come this far just to die.

His Astral Form roared as it began to disintegrate under the pressure. At the same time, it seized control of another nearby shadow drone.

A mage-type shadow drone.

The moment Damon possessed it, the red energy began spreading toward him again, and countless weapons rained down from the sky.

Damon raised his hand.

His newly possessed body was already beginning to collapse.

”[Magical Arsenal.]”

The sky erupted.

Countless swords filled the heavens before descending like a rain of death upon the city lord.

The city lord raised his hand, and swords forged from that strange power rose into the sky to meet Damon’s Magical Arsenal. The two forces collided, and the magic swords shattered against one another, fragments of light and broken blades raining down across the battlefield.

Several of them struck Damon, tearing through his body and forcing his soul out once more. With no time to hesitate, he abandoned the ruined body and transferred himself into another shadow drone.

Damon barely had time to stabilize his soul before he reached out, grabbed one of the nearby city residents by the head, and hurled him into the air.

The man screamed as he flew upward, but Damon had already turned his attention back toward the city lord.

There was no way to win like this.

The city lord was drawing upon a power that far exceeded what someone in the Third Class should have been capable of wielding.

Every moment Damon spent fighting him only brought him closer to losing another body, and once his supply of shadow drones ran out, his soul would be exposed to the mountain’s barrier.

He needed to kill him.

And he needed to do it now.

Damon dashed forward, his body being torn apart as countless red weapons descended around him.

Blades pierced his limbs, spears tore through his torso, and other weapons struck his body from every direction, but Damon continued forward, forcing the damaged shadow drone to move even as its regeneration struggled to keep up.

He closed the distance.

Just as he reached the city lord, something was hurled toward him.

Damon’s eyes narrowed.

The projectile had barely left the area around the city lord when its tail suddenly began to glow with flames. Damon immediately recognized the danger, but there was no time to retreat.

The projectile reached him.

A violent explosive force erupted.

The blast spread in every direction, tearing through the surrounding buildings and swallowing Damon in a raging sphere of destruction. The force was so immense that a mushroom cloud rose into the sky, while the shockwave tore through everything nearby.

Damon’s body was completely eviscerated.

His soul was forced out once again.

The moment it emerged, the mountain barrier locked onto it.

An invisible pressure descended upon his Astral Form, crushing it from every direction. Cracks spread across his soul as the barrier began to tear him apart.

Yet Damon did not retreat.

He forced himself forward.

His soul screamed beneath the pressure, but he continued toward the city lord, each movement threatening to tear his Astral Form apart completely.

He was already dying.

But he only needed one opening.

One chance.

One attack.

Black flames suddenly began to emerge from his Astral Form, crawling across his body as though they had been waiting inside him all along. The flames grew more intense as his soul continued to crack, surrounding him in a dark radiance.

Damon’s gaze remained fixed on the city lord.

His voice was barely more than a whisper.

”Die.”

Ashborn were soul flames, and Damon was igniting them directly with his soul. If he was going to die, then he would drag the city lord down with him.

”Hahaha... hahaha!”

His Astral Form streaked forward like a meteor, the black flames around him burning fiercely as his soul began to turn into embers. He no longer cared about the damage being done to him. He only cared about reaching the city lord and killing him.

”What are you doing?”

A voice suddenly screamed inside his head.

”Have you gone mad? If you do that, you’ll die too!”

It was Ashcroft.

The voice was like cold water poured over Damon’s burning head, momentarily clearing his thoughts and dragging him back from the edge of madness. His soul slowed for the briefest moment as he realized what he was doing.

’Possess him instead.’

Ashcroft’s voice echoed through his mind again.

Damon’s gaze sharpened.

Right.

He didn’t need to destroy the city lord’s body.

He could take it.

With a roar, Damon forced his Astral Form forward, the black flames tearing through the countless red weapons that tried to stop him. His soul streaked across the battlefield and shot directly toward the city lord’s forehead.

Then he entered his body.

For an instant, everything went silent.

Damon found himself standing in a world of red.

There was no sky, no ground, no horizon. Everything around him was soaked in crimson, as though he had stepped into an endless sea of blood.

And somewhere within that vast red world, the city lord was half-buried beneath the crimson substance.

His body struggled desperately against it, his arms reaching upward as he screamed and begged for help.

”What is this?”

Damon stared at the strange sight, his voice filled with confusion.

Ashcroft’s voice echoed calmly through the red world.

”It’s conflict.”