My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 1016: Chapter 1018: Splinter

From the pile of corpses, Mugu cracked one eye open and took in his surroundings.

He had made it out of the hold.

But he was still far from safe.

The slavers stood along the railing, casually lifting bodies and tossing them overboard. Below, the sea churned with movement. As Mugu watched, pale shapes surfaced—long, slick creatures with too many fins and too many teeth. They tore into the falling corpses before they even sank.

This was a route they used often.

The monsters had learned the routine.

Mugu’s gaze shifted carefully without moving his head. A small boat hung from the ship’s side by two thick ropes. Inside were two oars and a modest sail. It was close—close enough that if he moved at the right moment, he could reach it.

If he could cut it loose, he could vanish into the waves.

The problem was direction.

Soltheon.

He had no compass. No map. No water. His throat felt like sandpaper.

He took a slow, silent breath.

”The west... Soltheon lies west of Centros. If I sail west, I’ll hit land before anything else.”

Decision made.

His eyes sharpened as he watched the slavers move. The pile was shrinking. Soon they would reach him.

Right on time, a pot-bellied slaver grabbed Mugu’s arm to lift him.

Mugu moved.

His hand flashed to the dagger at the man’s waist. In one smooth motion, he drove it up into the man’s throat. Blood sprayed hot across his hand.

Before the second slaver could react, Mugu kicked him hard in the chest. The man stumbled backward over the railing and vanished into the feeding sea with a scream that ended almost instantly.

Mugu rolled off the corpse pile and sprinted for the hanging boat.

Shouts erupted behind him.

He slashed the first rope.

Then the second.

The boat dropped.

Mugu leapt with it.

They hit the water hard. The impact rattled his bones, but he scrambled upright immediately, yanking the sail loose. Wind caught it at once, and the small boat lurched forward.

A slaver jumped after him from the ship’s edge, landing near the stern.

Mugu grabbed an oar, poured mana into his arms, and swung with everything he had.

The wood cracked against the man’s skull, launching him sideways into the sea. The monsters did the rest. For a brief moment, an arm clawed at the boat’s edge before it, too, disappeared beneath red foam.

Mugu shoved it away and focused.

He cleared the shadow of the ship.

But they were not done with him.

Harpoons shot through the air. Arrows followed. Bursts of magic slammed into the water around him, trying to shatter the boat or drag him back.

Better he die than escape.

Then—

The wind changed.

It howled.

The sky darkened unnaturally fast as clouds swallowed the sun. Waves began to rise like moving hills.

The slavers stopped shouting at Mugu.

They were screaming at the sky.

”Cloud dragon!”

This was no ordinary storm.

Lightning ripped across the heavens as a colossal shape coiled within the clouds themselves—a serpentine form made of vapor, thunder, and wind. The storm moved with intent.

Mugu didn’t understand what he was seeing, but he noticed the sailors frantically lowering their sails.

He did the same.

He tied himself to the boat just as a massive wave rose behind the slaver ship like a wall.

Daylight vanished.

The world became storm.

—

Damon’s astral form hovered nearby, watching Mugu with open amazement.

He was no longer the harmless village boy.

Ashcroft, however, stared into the clouds.

”I see... so the cloud dragon Aethergon was active this early. This isn’t the territory I know him to inhabit.”

Damon looked at the raging sky, lightning splitting the sea in blinding flashes.

”The great dragons truly are calamities in their own right,” he muttered.

”Don’t be so impressed,” Ashcroft replied casually. ”At my peak, I once tried to tame Ashergon.”

Damon glanced at him.

”Right... you tried to do that. Or so I heard.”

It wasn’t a joke. In his era, no one could stand against Ashcroft. The only reason he fell was because the Goddess of Doom herself had intervened.

And even then—

He had not died.

Ashcroft watched the storm thoughtfully.

”I wonder where the great dragons truly come from.”

Their origins were vague. As far as Damon knew, they appeared sometime between the Zero Epoch and the First.

Ashcroft spoke as if stating something obvious.

”The Abyss.”

Damon turned sharply.

”What?”.

”The sky continent Vuldren... that’s where dragons first appeared. They came from the Abyss that formed after the death of a god you would know all too well.”

Ashcroft did not hold back the knowledge as the winds grew more violent, the sea rising and falling like a living thing beneath them.

”I know many gods,” Damon replied, squinting into the storm. ”I assume you aren’t talking about the True Gods, since you said death.”

Suddenly, Damon was pulled back into Mugu’s body.

Wind screamed past his ears.

”Ahh, great... so I have to experience this.”

He looked down at the body he now occupied scarred, thinner, gaunt. Ribs slightly visible. Skin toughened by travel and beatings alike.

Still, he forced himself to move.

He tightened the knots around the oars. Checked the sail lines. Lowered his center of gravity and braced his feet against the wood as the boat bucked wildly beneath him.

”By ’god’ you mean Lazarak, right?” Damon shouted into the storm. ”The God of Peace and Darkness.”

”So you did see my divine spark after all.”

Damon felt a flicker of irritation. Lazarak was dead. Truly dead.

”Yes. I saw it. I did my own investigation into the Zero Epoch.”

A low, mocking chuckle drifted through the wind.

”You seem desperate to know.”

Damon wiped rain and salt from his eyes with the back of his hand as lightning illuminated the world in white flashes.

”First survive Aethergon,” Ashcroft said calmly, ”then I’ll tell you.”

Damon raised his head.

The storm didn’t just rage.

It opened.

The clouds parted like a colossal maw, and from within, a beam of destruction descended countless lightning bolts braided into a single, blinding pillar.

It struck the slaver ship.

The vessel did not burn.

It exploded.

Wood, iron, bodies everything shattered into splinters and mist in an instant. The sound arrived a second later, a thunderclap so violent it felt like the world itself had cracked.

Where the ship had been, there was nothing.

Nothing at all.

Damon’s breath caught.

Everyone was dead.

Except Mugu.

And the horrors had only just begun