The Villain's Story

Chapter 778: The Shade king.(2)

The giant moved forward, undisturbed as it crossed the vast wasteland, ignoring all those beneath it. It was as if it didn’t care for Alan, Alexander, Maxwell, Kazikato and Edward, it didn’t remember them.

It just moved forward, towards the center of the land of the dead.

”...”

”Do we go back for now?”

Maxwell asked, pulling out a telescope as the giant went further and further. But even taking a peak at Kizmal hurt his eyes, it was like he was being shocked. Soon, the giant would disappear into the distance, as large mountains of shadows would emerge to block it.

”... No.”

Manifesting his wings, Alan rose up in the sky and activated [Dragon Eyes] as he gazed at Kizmal. He was eager to know exactly what it was that they were dealing with.

But for the first time in his life, [Dragon Eyes] did not work. No matter how much mana he poured in, the skill failed to reveal any information about the shadow giant in front. There was nothing, for the first time.

[It won’t work.]

A voice called out to him, a faint and weak voice... and childlike. He looked all around, trying to figure out where it was coming from, but he was unable to locate it, even after increasing all of his senses to the extreme using aura.

”...”

He saw Maxwell wave at him from beneath, so he reluctantly went down. The atmosphere below was tense.

”Did you hear a voice?”

Maxwell asked as he crossed his arms. Alan nodded.

”Yeah, I heard a kid.”

”Kid? Weird.”

Alan tilted his head to the side, asking with his eyes why it would be weird.

”We all heard a voice, like ours. Why did you hear a kid?”

”You all heard something?”

”Yeah.”

Alexander said from the side, as he drew his blades, a look of concern. He stabbed them in the ground.

”From below.”

Everybody looked down, at the ground beneath their very feet, as they grew cautious.

”What did it say? For me, it said that [Dragon Eyes] won’t work on that.”

Alan pointed at the figure of the giant in the distance. With it, everybody began to tell what they heard from the voice.

”It cursed me, called me weak and a coward.”

Maxwell recounted, almost letting out a smirk.

”Told me what it should do with itself? It had a depressing tone.”

Everyone looked at Alexander for a moment, before turning to Edward.

”... It talked about you two, Alan and Kazikato. It... wanted me to kill or fight Kazikato and was confused about you, Alan.”

”...?”

Both of the dragons turned their head at such a revelation, both of them confused.

”Kazikato? You can’t win against him?”

Alan was mainly focused on that. Edward was the weakest one here, and whatever he heard wanted him to fight Kazikato? The second strongest of the entire group? That... was strange.

Kazikato remained silent, and looked at the ground. Everyone waited for him to recount what his voice said, but the young dragon remained silent for a while as he dug his hands into the black sand.

”It... told me I shouldn’t exist, We shouldn’t exist. I don’t know what it was implying... But I think I know what happened.”

He took a fistful of black sand and brought it to his nose, took a whiff and blew it all away.

”It’s us. Our shadows, to be precise. I don’t feel them anymore. Not just mine, but none of you have shadows anymore. Everyone is gone.”

He planted his foot deep into the ground, and spread his mana everywhere he could, but in the end, even after searching all he could... he shook his head.

”They all spread out...”

”Kazikato, what can you do with the power of shadows? What does your affinity allow you to do?”

All of a sudden, Maxwell asked a question, as everybody turned to him, he explained.

”What? We are in the land of shadows, no? Better to ask a shadow affinity user what he can do with them as a start.”

”I can manipulate them.”

”Well, of course you can, but what else?”

”Turn them into whatever I want, a weapon, clothes, even armor. I can gather or create the surrounding shadows to do so. I can also augment my own body... though that’s a bit different.”

”Different how?”

”Well, I can’t use other shadows other than my own to augment myself. The boost it provides is bigger than what mana can do with physical enhancement, but less than that of aura. Kind of like in the middle of the two?”

”Anything else?”

”Oh, I can also talk to shadows, teleport through them although, become one with them. I can do a lot of things with shadows, although some of them are stubborn, so I don’t really do much with them other than mobility or stealth techniques.”

”... Stubborn? No wait, before that...”

Alexander scratched his chin, trembling for a moment before he asked.

”... Why haven’t I seen you use those abilities? I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen you use everything? Did you even go all out in our fight? You didn’t even use what you used against Kizmal when fighting me?”

”I think I did, I used darkness, death, and some shadow. Except for my art and dragon forms. If I used my art you would have died though... it was a friendly duel.”

You could almost see Alexander’s gaping mouth hit the ground, as Kazikato scratched his chin.

”The only one I think I used everything that I had against was Boss, and I lost that fight.”

Alan remained silent, unwilling to accept that the first encounter they had resulted in a lucky win for him. If Hana hadn’t done anything... he would probably be dead.

Not now though, he would win if Kazikato fought against him... though he would do best to avoid the attack he used against Kizmal. Desperately.

He wasn’t confident in his regeneration saving him from something Kazikato learned from Ariel herself.

Liorathen may also be a primordial, but he knew Ariel more. That old dragon with anger issues always scared him shitless.

Actually... he should lose on purpose so Ariel won’t do anything to him for beating the youngest.