My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 1250 - 1251: Fate [11]

The massive lance reached toward the Abyss, but then it froze. It was almost as if the magic particles that made up the very world were terrified of what was about to come.

Aetherus felt his hands tremble, but even so, he pushed the lance down toward himself. His muscles strained beneath the pressure, and the veins across his enormous body bulged as he forced the weapon closer to the Abyss.

His roar shook the world.

Damon and everyone else grabbed onto whatever part of Aetherus’ body they could reach, desperately trying to stop him. Their combined strength was barely enough to slow the movement of the massive lance, but Aetherus’ body suddenly rolled violently, sending everyone clinging to him flying through the air. Only those who had managed to hold onto the enormous limbs that represented what were supposed to be his arms remained attached to him.

Damon gritted his teeth.

But it was too late.

The lance touched the Abyss.

For one instant, one single instant, the whole world went silent.

The birds stopped singing. The rodents beneath the earth stopped moving. The air itself seemed to cease flowing, and the streams became silent. Even the sound of people’s own heartbeats vanished, leaving behind a silence so complete that it felt as though existence itself had forgotten how to make a sound.

And then Damon watched.

A portion of Aetherus’ body, the part that represented the Sky Continent, began to crack.

"That fool," Ashcroft whispered inside Damon’s head.

His voice carried none of his usual amusement.

"What a brave fool... no. He has doomed billions to die."

Far away, on the Sky Continent, a little girl felt the ground rumble beneath her feet. She looked outside, expecting to see an earthquake or perhaps some great battle in the distance, but what she saw instead made her eyes widen.

The world around her was disappearing.

There was nothing consuming it.

There was no enormous monster swallowing the land, no explosion tearing through the continent, no darkness spreading across the horizon.

The world simply ceased to exist.

Nothing could not be seen because nothing was not darkness. It was simply the absence of anything that could be seen at all. If a blind person had been standing there, they would not have seen blackness. They would have seen nothing.

And that was exactly what the people of the Sky Continent saw.

Nothing.

Just like that, an entire continent was destroyed.

All that remained were the floating landmasses that had once hovered around its surface. They were the only pieces of land left, suspended above the emptiness where their home had once existed. When the people who lived upon those fragments looked down, they saw the bright light of a star shining beneath what had once been their world.

Its light was beautiful.

This star was the Abyss, pulling in all the light around it and devouring it within its darkness. And at the center of that star floated a tomb.

Above it, a woman was hurled toward the ancient structure.

Her hands were gone. Her hair was disheveled, strands sticking to her blood-covered face, while her beating heart was exposed through the ruined armor covering her chest. Blood flowed through the gaps in her armor, carrying countless maggots that crawled across her flesh and ate into her wounds.

The armor covering her body had been folded into her flesh by the countless powerful clashes she had endured, the metal crushed and bent until it had fused with her bleeding skin. Every movement caused another wave of pain to spread through her body, yet she still reached toward the tomb.

"Ahh..."

She gasped weakly as an overwhelming pain spread through her body.

The one who had done this to her was none other than another woman who looked exactly like her.

She was not faring any better.

The light of the lance had struck her stomach, consuming half of it, while part of her shoulder had also been erased by the incomprehensible nothingness. Blood poured from the wounds, but even as her body was slowly being consumed, she remained conscious.

This woman was also her.

This was her opponent.

Herself.

Seras Blade’s weapon remained in her hand as she faced the other Seras Blade. Both women looked toward the tomb floating above the Abyss, and despite their injuries, both smiled.

"Looks like I finally made it through to the tomb."

Then they glanced at each other, and both slowly pushed themselves upright, the fire in their eyes refusing to disappear.

"Only one of us can progress forward. Whichever one of us wins is the real me."

The other Seras Blade laughed softly before glancing down at her own arms.

"A shame. I am already dead. Being struck by the nothingness has ended our fight."

She looked down at her body as the incomprehensible nothingness continued consuming her flesh, steadily erasing her existence.

"I never did get to defeat myself."

The other Seras looked at her, the fire in her eyes still burning as she took a deep breath.

"No. I am the real me because I am the me who managed to dodge that force of destruction."

The Seras Blade who was disappearing smiled.

"Are you now? It was merely a series of unpredictable circumstances, not because you are stronger or more skilled than me."

"Yes, but I still won, and winning is all that matters. This proves that I am the real Seras Blade, and there is no doubt about that."

"Luck is a factor in deciding which Seras Blade is real, hmm?"

She laughed softly.

"I was lucky to be born. I was lucky to be powerful and talented. I was lucky then, and all of this must be fate. My choices brought me here. Heheh... haha. I sound like Damon right now, talking about choice."

She looked at her other self for a long moment before smiling.

"I guess you are the real Seras Blade because I don’t lose."

Then she fell quiet as her body continued to be consumed.

"Don’t you have anything else to say?" the other Seras asked, watching herself slowly disappear.

"No. I have nothing more to say. I was just thinking... how can I be sure that I’m the real me? Or was I the fake? Am I real and you are fake? How can I be sure?"

She gave a faint laugh.

"No matter. I suppose this is how losers feel. It’s a strange feeling."

She smiled at the Seras who remained.

"I hope you have the courage to pursue the things that I did not. Happiness, love, joy and peace. I want to experience those things, so do it for me, my dear self."

Seras remained quiet for a moment before asking herself the one question she had always wanted to know.

"Are you scared?"

The other Seras smiled.

She had always wondered what dying felt like. What emotions would she feel when death finally found her? Would she be calm? Would she be brave?

"I thought when death found me, I would be brave. But yes, I am scared."

Her smile faded slightly as her gaze drifted toward the Abyss.

"My mind keeps taking me back to everything I’ve done, and I can’t help but feel like I didn’t do enough. Not for the world, but for myself. I should have lived more."

Then she glanced at her other self again.

"You won, but with those wounds, you might as well be dead."

"We both know I’d live," the other Seras replied.

"Then go ahead and do just that."

With those words, she vanished, completely consumed by the Abyss.

Seras was sure that one of them had been the fake.

But was she sure that she wasn’t the fake?

As much as she did not want to admit it, that doubt would always remain somewhere within her heart.

In the end, what proof existed that we were who we said we were?