My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 886 - 887: Those For Or Against

Damon offered her nothing but a weary smile. She despised that expression. She loathed the way he gazed upon her in this instant.

Had he shown fury, she might have endured it. Had he unleashed his full strength. Yet he displayed that identical exhausted, accepting stare, leaving her gripped by overwhelming irritation.

The warped blade gripped in her palm felt icy, despite being no real item. It formed a mystical creation infused with the essences of countless ordinary souls... plus one deity.

This ordeal ought to have concluded. This horror should have ceased, yet it lingered on.

Seraph Null lay slain. Victory was theirs. The end had come.

Lilith felt drained. She ached deeply. And she... she trembled in fear.

Doubt clouded her now. This act stood as her sole recourse. It represented the one path she trusted without question.

’I just want us to go back home together...’

That single wish filled her mind.

She yearned to return alongside him. To Luna and Iris. She longed for those peaceful times at Iris’s home, where Matia lingered in the yard, building snow figures alongside Luna.

With Lilith enjoying her tea while bickering with Renata.

The moments when Damon would cease his lazy instruction and truly guide Iris’s growth.

That simple life was her sole desire. It asked little. Especially not in this chaos.

Her teeth ground together until blood trickled forth.

Lilith ignored the burdens of challenging the realm. She dismissed the Goddess of Doom. She shrugged off the notion of razing the temple.

Her heart sought only a return to home and the grasp of what ordinary once signified for her.

No fault lay in such a longing.

So why did the very soul meant to comprehend her now oppose her will?

Why did he fixate so fiercely on courting his own demise?

Boom.

An afterimage trailed as she lunged at him. The earth splintered beneath her. Damon swung his sword in one fluid arc, its edge clashing against the dagger amid a burst of flying sparks. Astral gales erupted, flinging wreckage through the crumbling void.

The realm around them unraveled gradually from its deity's fall. It had become a realm devoid of divine rule.

Yet amid the spreading turmoil, their eyes locked solely on one another.

Frustration boiled within Lilith.

"Why... why are you looking at me like that," she cried out, casting aside her typical poise and serenity. Her shout echoed through the hall.

Damon held her gaze steady.

Then he murmured, "Because... you’re crying."

His words came so softly she nearly missed them. And right then, she sensed it. The damp heat tracing her face.

Not from wounds.

Tears flowed freely.

Her hand rose, tearing the gap between them. Reality warped as if wounded, with mana swirling into greater disorder. Cracks in space yawned open, and eerie beastly gazes from the emptiness leered inward, hungry to consume a realm bereft of its god.

"I... I... I don’t know," she uttered, slashing the dagger toward him.

"I do," Damon answered.

In this instant, amid all possible motives, rage or treachery eluded him.

He had never dreamed another would battle so fiercely merely to safeguard his humble existence.

But witnessing such devotion directed at him—

Her features were gaunt. Blood stained her form. Rivulets poured from her eyes. Exhaustion weighed her down, yet she pressed the assault.

"For... me..."

Damon’s grip faltered as he aimed to strike. Instead, she drove her foot into him, sending him reeling.

His eyes averted from her.

When had he last shared true words with her? Genuine conversation.

"I... I’m sorry, Lilith. For everything."

She halted in place.

If only briefly.

"I’m not going to fight you anymore," he went on in a hushed tone. "I’m just so tired... of all the fighting. Fighting is what turned me into... into this."

Gradually, he pivoted away and strode toward the spear awaiting him.

This chance belonged to her.

Lilith seized it without delay.

In an instant, she surged at Damon, blade poised.

...

Blades gleamed as alliances blurred into uncertainty.

Abellona alongside Damon’s companions arrived at the tower’s entrance without hindrance.

A lone armored woman stood guard, her plate seeming crafted from fractured frost.

Upon their approach, she leveled her weapon at them, visage concealed under her visor.

"I’m afraid I cannot let you pass."

Evangeline, soaked in gore from slaying the Wind Apostle single-handedly, advanced.

"What are you doing, Matia? We have to go. Damon and Sylvia might need help."

Matia denied it with a shake of her head.

"I cannot let you pass."

Xander’s brow furrowed. Unease stirred.

Leona’s gaze sharpened.

"You’re awfully chatty today. What’s happening."

That clinched it.

Matia rarely uttered so many words. Not since their return from Lysithara. Silence defined the knight.

Matia hesitated, then directed her blade once more.

"My lord is about to end his suffering in this mortal plane. I cannot let you interfere."

Sorrow laced her tone.

Evangeline inclined her head gradually.

"I see. So that’s what’s going on."

Clarity dawned on her.

Matia’s devotion to Damon defined her knightly vow. She would never defy his choice. Though his death grieved her, she stood powerless against his resolve.

Thus, she revealed it to them.

Should they overcome her and breach the Black Tower, they might halt Damon’s self-destruction.

Words held no sway now.

Evangeline unsheathed her sword.

"Thank you. I’ll be sure to talk some sense into that bastard."

Under her helmet, Matia’s lips curved faintly.

Before action stirred, a shadowy form without features materialized at their rear.

"None shall pass."

Xander caught the sound. His face hardened.

He whirled, rage surging, to confront the being that had slain his kin without mercy.

"Amon."

Gripping his spear tightly, he advanced. Emilia Highgon drew a steadying breath and trailed him.

"You guys go stop that son of a bitch. I’ll deal with Amon."

Matia lifted her sword deliberately. Frost bloomed from her wings, chilling the atmosphere.

"Apologies. While I wish for you to pass, I shan’t allow it."

A barrier of ice etched itself around the entry. Her wings summoned a domain of utter freeze.

"Whoever steps forward shall die."

One foolhardy soul dared the attempt.

An adventurer, lured by elixir’s promise, bolted ahead.

He slipped beyond her guard.

Then his form crumpled to the floor.

Head severed clean.

Evangeline ground her teeth.

"You can’t hope to take us all together. Even you aren’t that powerful."

A violet-haired maiden moved to the forefront.

"Who said she was alone?"