My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 887 - 888: Choice Was An Illusion

Renata appeared, a faint smile curving her lips, streaks of blood staining her face, yet not a drop belonged to her.

Her gaze shifted to Xander, positioned squarely before Amon, who served as nothing more than Damon's shadow clone.

This version didn't appear overly formidable, leading her to assume Damon hadn't invested much power into it.

She moved to stand next to Matia and surveyed the group.

"Well then... shall we?"

Abellona's brow furrowed, her fingers clenching tighter around her spear.

"Why are you getting in the way?"

Renata let out a sigh, her face remaining composed.

"I may not be a knight, but I am someone who can respect his decision. This world is shit anyway."

Evangeline's gaze turned icy, a wave of killing intent seeping from her.

"Move."

Renata let out a light laugh.

"Someone’s getting fired up. You underclassmen may have had one great adventure in Lysithara and come back overpowered, but your upperclassmen are still in a whole other league."

Evangeline's eyes shimmered with golden light.

"Time to find out."

She surged ahead in a streak of brilliance. A burst of dazzling light erupted outward in every direction. Renata lifted her hand, summoning a shield that weakened the assault's force.

Matia struck next with a frozen assault that almost skewered Evangeline. Bolts of lightning crackled as Leona swept it aside with her blade.

"Argh!" Leona rushed toward Matia, aware that holding back might cost her life.

Blasts of ice clashed with lightning, whipping up a furious tempest. Several lunged at Matia, yet she stayed rooted in place. Her wings unfurled, sending chilling gusts through the air that plunged sight into total obscurity.

...

Xander fixed his deadly glare on Amon, prowling around him at a measured pace, his features etched with chill resolve.

Emilia Highgon readied her incantation, luminous magical patterns taking shape in her palms.

Amon—or more precisely, Damon—felt exhaustion as he eyed the shadow drones.

"Kill anyone who tries to get into the tower."

The shadow drones pivoted, arming themselves, and plunged into the fray over the tower.

His attention then shifted to Bakemon Baal, the head of the Demon Heirs.

"You too."

Bakemon clenched his jaw, blood smudged across his visage.

"My lord, we have a truce with them. I signed a contract. We can’t kill them."

Of course. Abellona had forced them into a binding agreement.

Damon gave a nod.

"Then stop them within the limits of your contract."

The moment those words left his mouth—

"Amon wants the elixir! We can’t let him have it!" a voice yelled from the throng, prompting everyone to form combat lines against the encroaching drones.

The heavens pressed down low from Lazarak’s enchantment, their hues gradually shifting.

Damon sensed the fundamental rules of nature fraying apart. Weightlessness crept in. The air grew lifeless. All elements forming reality folded inward upon themselves.

Xander vaulted upward and thrust his spear down in a fierce arc.

"That’s your opening move? How predictable."

He extended his arm and struck at the incoming spear, frost encasing his knuckles.

Emilia unleashed her spell, but he evaded it with ease.

...

He kept his back turned, fully aware of her approach. He grasped the spear.

And spun around.

Boom.

A thunderous shockwave rattled the atmosphere. The dagger hovered near his torso—

Merely inches from striking.

"Why... why aren’t you trying to stop me?"

"Why aren’t you trying to fight for your life?"

"Why won’t you just... live?"

"Why won’t my words reach you?"

"Why is my love not enough?"

"Why am I... not enough?"

"Why don’t you love me?"

Damon's smile emerged gradually. He extended his hand to hers and softly removed the dagger from her hold, flinging it away where it rang out against the earth.

She dropped to her knees.

He lowered himself beside her, drawing her into his embrace.

He tilted her chin up and brushed away the tears staining her cheeks.

"I’m not stopping you because I know your love is not coercion."

"I’m not fighting because I chose to stop. This is my choice."

"I am tired," he replied to her third query in a gentle tone.

"Your words reached me... but I can’t choose not to try. I’ll never know if I don’t. I wish to know if I truly had a choice, if I was truly free or if my choices were just illusions created by an all-powerful god."

Her fifth question followed.

The response came straightforward.

"It’s everything to me"

He pressed his brow to hers.

"You are plenty."

He pressed his lips to hers.

"I do. I love you."

Her eyes flared wide, though the tears kept flowing. Sylvia bowed her head, sobs escaping unchecked.

Damon clenched the spear harder, poised to plunge it into his own chest.

"Ugh. Disgusting monkeys"

Damon tilted his head just a bit.

A young woman stood directly at his side.

He hadn't detected her presence at all.

In that instant, she thrust the dagger into his chest with swift precision.

Lilith's eyes bulged in terror as the blade melted within Damon's body, morphing into myriad runes that raced over his skin. He crumpled to the ground, twisting in torment while the curse reshaped his heart.

His longing for death flipped into a fierce, all-consuming urge to endure.

It mirrored the sensation from his early departure from the village—

But amplified a thousandfold.

Survival became his sole imperative, no matter the price.

Nothing else held weight.

Across his chest, a mark resembling a scar materialized before vanishing.

Lilith remained rooted in stunned silence.

Sylvia did the same.

She hadn't spotted the girl before. In one blink, she was absent; in the next, present, as though an omnipotent writer had inserted her precisely then.

Lilith wasted no time on inquiries.

She struck out.

The girl seized her limb with ease and snapped it, then booted her away.

Next, she peered down with scorn.

"Don’t touch me, you lowly savage who couldn’t even complete such a basic task."

With that, the girl pivoted and strode off toward the doorway, dismissing everything else as irrelevant.

Sylvia's eyes flew open wide. She drew her bow and loosed an arrow at the girl.

"Who... who are you."

The girl halted, eyeing the armor adorning Sylvia.

Her tone carried frost.

"Ah. I see. You’re the one who inherited Valacara’s ascendant armor. I’ll make sure you suffer before you die, alongside that golden bitch who inherited Valarie Sunwarden’s armor."

Sylvia's fingers shook. For some inexplicable cause, a single name rose in her thoughts.

"Y... you. You’re Ittorath... aren’t you."

Ittorath cast a look at Damon, who had hauled himself upright, glaring at her with blazing rage.

The world persisted. Damon lived on. And that fear gripped him deeper than any other dread.

She let out a soft laugh.

"I see not all you monkeys are stupid."

Her stare lingered on Damon. Then it drifted to the partially wilted bloom clutched in her palm.

Lilith hastily patted her locks. Ittorath had snatched the gardenia bestowed by the enigmatic deity.

"Farewell. My god has great plans for you."

And with that—

She vanished.