My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 888 - 889: Remember Me

Chaos engulfed the heavens above, with torrents of rain cascading down, flakes of snow drifting through the air, and the sun radiating intense heat.

Sanity had deserted the realm entirely, shattering every logical law. The divine presence had perished, dragging structure into oblivion alongside it.

Before this turmoil turned routine, countless souls would perish. Nevertheless, existence would endure. It was designed to withstand the fractures of a shattered reality.

Perhaps in some distant era ahead, another deity would emerge and reinstate harmony.

For now...

Damon clutched the vial containing the elixir of pseudo-immortality. It had condensed into a compact bottle, radiating a luminous glow as he peered at the skirmish unfolding beneath him. The conflict had ceased. All combatants had halted their clashes.

Their attention was riveted on the pandemonium advancing from afar.

Reality was crumpling upon itself. A lethal torrent of fractured dimensions erupted in every direction, hurling all it encountered into nothingness.

Damon perceived it clearly.

Doom awaited them all alongside this collapsing plane.

Wasn't it bitterly ironic?

He eyed the spear gripped in his grasp. One fist enclosed a tangible embodiment of demise. The other cradled the long-sought elixir of his quests.

He teetered at the precipice between existence and oblivion.

Yet fate had denied him any real option.

Sylvia clenched her jaw while dashing toward him.

"The gate leading back home is gone. It was on the upper floors of the tower, but it’s been destroyed."

She drew in a steadying breath.

"Even if we found it, we would be sent back epochs before our time. We... are trapped."

Damon stood lost in a fog. Annihilation loomed, but his mind raced solely toward endurance.

He faced Sylvia.

"Can you gather the parts of the gate? Try to reassemble it before that storm reaches us."

She pressed her lips together, then inclined her head, departing to leave him solitary.

The realm was splintering asunder. He watched the terrain devoured by the abyss.

Gentle footfalls echoed from behind.

He refrained from glancing back.

Damon uttered, his stare pinned on a pair of youths soaring atop a wyvern-resembling beast, their gazes fixed upon him and Lazarak.

"You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you."

Lazarak paused in silence as he hobbled closer.

A weary grin adorned his features.

"I didn’t know how. I just knew it was not your fate to die here today, my friend."

Damon offered a faint, mocking smile.

"I knew... I knew from the beginning. I could not escape the hands of fate. Fate is just our choices, but the Unknown God, he takes away all other choices except the one he wants. In the end, he decides..."

He settled next to Lazarak, absorbing the aura of utter destruction.

"The Goddess of Doom or the Unknown God, there is no lesser evil. They are both gods down to their core. And what happens to us lowly mortals? Our choices don’t matter..."

He exhaled deeply, releasing a quiet chuckle.

Lazarak stayed mute while Damon continued.

"I understand now why you fought so hard. You weren’t like me, someone trying to run from the system. You actually tried to fight it."

Damon compressed his lips, his gaze turning icy.

"He wants me to live? Fine. I will. But I’m breaking out of this whole system. This world has been played by Doom and the Unknown for too long. I’m breaking out of their system."

"If I can’t die, then I will end the system that prevents it."

Lazarak grinned while observing the destructive tempest.

"If that’s the case, then you know what you must do."

Damon's eyes brimmed with moisture. His fingers quivered.

"I... I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do that."

Lazarak beamed at him, his flowing locks draping gently.

"I had an epiphany while fighting Seraph Null. Do mortals truly need gods or do gods need mortals?"

He rested a palm on Damon’s shoulder.

"Even the almighty true gods who claim they don’t need faith still have believers. Even this Unknown God, who doesn’t want to be worshipped, still lives in the hearts of mortals."

Damon had shared numerous details with Lazarak regarding the Unknown God.

"I am a god, but do I truly live if I am not in the hearts of mortals?"

Damon denied it with a shake.

"I can’t... I can’t do it."

Lazarak adjusted his position, eyeing Damon who lingered in place.

"You can."

Damon averted his gaze downward. A profound hush enveloped the world.

He noticed figures gesturing toward him—or more precisely, toward the elixir he held. Avarice gleamed in their expressions. Every one of them. Despite the realm's unraveling, desire still burned for it.

Still, Damon found no spark of concern within.

His spirit weighed like lead. One tear escaped.

This agony surpassed even the theft of his freedom to choose death.

"Will you do this for me," Lazarak murmured.

For he recognized no alternative route.

And should Damon defy it, the malediction would compel this decision regardless.

This alone promised continuance.

"Victory is an endless nightmare, and defeat is the moment of wake."

Damon let out a bitter laugh, tears streaming unchecked.

"Damn you, Unknown. Damn you..."

Lazarak's smile softened. He elevated Damon’s hand, directing it toward the spear laid across his thighs.

Lazarak had crafted this spear from a solitary strand of hair shed by the Goddess of Doom.

It embodied mortality incarnate.

An apt selection.

He raised Damon’s hand further, aligning the spear against his own breast.

"You know... I was really lonely. All that time alone. I talked to myself so I wouldn’t go mad... but I couldn’t afford to die either."

He grinned, urging the point into his torso.

"But more than anything, I was afraid. I wasn’t a particularly famous god. Not many cared about me. With each day that passed, I was afraid... that I would be forgotten."

He rose, compelling Damon to stand as well.

"A god is only truly dead when they are forgotten, when they no longer live in anyone’s heart."

Damon ground his teeth, denying with vigorous shakes.

"I can’t..."

"Our time together was short, but every moment was worth a lifetime."

"Do not think of your life as a curse. Think of it as an opportunity, not to mourn what you’ve lost, but to celebrate what you still have."

Damon shut his eyes. His jaws locked tight as he thrust the spear ahead.

He sensed it shattering through bone.

The heavy plunge as it impaled Lazarak’s core.

Lazarak dropped to his knees, his smile unwavering.

"I don’t mind being forgotten anymore... but I am still scared no one will remember me. Still, let me give you something to remember me by."

A faint glimmer was extracted from his essence.

He regarded Damon for the final instance. Crimson trailed over his hands as he extended them, and the minuscule light darted into Damon’s torso.

"Remember me, Damon... remember that a small god of darkness like me existed... remember me."

Those marked the last utterances of Lazarak, God of Darkness, Peace, Serenity, and Repose.

The end of his torment.

[You have slain Lazarak, God of Darkness]

[You have gained Lazarak’s Divine Spark]

[Quest: Nightmare of Lazarak]

[Completed]

[The Unknown God watches]