God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

There was a lot he didn't know. This reality, Cain was willing to accept.

He was opportuned to learn new things every day. However, there were also things he believed he would rather not know.

Amongst them, was the knowledge of the existence of the absolutely vile creatures that had eaten through the shadows that made up Evangeline's {Shadow World}.

Yes. The abominable things could eat right through shadows. Their rounded mouths and their saw-like blackened teeth tore right through the shadows, making squelching noises as they gouged themselves.

"Damn it!"

The system referred to them as {Shadeworm Deviants}, and he could see how such a name was accurate. They had beady will-o-wisp eyes that bounced around in their shadowy heads.

Seeing so many glowing, beady eyes popping up around them filled Cain with a different kind of anxiety.

Jenny on the other hand, wasted no time in going on the offensive. Her fingers twitched, and an instant later, a bullet exploded out of the nozzle of the gun.

It tore through the shadows like a ray of sunlight and struck a {Shadeworm Deviant} right in the center of its forehead. The abhorrent creature immediately exploded into globs of writhing shadows.

"Don't attack them." Evangeline suddenly said grimly.

Just as Jenny was about to ask why, she realized that the system had not sent any notice confirming the kill.

Which meant...

She frowned when she noticed that the pieces of the {Shadeworm Deviant} she had shot down were still wriggling and crawling towards them. As it approached, its body ate the surrounding shadows and began coming back together until it was whole once again.

Evangeline shook her head,

"There's no point in killing the small ones. They won't die until we defeat that one."

Cain sighed.

The {Shadow World} skill was a rather intriguing one. But whatw as even more fascinating was the supposed 'world' created bybthe skill.

It was wide and spacious, but not infinite. Its boundaries were very well indicated by the shadowy walls that formed its borders.

Beyond that thought, the {Shadow World} was still linked to other shadows. It was like a sub-dimension within a world of shadows. With the {Shadow World}, Evangeline could get through shadows around her far easier.

However, because of the peculiar connection with the shadows around, if she could move in and out freely, then, there was nothing stopping anything with the ability to manipulate the shadow element from doing the same.

She had a few stopgaps in the case of such things happening, but they had all failed in the face of the absolute abomination that had come with the {Shadeworm Deviants}.

***

{Shadeworm Emperor}: Level 199. (Godly,Tier 1)

Strength: 180,000.

Agility: 270,000.

Defense: 7,000.

HP: 1,000,000/1,000,000.

MP: 3,200,000/3,200,000.

Skills: Shadeworm Swarm, Shadow Manifestation, Shadow Devourer, Shadow Dominion, Phantom, Shadow Thief, Shadow Restoration.

***

Cain was a form believer that not everything was meant to be gazed upon, lest one fall into madness unknowingly.

He could feel his mind slipping away the more he stared at this vile, repugnant creature as it tore away at the hole it had created.

It revealed itself, inch by inch, in all its malevolent glory.
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Despite the {Shadow World} being quite enormous, the {Shadeworm Emperor} stood to its heights. It was an absolute behemoth and looked like a titanic, more dignified and horrendous version of the smaller {Shadeworm Deviants}.

It had a crown of bone-like spurs jutting out of its head like a crown. Its body seemed to be made of shadows as well, and as it opened its vicious maw, it revealed hundreds upon hundreds of rows of blackened saw-like teeth. The teeth were like obsidian, giving off a sinister glint despite being blacker than hell.

A fight was completely unavoidable.

Cain turned to Evangeline, who simply stared at the creature, not moving at all.

He frowned, not sure what to do. With Jenny's attack, he had made a rather frightening discovery,

'These things can't be harmed by physical attacks, and magic ones only deal a percentage of their damage.'

Jenny's bullet had been a mana charged one. Despite that, the creature hadn't died. Its HP had barely taken a hit as well.

They couldn't avoid a fight, but it didn't seem like they would be able to fight back at all.

'That big guy is also giving off a ton of pressure.'

Although it was not comparable to that of the pressure he had felt in the presence of Balangol, it was still something. And it proved that the creature was indeed much more powerful than him.

Cain called out, "Eva..."

"Cain, I want you to do me a favor."

He raised a brow.

Light radiated from her fingertips, and a set of daggers appeared in her grasp.

"Don't interfere."

Cain blinked rapidly. He wanted to tell her now was not the time. He wanted to say they had to work together to defeat something like this.

But he didn't.

Rather, he became curious.

'Does she have a way to defeat this thing?'

Lightly tapping her feet against the ground, Evangeline shot forward.

The world of shadows responded to her command.

Cain immediately sensed something change.

Upon closer observation, he realized that even as she charged forward, Evangeline's lips were moving rapidly.

'She's casting a spell.'

Then his eyes widened.

He had seen this spell before!

Suddenly, the entire {Shadow World} rumbled and shook.

Susan looked around perplexed,

"What's going on?!"

Roselle gripped her sword even tighter,

"I don't think we have time to worry about that. Those things are headed this way!"

Indeed, the {Shadow Deviants} seemed to have had their fill for shadows and were not hungry for some flesh and blood.

Roselle gritted her teeth. Ki exploded from the hilt of her swords to the tip. The metallic sheen became even more lustrous.

The first of the {Shadeworm Deviants} came lunging at her. Dodging to the side, she swiftly thrust the sword in her left hand forward, stabbing the creature in place.

With her right hand, her other blade slashed forward multiple times in a second.

Bits of glob-like shadows fell to the ground. However, the creature was not dead. Instead, it began regenerating by absorbing shadows from the ground.

Roselle grimaced. The {Shadow World} was working completely against them.

Forced to tear his eyes away from Evangeline, he focused on the danger at hand.

Like every entourage of minions that follow the big boss around, the {Shadeworm Deviants} weren't very powerful on their own. Sure, their regenerative abilities would be rather troublesome to deal with, and they couldn't be harmed by physical attacks.

However, they individually couldn't threaten their lives.

However, these things didn't come at them one by one.

Instead, the entire swarm swam through the shadows, aiming at them from all directions. Very soon, they would be overwhelmed.

While they couldn't harm these things physically, it didn't apply the other way around.

Cain thought to himself, how were they going to fight against these things?

A thought appeared in his mind.

Why did they had to be the ones fighting?

He immediately opened up the {Beastmaster's Subspace} and called the Dark Diver forth.

The space around him broke open for a moment, and a shadowy being crept out.

Its eldritch form was intangible, and it was an abyssal creature more than anything else.

Cain mostly used the Dark Diver to help him scout areas he couldn't reach and to see things he couldn't see.

It had been a rather reliable companion for a while now. However, he had never relied on it in combat before.

The thought was suddenly born in his mind.

Wouldn't it be more efficient to fight shadow with shadow?

The {Dark Soul} was a being of darkness and shadows. Its origins were peculiar, but its form was even moreso. Just like the {Shadeworm Deviants}, the {Dark Soul} was completely impervious to physical attacks.

***

{Dark Soul}: Level 172 (Legendary, Tier 1).

Strength: 0.

Agility: 57,000.

Defense: 0.

HP: 0.

MP: 130,000/130,000.

Spirit: 40,000/40,000.

Skills: Dark Spirit Bond, Darkness Elemental, Dark Diving, Spirit State.

{Dark Spirit Bond}(passive): Born from Darkness, this creature thrives within Darkness. Hence, it does not rely on light to perceive the world and can share these traits with its master.

{Darkness Elemental}(passive): A being of darkness does not fear the darkness and possesses near-complete resistance and affinity to it.

{Darkness Diving}(passive): Can travel through darkness unnoticed without being affected by material objects.

{Spirit State}(passive): This creature is a living soul, and as such, can not be harmed through physical means.

***

Since he had been feeding the {Dark Soul} darkness elemental mana shards for a while now, the thing had become rather powerful. It could travel longer distances with the connection between them growing even stronger.

However, he had no idea how it would fare in actual combat.

The moment he summoned the {Dark Soul} into the world, Cain immediately felt unprecedented levels of excitement coming from it. The creature rose out from the darkness.

Cain frowned. This was the first time he had ever seen it look so... solid.

The shadows around them suddenly began to squirm, as though apprehensive of the darkness that had come from the rift in space.

The {Shadeworm Deviants} that were rabidly swimming towards them suddenly stopped in their tracks.

The {Shadeworm Deviant} that had fallen at Roselle's feet had fully recovered.

The {Dark Soul} seemed to move even faster than light, appearing before the abominable creature. Even though the {Shadeworm Deviants} were as big as dogs, the Dark Diver didn't seem to care.

In a horrifying sequence of movements, it plucked the creature right from the shadows it tried to burrow into. It struggled and squirmed, but could not escape. The Dark Diver's eyes shone with black light as its mouth split open to reveal a row of horrendously sharp teeth and a long black tongue.

The tongue wrapped around the worm even as it struggled squealed and screeched. Slowly, it pulled it into its mouth and chomped down.