My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Damon cleaned off the blood on his dealer's hand, pushing his body out of a gouge in the ground.

He took a deep breath of the fresh forest air, looking up from the deep darkness. His eyes narrowed at the soft sounds of flapping wings above.

"You could have just pulled me up."

Abellona, flying a few meters above him, smiled coldly.

"I could, if you paid one million zeni. It's quite cheap."

Damon scoffed, his expression filled with indignation.

"You have no shame. You're supposed to be the princess of this great country, how can you be so cheap and small-minded..."

Her eyes twitched. What was he even talking about? Where did he think she learned this behavior, this was how he treated her.

"You have the gall to talk of shame when you expect me to pay five billion zeni for a glorified tag-along."

Damon rolled his eyes. He didn't have time to argue with someone so morally bankrupt.

Though objectively speaking, he had started it. But so what? He was a pride-less person.

"Shouldn't a princess uphold herself to a higher standard?"

She smiled coldly. If this were in the capital, or anywhere else with anyone else, she would never be so disregarded.

With a soft flutter of her wings, she landed beside him.

"I don't see any demons around here, so it should be fine. We have no idea how many he has here... or if he summoned any."

Damon narrowed his eyes.

Right. Demon lords could sometimes summon demons. Well, all demons could be summoned, but you needed a summoning circle, mana, an appropriate sacrifice, and some other things the academy hadn't told them in class.

After all, demon summoning was forbidden magic.

"He as in Ashcroft—"

She covered his mouth with her soft hand, pressing him back to a tree. Her eyes flicked around as if expecting Ashcroft himself to appear.

"You shouldn't say his name out in the open so casually. We don't know what he's truly capable of."

Damon nodded, pulling her hand away from his mouth.

"I'll be charging a hundred thousand for sexual harassment. And that's only because you're slightly easy on the eye."

Abellona was dumbfounded. She had been trying to help, and this was what she got.

"You... what... can't you take anything seriously?"

Damon smiled, walking into the woods.

"Life is a tragedy.... but at a distance, it's a comedy. From where I stand, you're doing it wrong."

She trudged after him with a cold expression.

"Sounds like what a suicidal sociopath would say."

Her footsteps were light, her spear in hand.

"I wonder how you're still alive with how casually you say what's on your mind."

Damon sighed.

"I wonder about that too."

The morning sun had risen a few hours ago. After resting, they had set out of the grotto, following the path his shadow had found for them. It was a deep and complex cave system that seemed to hide a dungeon in its lower depths.

They had no business with a dungeon, so they had pushed their way out. That had led them to a few monsters, and as Damon had guessed, some crystal spiders.

Nothing they couldn't handle. They made quick work of the rank one monsters.

All in all, they found themselves climbing out of a gouge.

Damon stopped beside a small tree. He peered into the branches, then reached in and pulled out a woodpecker.

He cleared his throat before he spoke.

Abellona glanced at him.

"What are you doing?"

Damon narrowed his eyes, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and she was stupid for asking.

"I'm asking it for directions, obviously."

She crossed her arms over her chest, exasperated.

"How is that obvious?"

Damon ignored her and looked at the woodpecker.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, she's a bit of a retard."

"What did you just say..." she spat with mild anger.

Damon coughed, clearing his throat.

"Sorry about that. She's a royal retard."

Abellona had never been so blatantly insulted in her life. Her fist trembled.

"By the goddess, I will have your head on a pike for lèse-majesté."

He raised his hand.

"Can you shut up a moment? I'm trying to have a reasonable conversation with this bird."

He was trying to talk to a bird... and she was supposed to shut up. She, Abellona of Valtheron, was supposed to shut up because he was talking to a bird.

Wait... he could talk to birds? That was when she realized what she had overlooked.

'Is that a skill? How many does he even have? I can overlook the abilities related to shadow, those could easily be spells. But what about when he could breathe underwater, or when he walked on air like it was solid?'

'No... no, that's not possible. There has to be a valid explanation. He doesn't have multiple skills... it's probably an enchantment from one of the artifacts he's wearing.'

That was the only valid explanation. No other made sense.

Damon nodded with understanding as the bird chirped. He didn't understand most of it—birds weren't meant to talk to people—but he got the general idea.

"I see. Thank you. Please keep an eye out. If you see them, do tell me."

He stretched out his hand and let the bird fly free.

"Alright, let's go. The demons are only in this region. If we go straight ahead, we shouldn't have any problems. As for our goblin friend, he's that way."

Damon pointed through the trees at a slope ahead.

"If you aren't within range, we can just fly away."

Abellona bit her lip, glancing at the open sky.

"Right... but if we fly, balors might chase us."

Damon shook his head.

"There's only one Balrog left, and it's injured, so it can't fly."

She nodded, grabbing his hand without hesitation.

"If that's the case, what are we waiting for?"

Before Damon could react, she spread her wings, beating them hard. Dust swirled as she yanked him into the sky.

Her red eyes glimmered as she rose higher, dragging Damon with her. As they soared, Damon's eyes narrowed.

"This is... too easy."

Then he looked down.

That was when he noticed it: a massive magical circle glowing beneath them, a single rune blazing in its center.

Seal.

"Wait, get us down no—"

Before he could finish, his body slammed into something. An electrifying force surged through him. His vision went black for a moment.

A barrier... it covered the entire sky.

When he came to, the roar of wind filled his ears. Beside him, Abellona was falling toward the forest below, her body charged and smoking faintly.

Damon maneuvered his body, pulling her toward him. His trembling, stiff hands gripped her tightly as they plummeted. Together, they crashed into the earth with a thunderous impact.

The growls of demons echoed through the forest.

They had been found.