“It’s fine. He was a shadow wielder so I expected it to happen.”
“Doesn’t that mean he is still—”
“Focus on the mission for now.
“We don’t know at which Depth Level Jack will revive. Trying to rescue him in our current situation is no different from a suicide mission.”
“…”
Nathan nodded with a stiffened expression.
“Let’s go,” Neo said.
The group moved towards the swirling portal at the top.
It was the doorway to the Depth Level 2.
Neo remained at the back of the group.
He took a look at their situation.
Five members died and they could not kill a single Shadow.
They were decimated.
And he had to kill Arthur’s Shadow singlehandedly?
‘Is that even possible?’
‘Status,’ Neo thought.
[Neo Hargraves]
[Rank: Grade 4 Awakened]
[Divine Energy Purity: Grade 5 Mythic]
[Stats]
﹂Strength: 28
﹂Speed: 32
﹂Dexterity: 26
﹂Constitution: 25
﹂Luck: 0
[Affinity: Death, Shadow, Darkness, Void, Water]
﹂Magic Spell: Necrotic Touch, Ocean’s Embrace, Essence Breath
[Bloodline: Monarch of Death]
﹂Unique Skill: Death, Immortal
[Quest]
﹂Complete Barbatos’ training (Part 1)
﹂Defeat Arthur Kingsley’s Shadow singlehandedly
He looked at his status screen.
“Yeah, it’s impossible with these stats and Spells.”
Neo couldn’t win unless he cheated.
He made his decision and spoke in a barely audible voice,
“Paimon, I want to make a contract.”
“Do you want to revive your friends? It’s not impossible, but I’m no longer a Grim Reaper—”
“I’ll sacrifice my blood.”
“…”
Paimon became silent.
The blood of Hades’ descendent was a nectar for anyone living in Underworld.
Even for her.
“You do realize what that means doesn’t it?
“You will never be able to recover the blood you will sacrifice.”
“I know.”
It was only a slight problem.
He would gain more God Blood as his rank increased and when he devoured others with Darkness.
“What is that you want in exchange for your blood?”
“Return the blessing of Underworld to me.”
Paimon thought about it.
“I can return your complete blessing temporarily.
“Or I can return a part of it permanently.
“Make your choice.”
“I can’t gain the complete blessing permanently?”
“I cannot do that without Barbatos’ permission and I doubt he wants your blood.”
Neo was surprised.
He wondered how strong Barbatos was for him to think of Neo’s God Blood as worthless.
“I’ll give my answer later.”
Partial blessing of Underworld wouldn’t put him on par with Arthur’s Shadow.
The group entered the portal to Depth Level 2.
They felt as if they were drowning in quagmire.
When they opened their eyes, they were in a similar but different location.
The presence of shadow element in the air increased considerably and the area itself grew twice as large as Depth Level 2.
A few shadow monsters attacked them.
“Make sure your masks don’t fall.”
Neo continued.
“Team Astra, deal with the monsters.
“Nathan, come with me.”
Lucas, Harrison, and Cassandra intercepted the shadow monsters.
Nathan approached Neo with a hesitant gait.
“Darkness… come.”
Neo used Coffin of Darkness.
The Darkness beneath his feet bloomed and formed a dome with Neo and Nathan within it.
“W-what is it?”
“I want you to search for the Shadows.”
Nathan’s brow jumped.
“How can I do it!?
“Arthur is an Assassin and others have their own unique techniques. I can’t find them.”
“Calm down. I have a plan.”
Neo explained.
“Use your Shadow summons to infiltrate the ranks of Shadow monsters.
“As long as you don’t attack first, the Shadow monsters wouldn’t attack your summons.
“It should allow you search the entire Depth Level without any interference from the monsters.”
“…”
The Shadow monsters summoned by Nathan were named Shadow summons.
However, the summons were not different from Shadow monsters at all.
Neo’s idea sounded plausible on paper.
On paper only.
“It’s impossible.
“I don’t have enough Divine Energy for such thing,” Nathan said.
“Use the ambient Divine Energy.
“It’s already infused with shadow element so it should reduce the strain on your Divine Energy pool drastically,” Neo answered.
“That… that sounds possible?”
Nathan continued with a perplexed expression.
“I should be able to do it if I follow your words.
“But was there a need to use Coffin of Darkness to talk about this?” Nathan questioned.
“Arthur’s Shadow can use Spells to eavesdrop our conversation. Don’t forget he has Sound Affinity,” Neo answered.
Nathan’s face hardened.
He always knew Arthur was strong.
But having him as an enemy was an entirely different level of nightmare.
Neo patted Nathan’s shoulder.
“Do everything covertly.
“Make sure no one catches a whiff of what you are doing, not even our teammates.”
Neo removed the Coffin of Darkness after Nathan agreed to the job.
As soon as he came out, Lucas approached him.
“We’ve defeated all Shadow monsters in the vicinity. Their next nearest group will reach us in fifteen minutes.”
“What about the Corners?”
Lucas’ watch rang.
He read the details and opened his mouth.
“Two Corners are at our current Depth Level.
“They are in opposite directions.
“Left one is 1.5 kilometers away from our current location and the right one is at 3.5 kilometers distance.”
Neo quickly formulated a plan.
The original information given by the academy said all three Corners were at Depth Level 2.
It was common for the information to be wrong since they used devices to collect data without entering the Window.
“We’ll split into two teams. Five members each.
“Lucas, Harrison, Felix, Mars, Cassandra. You five will go to the Corner in the east.
“The rest will come to the other Corner with me.”
Putting Felix together with people from Zeus Clan could bring trouble.
But Neo knew Lucas and Mars would stop any infighting.
“What if the Shadows return while we are separated?” Lucas asked.
“Adopt a defensive stance and use a flare to call back the other team.
“Lucas, use your portals to cover the distances quickly if a flare is used,” Neo explained.
The group split up.
Neo, Sean, Arthur, and Nathan ran in the direction of the west-side Corner.
…
Depth Level 5, Window #12862
Arthur’s Shadow moved through the castle corridor.
It entered a broken hall.
The Shadows of Harrison, Sean, Clara and Lucas sat around on the rubbles.
“Good work,” it said. “Especially you, Lucas. Your ability to attack from outside their detectors range helped greatly.”
The Shadows nodded.
Arthur’s Shadow frowned.
“Why is it that none of you can talk, but I can?”
Unable to find an answer, it shook its head.
“Prepare ‘that’. I can’t use the Invincible again, so I have to be reborn.”
Lucas’ Shadow nodded.
It created a portal and took out a black crystal from it.
Upon seeing the Shadow Elemental Seed in Lucas’s Shadow hand, Arthur’s Shadow nodded and pulled out its dagger.
It stabbed its heart.
The Shadow’s form shook.
Black blood spilled out of its injury and it died.
Suddenly, the corpse of Arthur’s Shadow shrunk and formed a black crystal.
The crystal was vaporizing into black mist at a slow pace.
Lucas’ Shadow used the Shadow Elemental Seed in its hand and placed it next to the crystal formed from Arthur Shadow’s corpse.
Both crystals fused.
They stopped vaporizing and absorbed the shadow element infused Divine Energy from the air.
The crystal expanded.
It transformed into Arthur’s Shadow.
“The timer was reset. I can finally use the skill again.”
The Shadow played with the daggers.
“I can’t understand why we have to mimic the weakness of the original too.”
It turned around to look at other Shadows.
“Do you guys know why it happens?”
There was no answer.
The Shadows stared at Arthur’s Shadow silently.
A sigh escaped its lips.
Arthur’s Shadow did not know why, but it felt lonely.
…
West-side of Depth Level 2, Window #12862
The mood couldn’t have been worse.
Leonora was unconscious and Neo carried her on his back.
Arthur was silent — too silent — as he dealt with the stray shadow monsters on their path.
Sean fought the monsters that slipped past Arthur’s defense.
However, seeing how he was not stopping monsters that attacked Arthur’s back, it was clear Sean was not in the right state of mind.
Nathan was busy controlling his Shadow Summons to search for the Shadows.
They reached an inconspicuous building.
“The detector shows the Corner is inside there,” Neo said.
He continued as he looked at Arthur and Sean.
“I know you guys have a lot on your mind. But you need to focus on what’s infront of you.
“If we fail here, none of us can return alive.”
Sean clenched his teeth.
His arms shook and before he could say anything Arthur spoke,
“I’m sorry.”
Sean looked away.
“It’s okay. I know it was not your fault,” he answered after a short silence.
“Since you guys made up, let’s enter the building,” Neo said.
He knew it was a stopgap, but it had to be done.
They had to focus on the mission at hand instead of losing their cool due to the deaths of their teammates.
Neo added,
“Be on your toes.
“Strong monsters stay in the vicinity of Corners since they try to absorb the elementals leaking from the Corners.
“I don’t know what we will encounter inside, but it won’t be easy to defeat.”
They entered the building.
