The Shadow followed up with a strike that sent another wave of sound magic towards him.
It distorted the air and shook the wreckage around them.
Neo grunted.
His ears were ringing and he was disoriented.
Arthur’s Shadow disappeared.
‘The Shadow is faster than me. I will lose if I face it in a contest of speed.’
Neo knew he was vulnerable.
He closed his eyes and spread out his senses.
Suddenly, he twisted his wrist and blocked the invisible blade.
Arthur’s Shadow cancelled its invisibility and retreated.
“As I thought, surprise attacks are useless against you.”
The Shadow maintained an emotionless face.
It used its superior agility to attack Neo from different directions.
The attacks were perfectly timed and savage.
Each one of them was aimed at Neo’s vital.
The Shadow disappeared into the debris with a swift movement.
It used the environment to hide itself.
A faint crackling echoed.
Neo barely had time to react before the Shadow reappeared above him.
He blocked with his sword.
But the force of the blow sent him skidding back and he nearly fell off the floating platform.
Neo narrowed his eyes.
Fighting against Arthur’s Shadow was eerily similar to his fight against Lucas.
Just this time, the Shadow wasn’t relying on portals.
It was using pure speed and overwhelming force.
Suddenly, a gust of wind surged around Neo.
His senses screamed danger and he rolled away without thinking.
A beat later, a blade of air sliced through the space he’d been just standing in.
The Shadow disappeared again, leaving behind trails of black lightning.
It used the floating wreckages to its advantage, slipping in and out of view, as it hid behind them, much like Lucas had done with his portals.
Neo cursed under his breath.
He knew he couldn’t keep up with Shadow’s speed for long.
His Divine Energy was decreasing at a fearsome speed and Arthur’s Shadow was nowhere close to being exhausted.
Sweat dripped down Neo’s brow as he dodged another barrage of strikes.
The Shadow kept using quick attacks to drain his stamina.
It knew Neo could not continue fighting for long.
Neo exhaled.
He had to take the risk.
After condensing his Aura of Death on the tip of the blade and stabbing it into the ground, he made it explode.
Arcs of red lightning burst into the surrounding with no rhyme and rhythm.
They killed whatever they touched.
The air, the soil, the wreckage.
Everything started to crumble into nothingness.
Arthur’s Shadow had nowhere left to hide.
Neo bolted towards the Shadow with an explosive speed.
Their blades clashed.
They exchanged blows at a speed invisible to naked eye.
The impact sent shockwaves through the floating debris, but Neo held firm.
Neo needed to end this fast.
His eyes were peeled open, looking for even the slightest opening, while he parried one strike after another.
There was no opening in the Shadow’s defense.
Neo would have to create one himself.
He suddenly launched himself backward and tried to put distance between him and the Shadow.
The Shadow sensed an opportunity and pressed for the attack.
It launched a barrage of lightning and Air Bullet Spells to corner Neo.
But Neo wasn’t retreating.
He was baiting.
Before the Shadow could react, he stopped retreating and a massive power surged from his sword.
Neo slashed.
The air around his blade distorted as it raced toward the Shadow.
For a moment, the Shadow’s eyes widened in realization.
It couldn’t dodge.
The attack was too close and too fast.
The blade sliced through its neck without any resistance.
…?
There was no resistance?
‘Shit!’
Neo scanned his surroundings.
He didn’t kill anything.
The Shadow in front of him was a ‘mirage’.
It was created through a Magic Spell.
‘When did the Shadow switch with a mirage?’
Neo’s senses rang, and before he could react, a dagger pierced his gas mask.
The translucent energy field covering his body shattered and the Shadow elementals stuck to his skin.
“You’ve lost.”
Arthur’s Shadow appeared only a bit far from him.
It had thrown the dagger while Neo was distracted and, although he sensed the attack, he was not fast enough to dodge it.
Neo used Ocean’s Embrace at full power and wrapped his body in Aura of Darkness.
Both of them combined reduced the shadow elementals seeping into his body.
But he was only delaying the inevitable.
“The mask is your lifeline. You’ll die without me doing anything.”
Neo fell to his knees.
He grabbed his neck as if he couldn’t breathe.
Arthur’s Shadow approached Neo and stabbed the dagger in Neo’s neck.
It stared at Neo’s corpse and the blood pouring out of the wound for a few second before turning around.
Suddenly, Neo came back to life and he grabbed the Shadow’s leg.
His injury stared to heal.
He used Necrotic Touch before Arthur’s Shadow could react.
The Shadow’s leg began to crumble.
It was forced to slice off its leg before its entire body crumbled.
“How are you still alive!? I killed you just now!”
“Yeah, you did kill me.”
Neo stood up.
The Shadow gritted its teeth.
After losing one of its legs, it couldn’t escape.
However, Neo, even if alive, had his mask destroyed.
It was a draw.
He could kill Arthur’s Shadow before he died, but he would die too….
“Why are you completely fine?” the Shadow asked.
“…”
Neo looked at himself.
The high density Shadow elementals should’ve killed him again after he used Immortal to revive himself.
But he was completely fine.
‘It can’t be due to my bloodline.’
‘Even Zeus Clan’s descendent can’t stay in the Window’s connected to World of lightning without proper gear.’
Arthur’s Shadow opened its mouth.
“I see. I understand now. You are a Shadow who consumed the original and took his place.
“That’s why the shadow elementals aren’t harmful to you.”
It glared at Neo.
“Why are you attacking me when both of us belong to the same side?”
Neo was not a Shadow.
He never devoured the original Neo and took his place…
Suddenly, Neo froze.
What happened to the previous Neo?
The video recording he received said someone killed the original Neo.
Then, why was not there any injury on the body?
What if the different transmigrators who possessed the original Neo were all Shadows?