My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 1298: Chapter 1298: Capture The Shadow Of Conflict

Their march wasn’t long before Damon could see the distant red sky and the countless clashes of powers and abilities.

Damon stopped just before the redness, in a place filled with severed and destroyed fragments of floating mountains.

Red energy continuously shot into the sky while a battle raged all around it. There weren’t many combatants left. Most were corpses, long dead and floating among the wreckage. Many of them were people Damon didn’t even know.

And some he did.

He raised his hand and stopped the long march.

He looked at the redness. The moment they entered its range, they would all be consumed by the madness of conflict. Damon knew he could not touch the Pillar without losing the desire that fueled conflict.

Damon looked up and saw where the red light was going. It seemed this was how it spread into the world of Aetherus and into the Anarchy Mountains.

He looked to his side, where Lilith was standing.

"Let’s hope the runes we created actually work."

Damon went quiet for a while. Lilith had created some special runes governed by divine energy. These runes represented a single word: peace. The divine energy came from her stigmata, which meant it came from the Unknown God.

If any power could counter the Pillar of Conflict, it had to be the Unknown God’s.

Damon was about to say something when a white spark flashed, and a streak of lightning landed in front of their army.

"Cough, cough." A young woman coughed, holding her side where a large wound had broken through her armor.

By her side, a woman in dark armor appeared from the shadows. She wore a helmet that covered her face, with a blue glow shining from her visor.

The first woman, Leona, took off her helmet, her eyes giving off sparks of lightning.

"You certainly took your time." Leona tried to smile, but she failed miserably, falling to her knees.

"I... I tried to save those I could, but I couldn’t. It’s madness. Turn back. You can’t be allowed to go near that thing."

Damon glanced at Leona and Matia, then narrowed his eyes.

"The two of you are unaffected by or resistant to the Pillar of Conflict?"

"We’re not unaffected by it. The longer we stay around it and the more we fight, the greater its hold becomes. Those still there can no longer tell friend from foe. Even the Outsiders don’t have any methods to stop its influence."

Leona held her side and winced as she pulled something out of her flesh.

"How long can you last?" Damon asked, offering her a healing potion.

Leona glanced at Matia.

"I don’t know. A few minutes on the outskirts, and only a few seconds if we get too close."

"Matia might last longer," she said, looking towards the dark-armored woman.

Matia shook her head slowly.

"If I keep my emotions subdued, I may last longer. However, even without emotions, my body will still act on its own."

"Everyone is fighting to reach the center. It’s a free-for-all. At least half of the Outsiders are dead. The ones still alive are either very powerful or very lucky. Even they are dying due to their own exhaustion. If you survive, you’ll fight until your body and soul give out."

Damon groaned, feeling a headache coming on.

"How are we supposed to reach something we can’t even touch?"

"There’s no counter."

He glanced at his Shadow Drones and bit his lip, worried that they might succumb to the Pillar.

His gaze turned to Matia.

"In that case, you’ll have to get as close to the Pillar as you can."

Then he tossed her a rune drawn on a stone.

"When you do, before you lose your mind to conflict, crush it. The displacement rune will replace you with me, and I’ll grab the Pillar and place it inside the Book of Shadows."

Lilith narrowed her eyes, then glanced at Damon.

"Will that work?"

"I don’t know, okay? It’s a gamble. All I know is that the Book of Shadows has infinite pages. If the Pillar can be trapped in this world, then a book with infinite pages should also be able to hold it."

[Book of Shadows]

Type: Transcendent

[Description]

Every little thing about this new world filled him with wonder. He beheld colors no mind had ever shaped, felt sensations that once had no name, and breathed an air thick with quiet, ambient power.

This life was a blessing, even though the flesh he wore was a grievance against the heavens themselves. And so he recorded all that drew his gaze. In time, his writing no longer followed creation, it kept pace with it. He wrote of all that was, all that would be, and in doing so, his tome came to hold infinity.

All who gaze into the abyss of knowledge must remember:

the abyss will always gaze back.

What was once merely the journal of a child would one day be known across the omniverse, not as a diary, but as the Tome of the Unknown God.

[Effect]

Unknown captured a wandering shadow and folded it upon infinity, creating this wondrous tome.

No book compares to that original tome. Yet this volume remains noteworthy. Though it does not contain infinite knowledge within its pages, it instead stores infinity itself. Whatever creature’s shadow is cast upon the book shall be sealed within, bound forever among its pages. Be wary, its power is only limited by its user.

"The only problem is, I don’t know if the Pillar has a shadow," Damon whispered.

Evangeline bit her lip, then took a deep breath. She had been quiet for a while, but now she spoke.

"Leave that to me. I will cast a light in your direction."

"What if that doesn’t work? This is the physical manifestation of all conflict, right? Why would we assume it has a shadow?" Xander argued.

"You said it yourself. It’s the physical manifestation of conflict. Why wouldn’t it have a shadow?" Renata replied.

If it was conflict made physical, why wouldn’t it work?

"We’re hoping it works. I don’t like that we need another plan," Lilith said, knowing the danger rested on Damon.

"What if I create a shadow for the Pillar? I can trick the book into thinking it has a shadow," Damon whispered.

"Will that work?" Leona asked slowly.

"I don’t know."

"All we can do is try."

"We can always cover the Pillar with the book. Either way, there will be a shadow on it," Evangeline suggested.

"In that case, we’ll try that and have you cast a light as bright as you can in that direction."

"So basically, our plan is to hope it works," Renata muttered.

"Yes," Damon said quietly.