My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

She was absolutely sure about it now. This man was crazy. It was either that or he was just stupidly brave.

What kind of person would willingly choose to face the demon lord of domination?

"You do realize you have other choices. A safer choice."

Damon smiled at her words. Choice. It was funny she would say such a word.

He did have a choice, but that was the thing. When we made a choice, was it really our own or were there factors influencing it? Wasn't that just called fate? Yes, this battle was fated.

After all, a god had set it all up. Damon knew by some measure the unknown god was a hypocrite, but at the same time he wasn't.

He was a hypocrite because he denied fate by calling it choice, giving those who believed in his ideology the illusion of control when they made deals with him or invoked his name. But at the same time, he wasn't a hypocrite because he never said he wouldn't make choices himself.

Fate was merely a collection of choices that resulted in consequences. It was the result of free will. But did the unknown god not also have the will to act on his own choices as well?

"It's all convoluted. Choice is just fate," Damon responded to her.

That was true. He was fated to kill his whole village. The unknown god had set it up, but Damon had wanted to do it, and he would have done it even if it wasn't a level-up requirement.

But what if he didn't want to? Wouldn't that mean he had to make a choice—level up or refuse and never level up again?

What if the system one day asked him to kill someone he cared about?

It could be his sister, Iris, Lilith, Eva, Sylvia, Leona—anyone he cared about.

Would he choose power, or would he defy?

"You don't have to make a choice like that, you know," Abellona replied, not knowing what he was thinking about or what dilemma had crossed his mind.

Damon smiled. She had said something that made him feel a weight lift from his chest without even meaning to.

"Right. The goddess believes in fate, right? She is a goddess of fate. Then would you not say it was fate that brought us here?"

Subconsciously, Damon couldn't help but contrast the unknown god's path to that of the goddess.

Was fate a choice, or was choice just fated and inevitable, with no design of your own will but a cosmic act of predestination? Could you really not resist it?

"Are we truly not asked to be born…" he muttered aloud.

Abellona narrowed her eyes. She didn't understand the sudden shift in his mood. Was he having second thoughts about facing Ashcroft?

"I don't know if I was asked before I was born. But I am here. I exist. I have life. While I am, I will live it as best I can. Whether I was asked or not, I'm glad I'm here. And I will live it with every ounce of my will. Come what may, I will treasure it."

She glanced at him. Her cold red eyes softened.

"You should learn to love yours too. Love yourself."

"Love myself…" Damon repeated. Was his self-loathing really that obvious?

Damon smiled lightly. Right. It wasn't that deep. Whether fate was an inevitable choice or one born of free will, it didn't matter.

For now, the system's level-up requirement served him. It had not gone against his wishes. If it did, then he would make his own choice. There had been no reason to think about it because he knew himself.

He was Damon Grey. And if he was going to lose, he would lose on his own terms.

Damon glanced at Abellona, his body healing due to the potions with soft dull aches remaining.

"What do you have in mind before we have our final showdown?"

Abellona nodded, his confidence making her smile softly.

"As planned, we need to get rid of his minions."

She drew a circle on the hard floor of the cave with her fingers, carving through stone like it was nothing.

"The strongest were the balors, but all are dead save one who is injured with a broken wing."

She drew the shape of a cow horn, using it as a symbol for another demon.

"The next would be the Goristro. These aren't just brutes. They are terrifyingly good at navigating labyrinths and finding people. It's a miracle they haven't found us."

Damon nodded, thinking of the minotaur-type demons and their cow horns.

"Your knights killed most of them, so we don't really have much to worry about. I'd say a few are left."

"Ashcroft must have kept them as reserve forces, or they're dead."

She shook her head with a frown.

"That's not good enough. Incomplete information is worse than no information at all."

She glanced at Damon with a piercing gaze.

"You can communicate with animals, if that wasn't an excuse to insult me, that is."

Damon cleared his throat, feeling a little bad for that.

"I can. Are you hoping I use them for information gathering? I'll stop you there."

He held his abdomen with one hand, wincing through the pain.

"I can speak to them, but I can't make them obey of their own free will. And it's hard to make sense of their nonsense sometimes."

Abellona narrowed her eyes, holding her chin.

"What about the raven and the squirrel?"

Damon shrugged. "I asked the woodpecker, but it seems they fled. However, if he sees them, I did leave instructions to wait until I show up."

She bit her lips. She couldn't believe she was relying on a bird and a rodent.

Damon glanced at her.

"I think you forgot the dragon in the room."

She narrowed her eyes with a grim flicker. He saw the way she clenched her fist.

Taking a deep breath, she held her arms and looked away for a moment, as if to reconcile what she was about to say.

"I didn't forget. It's just… Gaston has served me for years. I never imagined he would be taken over by Ashcroft."

She clenched her fist, recalling all the battles he had survived with her.

Lita was dead too. How could she not be sad?

"Gaston of the Nero Lands has been taken over by Ashcroft. As one he had sworn fealty to, it is my duty to kill him and free him from the demon's control."

She placed a hand on her chest.

"I will kill him myself."

Damon raised his eyebrows.

"You do realize he's in the fourth class while you're only peak third class. Isn't he too much?"

She glanced at Damon, imitating his crude words from earlier with no regard to her status as third princess.

There was a soft smile on her face.

"Nah. I'd win."