NOVEL NEXT Chapter 101: Shadow Versus Shadow
STAB!
Shadow looked down. He was supposed to have lunged a blade right into Aiden, but instead, Aiden had used his palm at the very last moment. The blade dug deep inside the palm and almost reached the stomach.
Aiden's blood dripped out as he looked Shadow right in the eye, a smile on his face.
"What the hell are you smiling for?" Shadow asked, pushing the dagger more.
"Arghhhh," Aiden groaned in pain, but his smile remained. "Well, that's because it's game over for you," Aiden said.
"Huh? You still believe you can defeat me?" Shadow asked.
"Not me, him," Aiden said, and the next moment, a figure came into view behind Shadow. Aren, who was followed by Zero.
Shadow turned his head, and when he saw Aren, he was stunned and excited at the same time. Aiden used that time to pull his hand off the blade and retreat a few steps away, but Shadow couldn't be bothered. He turned around to look at Aren.
"Finally, we've met again," Shadow said eagerly.
Aren frowned, looking at him with a dark expression. He looked at Aiden and Kira, seeing the state that they were in.
"What made you do this?" Aren asked first.
"Huh? Do wha—" He wasn't able to get the words out before Aren came flying in with a punch. Shadow could not react. The fist collided with his face and sent him flying. He slammed into the ground hard and rolled, leaving a trail of blood.
Shadow pushed himself to his feet slowly.
Blood streamed down his body, soaking into the stone beneath him, dripping from his fingers and staining the ground in dark red pools. His breathing was uneven, his body visibly damaged, yet despite all of that, he was smiling.
A slow, twisted smile.
His eyes locked onto Aren.
"I should have killed you back then," Aren said, stepping forward. His voice was calm, but the tension beneath it was unmistakable.
Shadow chuckled, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Oh, but you didn't," he replied. "And because of that, I was given an opportunity."
He spread his arms slightly.
"The opportunity to become something beyond what I ever expected," Shadow continued. "The opportunity to become you."
The air shifted.
In the next moment, shadows erupted around him.
One after another, figures rose from the darkness, more than fifty of them, forming a wide circle around Shadow. They stood silently, motionless, surrounding him.
Aren froze.
Not because of their number.
But because of what they were.
Humans.
Every single one of them.
His breath caught in his throat.
"This…" Aren muttered, eyes widening. "This is my ability."
His fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white.
"He stole my ability," Aren said, his voice shaking now, "and used it to turn humans into shadows."
Shadow tilted his head, clearly pleased.
"Ingenious, right?" he said casually. "I simply did what you were too afraid to do."
He took a step forward, the shadows shifting with him.
"I found the true potential of your ability," Shadow continued. "You held back. You hesitated. You wrapped yourself in morality and fear."
His smile widened.
"You should be grateful to me for showing you that there was more to it than the way you used it."
He raised one hand and pointed directly at Aren.
"To show your gratitude," Shadow said softly, "hand over your life to me now. Let me finally become who I was meant to be."
Aren said nothing.
His gaze remained fixed on the shadows.
Zero's words echoed in his mind.
If he had taken down Shadow back then. He allowed his clinging to morality to cause this.
Every single shadow standing there was proof of that.
Each one had once been human. People with dreams, fears, desires, futures. People who should have lived.
And now?
They were nothing more than weapons. Undead Shadows, forced to serve. To do something so vile, not against monsters, but rather humans.
This wasn't just murder.
It was desecration.
Aren's chest tightened painfully, it reminded him of the men that used men for their dirty works and killed them off back when he was on earth, he hated them to no end, servitude paid with death.
His fists trembled.
"…You're a monster," Aren said.
Shadow scoffed.
"No," he replied. "I'm not."
He gestured around them.
"The two of us. All of us here. We've all killed someone before. We're all filthy murderers."
His eyes darkened.
"The difference is that I didn't waste the bodies I killed."
A low, sick laugh escaped him.
"I turned them into weapons," Shadow continued. "So that when I met you again, I could show you how far I've come."
His voice dropped, heavy with obsession.
"And then, finally, take you as the true core of Shadow."
Aren slowly lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
Shadow pointed forward.
"Kill him."
Every shadow moved at once.
They surged forward in a tidal wave of darkness, rushing straight at Aren with killing intent.
Aren didn't move immediately.
He stared at them.
At their faces.
Each one of them had once been someone.
Someone who laughed.
Someone who hoped.
Someone who mattered.
And that was when his anger finally broke free.
His jaw clenched hard.
"Creatures like you," Aren growled, his voice low and shaking with rage, "don't deserve to live."
In the next instant, his shadows answered his call.
Ants erupted from the ground in swarms.
Wolves emerged from the darkness, eyes glowing, fangs bared.
They charged forward, colliding with the army of human shadows in a violent explosion of motion and sound.
The battlefield ignited.
Aren didn't stop there.
He stepped forward.
"Forgive me," he muttered quietly, not to Shadow, but to the dead.
He continued walking.
Straight toward Shadow himself.
The clash behind him roared. Shadows tearing into shadows, creatures screaming, stone cracking beneath the chaos, but Aren didn't look back.
His eyes were locked on one man.
"I'll make this hurt," Aren said, staring Shadow down from across the battlefield.
His voice was cold, he summoned the millipede next, standing on its head, he had no intention to hold back against Shadow at all, he wanted him dead now.