NOVEL NEXT Chapter 77: Ace's Shadow
The clouds of darkness took a humanoid form. Ace could tell it was shaped like a woman—broad curves, a chest jutting from the haze. A moment later, as if a brush had tipped the clouds, color bled across the shape until it looked human.
Ace stared deep into its violet eyes. Chae.
He'd suspected from the figure alone that the darkness was copying his girlfriend. Now that her eyes held color and he could read her expression, it was without a doubt Chaewon. She stared back for a few seconds, then vomited a mouthful of blood and dropped to her knees.
She coughed until she fell flat. Her skin turned ashen; blood pooled under her.
Ace stood still, calm.
As Chaewon lay there, clearly dead, another cloud of darkness materialized across from him. More figures lined the corridor.
Ace knew every face.
Lovers, best friends, dear companions—everyone he had treasured and lost came to life in this Obsidian Space.
Ace walked past Chaewon's corpse. When he neared the second humanoid shape, cast in his friend's likeness, it stirred and looked back at him. It didn't have a chance to speak before an unseen force blew its chest open, leaving a deep hole.
The man vomited blood and dropped flat. Ace waited until he stopped shivering, then walked on. One by one, each figure took a mortal wound and died.
<What's happening? It can't be that... what you fear is...>
"Turns out my shadow knows everything about me," Ace said as he walked, his shadow carrying his burden and his comrades' blood.
<...death of your comrades? Not even your own demise?>
"You're clearly not my shadow. Otherwise, you'd know the truth," Ace said.
He feared death and other things. That was part of being human.
Fear, pain, love, greed, happiness—seal those away and you're not human anymore.
In Ace's case, the deaths of his lovers and comrades weighed more than fear of his own death.
Maybe it would be different if not for The Immolated and their priestess.
Since then, Ace had decided not to let anyone die. It became more than a goal.
He refused to let people die; he wanted to give everyone their due happiness.
Ace stopped and looked over his shoulder.
His shadow peeled off him and straightened into a humanoid mass of obsidian. Its eyes were black and hollow, yet he felt the stare.
"You want to give everyone happiness and be part of it. You'll make Chae cry," his shadow said.
Ace narrowed his eyes. "You know what kind of mistake you just made, right?"
"Yeah... only I can call her Chae," his shadow replied.
Turning, Ace lunged at his shadow. Armament wrapping his Pack-Hunter Spear, he thrust one-handed at the shadow's head.
The shadow answered with the same weapon and attack. The spearheads slammed together with a bang. Ace broke the stalemate and cut at him, but the shadow knew his patterns and knocked them aside.
Their eyes met again.
"Why can't you use active skills?" his shadow asked.
Without waiting for an answer, the shadow triggered his spear's skill. Thick shadow tentacles rose around him, reacting to the slightest twitch of his spear. With the tentacles hovering, the shadow slashed at Ace.
Ace blocked the strike, but a tentacle loomed overhead and dropped to smash him. Or could he?
Armament!
The Drowned's Ink washed Ace's face and shoulders black, then stretched into needles that shot up to intercept the slam.
This shadow can use skills I don't even know... while knowing everything about me.
The shadow smiled. "Because you leaned on active skills. That's why it happened."
He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the corpses of Ace's comrades and lovers now lying in his wake. Ace's heart jumped to his throat and turned cold. He hadn't expected his shadow to dig out the truth he didn't want to remember.
Meanwhile, the shadow settled into a thrusting stance, both hands on the spear. He stabbed at the air; the tentacles shot past him toward Ace.
In the narrow corridor, each one looked like a ravenous worm.
The swarm rushing Ace made for a horrifying sight.
Keeping his head clear, Ace shifted aside. Now I have time to deal with all of them one by one.
When the first tentacle reared at him, Ace pierced it and used the momentum to roll up onto it. He rode the wave and slammed into the others, swatting them into the walls. From below, his shadow surged and thrust for Ace's head, aiming to finish him.
I knew you would do it! It's my style, bastard!
BANG!
Their weapons crashed again, and the force threw them apart. Ace and his shadow landed in the same stance.
Ace gritted his teeth. "Yeah! I know. I know exactly why I can't use those active skills. All my best skills were active skills gained from other weapons or sources. When those failed, there was a time window where I was completely helpless."
"Who filled that time window?"
"...my comrades."
"How did it end?"
"...their deaths."
"What happened after that, then?"
"I... I pushed through."
"And you survived."
"I did."
"Alone."
The truth hurt more than anything.
—
In another corridor, Chaewon and Tyler faced their fears made flesh.
For Chaewon, it was her father. He didn't look like himself, but like an undead monster.
A wild snarl twisted his face, and he swung a longsword with manic abandon. He didn't speak—he only grunted and laughed as he attacked without mercy.
He was so fast and erratic that Chaewon couldn't track the second enemy in the room: an undead King whose buffs clashed with Tyler's.
<How sweet. You fear the only family you have turning into a monster. As for the King buffing you... how plain.>
Tyler muttered to himself. "What's plain? What's so plain about fearing my own death and turning into a brainless undead?"
Tyler feared becoming an undead monster.
Everyone would agree he was fairly normal.
And then there was Alex...