My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger
Chapter 408 - 409: Ten Thousands Foes To Sanity

Something bled into his body—through the ground, into his lungs.

It felt repulsive, vile and wrong.

His soul intuitively rejected it.

He felt his Ascendant Armor thrum, a low vibration rising in defiance, a warning, a defense.

There was a blackness in the air. Faint, but insidious. He could feel it—spreading into him, tainting his blood, his flesh... his soul.

The sensation slithered through him like venom, coiling and twisting, threatening to reshape him into something monstrous. But the soul core within his armor pulsed—cleansing, resisting, burning away the corruption from within.

"Corruption..."

Valarie's voice came from his chest—thin, strained. A single upper lip still stuck to his bleeding frame.

She sounded as if she'd torn herself in twain just to stay tethered to him.

Damon, however, only cradled his head and smiled maniacally, wide eyes locked on the hellscape surrounding them.

Monsters and horrors clashed in every direction—an unending storm of violence and agony. Creatures that served Ittorath—nightmares, as Valarie had once named them—tore into one another with feverish hatred.

The rift had vomited them into this realm, and they were making war upon all things, even themselves. The air was thick with their screams. The ground itself festered with corruption.

If Matia had fallen here... there was no doubt she was dead.

And still, Damon smiled.

His gaze drifted lazily to the system panel blinking before his vision.

---

[Rank Up: Class – Death Seeker]

[Class Skill Unlocked: Deathless]

[Class Stat Distribution Applied]

[HP +500]

[Mana +6000]

[Strength +1300]

[Agility +1200]

[Speed +3000]

[Endurance +1500]

---

[Class: Death Seeker]

"Once you dealt death—now you seek it."

Skill – [Deathless]

The more you desire your own death, the more improbable events happen to prevent it. Death will follow when you least desire it.

Damon lay in his blood, unmoving, feeling his hunger rise like a tide. The world had long since lost its color.

Now monochrome.. and dull.

He lay there smiling, then broke into laughter. There was no meaning to it. No joy. Just laughter—raw, unfiltered madness.

Valarie sighed internally.

'He's gone insane… No matter what, I have to make sure he defeats ten thousand enemies. He must unlock the Crown of Silence enchantment…'

That enchantment… the same one Vathren had used to remain sane after his city was reduced to rot and memories.

Valarie remembered it well. It was the only reason Vathren hadn't gone completely mad.

Before she could speak further, something noticed Damon.

One of the creatures from the swarm of horrors—towering, tusked, and hovering inches off the ground. A massive eye sat embedded in its stomach, unblinking and vile. Its presence twisted the very air around it. Its aura unmistakable—this was a second-Class entity.

Damon looked at it.

And did nothing.

Valarie's lips glowed faintly with golden light… and then dimmed. She had nothing left.

"Move, Damon. Now..." she urged, voice hoarse.

He didn't move. The creature kicked him.

His body flew like a ragdoll, hitting a rot-covered rock with a splatter.

The corruption tried to seep into him again, hungry to claim him.

He rose slowly, hunched over, eyes empty—until they locked onto the phantom vision of Back-to-Back.

It spoke to him, cold and resolute.

"You can die… but only after you've found Matia. So fight back, you bastard..."

Damon didn't charge. He simply stared at the creature and smiled.

Then... his shadow spread.

---

[Shadow Hunger – 90%]

[Your shadow is ravenous.]

[All stats have been significantly boosted.]

---

The ink-dark tendrils of his shadow wrapped around his broken form, encasing it in jagged, monstrous shell. Long claws, serrated and wicked. A mouth lined with black fangs too sharp to be human.

The Ravenous Shadow had taken over.

A thunderous boom echoed across the battlefield as it moved—faster than sound—and in a single, savage blow, shattered the Second-class creature into wet, twitching pieces.

The Ravenous Shadow growled—starving. Eyes darted, desperate for sustenance.

It found Valarie.

She had fallen, unmoving. Still just a lip—yet the last vestige of a human Ascendant. The Shadow lunged at her, claws stretched out.

She didn't flinch.

She couldn't.

She had spent too much of herself—split her soul, sacrificed too much.

But before the creature could touch her—

A claw plunged into its chest.

Damon had taken control.

Inside his own Ravenous shell, he laughed. A bitter, maddened cackle.

"The audacity… You wretch… How dare you try to control me…"

The claw sank deeper into his own torso.

"How dare you… A mere shadow—pale beneath the radiance of day…"

Pain tore through him, soul-deep. The agony of rending one's own essence.

But Damon didn't stop.

"I don't even care… Obey me—or we both die."

He didn't wait for an answer.

He tore himself apart.

Inside the screaming shadow, two minds clashed—one human, insane, one hunger.

Ripped at his own limbs. Thrashed and writhed, a beast wrestling its own shadow. There was no finesse—only savagery. The kind born from madness. The kind that made the soul scream.

"AHHRGHHH—!"

The shadow shrieked.

Shadow energy bled dry. Damon's HP plummeted. His vision swam red.

And then... it submitted.

---

[You have conquered remnants of Ashcroft's Shadow. The elusive shadow is now yours.]

[Mastery: Ravenous – LvMax]

---

His torn body began to mend. Shadow energy crawled back into him like a swarm of worms. The jagged mouth still remained, but shadow armor layered over him, making him appear more man than beast.

He lifted Valarie's lip gently, placing her inside the curve of his breastplate.

A voice rasped out from the black.

"Boy… what are you…?"

Damon spoke—not as himself, not entirely. His voice came from the Ravenous form now—dark, husky, distorted like a demon wearing human skin.

He looked like a man made of shadow.

Valarie watched as he turned toward the horde of monsters still locked in battle.

"If you go there… you'll die…" she whispered.

She hesitated.

"Some of those monsters… they're beyond your rank…"

All she heard was a chuckle.

Then a boom of laughter that rolled like thunder, alien and cold.

And Damon charged into the chaos—his form a blur of darkness, indistinguishable from the nightmares around him.

And thus… the madness began.

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