Chapter 142: The Hollow Serpent [pt 2]

[Your mastery of Shadow Sword has increased]

[A New Sub-skill (Heavenly Moonlight Javelin) has been created]

[Your body has adapted to a superior skill]

[Physical Power +5]

[Endurance +5]

Theo’s world went white. For a moment, no sound or sight reached him at all, and he couldn’t have said whether he was thinking anything.

But he was very much alive.

As he fell, he had sighted the massive limb swinging toward him, and the instant its shadow dropped over him he seized the darkness and threw a wall of it across his entire body.

It was a pity that the creature’s might shattered that wall like river ice and slammed him into the ground anyway. Still, it was better than nothing. The wall had swallowed more than half the blow.

The other half left him groaning silently in the dirt with his armor caved inward into his chest and stomach.

He lay there with his eyes wide open and blood gurgling up out of his mouth, frozen, unable to move an inch. And then the pain arrived and numbed the hell out of his senses.

Even then, Theo couldn’t help thinking about his wives. The promise he had made to Thalleria. And Estea, because he honestly couldn’t think of a single other person who would be able to tolerate her.

This was why he could not die.

He could never die here.

[The Darkness has responded to your resolve]

[Shadow Sword has responded to the potency of your will]

He couldn’t have explained it. But Theo called on a vast amount of darkness, and the shadows followed.

[Your mastery of Shadow Sword has increased]

[A New Sub-skill (Shadow Flood) has been created]

The darkness drifted across the whole land, deep and oily black, sliding between the broken trees and pouring in from every direction at once toward a single point.

Right behind it came the shadows, rolling in like a sea of black fog.

Then the darkness wound itself into a whirlpool around Theo and seeped into the hole in his chest. His armor was already mending itself, and he was using darkness manipulation to build substitutes for his broken ribs, his flesh, his organs.

The moment each piece was in place, the Shadow Fragment clamped over it and set it solid, until it looked as though Theo had never taken that devastating wound at all.

Asterion was the first to see it. He had pinpointed Theo at the last crash and was already shooting across the sky toward him. He touched down inside the crater the colossal limb had punched into the earth and ran across the rough, flattened plain it had left behind.

He had first spotted Theo from the higher ground at its rim, and the color had drained out of his face.

"Lord Theo..."

Asterion didn’t sound broken. He sounded surprised, and hurt.

It was all over his face too. Then the darkness began to move toward him, and when Asterion turned to look back, he saw a flood of black rushing straight at him.

"Lord Theo!!"

He ran for Theo, meaning to scoop him up and escape before the creature caught up again. But the darkness outran him and collapsed into Theo, every last drop of it, while the shadows closed around him in a fog.

By then, Asterion was down on one knee. He had failed to protect the only person who had ever cared enough to protect him and accept him.

He bit his lower lip and slammed his fist into the ground.

Then he froze, feeling a very unsettling gaze settle on him.

"What are you doing?"

Asterion’s whole body stiffened, and he slowly raised just his head, only to find Theo standing over him.

There was a hole in his chest filled with swimming darkness, and the dark armor was creeping across it plate by plate.

Asterion’s brows knotted, and his mouth hung open for a moment before any words came.

"What? What is happening to you?"

Theo chuckled lightly.

"Long explanation. Let’s save that for later." Theo took a step on, stopped, and turned back to bend over Asterion. "Oh, and by the way, can we not tell Estea this happened? It’s a secret, okay?"

The dark elf gulped. He couldn’t even manage to blink, and he just kept staring at Theo.

Meanwhile, Theo straightened up, muttering as he did.

"That really was a surprise. It’s stronger than I thought it would be, and I’m its worst match. Darkness against darkness. This is a real nightmare for me. How do I eradicate it?"

Of course, the answer was as simple as the question had been.

’I have a secondary affinity to fire... so that can be useful somehow.’

He glanced back at Asterion, who was still on one knee and still dazed.

"Go back and ask Uthed to bring me the cooking gas and a sparker. After that, I’ll need you to draw this thing’s attention to yourself. I’ll attack it every time it turns away from you, and that’s how we both survive. How long this goes on depends on how quickly Uthed gets here, so let him know that."

Asterion answered sharply:

"Yes, sir!"

Then he vanished.

For a moment, Theo simply admired the speed.

’How can he move that fast without Shadow Movement... it has to be some sort of footwork, I’m sure.’

He turned and tightened his grip on Raindrop.

This time he had nothing to rely on from the sword except its knack for landing where he aimed. And the thing towering over the broken trees wasn’t something a little cut from a blade this small could hope to handle.

’Well, I don’t have to depend on it alone.’

Theo had summoned the Shadow Flood, and it was gathered around him now. The shadows of Shadow Sword could do something the darkness couldn’t. They could sharpen whatever they touched.

And now Theo wanted to give them something to sharpen.

He smiled and slowly moved his hand. The darkness of the night seeped out of the cracks in the ground, out from under the rocks, and crept in from the trees, crawling beneath the shadow fog like a black carpet.

The Hollow Serpent hadn’t moved. Its limb stood like a tower, and since its last strike it had settled, seeming to sink back into its dormant state.

Theo threw it a wicked grin, and a platform of darkness launched him into the air so fast it set his helm fluttering furiously.

Then he shouted, commanding the Shadow Flood forward:

"How dare you go back to sleep without finishing your prey!!"

The flood crashed into the limb’s unnatural darkness and mangled it brutally.