Chro seed certain of his ability to escape. But he was greedy too.
He wanted more than survival. He wanted to capture Damon and extract his mories of the Death Zones.
A sha Damon had found out.
Which ant the academy would find out soon enough.
He had just been chased by Kael. The suspicion was already there.
Still, he wasn’t worried.
He could escape.
All he had to do was get past the academy’s barrier.
Damon Grey would serve his purpose well—and if the boy died? Then Chro would just use his corpse, his blood, and his organs for research.
His blood was a pri ingredient for summoning creatures of dark affinity... and occasionally, even twisted entities born in light.
’His shadow attribute is definitely not normal...’
Chro had been watching Damon the whole ti.
He waved his hand and teleported into the air—his staff crackling as it unleashed spheres of spatial energy.
Damon’s body lted into shadow—partially. That was the effect of his ascendant armor. An enchantnt form based on his attribute.
He waved his sword.
Dark Blade.
Chro flickered, teleporting away just in ti.
Magic circles blood around him, the old man sneering.
"You young ones rely too much on skills... when magic already has it all."
"That wasn’t a skill, it was a sword strike..."
The ground rumbled beneath Damon’s feet.
He felt his body slowing—gravity twisting against him. He activated [5x], boosting his speed, and flashed forward.
Chro hadn’t expected that.
He barely raised a barrier before Damon’s fist smashed into him, sending the old man flying into a wall.
He rolled across the cracked stone like a rag doll, blood dripping from his mouth and soaking into his white beard before he flickered away, teleporting into the air.
His staff rose again, and he laughed hoarsely.
"That ascendant armor... I will take it from your corpse."
Chunks of ground rose and hovered unnaturally as space tore in zigzag patterns. Dozens of spatial orbs filled the air and launched toward Damon.
He felt the air shred as they ca.
He dodged the first, stepping into the air with his [Air Walk] skill, moving two steps up before—
"Explode!" Chro’s voice bood.
The space erupted in chaotic, violent surges of mana.
But Chro wasn’t finished.
He pulled out a small bell.
Disorienting Bell.
Damon ducked left.
His body veered right.
His vision bent.
He barely managed to turn himself into shadow again, narrowly escaping.
Spatial ripples consud everything as the orbs tore the sky apart.
When Damon reappeared in human form, Chro was already behind him.
Damon sensed the danger and swung—
His blade slashed through Chro’s robe, but not his body.
Chro chuckled. "Ah, that’s an artifact too. The design... first epoch, isn’t it? A sha. I thought you would’ve gotten sothing from the Zero Epoch by now."
Damon snarled and unleashed Ashborn.
Black flas exploded outward, scorching everything. The ground cracked and shattered, the sky lit in shadow fire.
Chro reappeared, expression grim.
"I truly can’t place how you got Ashborn. I summoned the dark spirit Rashi Ignath... yet sohow you wield his flas without a contract..."
Damon engulfed his sword in fla and swung down.
Dark Blade.
Chro teleported away again, appearing behind him—blood still lingering from the earlier blow.
"But it seems you have... restrictions," Chro muttered. "Otherwise, you would have used it more freely..."
Damon’s next strike cleaved the ground. Dust rose in waves. Chro raised a glowing barrier—it cracked from the sheer intensity of the heat.
He frowned, tasting more blood.
"This is getting... annoying."
His tone grew colder. "Let’s end this."
Damon’s eyes narrowed. He’d had enough of Chro’s gas.
"Fine."
Chro floated upward, raising his hand. His white hair flared in the artificial wind.
"You can see through shadows, can’t you?"
He tossed an artifact—a white orb—into the sky.
Light burst everywhere, flooding the world in blinding white.
All shadows were banished.
Damon blinked.
Of course. This was how Chro had ambushed him in the library a few months ago.
He’d used this exact artifact to remove all shadows—and strike unseen.
But Damon chuckled.
"So these are the tricks you used."
He stepped forward. "But shadows will always return. Wherever light and darkness et... there will be shadow."
Chro smiled. "Is that so?"
He stabbed his staff into the ground.
All around Damon—clones of Chro began to appear.
"Illusions?" Damon muttered.
Then one attacked.
His danger sense scread.
He tilted his head just in ti as a beam of magic singed past.
"No... these aren’t illusions. They’re all illusions... except one. You’re using spatial magic. Shifting your real body between clones."
Every Chro smiled in unison.
Then they laughed.
"That is correct. All of ... and none of ."
Damon gritted his teeth.
Would’ve worked—if he didn’t have danger sense.
He raised his hand without looking and deflected a beam behind him.
But Chro would run again.
Damon snarled and raised his hand—
Unleashing Ashborn across the ground.
The black flas consud everything. Before they vanished, he reached into his shadow storage and pulled out the Staff of Carnage.
Ashborn was both fla and shadows...
He had used this technicality to bypass the white light.
He pulled it out of his shadow storage... his hand burning slightly. But he had fire resistance.
It wasn’t fully charged with mana—but that wasn’t the point.
He’d been charging it with Ashborn.
He slamd it into the ground. The Staff Of Carnage.
The explosion that followed shook the academy to its foundations.
Damon stood amidst the roaring fire.
He could hear Chro’s screams as the flas devoured him.
The barrier Lilith had raised to keep the battle quiet shattered.
He could sense shadows approaching—Kael, students, even faculty.
He didn’t care.
Matia erged from his shadow.
She had been watching.
She walked to Chro’s charred body and kicked him to the ground.
Chro raised his burned face—looking up at his death.
Matia raised her hands. Ice gathered and reshaped into the form of an execution scaffold—sharp and cold.
More people arrived.
Kael. Professors. Students.
Matia forged a massive greatsword of ice—and handed it to Damon.
He raised the cold ice above Chro’s terrified face.
"Any last words, Professor?"
The old man coughed, black blood spilling from his lips.
"I... I was so close... I could have touched... Akasha..."
Damon’s expression didn’t change.
Chro began to crack. He saw death approaching.... The old man did not beg he would find none here.
So he called upon a god. He laughed.
"Hail... Unknown... the Unknown God..."
It didn’t matter.
The sword ca down.
And Chro’s head was severed.
Gasps echoed.
The professors and students froze in stunned silence.
He had just killed Chro.
[You have slain Truth Seeker Chro, the Dark Spirit Summoner.]
[You have leveled up.]
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