Chapter 332: Shadow Versus Aren
The one before was stunned by the words of Aren. He did not expect this particular reaction to what he had to say. He gritted his teeth hard in anger and then spoke, "You do not understand the complexity of what I want to do, and you do not have to. Just yield the body to me and all is done."
As he said those words, he reached for Aren, but at the very last moment, a shadow tendril shot from the floor and wrapped around his arm, pulling it back.
He looked at the tendril with shock in his eyes. "Impossible," he muttered and looked at Aren.
"Who the fuck are you to tell me what I can do and what I cannot do?
Just because you lived as me once does not mean I am meant to hand over my life to your stupid plans. Screw you, and screw those plans!" Aren yelled and forcefully broke from the tendrils that had wrapped around him. He landed on his knee and slowly rose to his feet.
He looked at the one before him and then spoke again, "I have had it with beings thinking they can run how my life can go, no more."
Shadow frowned deeply. He stepped back and snapped the shadow tendril that was wrapped around his arm. He looked at Aren in the way you looked at a child that had gone astray and now you wished to punish them.
"Iβll make sure I get my body at the end of this. Your stubbornness will not go unpunished." He raised his hands as he said those words, and shadows lunged from the ground and grabbed Aren, lifting him high into the air while Shadow flew beside him. The scene changed, and they were in the shadow mind again.
"I have planned everything out, created and ensured that everything will work. I cannot lose again. I have made sure of it."
He began to squeeze Aren.
"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Aren screamed in utter pain. He felt his bones slowly crunching under the force. His mind was instantly becoming fuzzy. If this went any further, his consciousness would be crushed into nothing and Shadow could take over his body.
βIβm not losing here. I have come so fucking far. My mum, my sis, the guys, everything that I have spent so long building and protecting, Iβm not going to lose it.
Kira died because of me, and I am yet to have vengeance for her soul. There is no fucking way I would hand over my life when I have so much to do.β
His mind burned with an intense rage. His eyes snapped open, and it was as if the pain that he had been feeling stopped. From his body, shadow tendrils shot out. They wrapped around the shadows of Shadow and pulled them apart with force. Aren fell from that height and landed on his feet. The ground shook when he reached it.
Shadow was stunned when he saw what Aren had done. It was not the same as when he had used the tendrils to hold his hands. No, it was something very different. Aren had somehow managed to split the shadows.
The power of shadow was now split between the both of them. Shadow had the greater share of it, but Aren had managed to take a huge portion of it himself.
"Thatβs impossible. There is no way to take my power, my essence, from me. It is not possible!" Shadow roared in anger.
"Yeah, I know, but for the past few months of my life, I have made a habit of doing the impossible," Aren replied.
Shadow frowned and spread his hands apart, and from behind him, shadows spread out fast and wide, creating nearly a thousand shadow-like tendrils that stretched far back.
"I am the essence of your being, the very reason that you were created. I am the very core of your existence and the ruler of everything that you are.
I am Shadow, and you are a fragment of my soul. Iβll be taking that fragment now."
"Yeah. You talk too much, dude," Aren replied and created a sword from shadow. He looked at Shadow up there.
"Bring it on."
Shadow unleashed the tendrils, and they all came down fast. Aren smirked and then charged forward. His sword moved clean and accurate, cutting through the air with the type of fluidity you can only get after years of intense training. His shadow sense spread wide and captured every one before they could land on him. He slashed and cut through the shadows fast, not stopping even once.
He dodged as they stabbed into the ground before him and ripped the floor apart, but even then, he was unbothered. Shadow was ripping apart the very shadow mind that they were in right now, all in an attempt to stop Aren.
Aren knew that he would lose an integral part of himself if he allowed the shadow mind to be destroyed, but he could not save everything.
He dodged more attacks and finally perceived an opening. He took it. His feet pressed hard against the ground as he launched. He made it through in one stride and was about to go for the kill, but in the next moment, a tendril shot from behind, fast, too fast.
He spun and blocked the attack. He was thrown back. That was his mistake. Before his feet could even touch the ground, hundreds of tendrils came down fast to end him. He gritted his teeth and blocked with all that he could, but he was not fast enough. A few ripped through his body, and if he made no change, the rest would surely hit him.
The moment he hit the floor, he used shadow to create a ball around him. It formed a dome, and the attacks slammed into it hard. The first few did nothing, but after a few hits, the dome began to crack.
