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Much like Allan and Arafunn, Shade was also trapped in an unfavorable scenario. He was perhaps even worse than those two, as most of his body due to his physique, was made out of shadows.
And because his surroundings were pure light, while light attribute angelic monsters attacked him with beams of light… His body would eventually slowly fade away by the light that consumed all darkness.
And to make things worse, Arachne had assigned a very unique Insectoid Demoness to handle him. One with the humanoid appearance of a firefly, a rare demon with incredibly mastery over the element of light, that Shade had only seen on Mist before.
"My name is Divinaphiles, as you can see, I've trained all my life to kill you… Does it hurt? My light~?"
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Divinaphiles unleashed several beams of pure holy light against Shade, piercing through his defensive element-less shields of pure mana and his slashing blows, as his entire body was filled with countless of holes, dissipating faster and faster!
"Ungh?! Argh…!" Shade groaned in agony, realizing his predicament.
"I expected a bit more, but things might end sooner than I imagined…" Divinaphiles laughed, gathering even more light. "[Celestial Shine]!"
FLAAASSH!!!
A tremendous wave of pure light reached Shade, his entire body quickly dissipated into nothingness, leaving not even a speck of a shadow behind!
"Oh? Ohohoho! Did I just killed a hero?! Oh my! Oh my, oh my!" Divinaphiles started laughing manically. "I might even be capable of taking over the entire group if I am stronger than Arachne now…" She smiled viciously, only to suddenly sense as a sharp pain hit one of her six arms.
"Huh?" Her eyes were directed to her second left arm, finding it… missing, and only seeing a large quantity of shadows slowly infiltrate her insides. "W-Wha…?! Ungh! ARRGH…!"
Divinaphiles couldn't even understand what was happening, as she quickly channeled a large quantity of light and imbued it into her wound.
"[Celestial Shine]!!!"
FLAAASH!!!
The light quickly purified whatever was infecting her wound… Only for her to find another two arms missing, shadows emerging from within them, quickly amassing into the shape of a monstrous, phantasmal-like being in the slight shape of Shade!
"W-What?! W-What is going on?! Am I hallucinating?!" She cried, incapable of understanding the situation!
She could swear she saw him die right there, right now! So how?! How come he had just come back from the death and was now… parasitizing her own body and cutting her into pieces?!
"No, it is not a hallucination." Shade spoke with a lugubrious, phantasmal, and monstrous voice.
His entire body had underwent both Abyssal Embodiment and also Spirit Fusion, several spirits had merged with him, giving his mostly shadow-made body more mass and consistency, especially of the element of Death, the second element Shade was the most proficient of.
"GET AWAY FROM MEEEEE!" Divinaphiles screamed in horror, unbefitting of a powerful demon to scream like a little girl, as she unleashed a wave of pure divine light out of her own body, her abdomen shining brightly. "[Celestial Sunlight Shine]!!!"
FLAAASH!!!
Her Aura changed into the appearance of a bright, shining sun that completely encompassed Shade's being, sending him away from her body with a loud thud over the floor.
BAAAAM…!
"…"
Shade only remained on silence as his body transformed into a constantly shapeshifting mass of shadows and phantom, his shadows transforming into what looked like an old, tattered robe, his eyes glowing bright red, as half of his face was covered by a skull.
He had underwent Spirit Fusion with one of his oldest Dark and Death Spirits, Grief, whose true identity was in fact, the King of the Death Spirits, the entity known as the Reaper himself!
"Shade… You have not called my assistance in a long time… Ever since… those bastards at Eastgrain." Spoke the Spirit, giving a chuckle. "Is it finally time… to reap some souls?"
"Yeah, let's do it, Grief."
Grief's entire Spiritual Energy shapeshifted as it merged with Shade's knives, transforming into a huge, phantasmal, and soul-made scythe, whose shadow-destroying light could not easily affect.
"U-Undead powers?!" Divinaphiles asked in shock. "H-Hmph! As if that would ever be capable of dealing with my powers! [Celestial Light Arrows Rain]!"
The Insectoid Demoness roared, channeling her magic as dozens of magic circles appeared around her, firing hundreds of arrows made of light against Shade.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
The light pierced through Shade's shadow aura, but only left smaller wounds across his phantasmal being, as he quickly disappeared from the area, moving at such a fast speed that the demoness couldn't even keep up with him.
FLASH!
In a single second, Shade appeared behind her, her big golden eyes shocked as she desperately tried to blast him away with a beam of light coming from her jaws themselves.
BOOOOMMM…!
The Beam of Light coming from her mouth hit in point blank! The Demoness laughed, only to quickly realize a slashing pain pierced her body, half her abdomen was no more.
SLAAAASH!
"E-Eh?! Ungh…! Argghhh!" She quickly started to scream as her blood splashed into the floor, her body immediately falling.
BAAAM…!
"Urgh…! T-That's…! My wounds… can't heal?!" Divinaphiles constantly tried to heal her wounds with her light magic, but it simply didn't worked. Like an agent of death itself, Shade quickly moved towards her, raising his scythe.
"W-Wait…! G-Get away from meeee!" She screamed, generating a barrier of divine light around her.
CLAAASH!
Shade's scythe pierced through with ease, slowly slicing through the barrier. Divinaphiles couldn't understand how Shade's fighting style changed so easily, from someone that seemed to be dying to instantly winning over her by merely channeling one of his spirits?!
"How did you even…?!" She screamed. "You damn… human!"
Another Divine Beam of Light emerged from her open, insect-like jaws, only for Shade to easily parry the immense explosion with his scythe, by cutting through it entirely.
SLAAAASSH!
"How? Well, it is very easy to parasitize souls with [Soul Parasite]." Shade explained. "You had your guard down, and I took the opportunity. You only destroyed… let's say, a small part of my own body, for that, I commend you."
Shade said those words, as his slashing blow sliced through Divinaphiles' entire body into two halves. The demoness was incapable of even understanding what he was saying before she died regretfully.
"I'm afraid she's already dead." Grief laughed, holding the demoness soul, and devouring it viciously. "Hmph, not that good, but will do… The price for using my full powers has been paid." The frightening Death Spirit King said.
"Looks like people that cultivate their souls are very rare even now…" Shade sighed, looking into the light around him, as his darkness started spreading, combined with phantasmal energy, like an endless void, devouring every hint of light, until everything went back to normal.
FLUOSH!
He looked into a gate at the end of the room, and quickly walked towards there, his body still shapeshifting, resembling a mix between a tentacled abomination, a man, and a phantasmal Lich.
Imbuing his Mana and Spiritual Energies into his large scythe, he swung it vertically, a powerful wave of spacetime energy and darkness sliced through the dungeon gate with ease.
SLAAASH!
"Aquarina… Wait for me."
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