CHAPTER 588: CHAPTER 590: LAST STAR IN THE CRYSTAL PALACE

The odds had shifted, or rather, they had been just the same since the very beginning.

Ashcroft was fighting against time, and Damon was fighting to buy time. This wasn’t a battle Damon was supposed to win. It was an endurance match.

However, Damon sought to flip the narrative. One would rule and one would perish.

His maw opened wide with every intent to consume the goblin in front of him, to devour his rotten flesh and make his power his own.

Ashcroft reached into the air, the blade of light forming into a weapon. No, not a blade but a thin point of pure light that traveled at the speed of light itself.

His shadow perception had already registered the shifts within the darkness, but unlike when Evangeline had attacked him with light magic, this was far faster.

By the time he sensed the flash, his body was already pierced by the searing pain.

The attack ripped past his outer body of shadows and struck his inner shadow form, the hidden vessel within, and for the first time it damaged his soul.

Even so, Damon charged forward with reckless abandon.

Flames roared to life around his shadowed body, then surged outward in a violent wave that incinerated everything before him.

Ashcroft raised his rotting green hands, forcing the earth itself to rise as a shield.

The wall of dirt hardened, then baked under the heat until it turned red and shattered apart with a violent boom, shards spraying through the cavern.

He was experienced enough to know Damon was trying to blind him with the fire and strike from its cover. Ashcroft unleashed a volley of spears of light toward the point where Damon should have been.

Trying to blind Ashcroft was a juvenile tactic, the reckless strategy of a madman.

Yet the goblin’s eyes widened. There was no impact. Nothing was there. With every ounce of his fading strength, Ashcroft turned, but he was a fraction too slow.

From the shadows behind him, massive claws burst forth, raking across his chest.

The impact carried a manic laughter with it, a chaotic, broken sound that cracked through the cavern as Ashcroft was flung backward.

"Jehjjsjrjrjjrjjrjnrbebb...." The shadow’s laughter was insane, so chaotic that Ashcroft could not even comprehend how such a voice was formed.

The thing had no throat. It was simply a mass of shadows.

"You didn’t see that one coming.... You’re getting slower..."

The monstrous being kicked the goblin’s body like a ball, chasing him immediately on all fours with a sonic boom that echoed through the cavern.

Ashcroft realized it. How could he not? He really was slowing down. Not only physically, but mentally. He was dying again.

His head felt heavy. Pain spread through his body. His blood flowed freely, his organs rotting away. The taste of iron lingered thick in his mouth.

And the usurper had done the unthinkable. He had struck him. For the first time since their battle began, Damon had actually landed a true blow.

Ashcroft hated to admit it, but the possibility of losing now existed.

’I have to think of a fail safe...’

As his body was hurled through the air, blood spraying with every rotation, Ashcroft smiled faintly, almost impressed with Damon.

’...you’ve put up a good fight...’

Yet before he could hit the ground, Damon, in his monstrous shadow form, pulled out a staff.

"Ooojjjhhj... I’m just getting started.... Kaboooom..."

Ashcroft’s eyes widened as the head of the staff unleashed a black sphere of destruction. He watched it expand, point blank, right beside his face.

There was no defense at this distance. Nothing he could do would be fast enough to stop it. If he had been at his full power, if he had all his skills intact, this would have been trivial to avoid. But there was no point in what ifs.

This would be his death. Again.

The explosion engulfed them both. Damon had willingly thrown himself into its range, a suicidal shadow that sought only destruction. His ferocity reminded Ashcroft of an extremist suicide bomber, one with no regard for his own life.

And Damon was still only a child. The thought sparked a rush of rage within Ashcroft’s decaying heart.

He felt insulted by the sheer perpetuity of conflict. If Damon killed him here, how many more wars would the child wage?

How many battles would be fueled by one who had no regard for life, even his own?

The impact burned his flesh, shattered his organs, and hurled him across the dungeon. He crashed into the far end of the cavern, his ruined body pierced by jagged shards of crystal.

A dull ache spread across what remained of him. His lungs were almost entirely gone. His ears buzzed, filled with the sound of phantom memories.

The deafening gunfire of soldiers taking cover. The metallic rattle of ammunition in the heat of battle.

"Ahhh..." Ashcroft realized something. He was disoriented, caught in old memories.

"I’ve taken serious damage... I need a medic... I’m out of ammo..."

It was the roar of the shadow that snapped him back to reality. That insane, guttural howl cut through his delusion.

Ashcroft blinked, vision swimming. He looked down at his body. Half of him was impaled on a sharp crystal shard. One of his arms dangled loosely, barely attached.

His body was upside down, which was why he saw Damon approaching him on all fours, a murderous glint in his eyes.

"Hahahah..." Ashcroft chuckled softly.

What was this? This was the closest he had come to death since he had been born into the world of Aetherus. His first death, when he fought Doom, did not count. He had died before he even realized it.

This was different.

"You... this is the first time anyone in this world has been able to injure me so severely..."

He punched at the crystal, forcing it deeper through his flesh as he dragged his body free.

"You remind me of my past life... The irony isn’t lost on me... I killed many child soldiers once...helpless insurgents who barely knew war."

Ashcroft muttered the words to himself, his voice cracked and broken.

"To think... I may die at the hands of a child..."

The shadow jumped above, claws raised. It did not care for the goblin’s words.

The claws slashed downward, freezing midair.

Ashcroft raised his trembling hand. His broken voice whispered.

"Forgive me..."

The monstrous shadow froze in place, suspended as if the world itself obeyed his will.

"But I promised all children like you... I would end all conflict..."

Ashcroft’s aura erupted, a final burst of terrible, corroded light.

"Forbidden skill... [Last Star in the Crystal Palace]."

His body rotted further, collapsing from within.

"I will destroy the Ninth Pillar... I will erase all conflict... with this star’s last light..."