CHAPTER 589: CHAPTER 591: SOUL CALIBRATION

One day, I woke up to find the Crystal Palace empty. I traveled through its vast halls, but there was no one there. The Ascendant Knights who guarded me were gone.

My older sister was not there. My brother was not there. None of my siblings were.

It was silent. The halls that once carried a grace envied by the divine now seemed bleak and hollow.

Alone in these halls, I called out for my mother, but there was no response. I went to the throne room and called out for my father, but again, silence answered me.

I was alone, so I searched for my grandfather. Surely that vile thief would have the answers. My wings fluttered as I flew across the vast sky, reaching corners of the Crystal Palace few could ever visit, where fewer still would dare. I called out to my grandfather.

Again, I was alone.

Surely this must have been some terrible joke my family had decided to play on me. I knew my grandmother had a soft spot and would be the easiest to falter, so I cried out for her.

But all I heard was silence. No one was there. I was all alone.

When I looked into the sky, I saw only a bleak heaven consumed by darkness, with a single star shining its fragile light.

That star was me. And I was in the abyss. My nightmare had become reality. I was the last star shining its faint, lonely light.

The last star in the Crystal Palace.

This was the dream Ashcroft had when he obtained this particular skill. But in truth, it wasn’t even a skill. It was a spell. A spell born from the nightmare of the unknown god—a nightmare that had become reality.

It was the expression of a lonely god who longed for home but, for reasons Ashcroft could not understand, chose not to return. Just like Ashcroft, that god was driven by a single-minded goal.

The spell had one singular effect: it was the last light of a dying star. It allowed the user to erupt with one moment of radiance so bright it dwarfed everything that came before.

But it was also a sorrowful spell, because all the other stars were gone, and you were left alone. When your last light faded, only darkness remained.

That was why Ashcroft had to make this strike count. This was all the light he could summon. This was everything he had left. This was nothing new to him.

"Every person was a star. Every man, every woman. We could all shine, though some had brighter light than others. But when you are alone against the abyss, even your small light shines brightly."

His body was torn apart as a white light, like a star, flared into existence between him and Damon’s maddened shadow form.

From the eyes of an observer, Ashcroft would seem like a benevolent saint whose light summoned forth a miracle to banish an evil creature of shadow. He would represent hope, justice, and self-sacrifice, while Damon embodied despair, rage, gluttony, and all the sins of the abyss.

But the world was never that simple. Beauty did not make something benevolent, and darkness had the right to exist as well.

As the white ball of light grew, spreading across the cavern, the shadow roared with fury, refusing to retreat even an inch. Damon raised his massive claws and pressed them into the burning light of the star.

Ashcroft’s eyes glazed, blood pouring from his cracked and failing body.

"There is no point in resisting... this is all of me... this is the star that glows even in the abyss... this is my domination..."

He raised his hand, forcing his last strength forward.

"Star Dominate!"

Damon was driven back, his shadow form breaking apart faster than it could recover.

"Your domination..." Damon spoke in a husky, broken voice.

"A star that glows in the abyss... hehehe... a star in the abyss has already been devoured by darkness."

"I will devour yours too."

His body of shadows shattered and warped, collapsing into a pool of spreading darkness. It spread like smoke, a black tide pushing against the white light.

Ashcroft’s radiance burned it away with blistering heat, but the shadows continued to expand.

The demon lord glowed brighter, seeing the futility of Damon’s struggle.

"Your struggle is pointless. You will fade."

Damon had no teeth, no mouth, only the shifting mass of shadows. His rage, his spite, his madness—none of it was enough before this consuming light.

"If I am not enough... I will devour and make their strength my own."

Ashcroft, now nothing but light as his goblin body was destroyed, answered calmly.

"But you cannot devour me."

The mass of darkness laughed.

"Who said I was talking about you? I was talking about the hundreds of crystal spiders you so conveniently killed."

Ashcroft’s eyes widened. He had overlooked it. They were surrounded by corpses, and Damon’s nature was simple: he devoured corpses.

Like a tide of inky darkness....

Shadows spread, consuming the remains of every crystal spider and turning them into strength.

[You have gained +67,835 attribute points]

Damon poured them into his stats, boosting his strength, speed, endurance, even his failing vitality. His body surged with stolen might.

No—with the might his living shadow had devoured, he would devour the Dominator himself.

Like a sea of corruption overwhelming beauty, the darkness spread through the cavern, leaving only the star at the center resisting.

It looked eerily like the nightmare of the unknown god—one star shining in endless blackness. That feeling of overwhelming loneliness gripped Ashcroft’s fading heart.

Damon’s consciousness dispersed across the shadows, threatening to consume itself in madness. Yet the light of Ashcroft became his guide. The pain anchored him, holding his humanity together.

Then, as his fragmented self pressed against the light, Damon spoke.

"I am weak. I cannot be strong like you. I walk with a heart full of defeat... but I am still here. It is because I am weak that I will devour those who are strong and make their strength my own."

Ashcroft struggled to hold the light. He was out of time. His soul began to fade, his body gone, with no escape except into the darkness around him.

And the darkness spoke.

"I will devour your domination... and make it my own."

"You are now a part of me."

The darkness consumed the light.

And then Damon heard the chime.

[You have slain fragment of Ashcroft the Dominator]

[Quest Complete]

[Appraisal: Glorious]

[You have leveled up]

[You have awakened the skill: Demon Dominate]

Damon’s body began to reform, but that was only the beginning of the system’s chimes.

[Soul recalibration has began]