(Inspired by Solo Leveling.)
At world's end and all that is left is the shadow swallowing it whole - but in my mind, I know... that it isn't my end. It is yours.
Something crashes into the concrete ahead of us. Nox's body disappears into a puff of smoke that instantly retreats to my body as someone flashes into my vision with her blade swiping through my body.
I phase through the attack with ease and turn around to see the person able to kill Nox who quickly slides across the ground on her feet. She slams the edge of her demonic blade into the ground and uses it to turn her attention toward me.
"Nox?" I whisper to myself.
I am fine, she's stronger, much stronger than them.
"Can see that."
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The students surrounding me all create a circle with all of them regaining their composure from the chaos and Troy manages to escape from behind as I am forced to take the person in front of me seriously.
Memory appears beside me. "Did you foresee such a turn of events?"
I shake my head. "Does it matter? She's in the way."
"Then shall we dispatch of her?"
"I hope you do," she speaks back as she grabs the sword with a huff and rests it on her shoulders. "This world feels so secure and it is about time something powerful comes straight for us."
"Fury-"
She steps closer as she raises her voice. "Watch me closely, I'll show you all how this all ends."
More and more of them have surrounded us with abilities, spells, and weapons, and their hatred focused on me. This isn't how I planned it going at all considering all I ever wanted was to get revenge first and then move on from there.
She watches me with a wide smirk. I see the grip on her hand tighten as she practically blinks in front of me with her sword being slammed onto my head. Memory blocks it with ease to create a clash that I use to close the distance to slam my fist into her gut which knocks her back. I slam my heel into the ground as a shadow pillar launches from the ground that she breaks before I can chain it properly.
Something flies through the air past me as I see the blade crash into the ground behind me, I return my gaze to see she has disappeared. I spin around to see her grabbing the weapon and slicing it through my body.
I managed to dodge back but the edge of the blade pierced my shadows and cut through the armor underneath into my skin too easily. I don't flinch from her attack as her smirk widens.
"You really can cut through the smoke and shadows," she wipes the back of her hand across her lips. She then rests the sword back on her shoulder and lowers her stance as if to show that she's incredibly nimble despite her build.
From that stance she swings as she closes the distance, I block it with my wrist reinforced with shadows. Sparks clash with blood splattering across her face and her wicked smirk growing even fiercer but Memory breaks the clash against her and cuts his scythe through the length of her body. She stops him from cutting entirely through and instead yanks the scythe out of her body before starting to rush after me with a barrage of swings.
I grab my bleeding wrist and dodge around her attacks before she finally finds an opening to capitalise on only for my shadowy armour to let out a reactive attack that launches shadow tendrils that pierce her arms and legs to shove her backwards.
"I am not here for you," I warn her as she stumbles to the ground with blood dripping out of her wounds.
Her frenzied stare widens only for her to break the shadow with a single movement and use that to close the distance. I can't get a chance to phase through her grapple as she slams my body against the ground with incredible speed. The shock of the impact travels through my body as I feel something cold pierce my stomach.
She spits blood out of her mouth onto the ground. "Pitty. Here I thought it would be the first thing to give me a proper challenge."
"You did it?!" Someone screams. "Thank fuck!"
Ahhh... was that enough to kill her? I let my shadow pool around me and swallow the two of us whole in a world of darkness. She looks back at me only for me to sink into the darkness and rise somewhere else as my wound is filled with the same shadows protecting me, at least I can stem the bleeding long enough to finish this fight.
"Ha..." she chuckles. "Now that we have a moment of privacy, may I ask what you are? You remind me of someone I once knew... I almost thought you a threat. But even now I am surprised."
Her wounds have fully healed, this woman isn't human, no human would have survived those attacks or been this reckless.
I shake my head at her. "You aren't human, are you?"
"A part of me once was," she admits.
"A part of me once was," I repeat the words back to her.
"Oh... so it is like that? Are you just like me then?" She runs her hand over the edge of the blade before flourishing it before pointing the sword straight at me. "Then I am sorry for having to kill you, brother. They aren't yours to kill."
"No..." I shake my head at her. "They aren't mine to kill."
She steps forward only for her eyes to go wide. I saw it for a moment. Memory's scythe travelled through the darkness of this domain and cleaved this woman in half severing her torso from her legs.
Her lifeless eyes are still locked onto me as the corpse drops to the ground. Memory appears over her corpse and then fixes his stare on me.
"She was strong. I believe if we fought any longer she'd have killed us if we didn't resort to something like this." He gestures to the darkness surrounding us. "Smart, taking away all of her basic senses and trapping her in a place she can't escape."
I tread closer to look at the blade. "She didn't need to die, but I had no choice, at this rate she'd have rid me of my chance to kill him."
I saw that and the darkness around me was breached by sunlight. The world slowly returns around us as everyone standing around us watches in horror at the corpse of their saviour who would have been the one to kill me.
Before I could properly find Troy the world around me was enveloped in a firestorm to keep me contained.
"I'll burn you to the ground, monster."
"Erica Phoenix," I breathe out with a pained chuckle. I can sense the storm of fire weakening but she is still stood there in all her defiance.
"How do you know my name?" She growls at me.
"It's me. (Y/N)-"
She launches a bolt of fire in response to my words. "He's dead! Don't you dare use the memory of him against me you monster! Whatever parasite you are, leave him alone!" I can hear her sad hatred.
I lower my shadows to reveal that it truly is me, and not a thrall being controlled. "It-"
The moment I do that I feel my vision flicker as in that very same moment the woman I killed mere moments ago phased into vision with bloodlust in her eyes. She grabs me around my throat and shoves the blade deeper into my core as she whispers to me.
"I used to be a human," she chuckles. "But tell me? Will you survive this?"
