The shadow twisted, as if considering her question. Then, a voice, deep and resonant, but not like the spirit that had spoken through Lucas-it was older, darker, like something from the depths of the hellish earth-echoed through the room.
"I am Ago...
Mystic Shantes stood at the edge of the shattered clearing, the tension in the air palpable, vibrating with the residue of battle. The ground beneath her feet was scorched and broken, tendrils of smoke still rising from the places where her lightning had struck. But even as the spirits had retreated back into the shadows, something lingered-a presence, unseen but unmistakable. Mrs. Marques sensed it too, though her human perception couldn't fully grasp the magnitude of what it was.
A cold wind began to blow through the clearing, the kind that sent a chill straight to the bone. Shantes' eyes narrowed, and her breath became shallow. The ground trembled ever so slightly beneath her feet, a deep rumbling that was not from any natural force. She tilted her head, listening to something just beyond the edge of hearing, her hand slowly lowering to her side where a small dagger glinted beneath her cloak.
"It's not over," she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Mrs. Marques, still on her knees, looked up in confusion. "What do you mean? You... you destroyed them. You won."
Shantes shook her head, her expression darkening. "No. This was just the beginning. They were only the harbingers. The real threat is coming."
Before Mrs. Marques could process the weight of those words, the earth beneath them split open with a deafening crack. Mrs. Marques screamed as she stumbled backward, nearly swallowed by the fissure that ripped through the clearing. Out of the gaping wound in the earth, a thick black smoke began to pour, spiraling upward into the sky like a living thing. The air became thick, suffocating with the stench of decay and sulfur.
From the depths of the earth, a voice-low, guttural, and filled with malice-rumbled forth. "You dare defy me, child of lightning?" it sneered, each word slithering into the night like poison.
I am Shadow God
Shantes' jaw tightened, and for the first time, Mrs. Marques saw something that terrified her more than the spirits-hesitation. Mystic Shantes, the girl who had commanded the heavens themselves, looked uncertain, even afraid.
The black smoke coalesced into a figure, towering above them, its form shifting and undulating like a nightmare made of shadows. Its eyes-red, burning with an ancient fury-locked onto Shantes, and it let out a laugh that echoed across the jungle. "Did you think a few spirits would be enough to challenge my dominion? You know nothing of the power that lies beneath."
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Shantes' hand tightened around her dagger, and she stepped forward, her voice steady but filled with a cold fury. "You're nothing but a relic of a forgotten time. A parasite clinging to the world of the living. I will end you, just like I ended your minions."
The shadow figure chuckled, the sound like nails on glass. "You think you will end me? You are nothing, child. Your power comes from me. I am the source of the storm. I am the darkness that births the lightning. Without me, you are as weak and insignificant as the humans you seek to protect."
