Chapter 5: The Living Shadow
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Dead-zone area, the broken serpent.
The sheen of starlight covers the starry night skies as Elwin flies across its vast plates of gargantuan serpent bones.
Along one of the monarch's massive vertebrae, Elwin senses a deep and profoundly ancient hollow energy presence within the creature's body that is so vast its scent alone covers the entire area he's flying in, and even beyond that it expands outwards across the entire dead zone.
'She's probably already aware that I'm somewhere nearby. I need to be quick to get to her as soon as possible. So she doesn't think of finding a route for escaping, or else I'll have another long chase before my hands once again.'
Medium-sized crystals of Starlight fluttered from Elwin's right hand and were thrown forward with a flick of his wrist.
Instantly, he appeared in a 500-meter radius of liquid shadow. Elwin sensed immense dark, viscous hollow energy from the living shadows' calamitous aura within the void-like space that was formed.
From afar, Elwin saw multiple abnormal shadows with various shapes and features. Some were tall and lanky, while others were massive blobs covered in black tendrils. Crimson eyes and horrid razor-sharp teeth protruded from every edge of their bodies.
Before Elwin knew it, he was thrust once again into battle for his life.
Instantly, He unsheathed his divine instrument, the blades of hope and harmony, and swiftly sliced through hordes of shadow calamities.
Like a hot blade through ice, he cut down thousands of creatures one after another.
However, there was something else. Elwin had noticed that despite the ease with which he was able to kill them almost nonchalantly, it made him feel a profound sense of sadness.
It was the fact that these creatures were not only manifestations of the calamity's power but that they were once souls that lived lives of their own that she had killed.
A blinding, starry blue light instantly illuminated the entire dead-zone area.
Thousands of shadow creatures began vaporizing immediately on the spot, their shadowy bodies sizzling and breaking down as they then turned into particles of smoke and dust floating up into the air.
After all, Elwin wasn't going to let them spread out around to try and surround him so while he continued to slash and cut through everyone.
He had an idea: to continuously illuminate his body as a way to prevent the calamity's nightmares from spreading their shadows and covering more ground around him to attack.
In the next moment, from high up above Elwin's head. One of the numerous titanic serpent bones drips with a dark liquid, forming more monstrous shadows that emerge from the depths of darkness that envelop the lifeless cosmic serpent.
A swarm of them pounce from the massive serpent rib, landing down them colliding together into a tidal wave of harrowing death to overwhelm Elwin.
The swarm of shadows coalesces into a colossal entity, possessing six arms, multiple faces adorning its body, and an arsenal of weapons crafted from condensed, hollow energy. Its pure white eyes, however, emit a crimson glow.
Elwin's eyes focused intensely on the creature his body tensing ever so slightly.
'What high levels of output… and only from a creature manifested from the living shadow calamity herself.' Shaking away the stray thoughts; Elwin dashed forward at an immense speed swinging his duel blades with deadly cutting force clearing through the crowds of monsters.
The colossal shadow, with immense power, raised its right foot and stomped fiercely into the ground, unleashing a seismic shock wave that propelled forward towards Elwin as he battled against the hordes of creatures.
The ground cracked and shattered under the immense pressure being exerted upon it.
Elwin sensed this and immediately took action while he continued clashing.
Switching to a reverse grip with one of his duel blades, Elwin swings it behind his back, blocking the shockwaves with terrifying force.
The shadow colossal darted to the right side evading the redirect shockwave attack.
Almost instantly, it swung all six of its arms, slamming them down with such ferocity that a storm of shadow lances and blades rained down upon Elwin like
a great mountain, akin to lightning ruthlessly raining down upon him.
Elwin parried, dodged, and rolled in-between various lances and blades while swinging his duel blades to strike the attacks back towards the shadow colossal.
Without giving the creature room to react. Elwin swiftly teleported behind the shadow beast with a circle hand motion, he sent out seven star clusters around the titanic beast. The blue star crystals merge into a single beam of pure starlight, which pierces the creature's chest and creates a gaping hole in its body.
'Stardust Vega!'
Second later, Three massive spheres of light appeared above Elwin's head. He raised his sword directly to the sky, and all three orbs rapidly flattened out into pure light blades. With his two blades, he aimed the light swords and commanded them to plunge down into the shadows.
All three light blades plunged into Colossus's shadow, taking out two of six arms, while a beam of stardust from Vega continued piercing into its body.
A few meters ahead of Elwin, the creature clasped all of its remaining hands together, spreading them out to form a massive, intricate circle of darkness spewing black flames of destruction burning apart the blades of pure light and destroying stardust Vega.
Elwin and the shadow colossal collided, closing the distance between them. Their clash unleashed furious waves of destructive attacks. In the far distance atop of one the cosmic serpent bones sitting inside the covers of darkness the calamity watches intently on the hybrid.
A combination of slashes, parries, light beams fired from Elwin strike against the black flames of chaos burning endlessly.
Neither one lets up their assault, but in the young hybrid's mind, a plan is forming to swiftly defeat this beast, ensuring that no more energy is expended than necessary.
In the next moment, The beast noticed a sudden surge in Elwin Hollow's energy output. Its bloody white eyes narrowed onto the young weaver hybrid, and its moth stretched open as it began to unleash its own display of power, boosting its output to higher levels of strength.
Another clash ensued between the two, which felt like hours in real-time but was only a few seconds in reality. After two more seconds, Elwin finally executed his plan.
The beast went in for another powerful strike this time directly for Elwin head.
However, As the mighty Shadow Axe struck down upon Elwin's head, his body was split apart into particles of light, confusing the unsightly beast.
Elwin, appearing behind the creature from its blindside, fused both blades into a single, powerful great sword coated in cold streams of entropy. Stepping forward, he slashed at an angle, aiming between the creature's top shoulder blade and the hollow energy point between its spine. With a clean cut, he severed it in half.
The creature plummeted to the ground with a thunderous thud, its body releasing a torrent of black liquid that transformed into a pure red mist. Its eyes rapidly dimmed and then fizzled out.
Elwin turns to look off in the distance .
His eyes focused on the serpent's vertebrae covered in a deep shadow watching as figure that loomed from above forms out from the darkness.
Elwin splits his duel swords apart and points directly towards the calamity.
"Come out from the shadows and face me calamity and let us settle this battle."
The calamity, emerging from the shadows, reshapes itself into the form of a alluring woman. Her body is outlined, and her face is adorned with three crimson-shaded eyes and a warm smile.