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SLW Chapter 40 : Apostle of The Shadow Gods
🕑 Added 2025-03-08 21:24:36 +0000 UTCThe very air trembled. The temple’s last-standing pillars cracked under the sheer weight of power. His shadow soldiers, unshaken by gods or kings, stirred uneasily.
Aeron turned, his gaze cutting through the rising embers.
"Who." His voice was low, dangerous. "Are you?"
Tall. Cloaked in black. His face was hidden beneath a deep hood, but his eyes gleamed like twin suns in the darkness.
He did not rush. He did not hesitate. He simply existed in the space before Aeron, as if he had always been there.
Then, in a voice as smooth as silk and as cold as the grave, he spoke.
"I am called Veydris of Asshai."
His lips curved into the ghost of a smile.
"And I am here to kill you, Shadow Monarch."
Aeron’s eyes narrowed, the flames reflecting in their unnatural purple glow.
Without hesitation, he summoned his Silverfang daggers. The twin weapons materialized in his hands, the curved, silver-black blades glistening ominously.
He pointed them at Veydris, his voice calm but edged with warning.
"How do you know of me?" His grip tightened. "You seem to know far more than you should."
Veydris chuckled. "Does it matter?"
Then he vanished.
Not stepped back. Not blinked away.
Vanished.
Like a whisper devoured by the dark.
Aeron’s instincts screamed. His eyes darted around, his shadows stretching in all directions to sense him, but
Nothing.
Not a trace. Not even the faintest echo of movement.
Then...impact.
A fist slammed into his side like a meteor.
Aeron felt his ribs crack.
His vision blurred as his body was sent hurtling through the temple ruins, shattering stone and leaving a trench in the scorched ground.
He skidded to a halt, coughing up blood.
For the first time in a long time, he hadn’t even seen it coming.
A system notification blinked before his eyes.
[System Alert!]
[Apostle Detected.
Defeat Veydris of Asshai, Apostle of the Shadow Gods.]
Aeron wiped the blood from his lip, his mind processing the words.
His gaze snapped back up to where Veydris stood, once again solid, his hood slightly pushed back to reveal a smug, knowing grin.
Aeron exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulders, the pain already dulling.
"I see…" He spun one of his daggers, his stance shifting into readiness.
His aura flared.
His shadows writhed.
A sharp grin tugged at the corner of his lips.
"So this whole apostle thing...it’s you."
The ruins of the temple smoldered around them, burning embers rising into the suffocating night. The only light came from the dying fires..and the eerie glow of Aeron’s purple eyes.
Veydris stood still, his golden gaze unblinking, his presence like a wound in reality itself. Then, like ink dissolving in water, he melted into the darkness.
Aeron reacted instantly.
His daggers vanished, replaced by Direfang, its black blade gleaming under the firelight.
His shadows flared, reaching out to seize anything that might be lurking in the darkness. But even as his tendrils lashed out
A voice whispered behind him.
"Your own shadows betray you, Aeron Grim."
Aeron spun, slashing Direfang through empty air. Nothing.
Then pain.
A shadowed fist crashed into his ribs from nowhere.
Aeron snarled, flipping backward, landing in a crouch. His ribs throbbed from the impact, but he ignored the pain. His eyes flickered, scanning—
No sign of him.
Then his own shadow moved.
From the darkness at his feet, black chains shot upward like striking vipers.
Aeron’s eyes widened. He tried to leap back, but the chains wrapped around his arms, his legs, coiling around his torso like living serpents.
Veydris emerged from the void, walking forward with slow, deliberate steps. His voice was calm. Amused.
"You do not understand, do you? The darkness is not your ally. It is mine."
The chains tightened.
Aeron gritted his teeth as the shadows squeezed, digging into his flesh like claws. He had to move
He had to move now.
With a snarl, he activated Ruler’s Authority.
The chains shattered.
Veydris' golden eyes flickered in mild surprise.
But Aeron was already in motion.
He re-summoned his daggers, lunging forward, his movements as fast as a striking wolf. He slashed once, twice, blades aimed for Veydris’ throat.
But
Veydris melted into the darkness.
Aeron’s daggers cut through nothing but air.
Then a cold chill ran down his spine.
He felt it before he saw it.
A presence. A killing intent that matched his own.
He turned and froze.
Standing before him, wearing his face, his armor, holding an identical Direfang was himself.
A perfect copy.
The Aeron Clone smirked, eyes burning with soulless, violet fire.
A soft, silken chuckle echoed through the swirling darkness around them.
Veydris stepped forward, emerging from the void like a wraith. His golden eyes gleamed, watching Aeron with something almost like fascination.
“Why do you seem so surprised, Shadow Monarch?” he murmured. “Did you think you had conquered your fears?”
Aeron didn’t answer.
Veydris gestured lazily toward the perfect copy of Aeron. “This is my gift. Nightmare Manifestation. I bring forth the deepest, most primal fear buried in one’s soul.”
He tilted his head, studying Aeron with a sharp, calculating gaze. “I have used this power countless times. I have seen men break, reduced to weeping husks before their own nightmares. But you…”
He smiled, slow and knowing.
“…you fear yourself.”
Veydris continued, his tone almost amused. “You are peculiar, Shadow Monarch. Most men fear death, pain, or the loss of those they love. But you…” He took a step closer. “…you fear what you are. What you could become.”
Aeron’s eyes flashed. “You really don’t understand do you ?.”
Veydris smirked. “Then let your nightmare speak for me.”
The clone attacked first.
Aeron barely had time to block. Direfang clashed against Direfang.
The force of the blow sent a shockwave through the air, shaking the ruined temple.
Aeron gritted his teeth as his own worst nightmare came at him with his own speed, his own skill.
Slashes, counters, dodges.
The two Aeron’s clashed in a deadly, perfect dance.
Blades met again sparks flew.
The clone smirked. "You're not strong enough."
Aeron growled, "I'm getting real tired of this."
Then, a blur.
Veydris appeared behind him.
Shadow-blades in hand.
Aeron’s instincts screamed.
He vanished , reappearing behind Veydris.
His daggers aimed for his spine,
But Veydris anticipated it.
The Apostle spun, his golden eyes gleaming with amusement, and caught the daggers between his fingers.
Aeron’s eyes widened.
Veydris smirked.
Then, darkness exploded outward.
A wave of pure blackness erupted from the Apostle, swallowing the battlefield whole.
Darkness.
It swallowed everything.
Aeron was no longer in the ruins of the temple—no longer in Asshai, or anywhere recognizable. The air was thick, like tar, pressing against his skin. He couldn't see the ground beneath him, nor a sky above. Just black.
From within that blackness, a voice whispered.
“Welcome to the void, Shadow Monarch.”
Aeron's purple eyes burned.
Then—movement.
Two figures lunged at him.
His clone a perfect, soulless reflection of himself charged from the front, Direfang raised.
And from behind a ripple in the darkness. Veydris.
Aeron’s instincts screamed.
His daggers flashed, clashing against Direfang, the impact sending black sparks through the abyss. Veydris phased through him, intangible, his laughter like a serpent’s hiss.
"Alright," Aeron grinned, his blade pressing against his clone’s, his voice unfazed. “You’re very strong… You’d make a fine shadow soldier.”
Veydris chuckled. “You think you can take my soul?”
Aeron twisted, flipping back to dodge the clone’s downward slash, only for Veydris to vanish into shadows and reappear at his flank.
Aeron's eyes darted. His Ruler’s Authority flared.
A sharp pull, Veydris’ attack missed by inches, his intangibility fading just as Aeron dragged him away mid-strike.
Aeron ducked, his clone slashing through empty space. He rolled forward, kicking off an invisible floor, hurling Direfang straight toward his copy’s head
Missed.
The blade whistled past into the abyss.
The clone sneered, raising his sword to cleave Aeron in two.
Suddenly, black chains erupted from the void.
They wrapped around Aeron’s limbs, his torso, his throat.
Veydris laughed. "Did you think you had control here?"
Aeron snarled, feeling the unearthly cold of the chains tightening. His clone raised its sword about to bring it down.
And Aeron laughed.
A split second before the killing blow
A blade erupted from the clone’s chest.
Direfang.
The clone froze, its lifeless eyes widening in shock. The sword had pierced straight through its spine, its tip gleaming in the void.
Aeron's smirk deepened.
He had never missed.
He had thrown Direfang on purpose, let it curve seemingly off-course, only to pull it back mid-air with Ruler’s Authority.
The clone collapsed, the shadow essence dissolving into the abyss.
Aeron’s chains slackened.
He ripped free.
His hand snapped out Direfang flew back to his grip.
He turned to Veydris, his purple eyes glowing. he spun Direfang in his grip, the black steel humming in the void. His voice was calm, yet it carried through the endless darkness like a tolling bell.
"You were right, Veydris." Aeron exhaled, his tone almost... amused. "That was my greatest fear. But tell me..." his eyes flickered, his grip tightening around his blade "If I fear death above all else, and that fear takes my form..."
He took a single step forward.
"Then what does that make me?"
The abyss trembled.
Aeron raised Direfang, pointing its tip toward his opponent, his aura unleashing waves of dark energy.
"I am death. And you, Veydris?" His smirk widened. "You should be afraid."
