freenovelworld Chapter 95: Stealing Shadow's Price
Chapter 95: Stealing Shadow's Price
Chloe hesitated, refraining from touching the key first.Unsure if it had an alarm function, she decided to take it last, just in case.
The closer she was to victory, the calmer she became, mentally reviewing possibilities and checking for oversights.
After a quiet reflection, she confirmed no flaws.
Aiwas was genuinely drunk, his sleeping behavior unremarkable.
Emboldened, she stepped forward, pulling a dark red lipstick from her pocket and applying it.
The Adaptation path’s core ability was resistance to poison and disease, growing stronger with level. This let them consume large amounts of herbs without side effects or eat any creature for sustenance. Poisons ineffective on them could kill others, making Adaptation assassins deadly.
As an “Eagle Eye” member, Chloe knew secret and cursed poison recipes. She coated her “Eagle Feather” daggers with potent toxin and crafted it into concealable lipstick, triggered by a deadly kiss.
It was a morbid whim—kissing was lighter than applying lipstick to a target. But really, she just wanted to “kiss.”
A kiss that stole life felt romantic, charming, like a succubus or banshee, imbued with ritualistic allure.
Reflecting, Chloe realized she’d always leaned toward the Love path. Her habits reinforced its affinity, unnoticed until now, when her desires burned vividly.
Her flashy, revealing clothes—too conspicuous for an Avalonian assassin—reflected this.
She’d posed as a Beauty path devotee, but Love suited her more. Yet, Iris’s Love path was dominated by the Children of the Moon, and joining them would mean death from her colleagues if she left Eagle Eye.
[No matter. With that holy weapon, I’ll have leverage to negotiate with the organization.]
Lipstick applied, Chloe smiled at the sleeping, alcohol-scented Aiwas.
[He’s quite handsome up close, despite being annoying before. A kiss isn’t a bad deal.]
She leaned to kiss him—but her waist froze mid-bend, numb as if anesthetized, locking her in an awkward pose.
She could smell the faint alcohol on his breath and his masculine scent, yet she couldn’t move.
“Had enough?”
A cold, female voice echoed in her mind, commanding and haughty, like a mature woman.
[Not his maid!]
[Someone else is ambushing me?!]
Snapping alert, Chloe melted into shadows, breaking the unknown restraint, diving into Aiwas’s shadow.
But unlike every prior shadow dive, or like her last time in Aiwas’s shadow, overwhelming fear gripped her.
She couldn’t escape.
The shadow, once fluid, was now frozen, cold and solid, like a cage of ice.
The mocking voice taunted, “You, thief of shadow power, trust it so much…”
The world spun.
Regaining vision, she saw Aiwas on the bed, far away.
Her perspective—she was trapped in a mirror!
A near-identical “other self” with pitch-black hair and eyes stood where she’d been, sneering at the mirrored Chloe.
It “walked” closer, floating, half its feet sinking into the floor, body steady, trailing faint black smoke.
In the mirror, Chloe’s body moved involuntarily, mirroring the other’s actions, approaching the terrifying doppelgänger.
Up close, she saw its eyes and hair weren’t black but flowing voids, its skin ghostly translucent, only its clothes solid.
[Who are you?]
Chloe tried to speak but couldn’t, truly a reflection.
The other, hearing her thoughts, smirked charmingly.
Yet the mirrored Chloe, with caramel curls, showed visible fear, her face distorted.
“Follower of the Lord of Scales and Feathers, thief of fish scales and bird feathers—have you forgotten where your power comes from?”
It mocked, its slender finger sliding across Chloe’s cheek.
—a phantom sound, like her soul splitting. Unbearable pain hit, but she couldn’t scream.
Her mind blanked, then a word surfaced:
[Shadow Demon!]
[A Shadow Demon in Aiwas’s shadow?!]
[Impossible!]
But if true…
She understood everything.
Why Aiwas saw her, why he was fearless, why his shadow terrified her.
His banquet words were a trap to lure her!
[No priest, no hero—all fake!]
[He’s no good guy—a powerful demon scholar, likely Twilight path, possessing Aiwas’s body!]
Regret flooded her.
[If I had another chance, I’d never cross him!]
Too late.
She couldn’t escape a Shadow Demon.
Adaptation power came from mimicking others—poison, foresight, invisibility, regeneration, all from nature. Her shadow stealth, Eagle Eye’s technique, mimicked Shadow Demons, a weakened imitation from observation and imagination, not true replication.
Now she learned Shadow Demons controlled mirrors too.
Less that it could catch her, more that it had, showing her how a real Shadow Demon hunted.
“I don’t mind you copying my kin’s talents, but you’re so clumsy—like a toad singing or a donkey dancing. Like an elephant stomping over my head… noisy.”
The demon’s voice dripped malice, shifting from haughty maturity to Chloe’s own honeyed, seductive tone.
“More importantly—my master’s shadow is domain.”
Its gentle, icy voice continued, fingers piercing the mirror, gripping her neck. “You crossed the line, thief.
If not for my master’s mercy, I’d have torn you apart then. Thanks to the Serpent Father, you dared return.
You even thought to kill my master—who do you think you are? So weak, yet so bold…”
Chloe’s mirrored form eroded in shadows, the mirror’s edges oozing blood, like an Iron Maiden closing.
Before losing consciousness, the demon’s voice echoed: “You copied me, so I’ll copy you. I need a human-pleasing skin.
Since you tried stealing shadows, your voice and face are mine now.
In human terms, debt repayment.”
It drew a large X on the mirror. “You’re bankrupt, miss.”
Chloe’s cracked soul shattered under its nails.
When Aiwas woke, groggy, the Shadow Demon hadn’t disturbed him, per his instructions to quietly eliminate the assassin.
This showed his trust in it.
“How’d it go?” he asked inwardly first thing. “Her last words?”
He wasn’t worried she escaped. A notification confirmed:
[Killed fourth-tier superhuman, gained 120 free experience]
Less than the Distorted Limb Demon, but ample for a freebie. With prior experience, he had 364 points—enough to advance to Demon Scholar at month’s start and hit third-tier next month!
Now, ritual cooldowns limited him. To avoid wasting experience, he’d study normally and use free experience to top off levels.
[Save where I can!]
His concern: [Did the Shadow Demon destroy her gear?]
“I told you to keep her equipment. Where is it? And the floor’s clean, right?”
“She had no last words, just regret for offending you,” the Shadow Demon replied, its voice more human than yesterday. “Spoils are on the sofa, all there, master. I consumed her blood—no traces.”
Aiwas looked—her clothes and gear were neatly folded, organized, undamaged, as if she’d placed them herself.
“Did Lily come in?”
He wondered if Lily arranged it, but he’d told her not to wake him. She wouldn’t enter unbidden.
[This Shadow Demon… quite meticulous?]
*
(Chapter End)