Mother of Shadows

{PLEIADES POV}

Looking at the advancing, shadowy Terror, I cursed under my breath. Even though most of its form was still obscured by shadows, its sheer size was undeniable.

Before anyone else could react, the Terror's form shifted and from its writhing mass, pointed, spiked tentacles shot out in every direction.

With no time to protect the others, I deflected one with a swing of my sword and ducked under another. Just as a third tentacle aimed straight for my head, I raised my arm and coated it in indestructible steel.

It bounced off harmlessly, but still pushed me back a full five meters.

Before I could regain my footing, another tentacle came from the ceiling aimed straight for my shoulder. I barely reacted in time, summoning a tentacle of my own to intercept it. My creation caught the oncoming appendage, stopping it just inches from impact.

I rushed forward, trying to get closer to the Terror, but monstrous hands made of shadows rose from the ground, reaching to squeeze and crush me.

Spotting a weak point in one of the constructs, I pierced it and summoned annihilating soul flames. And the shadow was reduced to nothing.

In rapid succession, I slashed at another, dispelling it as well.

Glancing at the others, I saw Effie struggling to defend both herself and Cassie, while Nephis fought beside Caster. Saint was doing her best to fend off the constructs, with Krabs helping from the rear, clearing her blind spots.

The Forsaken Knight wasn't faring much better. Though he countered each strike, some attacks grazed his armor, and a few even nicked his blade.

Kai hovered in the air, barely holding off the shadow attacks coming his way.

Oddly enough, Regis was doing the best out of all of us, his strikes incinerated the shadowy hands. Each time he landed a blow, the shadows were absorbed into his own form.

[Sunny, augment Saint with both of your shadows.]

(…Are you sure? You'll lose the boost in power.)

[I'm strong enough as I am. Saint's struggling, and Krabs is too busy covering her blind spots.]

(Alright. But the moment I see you slipping, I'm bringing them back.)

Without hesitation, I released a storm of ice spikes erupting from the ground and walls forming around us. As soon as the ice manifested, the shadows recoiled and withdrew into the Terror.

Gloomy and Lazy detached from my feet and moved toward Saint. I stood still for a moment, catching my breath.

But, as if mocking my efforts, the ice barriers and spikes began to crack and then shattered. Immediately after, Nephis's voice rang out, sharp and commanding.

"Everyone, fall back to a reserve position. Pleiades and Sunny, get your echoes into a pinning formation!"

The cohort retreated from the front lines. I issued commands to the Forsaken Knight, while Sunny directed Krabs and Saint and i moved to stand side by side with the others.

Nephis and Caster were positioned to the right. Kai floated in the center above us while Effie stood beside me to the left, with Cassie sheltered behind us. Regis stood next to the Forsaken Knight, his fur bristling and eyes locked on the enemy.

Effie muttered under her breath, loud enough for Nephis to hear.

"Hey, Princess, what's the plan now?!"

Nephis didn't look back and responded simply. Her voice was cold, calm, and absolute.

"We fight."

Effie gave Nephis a flat look and sighed.

"Yeah, that sounds about right… You got any plans, doofus?"

She looked down at me while I had to crane my neck to meet her gaze. I mulled over a few half-formed ideas from the earlier skirmish, then shrugged.

"Just a few. Also, stop calling me doofus."

From the side, Regis let out a sharp snrk, barely bothering to hide his amusement.

"Oh no, not doofus! Gods forbid someone slanders our mighty shorty with a nickname that fits like a glove. Actually, I think Doofus is going easy on him. There must be a way for us to make it stick whenever he pulls a stunt."

Effie chuckled, clearly appreciating the support.

"I could carve it into his armor." she added with a mocking laugh. "Right where he can read it every time he screws up."

Regis' eyes lit up.

"Ooh, yes! Make it glow."

He turned to me with a deliberately innocent look in his eyes.

"Don't worry, boss. This is what real friendship looks like, mild emotional abuse, personalized insults, and unsolicited advice."

I turned left, then right, and smiled wickedly.

"You are aware that I can teleport away from here at any moment, right? And leave you all here, you should know this already."

Regis' grin widened, smug and toothy, his fangs glinting faintly in the light.

"Oh, absolutely. You're incredibly cowardly so it's expected."

Caster chose that moment to chime in with his usual grace.

"It would be quite dishonorable of you to abandon us like this."

I exhaled slowly, just barely holding myself together.

"What the hell is happening?"

Before anyone could answer, the ice around us shattered, and the advancing shadows surged forward. The Forsaken Knight was first to react, rushing to intercept the oncoming assault, while Saint hesitated before joining him at the front.

Stray attacks that slipped past them were immediately incinerated by Regis or repelled harmlessly off Krabs' gleaming carapace. Two tentacles managed to arc above Krabs, but he caught them in his pincers and crushed them effortlessly to dust.

Meanwhile, Kai launched arrow after arrow into the mass, though they were absorbed and later reformed in his hands in an endless loop of futility.

As I focused more intently on the monstrous shadowy mass, I spotted vague, nightmarish forms shifting within it. Then, a horrifying idea sparked in my mind.

If this Terror was like a living being, it must have something akin to a stomach. And if it was controlling nightmare creatures, it had likely absorbed them, turning them into the constructs we were fighting before the terror arrived.

I grimaced. The plan forming in my head made my skin crawl.

[Hey Sunny, mind closing your non-existent eyes? Or just… don't look through the body right now.]

(Do you want me to start calling you doofus too? What are you planning?)

[I'm going to weaken the Terror. But… it's going to get a little gory.]

(I think I'll be the judge of whether I look or not.)

[… Do as you please.]

>>What exactly are you gonna do? I wanna see what you're about to pull off! <<

[As much as I appreciate your morbid curiosity, I'd rather you buy me some time.]

I turned to Effie and cleared my throat to catch her attention.

"Hey Effie, focus on the battle. And don't look at me."

She narrowed her eyes, already suspicious.

"…You only say that when you're about to do something stupid, dangerous, or both."

Kai, still loosing arrows, shouted mid-shot without even looking.

"Should we ask what he's doing?"

"No" Effie and Regis said in unison.

Rolling my eyes, I dismissed my kord and summoned the Moonlight Shard.

"Just… don't be mad when this thing starts screaming."

Effie groaned. "That's never a comforting sentence. Ever."

Pointing the blade at my stomach, I tried to calm myself with fond memories of my first life, the pier i would visit often with my family, the ice cream i would always get there, those school trips i went on with friends. And then I plunged the blade into my abdomen.

Swallowing hard, I dragged it further across my belly, gutting myself with precision. My organs began to spill out but thanks to Blood Weave, only a trickle of blood seeped from the wound.

Effie spun around, despite my very specific request, not out of curiosity, but because she absolutely didn't trust me.

"What the fuck, Pleiades?!"

Kai looked at me and nearly dropped his bow, a hand flying to his mouth in horror.

(ARE YOU CRAZY?!)

Regis turned briefly, his usual nonchalance gone.

"What the actual hell are you doing?!"

Even though I felt no pain, the sensation of my organs spilling out was nauseating beyond belief. The Moonlight Shard began slipping from my blood-slicked hands as i tried to catch my breath.

Laughing softly, I locked eyes with the advancing Terror.

And Effie looked more afraid of me than of the terror at this point.

"Okay, he's lost his mind."

Nephis suddenly rushed toward me, white flames blazing in her eyes.

I turned to Effie and smiled wider.

"Oh trust me… I lost my mind a long time ago."

With that, I focused on the Terror, felt its rotting, gaping presence and activated my ability.

"Antithesis…" I whispered.

In an instant, my organs vanished from the ground and returned to my body. The wound from the Moonlight Shard sealed shut as if it had never been and the drops of blood that were on my hand returned into me.

Then I immediately stood up and looked on as a shrill, impossibly inhuman scream erupted from the mass of shadows.

The Terror's body began to swell like a grotesque balloon, then without warning, it burst open. A rushing tide of liquid-like shadows flooded out from the rupture. The dark veil coating the Terror's body peeled away, revealing the true form beneath.

A tall woman, her facial features hidden beneath a shroud, her lower body fused into the massive pool of writhing liquid shadows. Where once the Terror had seemed invincible, it now looked exposed and vulnerable.

Its long, clawed hands reached toward the cavity in its own abdomen with a kind of strange, pitiful desperation.

I didn't wait to see what it was about to do and acted.

Straining my muscles and igniting my strength with Energizer, I hurled the Moonlight Shard.

It whistled through the air and lodged deep into the Terror's skull. The creature jerked, its hands reached up, trembling slightly, then stopped mid-motion.

A second later, its shoulders gave way, and the entire body collapsed with a muted, wet thud.

And then the voice of the spell sounded in my ears, both calm and confused at the same time.

[You have slain a Fallen Terror, Mother of Shadows]

[…You have recieved a Memory]

The battlefield froze. Everything, the fighting, the movement, even the windless silence—stilled as the echo of that inhuman scream lingered unnaturally in the air.

The black liquid hissed and steamed as it evaporated from the Terror's ruptured corpse. The shroud that had once covered its face fluttered slightly, lifeless.

Regis blinked twice, then slowly turned to me.

>>Okay… Alright. Hmmm. Question one: What the fuck. Question two: Are you dead? Question three: If not… then again, what the fuck.<<

Effie stood frozen, mouth agape. She took a cautious step forward and looked around with a visible shudder.

"I swear on every Shard I've ever earned, if you get up with your guts still out, I'm throwing up."

Kai lowered his bow, squinting. "...Did he just gut himself, kill a Terror, and win?"

Caster watched, his usual composed facade cracking as a bewildered expression took its place.

Nephis said nothing, her face emotionless as always, but she did tilt her head slightly, studying me with the smallest hint of emotion.

"I'm fine. If anyone cares" I muttered, standing slowly as I grinned faintly, already giddy over the Memory I'd just received.

"I had a theory."

Effie gave me the flattest look known to mankind. She glanced at my stomach, sighed with relief when she saw no damage, then immediately looked horrified.

"You gutted yourself… on a theory?"

Kai blinked again.

"...Was it a good theory?"

Regis huffed. "It was a Pleiades theory. That means it either kills a god… or nearly kills him. Sometimes both."

"Worth it" I said hoarsely, still catching my breath.

The brief moment of calm began to fade as a new sound crept into the edges of our awareness. The sizzling of shadows stopped.

Beneath the puddles of steaming liquid shadows, something began to shift. Subtle ripples. Twitching tendrils. Then came the low, guttural growls.