Valdel couldn"t help himself but s.h.i.+ver in fear upon seeing the weird being in front of him. He had been trained by Ren since childhood and had experienced his fair share of battle now. Yet despite his great improvement, the being in front of him made his very being scream at him telling him to run away.The being made out of shadows was oozing with malice and hatred. It simply felt like a ma.s.s of evil. Even the veteran priests of the temple of justice who had fought against all sorts of monsters were feeling agitated in the face of this being.
"Oh, what"s this are you scared of me?" The being with only a mouth on its face smiled. As it spoke it noticed that the humans in front of him don"t seem to understand the words it was saying, so it moved.
The moment it moved it went back into the shadows on the ground and that shadow spread towards the combat priests.
"MOVE!" Valdel shouted at the combat priests as he saw the shadow moving, but unfortunately, it was too fast. Four of the combat priests sunk into the shadow. They tried everything to resist but near the end, only their heads were left as they looked at the others in desperation.
"Help... Please..." Those were their last words they spoke as they disappeared into the shadow. When that was done the being made out of shadows once again appeared before the group.
"Kakaka, that was delicious. So do you humans understand me now?" The being made out of shadows had finally spoken in a language they could understand.
"What did you do to them?" Even though Valdel could already guess the answer, he still needed to ask.
"I ate them." When the being made of shadows gave its confirmation, anger was starting to swell deep within Valdel. Yet he couldn"t attack just yet, he needed to gain more information.
"What are you, and what do you want?" Among all the people present only Valdel had his wits about him. He had tried communicating with Zwei and Nika a couple of times but their mental link was being disrupted by something. He even tried making them turn into their human forms but they couldn"t. The most probable cause was the shadow being in front of them.
"You have some interesting things with you. Weapon spirits, two of them... One also smells vaguely familiar. This is quite curious indeed."
Even though it took a tremendous amount of courage and effort for Valdel to speak, the being in front of him didn"t answer his question. But since he was past the first hurdle of talking to the being for the first time, Valdel felt his courage increasing. Adrenaline started to flood Valdel"s system, even though the fear was still there he could now tolerate it a bit.
"It doesn"t seem like you heard my question, so I"ll ask again. What are you, and what do you want?"
"Kakaka, you"re a brave little human aren"t you. Even as your companions are trying their hardest simply not to faint in my presence, you"re actually able to have a conversation with me. Not only that the smell of your mana is quite enticing."
Valdel glared at the being made out of shadows, seeing the human"s reaction made it smile a very creepy smile. As it had no face and was made entirely from shadows, with only a mouth, a tongue, and a set of teeth, looking at it smile was very unnerving. Yet despite all that Valdel stood his ground and held onto Zwei in his right hand ready for any possible attack.
"Kakaka! You really are interesting. Very well, I shall grant you the honor of hearing my name. I am Sceadwe, the primordial demon of shadows. I came here to feed on your mana. Now that I have answered your question it is time to feed!"
The shadow moved swiftly and tried to grab Valdel, but before it could do so Valdel fired a ball of light. It wasn"t as effective as he thought it would be but it was still able to stop Sceadwe for a second giving Valdel enough time to attack. Valdel used Zwei to cut off one of the tentacle-like hands of Sceadwe. The tentacle fell to the ground and merged with the shadows, and at the same time, another grew out of the Sceadwe shoulder.
"Nice try little human. You cannot harm me which such feeble attacks. Just accept your fate and be eaten by me."
Sceadwe merged with his the shadows on the ground and moved towards Valdel and the others. Valdel was already aware of what was about to happen next, but he didn"t know how to block the attack. He could try evading but he was the only one fast enough to evade such a strike. He didn"t want to leave anyone behind. He quickly made a decision, Valdel was about ready to pick up the others and retreat when he heard a voice.
"Close your eyes!" Hearing the voice of the hight priest Valdel and the others did as they were told. A large ball of blinding light shot forward and hit the shadows crawling on the ground.
"You can still see them without looking right? Please carry them back and retreat into the temple!" Valdel quickly moved, picked up Natasha and the surviving combat priest, and then retreated.
"KAKAKA, That almost tickled. As a prize for making me feel something, I guess I could eat you first." Sceadwe who had submerged himself into the shadows went back into its bipedal form. He then saw the gates to the temple were closed and smiled sinisterly. It raised its arm and pounded at the door breaking it.
"It"s time to eat!" Sceadwe got excited as it felt numerous people inside the temple. As it was about ready to chow down in this eat all you can buffet, somebody spoke.
"Foul creature, you dare enter my domain and threaten my followers!" A voice echoed throughout the temple, it was an angelic voice with an ice-cold tone. Sceadwe looked around to see where the voice was coming from. He then saw in the middle of the hall, a group of sixty priests had fainted and from there stood a woman. The presence of the woman was otherworldly, it felt like she was a being made out of pure mana.
"I Tiditte the G.o.ddess of Justice, shall punish thee!" When Sceadwe saw Tiditte the smile on his face turned into a frown and he clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, a divine being. So a G.o.ddess came to ruin my fun. Well, I guess I"ll find my meal elsewhere." Sceadwe merged into the shadows and was about to escape, but then Tiditte pointed her finger at the shadow and slowly lifted it up. Sceadwe was no longer able to hide in the shadows as his whole body was brought out in the open. Sceadwe"s whole body did not just have two tentacle arms, he had hundreds of tentacles sprouting out of his back. Seeing as he was forcefully removed from the shadows, Sceadwe attacked.
The shadowy tentacles surrounded Tiditte and tried to constrict her, but before they could do anything Tiditte was able to obliterate the tentacles. As she was finished destroying the tentacles surrounding her she noticed that Sceadwe was no longer within the temple, he had stepped out.
"Kakaka, I have fought some veteran deities back at my peak, and I can clearly see that you"re just a child compare to them. Since you just manifested a part of your power in this world you are unable to fully exert yourself, and of course theirs the restriction that you cannot leave your temple. It was quite easy to dupe you O" G.o.ddes of Justice. Well, anyway it was quite fun. As for you boy, I"ll have you as my meal sooner or later."