Chapter 801: Chapter 802: Minion Formation Damon felt winded by the magic arsenal spell on such a scale even in his own body it was a lot but this body seemed to be holding up even with its rank restricted to the fourth rank. It had a lot of mana so Damon was surprised to find that he still had mana. He pressed a hand to his chest as his breathing steadied, shoulders rising and falling with controlled focus. "Well isn’t that a pleasant supirse.." Still they would recover and follow them so Lazarak smashed the tunnel entrance. Its fragments flew everywhere and the rubble blocked the ones outside. Dust rolled over them in a gritty wave as Lazarak lowered his arm from the strike. He glanced at Damon.. "Now the hard part begins; it seems she’s calling back all the stillborns in the tunnel network to her." Damon closed his eyes and he listened to hundreds of moving entities in the walls all heading in one direction. His jaw tightened as he tilted his head, tracking the vibrations through the stone. "Trying to beat us with numbers huh .." He could play at that game.... Damon glanced at Matia, his expression sour. She merely nodded in acknowledgement, shifting her stance and tightening her grip on her weapon as frost gathered faintly around her boots. "I’ll protect your astral form..." she spoke coldly yet carried her usual confidence.... Damon nodded as he braced himself. The next moment the body of the mirror seraph collapsed to the ground as it continued its slumber under Lazarak authority. The vessel dropped like a puppet with its strings cut and Matia stepped forward instinctively to keep it from hitting the stone too hard. His soul slipped out of the body, feeling a deep coldness in the air that tried to extinguish the flames of his lifeforce. Damon steadied himself with a slow exhale even though he had no lungs, forcing his shape to stop flickering. Lazarak glanced at him as Matia picked up the body of the mirror seraph which Damon had been wearing. She hoisted it across her shoulders with a grunt, shifting her weight so the armor would not drag. ’Are you sure it’s a good idea to be roaming around as a soul when we are in a place where souls get eaten and absorbed by twisted giant humanoid infants with a ravenous taste for the astral form.’ Damon scoffed as he tried to steady his soul... his fingers curling reflexively as if clenching a fist. "Thanks for reminding me of the obvious." He muttered as a chilly void swept through his spine even though he didn’t really have a spine anymore. He was just a soul after all, perhaps this was the same reason people still felt pain even when they had lost their limbs. His form shivered like rippling smoke. Being used to having it there created a mental image of pain therefore pain was in fact just an illusion. ’Though getting kicked in the nut sack doesn’t count’ Damon spread his shadow perception. Without a body to hinder him he could use some of his original skills to a lesser extent depending on the nature of the skill of course. His astral form expanded slightly, trailing a thin ripple along the tunnel floor as shadows bent around him. How skills worked and differed from magic spells was a mystery of course and till this day no one had cracked it. Nevertheless Damon’s shadow perception worked, spreading all around him to the deepest shadows into the deepest layers of the tunnel. Damon began to brush the presence of shades, first ten, a hundred, soon thousands. The air stirred as if something cold and unseen was gathering around him. At the same time he also noticed thousands upon thousands of stillborn heading to one particular tunnel leading to a deep cavern... Damon sneered coldly. His astral face twisted in irritation. The mother of stillbirth was not a very clever creature. She had just revealed her location by moving so many there but at the same time it was a better option since they could use Lazarak’s sonar spell to find her. Personally Damon would have fooled his enemies by amassing his troops in the opposite direction then lured them into a trap which may or may not sacrifice his own troops. Well no matter. He was more focused on the shades and they sensed him too. They sensed the influence of the shadow control skill calling them, ordering these shadows to obey. And with Damon’s tyrannical half deranged will he ordered... "obey.." It was a simple command but Damon felt himself losing shadow energy, however it was less than he had expected. His soul flared slightly with the expenditure. His power had grown considerably in a very short time. When he first took control of shades in Lysithara they used up too much shadow energy. Since then his power had grown several levels and two whole classes. Controlling shades was now easy... easier than he remembered. Like a necromancer which wasn’t good since he couldn’t be seen with this power if he still wanted to be in the good books of the temple. Slowly the first of the shades reached Damon’s side. Floating around him in a black ghostly form, its long hands seemed like they were made of shifting black smoke. The shade leaned toward him, its body bending unnaturally like liquid shadow seeking its master. Lazarak watched with a small fascination. His eyes narrowed as the shade drifted close to Damon’s form. "Impressive. I did not think you were one of those outlaws who discarded life and made a mockery of death with the power... though your necromancy seems different." Damon narrowed his eyes.. his aura flickering in annoyance. No surprise Lazarak didn’t like the idea of controlling dead souls. Must be his sensibilities as a god. "I’m not a necromancer... I control shadows and unfortunately for shades they happen to fall under the broad definition of what a shadow is ...." Damon frowned looking at the shades with a suspicious look... he reached a hand out, studying the texture of one drifting by him. "Is it just me or does this shade look a little different... it looks more solid somehow .." Lazarak didn’t seem surprised. "Yes, these shades are ancient. Don’t forget only the worst of the worst are imprisoned here in Ediolon. The souls they were born from were truly atrocious..." Damon nodded, feeling a chill around his soul as shades began to slowly gather. He grabbed one with his hand and just as he guessed he felt it get absorbed by his body as he heard a soft system chime. [You have gained +10 shadow energy] Sure enough his guess was right. His soul could absorb shadow energy even without a physical form. His astral fingers twitched as he felt the boost. ’Looks like I’ll be rebuilding my body quicker than I anticipated.’ How fortuitous. Damon called more and more shades until they formed a steady wall of shadows around his astral form, lifting it into the air as he commanded the shadows that made up their forms to wrap around him. The mass of darkness coiled and twisted obediently, almost forming an armor around him. Lazarak watched him with a curious expression. Damon smiled slowly, gaze cold. "Let’s go kill that thing.. inward my minions devour all in your path." With those words a sea of black shades began moving towards the deep carven to face the mother of stillbirths and her stillborns. The ground trembled slightly under the unnatural surge. Lazarak paused with a frown. "Did you forget something... stillborns eat souls ..." Damon paused, losing some of his thunder. His spectral shoulders sagged slightly. "Tsk .... Why’d you gotta spoil my aura farming.."