Luke stood there, unhurried, taking in the grotesque shapes writhing before him.
"You know," he said flatly, "you're really ugly."
The Shadow King's fractured bodies laughed in chorus, warped mouths splitting wider.
"Ugly, pretty—such material distinctions," the voices sneered. "Only power is eternal."
Red beams erupted from dozens of eyes at once, converging on Luke.
He didn't dodge.
Luke lifted one hand and twisted.
The beams bent mid-flight, snapped backward like obedient threads, and slammed straight into the Shadow King's own forms.
Several bodies were smashed into the ground with bone-crushing force, dragged into rivers of magma that surged up at Luke's silent command. The molten stone swallowed them whole, laughter cutting off one by one.
The Shadow King didn't get a last stand.
His remaining bodies rushed forward—and were erased almost immediately. Not outplayed. Not countered. Overwhelmed.
Jean tore through his mental presence, burning away control faster than he could split or retreat. Esdeath's cold locked down regeneration, freezing bodies solid before they could adapt.
Luke finished what remained—space folding, force collapsing, stolen powers crushed before they could even activate.
No tactics mattered anymore.
The Shadow King had gathered countless abilities over time—but quantity meant nothing here. Against three opponents who operated on a completely different level, his composite power was useless.
One by one, the clones were destroyed.
And this time, none reformed.
Only one body remained.
The Shadow King staggered, half of his form torn apart, shadows leaking from cracked flesh like smoke. Still, he laughed—ragged, triumphant, unhinged.
"Hahaha… it seems I underestimated you," he said, forcing himself upright. "But even if I die here, I will return."
Luke didn't smile. Didn't move.
"No," he said calmly. "You die completely. This place seals the mind. There is no escape."
The Shadow King's laughter sharpened.
"That," he hissed, "is where you're wrong."
His remaining eye burned red as he leaned forward, voice dropping into something intimate and cruel.
"Do you really think I would come here without a contingency? I scattered myself long ago. A fragment—so small it's invisible—implanted in every human mind."
Jean stiffened.
"The moment this body dies," the Shadow King continued, savoring every word, "those fragments awaken. Somewhere. Everywhere. I don't need this shell."
His smile widened into madness.
"If you want to erase me," he whispered, the words crawling rather than spoken, "you would have to erase humanity itself."
"I live in all of them," the Shadow King said, his voice folding over itself, layered and smug. "In every fear they bury. Every hatred they deny. Every cruel thought they pretend isn't theirs."
"Kill me?" he sneered. "You can shatter this shell, burn this mind, erase this fragment—"
His grin stretched impossibly wide.
"But I will wake up again. In another thought. Another dream. Another human."
The laughter turned manic now, giddy with certainty.
"You can't kill me," the Shadow King hissed. "Because as long as humanity exists… so do I."
Then his body disintegrated.
Luke hovered there for a second, staring at the empty space where the Shadow King had been.
"…Ah, fuck," he snapped.
His composure cracked all at once.
"Why can't I kill this cockroach bastard?" Luke shouted, rage bleeding straight through his voice. "Why the hell would you design something like that—living inside everyone?"
He dragged a hand through his hair, teeth clenched.
"Die. Just die," he muttered, pacing once in midair. "Any other enemy, you hit them hard enough, clever enough, and it ends. But this—this is bullshit."
He stopped, fists tightening.
The truth hit him all at once—cold, brutal, unavoidable.
To kill the Shadow King outright would mean erasing every human mind on Earth.
Luke wasn't that kind of monster.
Jean's voice broke the silence. "Then what do we do?"
Luke didn't answer immediately. His jaw tightened. He already knew the cost—and he hated it.
"I didn't want to use this," he said finally. "But there's no other way."
Before either of them could argue, Luke moved.
The domain twisted. Space bent inward, and with a sharp mental shove, Jean and Esdeath were expelled, thrown back into reality.
Luke stood alone.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's ruin my brain."
He closed his eyes.
The Domain cracked.
Lightning and fire collapsed inward, the old landscape tearing itself apart unfolding into a vast, bottomless black space. Gravity ceased to exist as something far deeper took hold.
'Limitless Mind Domain'
Seven billion minds were pulled at once.
Light erupted everywhere—countless threads, sparks, and streams pouring in from every direction, rushing toward him like a flood breaking through a shattered dam. Each one carried weight. Thought. Identity. Memory.
The impact was instant.
Thoughts flooded him—raw, unfiltered. Terror. Love. Greed. Regret. Dreams. Screams. Whispers. Memories that weren't his, emotions stacked atop emotions until his sense of self began to blur.
Luke's body convulsed midair.
Blood ran from his nose.
"Focus," he snarled.
He didn't read the minds.
He scanned them.
Searching for one thing only.
Corruption.
The Shadow King's residue—tiny, parasitic imprints buried deep in human consciousness, dormant but alive.
He found the first.
Then another.
Then thousands.
Luke tore them out.
Not violently—precisely. Each fragment was isolated, severed, and dragged into the domain, where it disintegrated the instant it touched his authority.
The backlash was horrific.
Every extraction sent shockwaves through his mind. His vision fractured into white cracks. His thoughts stuttered.
Then a voice broke through the chaos.
A cry.
"What—what the hell are you doing?" the Shadow King wailed, panic bleeding into his tone for the first time. "Do you know what you're shouldering? The weight of seven billion minds—no being can endure that!"
Luke's teeth ground together as blood began to leak from the corners of his eyes.
"Because I don't get tired," he growled, voice shaking but unbroken. "And I told you I'd kill you."
The strain finally forced him down to one knee.
The Shadow King's voice returned, colder, almost mocking, trying to claw back control.
"See?" it hissed. "No mind—human or otherwise—can withstand this. You're breaking. You'll lose yourself before you ever reach me."
Luke's vision blurred. His thoughts began to slip, fragments tearing loose under the pressure. He could feel it—his sense of self thinning, stretching, threatening to snap.
But he didn't let go.
"Fuck off," he snarled, forcing the words out through clenched teeth. "I will kill you."
[warning… warning… system corruption detected]
[warning… integrity unstable]
[process lag… th▇ought sync failing]
The system stuttered violently.
Panels flashed, overlapped, then fractured as black cracks burst from his right arm and raced across his body like spreading rot. They weren't just tearing through flesh—they were eating into mana flow, thought pathways, and the system itself.
[system coherence at 12%]
[user state… irre▇ognizable]
[shutting d—]
The interface collapsed.
Every window went dark at once.
The black marks climbed higher, crawling up his chest, his neck, reaching for his head. Luke's vision blurred.
It seems I overestimated myself… thinking I could handle it, Luke thought weakly, his mind shaking under the weight. Even the system is almost gone.
The pressure kept crushing down, relentless.
Still—he smiled faintly.
At least I locked that guy here.
His eyes slowly closed as the black cracks finished spreading across his body, sealing him in place.
[inherent trait: avatar of humanity — activated]
One of the remaining system screens flashed—brilliant, blinding white—cutting through the spreading corruption like a flare in the dark.
*****
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