SSS Ranked Shadow Monarch: Summoning Infinite Shadows-Chapter 184: Accept Who You Are

Aren had been taking out groups and groups of awakened for a day now, one after the other. And his numbers were constantly climbing.

He had just finished taking out the majority of members of another group now, having all of them eliminated, but one remained, looking at Aren with malice and rage.

"Die, you brat!"

The man roared as he rushed Aren, his body swelling and twisting mid-charge. In an instant, he transformed into a massive ten-foot-tall bear, its fur pitch-black and its claws like jagged obsidian nails. The ground cracked beneath its weight as it swung with overwhelming strength.

Aren leapt backward, barely touching the ground as the bear’s attack slammed down where he had stood moments earlier. The impact carved a deep gash into the earth.

He landed calmly.

"Fang."

Fang burst forward like a bullet.

"ROARRRR!"

The bear roared in fury and lunged at Fang, but Fang was far too fast. He twisted aside effortlessly, slipped behind the beast, and unleashed a combined flame-lightning blast straight into its back.

BOOM!

The explosion staggered the bear forward.

Riker was already waiting.

Riker slashed upward, his blade biting deep into the bear’s chest. Not fatal, but devastating. Blood sprayed as the blade tore through flesh.

The pain was immense, yet the man refused to fall.

He released a deafening roar and charged at Riker in blind rage.

Riker didn’t retreat.

He surged forward, dodging the incoming claws and lowering his head. His horns rammed into the bear’s torso with brutal force, sinking deep. Blood gushed even harder.

The bear stumbled back, strength finally failing him.

With a gasp, the transformation collapsed. The man reverted to human form, barely standing, his body drenched in blood.

Aren walked toward him slowly.

"Leave the tournament," Aren said coldly, "before I kill you."

The man didn’t hesitate.

His crystal shattered.

He vanished.

"Another one done," Aren muttered.

That made nearly thirty participants he had already forced out. He didn’t know exactly how the point system worked, but he knew he was racking them up fast.

"I still haven’t found them," Aren said, frowning. "I need to search better."

Then—

Something slammed into his shadow sense.

Hard.

His eyes widened.

"Zero."

He saw her crash violently into a ruined building, her body breaking through stone before going completely still.

Panic hit him instantly.

Aren summoned his snake and vaulted onto its head as it shot forward at terrifying speed, faster than even the millipede. Fang and Riker followed close behind.

His heart pounded.

Something was very wrong.

As his shadow sense expanded further, his blood ran cold.

Athena, on the ground.

Kira, badly injured.

His chest tightened.

Then he saw it.

Raze.

Standing there.

And Aiden, impaled, a sword driven straight through his chest.

In that moment, the world shattered for Aren.

Sound vanished.

Color drained.

The only thing that existed was Raze, standing with Aiden’s body. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

So this was it.

Raze had been a ploy all along.

A pawn.

Elton’s pawn.

"AAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHH!"

Aren screamed from the depths of his soul.

Memories flooded his mind uncontrollably.

Him standing over a dead scientist, dagger buried so deep in the man’s face that there was nothing left to recognize.

Him running down a corridor as gunmen chased him, bullets flying, none of them hitting.

Security guards stabbed again and again.

Bodies piling up.

Blood everywhere.

Chaos.

The final image burned into his mind.

His younger self.

Standing atop a mountain of corpses.

Eyes white.

Shadowy energy pouring out of him like smoke.

Then a voice whispered:

"Accept who you are."

Something snapped.

Aren’s eyes turned completely white.

Dark tendrils erupted from his back, twisting and forming into monstrous, demonic wings. With a single flap, he shot into the sky faster than a fighter jet.

Mid-air, he summoned the Ancient Devourer and the Dagger of Jotnar.

The sound barrier shattered.

He accelerated even more, eyes locked on a single target.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAZEEEEEEEEEE!"

His voice thundered across the ruins, the shockwave ripping through the air.

Raze looked up.

And for the first time in his existence,

He felt true fear.

He yanked his sword from Aiden’s chest and threw the body aside, forcing himself into a battle stance.

But he was already too late.

The tendrils on Aren’s back snapped forward, stabbing into the ground around Raze. Using them as anchors, Aren hurled himself downward at impossible speed.

Raze tried to retreat.

Aren hit the ground.

BOOM!

A massive explosion erupted. The shockwave tore through the dry earth, dust blasting into the sky as a colossal crater formed.

Before Raze could even process what happened,

Three spatial slashes ripped through the dust.

He dodged two.

The third tore into his shoulder.

Blood exploded out like a fountain.

And worse,

The wound was wrong.

Heavy spatial residue clung to it, preventing regeneration and slowly eating away at his flesh.

Fear crawled up his spine.

Then Aren burst out of the dust.

The Ancient Devourer slashed.

Raze barely dodged, but the blood spraying from his shoulder splashed onto the blade.

The soul inside the weapon awakened instantly.

The sword twisted into its true form, lunging forward and biting deep into Raze’s shoulder.

"ARGHHH!"

Raze screamed and stumbled back.

He stared at Aren.

But he didn’t see a man.

He saw a demon.

A being wrapped in shadow, space warping around him.

Only now did Raze understand the truth.

This was never going to be a fair fight. He had believed that he would first have a good fight with Aren, like he had wanted before, and then after that, he would kill Aren and end the mission.

Never in his mind had the idea of loss come to him, but right now, the idea of loss was the least of his worries. Right now, all he could feel was fear and an urge to run away from here.

Only now did he realize that there was a question he never asked and should have asked.

"What the hell are you...?" he whispered in terror.