SSS Transmigration: I Can Extract And Evolve Overpowered Shadows-Chapter 35: The New Nishikawa Hinata (5)

The black mist moved like a gale, swallowing the entire city whole.

One moment the streets of Falmouth existed; the next, they were simply gone, swallowed beneath a rolling tide of purple-black that climbed walls, poured through windows, and snuffed out every living sound in the city.

Tamara was already in the air before her mind caught up with her body.

She shot upward, using the last remains of her mana to conjure a dragon.

The smoke beast’s wings blew gusts of wind in all directions as it took off, yet even the force produced by a dragon couldn’t disturb the purple-black mist in the slightest.

"Aunt Tamara!"

Hearing the tender, choking voice of her niece, Tamara spun around sharply.

She had completely forgotten about the one person she cared about the most.

Was this what fear felt like?

She gritted her teeth hard. Even if it meant death, she wasn’t going to be so pathetic as to let her niece die.

Her gaze swept the city in an instant. The black mist was already closing in, curling inward as though trying to forge a domain in the shape of a hemisphere.

However, unlike every other section that was rapidly sealing shut, the area where Lilith stood remained completely open—as if someone were mocking her helplessness.

She knew this was a trap. She knew all too well that before she even reached the mist, it would close.

Tamara bit down hard on her lip, drawing blood. "Such a sadistic bastard."

Lilith was still below. Standing in the only pocket of open ground left, tears streaming down her face, one arm stretched upward as the mist crept toward her feet.

Tamara could hear her cracked, trembling voice as she pleaded. "Help me—please—"

Tamara didn’t hesitate any longer. She dove down toward Lilith, though her mind was in complete chaos.

Perhaps her ideology had been wrong all along.

It was true that the world followed the laws of the jungle, but did the weak truly have to die?

Even if she became the strongest in the land, did that mean her friends, family, and children were also the strongest?

If someone bullied or killed those she loved because they were stronger, didn’t that mean the aggressor wasn’t in the wrong?

Didn’t that mean she couldn’t grieve for them—only seek revenge?

Tamara felt a sudden surge of energy move through her as an unexpected enlightenment struck.

To her, the core of her ideology still held.

The strong would always devour the weak... but if the world permitted it, then she would empower the weak—at least those close to her, and those she found worthy of her aid.

"So please," she pleaded, tears streaming down her face as she dove. "If the heavens truly aid those in need, let them aid me now. Let me save my niece."

Tamara’s dragon dove three meters before something seized Lilith’s ankle.

A long tendril of pure black, thicker than rope, coiled around her foot and yanked. Lilith’s scream cut short as she was ripped downward and swallowed into the dark below without another sound.

"LILITH!"

The domain sealed before Tamara could even reach her. She just hovered alone outside it, fists clenched, her dragon beating its wings against empty air.

Tamara raised her hand to her face, feeling something wet against her skin.

"Am I... crying?"

[The strong devour the weak.]

Even with her enlightenment, she could feel that mantra still etched into her chest.

"What have I done to myself?"

Drip.

Drip.

The sound of tears rolling down her face and dissolving into the smoke dragon echoed in her ears.

People’s ideologies only held until those ideologies were turned against them.

The moment one stood in the shoes of their victim was the moment they understood that their ways had never been right.

"Such hypocrisy."

As her entire world field began to shatter, the mist domain dissolved into nothingness alongside it.

Where Falmouth had stood—its walls, its streets, its towers, its dead—there was nothing. Only a crater, vast and perfectly smooth, as though the city had never existed at all.

Tamara hung in the silence above the void.

It felt as though life had been snuffed out of her.

Despair.

An overwhelming tide of despair and helplessness washed over her.

Before she could sink further into guilt, the entire world around her shattered into fragments.

She wasn’t in the sky or atop a dragon. She was standing in the city, and before her stood the tall figure of Hinata, two fingers pressed gently against her forehead.

He was a bloodied wreck, exactly as she had left him inside the cocoon.

Tears blurred her vision the moment she saw him—and the city, whole and standing around them.

Hinata smiled faintly, his eyes hazy, as his fingers slowly slipped from her forehead. "I guess I win, right?"

Tamara’s eyes went wide. "What did you do?"

Hinata’s gaze narrowed, something that looked like compassion—or perhaps companionship—softening his expression. "I guess there’s one more thing I understand besides myself."

With that, he slipped and collapsed onto the ground.

Tamara tried to speak, but no words left her lips. A chuckle escaped her instead, her face breaking into a smile she had never worn a day in her life.

"Psychopath."

Hinata lifted his head slightly and tugged weakly at her ankle. "Shouldn’t you be rushing me to a hospital right about now and letting me have my unconscious scene?"

Tamara laughed harder, clutching her stomach. Once she’d had her fill, she crouched down and helped Hinata to his feet.

At that moment, several members of the Dragonforge family emerged from the shadows and dropped to their knees in respect.

The man kneeling at the front spoke. "My lady, shall I prepare the refinement chamber?"

Tamara shook her head, her gaze sliding toward Hinata with a warmth that ran deeper than just friendship. Hinata stiffened slightly, but he had no energy to say or do anything.

"No," she answered the waiting men. Her voice shifted, ringing out like a bell across the whole of the city. "Everyone, I would like to introduce you to the new master of the Dragonforge family."

Gasps rippled through the crowd. Every face bore confusion, yet not one soul dared oppose their leader’s word.

Satisfied by their silence, Tamara turned back to Hinata. "Now then, why don’t we get you healed up, Darling?"

Hinata nodded slowly, then stopped short. "What did you say?"

Tamara leaned in close, her lips brushing near his ear as she whispered. "You heard me right... Darling~"