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A/N: this is my first time writing a fanfiction so please leave a review so I can improve my self
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Chapter 5: igris the blood red commander
The cold hush of the abandoned throne palace pressed in on Sung Jin‑Woo as he materialized on the chipped marble floor. The red glow of the Abyss was gone, replaced by moonlight filtering through shattered stained‑glass windows. Above him, broken pillars carved with anguished faces stood like silent sentinels, their runes faintly pulsing in the darkness. A crystalline chime echoed in his mind:
> [Congratulations, player. You have reached Level 25.]
[Trial "Throne of Shadows" initiated.]
[Restrictions: No summoned shadows. No rapid regeneration. No magicule regeneration.]
He rose to his feet, twin obsidian daggers in hand. His body ached, every wound painfully real—no healing to cushion his survival this time. He inhaled, steeling himself for the trial's first challenge.
At the far end of the hall, a knight clad in ancient, rune‑etched plate armor awaited. His helm, crowned with a hawk's beak motif, hid all emotion. He raised his sword solid steel wreathed in a pale, flickering aura—and advanced with the weight of history behind each step. Jin‑Woo readied himself.
Their blades met in a shower of sparks. The knight's armor was thick, designed to shrug off mortal strikes; Jin‑Woo's first blows glanced harmlessly, only denting metal. The knight countered with a brutal arc, forcing Jin‑Woo to roll beneath the blow and fling one dagger upward in a desperate riposte. The dagger winged the knight's pauldron, drawing a hiss from etched runes, but no notable damage.
Jin‑Woo tapped Analytical Appraisal, slowing the world in his mind. He studied the knight's movements: weight shifts, sword‑hand muscle tics, timing between strikes. Each data point lit up in his vision, a path to victory.
Seizing a heartbeat's opening, Jin‑Woo feinted low, then spun inward, dagger‑blades finding the narrow gap between helm and breastplate. Steel cracked; the knight staggered. Jin‑Woo rolled back, maintaining distance. The knight lunged again—this time a thrust so forceful it cracked the marble where Jin‑Woo had stood.
He parried with both daggers, forging a defensive spin that deflected the blow. With no regeneration to lean on, every deflection cost him strength. Yet as the knight prepared "Iron Fortress"—a pressure‑aura designed to crush foes beneath an invisible wall—Jin‑Woo dashed beneath the pall of energy, slipping into the knight's blind spot.
A final upward slash split the knight's gauntlet, sending him to one knee. Armor groaned. Obsidian met steel once more, and the knight's world went dark. Jin‑Woo sheathed his daggers, breath ragged, as the first portal shimmered open beside , making his victory barely granted.
No rest. From the swirling portal emerged a cadre of five mages, each cloaked in tattered robes and crackling with varied elemental auras: frost, flame, lightning, poison, and arcane. Their staffs glowed with detection sigils , equipments had granted them high Senses, rendering Jin‑Woo's Shadowstep useless.
The lead mage raised her staff. " a glowing giant eye that seems to look into your soul appeard" she intoned, voice warped by runic frequencies. Frost‑tipped air condensed around her lips.
As giant spears of ice formed around her
Jin‑Woo squared his shoulders. Without healing or magicule support, he needed speed and precision. He dashed forward under Thought Acceleration, time elongating in his perception. Two mages unleashed simultaneous volleys—ice shards and lightning arcs converging on him. He blurred between them, daggers carving through the lightning's crackle, the ice shattering against his momentum.
He closed the gap to the frost mage, slashing at her staff to sever its detection rune. The staff snapped; her aura flickered. He twisted free as the fire mage lashed out with a gout of flame, dagger held like a conductor's baton, redirecting the blast back upon its wielder. Flames engulfed the second mage, and he crumpled, sodden robes smoldering.
Three remained. The poison mage unleashed clouds of toxic mist—Jin‑Woo plugged his nose and lunged, daggers pirouetting through the haze. The arcane caster hurled psychic tendrils meant to crush his mind; Jin‑Woo's Chant Annulment severed the chant mid‑incantation, causing the arcane energy to fizzle. With a fluid spin, he plunged a dagger into the mage's chest, ending the psychic threat.
The lightning mage, last of the circle, screamed in frustration and summoned a storm‑bolt. Jin‑Woo vanished in a Shadow step , emerging inches from the mage's back to deliver a silent killing blow. The circle of enchanters lay defeated. He straightened, panting, sweat mixing with blood. Another portal shimmered open.
Two more portals. Each disgorged tougher opponents—an armored archer whose spectral arrows could peel away flesh, a battle‑priest with healing wards. Jin‑Woo dispatched them with a mix of Infernal Shard, Void Rend, and swift dagger strikes, using the palace's broken columns and fallen altars as cover. Every kill brought new pain but no healing; his wounds were tally marks on a body-temple tested to its limits.
Finally, the largest portal surged open. From it stepped a knight who's aure is filled with dignity and honor befitting of a true commander , blood‑red stained, helmet visor cracked. The Knight Commander, activated his skill Ruler's Authority, his every strike now infused with the palace's ancient law. Jin‑Woo braced himself at the threshold of the continues cracked steps, heart pounding like a war drum.
Igris moved first—a spinning slash of kingly fury that carved grooves in the marble. Jin‑Woo rolled beneath, dagger grazing the knight's thigh. He lunged for a follow‑up but Igris parried with gusting Steel Tempest, flinging Jin‑Woo spine‑first into a fallen column. Pain exploded as rocks splintered. Cut off from the thoughts he had, Jin‑Woo pressed Analytical Appraisal to track Igris's next pattern.
Igris used Judgment's Swipe—a radiant blade of light that roared outward. The blast ripped through shattered pews, sending splinters flying. Jin‑Woo threw both daggers into the floor, anchoring himself, then called forth Material Creation to form a jagged obsidian shield. The blade struck, channeled into the shield in a cascade of sparks. He staggered free, feeling the blow's force in every bone.
Blood pounded in his ears as he dashed forward, flicking Chant Annulment to disrupt the knight's light magic mid‑air. A fragment of Anos's power writhed behind his dagger—the nascent spark of Hakai‑laced Slice. He struck Igris's shoulder plates, splintering steel. The knight roared, armor buckling, but remained upright.
Igris unleashed a Sanctified Thrust, a spear of divine light tracking Jin‑Woo's chest. He twisted aside, daggers burrowing into the fissure to avoid the blast. The floor heaved, a crater forming beneath the thrust's impact. With no regeneration, every dodge pushed his body to its brink.
Summoning the last of his reserves, Jin‑Woo activated Parallel Calculation and Future Attack Prediction in tandem. He darted in unseen—no full Shadowstep, only small flickers—to land a series of precise cuts: gauntlet, breastplate, visor crevice. Sparks and dark ichor sprayed. Igris's knees buckled; his sword fell from numb fingers.
With one final motion, Jin‑Woo sheathed both daggers in Igris's breastplate, stepping back as the Knight collapsed to one knee. The hall was still once more—only the gentle drip of unseen water breaking the silence.
No chime this time—only the hiss of portals opening in every broken archway. From each shimmer poured armored soldiers, each wielding spears and swords, the mage's forms blurred by stealth magic. Igris's fallen body at Jin‑Woo's feet pulsed one final time before his spirit faded, but the real trial was only beginning.
The first wave charged at Jin‑Woo. He drew his daggers, and met them in a killing dance, and severed spear shafts and shattered shields. Still, more poured through the portals hundreds, then thousands unrelenting. Each soldier he felled dissolved into mist, only for another to take its place. His arms burned with exertion; every slash felt like crushing lead.
He realized: these were all summons of the mages he had defeated—their stealth‑weaving spells perpetuating an endless army. No matter how many he killed, the tide refused to cease. Exhaustion crushed him; his vision blurred.
In that instant of desperation, Jin‑Woo's mind flickered back to the power he'd glimpsed in Anos Voldigoad's teachings—a promise of absolute destruction. He closed his eyes, thrusting his arms wide, and invoked Combined Cataclysm under the eyes of Anos' Gaze.
. Combined Cataclysm: The Void of Destruction
Time slowed to a crawl as Jin‑Woo channeled destruction energy into a perfect sphere above his palms. The air twisted; space itself began to unravel. He whispered an invocation in a voice lost to mortal tongues, and the sphere dropped: a miniature black hole of pure annihilation.
Around its event horizon, the air hummed with spatial collapse—gravity reversed, light swallowed. Jin‑Woo positioned himself at the very edge. The summoned soldiers, mages,their stealth spells powerless, were yanked toward the sphere. Screams echoed as bone, metal, and magic tore apart in the crushing singularity.
The empty throne palace trembled as the black hole expanded, warping marble pillars, fracturing stained glass all at once. Yet Jin‑Woo's demon eyes held firm, shielded by Anos' Gaze—an aura of unbreakable focus and divine defiance. As the hole reached its maximum radius, Jin‑Woo snapped his fingers; the world itself recoiled, collapsing the void in on itself like a wound sealing shut.
In the resulting vacuum, only Jin‑Woo remained—standing atop a cratered Crater, untouched by the devastation that had consumed everything else.
Silence engulfed the hall. Dust settled, broken stone drifted like ashes, and the lingering echo of the black hole's collapse faded. Then the familiar crystalline chime rang through Jin‑Woo's mind:
<< [Trial "Throne of Shadows" Complete.]
[Archdaemon Status Achieved.]
[Title Awarded: "Sovereign of Shadows".]
[Shadow Soldier Acquired: Igris, the Blood‑Red Commander.]
[Demon Lord Seed Obtained.]>>
His wounds seared shut, magicule reserves refilled, and shadows coalesced around him—silent allies in the aftermath. The shattered stained‑glass ignited in prismatic light, illuminating the new lord of ruin.
Jin‑Woo sheathed his daggers, voice low and final:
"My destiny is written in shadow and flame. Let this world tremble."
in the cardinal world we find our beloved slime preparing to head to the dwarf kingdom to aquire help in building structures after becoming a leader of a village of goblins and wolves
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A/N: sorry for the delay I have a lot of tests lately so I may not be able to post chapters daily
To explaining now that ashborn has been turned into a skill , for Jin woo to aquire his other shadows he will have to face specific quests like this trial
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