Shades of the New World

Chapter 86: New Darkness

For the World of Storms, Evin's Air bullets were now more easily adjustable. Evin could make them sharper and more penetrative, or he could make the bulkier, with more raw power. But the World still retained its biggest problem, and problem was that it was much too weak against properly armored enemies. Sure, Evin could skewer someone who was without defense, but after fighting with so many people, he was understanding that more often than not, someone would have proper defensive methods.

"My fighting style is not strange, or incomprehensible enough, without the Dark World and the World of Thoughts," muttered Evin.

His air bullets were invisible and numerous, but that was it. His blue flame was threatening and scary for people who didn't know about it, but that was it. With proper protection against fire, it could easily be countered. Even his illusions were getting quite stale.

Arza was also similar in this regard. His simple set of moves was the reason why Evin could win against Arza in every spar. The boy was like a video-game boss, with only a set amount of moves. Sure, they were scary if the boy managed to make it work, but most of the time, Evin could predict what the boy was about to do and respond in the correct way.

The boy's making his sword shine with fire and light? Apply shades to your eyes with the Dark World and avoid the flames. The boy's strengthening himself up with the World of Life? Harass him from afar and make the boy heavier, so he runs out of energy faster.

But this didn't mean that Arza's way of fighting was wrong, per se. It just needed to reach a point where he would be too strong for others to handle.

'What's that saying again? A thousand schemes are useless in the face of absolute power,' Evin felt like he was remembering wrongly, but didn't linger on it.

If Arza became strong enough to indefinitely keep his strengthened state active, while also upgrading his healing and speed, then Evin would start having much more trouble with the spars. Simplicity had its own advantages.

So, Evin had to think of a way to deal with a permanently strengthened Arza soon. It would surely not be his last time facing such opponents.

And Evin's answer to this problem was to cheat. He developed a spell that was quite dirty. Evin simply had to remove every particle of air in one spot, effectively creating a vacuum.

'Well, when I think about it a bit more, there are probably many ways to counter it But against the unknowing opponent, it could be quite deadly,' Evin concluded.

Evin reckoned that one simply had to recreate air circulation around themselves with the World of Storms. But the momentary panic that might ensue was still worth the effort in Evin's eyes.

'Oh, I don't really have to outright create a vacuum. I just have to gradually decrease the amount significantly. An enemy in the heat of a battle would not be able to realize if the amount of air in the atmosphere suddenly thins out'

And if Evin forced them to exert their bodies more, he could make them hypoxic in their lungs and heart, which would then start affecting their blood circulation slowly but surely weakening them from inside.

'Isn't this technically some kind of aura ability?' Evin was quite proud of this new tactic of his.

Evin immediately started trying out his new spell. He created a maintainable spell that gathered the air in Evin's immediate area around Evin himself. With the increase of the amount of oxygen that Evin was breathing in, he was more alert and energetic as well. And the mana consumption wasn't that bad as well.

Obviously, he had to worry about oxygen poisoning if he kept this up for too long, but since he was a mage that was relatively good at the World of Life, he was confident in being able to keep the negative aspects at bay.

'I should focus on creating more spells like these,' Evin realized as he tested the effects of the spell on himself.

In only five minutes, Evin was having difficulty breathing and feeling a headache. If this went on for long enough, Evin would start feeling wheezing and his skin would turn bluish. It was literally the same as being unable to breathe.

Satisfied with his new capabilities, Evin continued onto his most powerful World.

The Dark World.

Immediately after trying out his previous spells, Evin could notice one thing. The area that his shadows could affect was much larger than before. Before, Evin struggled to engulf a room that was half covered in shadows, but now, he could easily turn three such rooms dark using only his own shadow.

Another thing that he noticed was that Evin could make these shadows thicker, somehow. These thick shadows were much darker than natural shadows and could absorb light much easier. When Evin engulfed himself in such shadows, he would stay invisible even when someone shone a light on him.

Obviously, all of this would be much more effective in confined spaces, as out in the open, it would be pretty hard to hide in the darkness without walls.

'Wait, if I lack walls, can't I just create one myself?' Evin realized.

He willed the thick shadows at the edge of his control to slowly rise up, like how they would engulf some objects in total darkness. But obviously, he couldn't make it work after a single try. The wall collapsed after persisting for some time. After an hour of testing, Evin had created another area-of-effect spell.

This one would turn an area of ten steps around Evin into complete darkness, with a still, shadowy wall as tall as two adult men surrounding it. The walls had a very weird quality to them, and it reminded Evin of tinted glass. From inside, anyone except Evin wouldn't be able to see a thing, but from the outside, the area around Evin looked slightly dim, but the things inside were still visible, except of course, Evin, who had surrounded himself in his shadows. Evin decided to call it the Shadow Zone.

'Guess this is a poor man's World Domain,' Evin joked. A real lesser-imposer, or a super-imposer, would be able to superimpose their specializing World Domain in the main world, allowing for practically infinite energy in that spot, while not allowing every other World to exist at the same time.

'Well, when you think about it like that, it's still quite far from being called a World Domain, huh?'

One more perk Evin noticed was that he could see everything perfectly in this artificial darkness of his. Evin wasn't sure if it was because of the World Sprites inside of him, or if Dark World mages would naturally develop this ability, but it was a very useful nonetheless.

Evin was very happy with the Dark World's utility, but the problem with this World was that it was a purely supportive/defensive type of World. Evin couldn't attack others using it, he could only create an environment that was advantageous to Evin, while weakening the enemy.

'Well, it isn't necessarily a bad thing, since a completely dark environment is quite difficult for enemies to navigate through,' he thought. Especially when Evin made the shadows strong enough so that simply shining a bright light on it wouldn't make it disappear But still, Evin wanted some sort of attacking capabilities.

As if the Beast Lord's blood heard its new host's thoughts, it urged Evin to cast a spell with the blood's will infused. Evin was startled with the sudden suggestion coming from inside him, but he didn't mind testing it out.

Evin created the Shadow Zone around himself while letting the blood's will run free inside it.

An area around him turned to complete darkness, like it was supposed to, but when the spell created the walls, Evin could immediately notice something different about it. The shadowy mass on the ground and the walls were pulsating to the rhythm of Evin's heartbeat, and there was something sinister about it. Like the shadows contained something unfathomable and arcane.

Even the caster of the spell was startled by the change. As Evin was wondering what the Blood's will did, a mental suggestion came from it: [Prey,].

Evin didn't know where he should find prey, but he had the perfect replacement.

"Hey Rith, can I test out a spell on you?" Evin asked the Cosmic.

Rith was sitting in the same room as the boy, testing out her own spells, while glancing at what Evin was doing. Obviously, she too felt the sinister aura that Evin's latest spell was emitting.

"Sure, I'm quite intrigued with your new spell, as well," Rith answered.

Evin approached the Cosmic with his Shadow Zone active. The spell was made to be centered around Evin, so it followed him around. Rith could see the dim walls approaching her, pulsating rhythmically. Just as it engulfed her, her sensory organs started getting disoriented. She could still see the lights that were on the ceiling, but everything else, the floor, the walls and the objects inside the area was filled with complete darkness.

But that was the least of her worries. Rith could clearly sense that these shadows were dangerous. There was something menacing crawling inside these shadows that could threaten her. She also felt like something was looking at her, with hunger and discontent. She prepared her World of Space energies and was ready to blink away at a moment's notice.

As she warily felt for any sounds or vibrations, a huge maw filled with dark fangs materialized under her. Just before the maw snapped, Rith had blinked a short distance away, but was immediately attacked by another two attacks. This time, it was a swipe of a claw and the grasping motion of a tentacle-like thing.

Even though it was impossible for quarter-core Dark mages to create material darkness, she instinctively knew that these constructs were real and could have seriously hurt her. She decided to take things a bit seriously and created the stronger Light spell her half-core could muster.

A light so bright, that a drunk bystander would mistake for the sun appeared inside Evin's Dark Spell. A quarter-core like Evin couldn't possibly contend with a half-core's mana output, as the light absorbing capabilities of Evin's thick shadows were surpassed and Rith could see what was happening around her.

Evin was covering his eyes, startled by the sudden light show, while an ensemble of horrifying creatures swam through the shadows he had created, with the sudden exposure to light. Eyes, jaws, claws, tentacles all manner of eldritch creatures were writhing in pain under Rith's spell. 

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