Strongest Incubus System

Chapter 334 334: A shadow bigger than Arven

Morgana advanced like an inevitable execution.

Her father's sword descended in a brutal arc, cutting through the air heavy with smoke, mana, and blood as the storm raged outside Arven Manor. The Duchess raised both hands instantly, and the shadows around the upper balcony condensed into a pulsating black wall that intercepted the blow at the last second.

The impact shook the entire structure.

Windows shattered.

Fragments of glass were hurled down the corridor as the storm wind violently surged into the main hall. Rain began to pour in through the shattered openings, splashing water onto the bloodied marble.

But Morgana did not retreat.

She struck again.

And again.

And yet again.

Each impact caused the Duchess's shadows to tremble violently, as if the entire ritual was beginning to lose stability under the mounting pressure.

The Duchess slid a few steps back across the ruined balcony. For the first time that night…

She seemed truly cornered.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE DESTROYING!" she screamed, and now her voice no longer sounded entirely human. Grotesque echoes reverberated within the words, like multiple throats trying to speak simultaneously. "ARVEN WOULD DIE!"

"He died when you turned him into this."

Morgana attacked again.

The sword partially pierced the barrier of shadows and opened a deep gash in her mother's abdomen.

The reaction was wrong.

There was no normal flesh beneath the torn clothing.

The wound opened like a pulsating mass of liquid darkness, where fragments of runes gleamed beneath something resembling living black tendons. Smoke escaped from within the Duchess's body like putrid breath.

Cherry saw it from the lower floor and was horrified.

"OH, BY THE GODS— SHE'S FALLING APART!"

"No," Elizabeth replied, her face completely pale. "She's merging."

That made everything immediately worse.

Because now Damon understood.

The Duchess was no longer just using the ritual.

She had become part of it.

The mansion.

The creatures.

The runes.

The Duke.

Everything was connected through her.

And then the walls began to pulse again.

Literally.

Black veins emerged from beneath the marble of the upper balcony, spreading rapidly through the columns and ceiling as a deep sound echoed through the entire structure.

THUMP.

THUMP.

THUMP.

Like a gigantic heart beating inside the house.

The remaining veterans began to instinctively retreat.

Even the deformed creatures seemed agitated now, moving erratically as the runes on their bodies glowed wildly.

The fire from the west wing finally reached the main hall.

The Arven family tapestries began to burn.

The heat intensified brutally.

Black smoke billowed up the stairs as lightning illuminated the destroyed hall.

And at the center of it all…

The Duchess began to change.

First it was her arms.

The liquid shadows enveloping her limbs began to thicken, partially covering her skin as runes gleamed directly beneath her flesh. Her fingers elongated grotesquely. Her nails turned black and curved like claws.

Then came her eyes.

The whites slowly disappeared.

Only two dark orbs remained, cut by gleaming golden lines.

Cherry took a full step back.

"No. No, no, no. This has completely surpassed my acceptable limit of aristocracy."

The Duchess opened her mouth to speak again—

And her jaw partially dislocated.

A grotesque crack echoed across the balcony.

Even Morgana hesitated for a single second.

The voice that emerged was no longer human.

"I… SACRIFICED… EVERYTHING…"

The shadows exploded.

This time not like spears.

But like a living wave.

The black mass surged down the upper corridor like a grotesque flood of distorted limbs and solid smoke. Damon pulled Morgana back at the last instant as the entire balcony was engulfed by the explosion of energy.

The columns cracked.

Part of the ceiling collapsed.

The Duke was nearly dragged along as the chains began to vibrate violently.

"KEEP HER AWAY FROM HIM!" Elizabeth shouted.

Cedric immediately gathered the remaining veterans at the base of the upper balcony while Ingrivid disappeared once more into the shadows to the sides.

But the remaining creatures no longer obeyed normal patterns.

Now they simply threw themselves against anything living.

One of them crashed through a side window along with the debris and fell on a veteran, crushing him against the floor before beginning to tear his throat with its deformed teeth.

Cherry fired a bolt.

Then another.

Then another.

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CONTINUE MOVING!"

The last creature hit still crawled legless for several meters before finally stopping.

But that didn't matter anymore. Because the mansion itself was dying.

And going mad along with it.

The walls began to open.

Not metaphorically.

Black cracks spread across the marble like torn flesh, revealing pulsating structures hidden beneath the house's architecture. As if the ritual had created something organic within the mansion over the weeks.

Damon felt his stomach churn.

"She turned this place into a body…"

Elizabeth nodded slowly.

"Yes."

Another THUMP echoed through the mansion.

Looser.

The remaining lights exploded simultaneously.

Now only fire illuminated the hall.

The Duchess rose slowly from the mass of shadows.

Or what remained of her.

Half of her body still retained a distorted human appearance. The other half already seemed composed of living arcane matter. Shadows moved beneath her skin like worms. Fragments of bone appeared and disappeared beneath the deformed arms.

She looked directly at Morgana.

And smiled.

The smile was too wide.

Too deep.

Too wrong.

"Morgana…" The voice echoed like something emerging from a well. "You… should… have stayed… with me…"

Morgana gripped her father's sword even tighter.

Her eyes were empty now.

No tears.

No hesitation.

"You are no longer my mother."

The thing on the balcony trembled violently.

As if those words had truly caused harm.

Then she screamed.

The sound was monstrous.

All the remaining windows of the mansion shattered at once.

The veterans fell to the ground clutching their ears. The deformed creatures went completely mad, throwing themselves against the walls, ceiling, and staircases in a grotesque hysteria.

And the Duke…

The Duke began to bleed from the chains.

Elizabeth instantly paled.

"The bond is collapsing too fast!"

"Is this good or bad?!" Cherry shouted as she recoiled from a jawless, crawling creature.

"BOTH!"

The floor of the upper balcony partially gave way.

Damon pulled Morgana back as a huge crack ripped through the marble between them and the Duchess.

The thing just passed through the hole.

Floating.

Not walking.

Liquid shadows partially supported its deformed body as it slowly moved through the air.

"It's lost physical mass…" Elizabeth murmured in horror.

"YOU NEED TO STOP DESCRIBING THIS!"

The Duchess lunged directly at Morgana.

Too fast.

Damon intercepted at the last instant.

The sword collided with a black mass resembling a deformed arm.

The impact was monstrous.

Damon was literally thrown across the side balcony.

His body crashed through part of the shattered railing before violently falling to the lower floor.

Pain exploded throughout his body.

He could barely breathe.

Above him, the creature immediately turned to Morgana.

The shadows around her began to swirl violently.

The entire mansion responded to the state of that thing now.

Fire.

Blood.

Mana.

Everything seemed connected.

Morgana slowly raised her father's sword.

The creature lunged forward.

The clash of the two shattered the balcony.

Morgana slid several meters backward as the Duchess's monstrous arm crushed columns and walls like paper. The Duke's aristocratic sword gleamed intensely now, the ancient runes on the blade reacting directly to the corruption around it.

Another blow.

Another impact.

The balcony began to collapse.

Cedric rushed up the last few steps to help Morgana, but a mass of shadows pierced the veteran's chest before he reached them.

The man froze.

Blood slowly trickled from his mouth.

"Cedric!" Morgana screamed.

The creature violently pulled its deformed arm back.

Cedric fell to his knees.

Still alive.

Barely.

Morgana exploded.

She lunged forward with such absolute violence that even Damon was startled.

The sword pierced one of the Duchess's monstrous arms completely.

Shadows exploded like blood.

The creature screamed.

Now the sound seemed like dozens of voices dying together.

Morgana struck again.

And again.

And again.

Each attack tore pieces from that grotesque mass while the entire mansion trembled around them.

But then—

The creature grabbed Morgana by the neck.

With absurd force.

Her feet left the ground.

Shadows began to slowly climb the Arven heiress's body.

Trying to consume.

Assimilate.

"Morgana…" the monstrous voice echoed close to her face. "You… are… mine…"

The sword partially fell from her hand.

Damon tried to stand.

His body barely responded.

Cherry fired.

The bolt partially pierced the creature's head—

But it didn't even react.

Then Elizabeth realized something.

The Duke.

The chains.

"MORGANA!" she cried. "THE CHAINS!"

Morgana looked immediately at her father.

The Duke was still fighting.

Even dying.

Even consumed.

He was still partially holding one of the black chains.

And then Morgana understood.

She dropped her sword.

The Duchess hesitated for a single second.

It was enough.

Morgana grabbed one of the chains attached to her father's body—

And pulled with all her might.

The chain broke.

The effect was instantaneous.

The entire mansion screamed.

Not metaphorically.

THE SOUND CAME FROM THE WALLS.

The organic structures hidden beneath the marble began to writhe violently as all the runes on the property simultaneously went mad.

The Duchess released Morgana immediately.

Her body began to collapse.

Literally.

Parts of her melted into liquid shadows as bones grotesquely emerged from beneath the deformed skin.

"No…" the creature whispered. "NO…"

The Duke slowly raised his head.

For the first time, the black veins began to recede.

The connection was breaking.

And the Duchess was dying along with her.

But it wasn't over yet.

Because now the entire mansion was beginning to crumble.