Chapter 1065 Saved by the Shadow part 2

'By the way, what woke me up? There's nothing here...?' Stralit thought to herself.

As Stralit looked around, her eyes landed on the only thing she was able to bring with her, a capsule that contained her sleeping successor, John Smith. Because the traces of her power were on him, if she had left him alone, they would have surely killed him, 'Is he finally waking up?' She thought to herself after feeling the tiny but strange aura on him, 'I never understood what kind of being he was until the very end.'

Since no one knew that John Smith was her successor, she'd be able to use herself to bait the enemies while he escapes, 'He, at least, should get out of here alive and he'll be able to make contact with Seraselbes. Take revenge for me, little guy.'

'Although I won't be able to see it myself, the last laugh would be mine. Did you think that you were the only one who could cooperate with an Evie? Unfortunately for you, my friend there would be able to destroy your whole clan. Forget about the power struggle, none of those who share the same blood as you will be able to keep their legacy. Ah, I should also include that damned inspector. I'll ask him to annihilate your whole clan, innocent or not.' With a wicked smile on her face, Stralit opened the capsule but soon enough, her smile froze.

'What's this?' she asked herself while picking up John Smith. She could see the mark on her forehead flashing, signifying that he was using her innate ability, 'But where? And how?'

She looked around and inspected John Smith more but couldn't find how he was using it. But because she opened the capsule, the aura of her ability escaped and it'll only be a matter of time before her enemies descend into this hidden cavern.

"Tsk." Stralit placed John Smith back into the capsule before running deeper into the cavern that looks like the mouth of an abyss when she heard some activity not far from her, 'They were this close!?'

She was actually fortunate that John Smith's aura of her ability escaped at that time or she might have been caught off guard, 'They even have the stealth of this level... Only one other clan has this kind of ability. They're in on it too?'

Stralit took random branching paths into the darkness while erasing her tracks and adding some decoy. Though while running, she could feel the aura from John Smith strengthening to the point that the capsule couldn't contain it anymore.

Stralit ran faster, ignoring where she was going. She only wanted to get away faster. But during this, there was a strange feeling that's coming from the capsule, 'As if he's reaching out to me... What's happening?' And the further she went, the stronger the feeling was.

Stralit gritted her teeth and measured an appropriate distance before opening the capsule again and touching the mark on John Smith's forehead, 'Screw it... Please wake up after this.'

Immediately after, her consciousness was transported to a very dark place.

'This is... Where?' Stralit found herself within a very uncomfortable darkness. Since her innate ability pertains to 'Shadow', she has always felt safe within its domain, 'Unless it's from a hostile enemy that's at least on the same level as me or stronger... But how did I come here? Was my consciousness forcefully pulled?'

It didn't take too long for her to find who called her here as there was a very small patch of 'comfortable' darkness that caught her attention after looking around. In the middle of that 'comfortable' darkness was a small light, about to be snuffed out, however, it had a very familiar aura, 'John?'

Stralit hurriedly approached it while analyzing the situation, 'This darkness is trying to devour him. At this rate, he'll disappear.'

What would happen if the light disappeared? Stralit doesn't have any idea since this was the first time she encountered something like this. Although she recalled reading something similar from her clan's library, it was in her younger years when she was forced to study and really hated reading. '...Oh young me... You're still putting me on the spot to this very day... Though I at least remember that I have to do something in this situation. But if I were to do that...'

If she were to release her power now, it would be akin to attaching a very loud siren to the top of her head and she wouldn't be able to stop it until she was done. On top of that, she doesn't know how much of her reserve will be used and there's a possibility that she'll be completely depleted and tired after assisting him, which made it close to fatal for her due to her current situation.

'But it's not like I can escape... Sooner or later, I'll be trapped so I'll just be delaying my death.' Stralit reached out her hands and embraced the small light that was about to flicker out of existence, 'If I could do a good thing before my end, that wouldn't be so bad, I guess? Besides, I took him in and he's technically my responsibility.'

The moment she further connected her consciousness to the light, a new space was revealed to her that was still in the darkness. However, she was stunned to see an unknown unconscious man with missing body parts that looked like someone or something had taken a bite out of him. A quarter of his head is missing but Stralit managed to recognize him, "J-John?"

The man was John Smith if he was as tall as her.

Nevertheless, she didn't have any time to think about this as more and more of his body is being 'eaten' and it wouldn't take long before he disappears entirely, 'I don't have enough power to repel these unknown beasts, but I should have enough to take him out of this place. And he's not entirely unconscious since he's fighting back. I just have to support where he wants to go.'

Stralit didn't hesitate any more and released her innate ability. While her short white hair and bright green eyes turned jet black, her own darkness painted the darkness around 'John Smith' and pushed back the 'beasts' eating him. And as soon as their 'shadows' met, a resonance occurred and made their minds connect to a deeper level, allowing understanding between the two instinctively.

'That way? Got it.' Stralit grabbed 'John' and flew to a certain direction where he wanted to go and shaped her shadow into a drill that shredded the darkness in their way. A minute later, Stralit found the boundary and understood what she needed to do, 'In the end, I would need to go all out... I have a lot of questions, but it was an interesting experience.'

Gathering her power, Stralit gritted her teeth and punched a hole through the 'uncomfortable' darkness with all her might before throwing 'John' beyond it. Tired, her body slowly disappeared into her own darkness as her consciousness returned back to her body where she'll have to do her best to survive while waiting for 'John' to wake up.

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[...ke! ...suke! Kisuke!!! Answer me!]

Kisuke opened his eyes and was greeted by the bright light of the sun while also being rattled by frantic voices that were ringing inside his head, '...I got out?'

[...Finally awake?] Kisuke heard Benihime's voice.

"...Yeah."

[Then reply to that girl or she might just rush into her death.]

As soon as Benihime said that, another set of shaking voices rang inside Kisuke's head, [Kisuke! Answer me! Are you alive!?]

[...Yeah. I'm alive. Thankfully.], Kisuke replied to Yoruichi.

[...You finally answered.] Kisuke could tell the relief from her tone, [But are you really alive in that state?]

Kisuke was momentarily confused by her question until he checked his own body. About three-quarters of his body is gone and was replaced by Benihime's red strings bundled together to keep him intact, [Let me remind you that the moment you exit out of Bankai, you'll die.]

Kisuke confirmed that his Shunko and Bankai were still active and that he's currently floating on top of the former Orario. He could see the ongoing battle from a distance and it seemed that they were pushed back because Chaos just unleashed a terrible ability that almost instantly killed him, "I'm lucky to have survived that, huh?"

While Kisuke was gathering his thoughts, the darkness filling the Dungeon shook before converging into a form that he was more familiar with. When Kisuke saw him, despite only having half of his head, he smiled, "Looks like that wasn't that easy for you either, huh?"

Chaos couldn't reply and was instead incredibly surprised that he was able to escape and that he was actually alive at all.