THE LAND OF SHADOW

<MC POV>

Once, I sent shadow soldiers all over the world to collect information related to the supernatural side. And I got a report that in Scotland, my shadow soldiers are attracted to certain regions. And according to Celtic mythology, the only region that is related to shadow is "THE LAND OF SHADOW."

And what is so special about the land of shadow is that it is being guarded by The Queen of Shadow Land, Scáthach. And my goal is to learn martial arts and rune magic from Scáthach, because she is known as The teacher of warriors. And especially, I want to learn spearmanship.

I am currently on the roof of the apartment we are living in. I raised my hand, and the flintlock gun appeared. "Come to me, Zaphkiel."

I than pointed gun to 8 O' clock, "Zaphkiel Het."I poured in enough time and mana to create a clone that can sustain itself for four years. *THOOK*

"Yo, another me."

"Nah, something is missing." *THOOK*

Another clone of mine appeared, and three of us were pointing fingers at each other.

"""Yo, another me."""

"""Now, It was perfect. """

"Well, I will be APLHA, you, BETA and you, GAMMA."

"I will be going to Scotland; BETA will be together with family; and GAMMA, your time's up."

GAMMA transformed into shadow and assimilated into me.

"Oh, And you are almost 10 times weaker than me, so you will last. Goodbye and take care of everyone."

"Then, bye another me," said BETA.

{A/n: I will explain about the clone created through Zaphkiel here because it is called a temporal clone by fandom, but it makes me more confused, so I will be changing its concept. So, here the clone is just like Shadow clone jutsu, which can give all the information the clone has experienced on taking it back. And for limitation, if the user has a 100-year life span and makes a clone of life span 10 years, the user's life span will decrease by 10 years, but if the user kills or takes back his clone, the remaining life span in the clone will return to the user. And MC will not be that much affected by the limitation and about MC lifespan it will be revealed in later chapters.}

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I reached near-broken Dunscaith Castle, also called "Fortress of Shadows", and named after Scathach. I blinked, and my pupil changed to dark purple with a vertical slit: Chaos Dragon Eye. I can see many supernatural energies, and I finally found the gateway to the Land Of Shadow, in which Scathach has isolated herself.

I used SPACE MANIPULATION, and teared through the barrier to enter the Realm of the Land Of Shadow. After entering, I found many spirits floating inside the realm. I made sure to seal the barrier with the help of Raphael.

I've got a problem here; dead spirits are trying to suck away my life force. But they are easy to solve. After searching around the realm, I finally found a castle that was a completed version of Dunscaith Castle.

As I was approaching the castle, My danger sense rang strongly. I dodged from my position as fast as I could. And finally, I turned and saw a spear stabbed at my previous position. And a dark purple-haired woman with red, chilling eyes appeared.

"Who are you, intruder?" Her voice was too deep, and her chilling voice was penetrating through my backbone. Her legend is more terrifying than it appears; she has slayed many living beings, especially gods, to bathe in their blood to become immortal.

I didn't back away. I stood up and put my red vertical pupil into her red, chilling eye. "I am Amethyst Hoshino; I am here to seek a master who can guide me to become stronger."

Scathach completely dislike people without courage, but I am an egoist. It hurts my ego if I don't manage to convince her to teach me.

"Are there nowadays any little girls of age 11 who are that courageous?"

"I am just built differently."

"Hmm, Interesting, But what will you do to become stronger?"

"It's a simple question; I am too greedy, and I want to protect my greedy desire with my own strength and not leave any regret."

She stared at me with her deep red eyes, but I didn't flinch for a second at her gaze.

"You, girl, have got guts, but I want to check whether you qualify to become my disciple or not."

And like that, she swung the spear towards me. Shit, when did she take out the spear? I dodged by teleporting and distancing myself from her.

"Good reflex, but my test will end when your single attack falls on me. And no using those things in your shadow because I want to check your qualities." Did she notice the shadows in my shadow? Of course, she will.

She suddenly appeared in front of me like a freaking ghost. I got hit by a spear on the side of my stomach. Damn, how hard did she beat me? I was knocked back 10 metres away. And I noticed that this time, teleporting didn't work; I found many runes surrounding this area illuminated and forming a dome.

Damn, that is literally stopping all my space magic. I took out the Flintlock gun, "Zaphkiel Aleph." *THOOK*, I used my haki to detect the movement of Scathach, but I cannot learn anything; it's like I am not using any haki and fighting a person normally. Due to this, I cannot even copy Scathach's movements and fighting style.

I took out Fujin and parried it against an upcoming spear. But the problem is that my stance is broken, and I cannot maintain my centre of gravity. She is not even giving me time to use spells; I can only use default spells to distract her a little with the help of Raphael.

Even if she is holding back, this is too much for a test against a child. I completely underestimated her. I am still at the bottom of the DXD world, but I will overcome my gap.

I used my Observational Haki with full power and concentrated on a small region. Again, I will be going through this half-assed technique, "FLOWSTATE". My pupil became a deep crimson colour with a hollow gaze, which was like an unending abyss. My body's actions became more perfect and calculated.

But I was still getting beaten by her. I calculated and deduced everything I could, and I found the only possibility. I rushed towards her with Fujin and spammed all the wind blades towards her. She used her spear as an axis and dodged everything while kicking my stomach.

I got knockback, but it didn't matter to me. "Zaphkiel, Aleph. " *THOOK*, I accelerated faster to create distance. "Zaphkiel, Het." *THOOK* *THOOK* *THOOK* *THOOK* *THOOK* *THOOK*

Six of us went towards Scathach, and everyone also took out a musket from the Sacred Gear. And fired continuously while closing the distance. But she was dodging it easily and pierced her spear through two of the clones, which returned to my shadow. I kept enough distance from her.

*THOOK* A bullet came from far away, aimed at Scathach, but she dodged it. I came close enough to her, and the bullet hit me. I suddenly accelerated towards her, aimed the gun at her, and pushed the trigger. *THOOK* "Dalet" *THOOK*, and she again dodged both bullets.

I made six clones and sent one clone to snipe from a distance but secretly used the Aleph, and later, as I got close enough, I accelerated myself and used two bullets, one normal and another Dalet, which reversed the first bullet. And here she will get hit by the bullet.

But she stopped, dodged the bullet, and rushed forward to use the spear. Damn, I lost. No way. My vision became blurry, and a massive headache hit me. Blood was coming out of my nose and also from the eyes; I couldn't sense anything; I couldn't move any part of my body; and I completely blanked out.

<Scathach POV>

This child really took it to a severe end, but still, her desire was real. I lifted her and took her inside the castle, used some herbs on her wound, circulated my magic power to her internal parts, and treated her. I didn't use that much magic so that her natural regeneration wouldn't be affected. I touched the side of my ear, which has a scratch mark.

"I sure got a crazy disciple to pass my boredom."