He clenched the Katana in his hand, before looking towards her quickly approaching figure.

"Sorry... Ruby..."

She didn't need to ask to understand what he meant, the closer she got to him, the more swollen her eyes became.

Eventually, once she was just a few steps away, she raised her head showing her sparkling teary eyes resting above an ever so slight smile.

"It's fine..." She murmured.

Gray's heart sunk as he heard this. The veins in his arms bulged out alongside his biceps and forearms once more before he swung the Katana vertically down at her forehead.

Ruby showed no signs of stopping despite this, it was clear the shadow wasn't worried about her being exposed to harm.

With his sword inches away from her forehead, Gray grit his teeth.

*SWOOSH!*

Ruby's hair swayed backwards, as his Katana blew right by. Just before it could cut her, he threw it away.

A confused expression grew on Ruby's face, she was still charging at him and had already swung her battle axe from the sides in an attempt to cut him.

"GRAY!!" She yelled out his name

[Fast-Forward]

Just as she did so, her entire figure froze.

[Pause.]

Gray had his finger placed right before her forehead. He had moved so fast even the shadow hadn't realised.

Gray didn't say anything at first, he just stood there, standing before Ruby's frozen body.

Despite giving off a bright glow, his eyes were colder than ever. Although he was staring at Ruby, it was clear his vision wasn't set on her but what was controlling her.

Gray looked down at his chest before placing his hand above it.

"My emotions get all fucked up during an evolution."

"But it's strange..."

Gray looked away from his chest before staring at her shadow.

He stared at it for a few seconds and smiled.

"There's nothing I want to do more right now than kill you."

He hung his head, once again.

"But I can't do that. You have a hostage. So I have an offer."

Ruby who had been listening grew confused.

"Gray... What are you doing? Just finish me off and end that thing! It's my fault for getting caught!" She declared.

But Gray ignored her.

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"How about you take over my shadow and control me. You'll find I'm much stronger and faster than any Kessho or horned one you can find. In exchange, you spare her."

"Deal?"

After proposing the idea, the smile remained in his face. Ruby was trying desperately to convince Gray otherwise, but he continued to ignore her.

"Listen to me!!"

Just as she said that, her own shadow extended out toward Gray's, paralysing him the moment it touched his own.

The shadowy figure's arms then slowly emerged from her shadow before slamming onto the ground around it.

It pushed itself out of her shadow with ease, before staring at a Gray. It stared for what felt like a minute without so much as a sound.

Gray stared back, with his eyes mostly shut and the same chilling smile present on his face.

Why was his eyes closed you might ask? It's because they were red from all his boiling rage.

He was trying to hide it, but his bloodlust was leaking out, just the tiny portion which managed to escape made Ruby tremble in fear once more.

'This feeling... This pressure... It's as heavy as that of the former King's.'

Despite it not even being directed at her, she felt deeply threatened by it.

The shadow on the other hand, showed to be completely unaffected and instead crouched down beside Gray's shadow.

Ruby who knew what would come next became increasingly worried.

"D-Don't... Don't do it, Gray!"

Gray didn't say anything.

"Why...? Why didn't you just finish me off when you had the chance!?"

"It s all my fault!!" She cried out.

The shadow's arm slipped into Gray's shadow, and the rest of it's body followed after.

"Why?" Gray repeated as cocked his head to the right. "Because you're important to me, obviously. Idiot."

Ruby's heart skipped a beat, the moment she heard him say that, her voice grew weaker.

"I have no plans of dying... So, stop crying already."

The bottom half of the shadow's torso was just about fully submerged into his shadow.

Gray could feel his arms already moving as if they had a mind of his own.

'System. Is everything ready on your end?'

[Affirmative.]

'Everything's going according to plan.'

The shadow's figure was almost completely submerged into his shadow, the grin on it's face widened as all that remained was it's head.

Meanwhile, Gray's body began to move on it's own, taking step after step towards Ruby.

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Gray readied the Katana on his hand, and swung it a few times.

Gray's body was incredibly light, every full power swing felt as if it could cut through anything.

The shadow had never experienced such a powerful body, it quickly turned Gray to Ruby whilst wondering just how easy it would be to cut her into pieces.

Gray took another step forward, and it's head was fully submerged.

At that instant, Gray's eyes shut. The Halo on his head let out a bright blinding, luminous glow and everything flashed.

"...?"

The shadow's white sketched eyes, looked left and right in confusion.

It stood in the middle of a dark, hollow room with no lighting.

It resembled the inside of a shadow, a place he was used to being in, but this one was strangely different.

[Intruder detected.]

Said a floating orb of light above his head.

The light from the orb somehow didn't affect neither him, nor any of the darkness around. It just said two words before vanishing.

The Shadow raised his arm, a gesture he would typically do when leaving similar realms such as these. However, he lowered it shortly after as it had failed.

He couldn't leave.

[Intruder Locked.]

"Good Job, system." Said a familiar voice. It had come from behind the Shadow and thus, in order to see it, the shadow turned.

When he did, he tilted his head to the side in confusion.

There Gray stood, with the glowing pattern on his forehead and runic symbols running down his face.

He was in his transformed state.

The shadow was still unsure as to what was happening, but there was one thing it realised, it wasn't going to get out of here until it could kill him.

It stretched out it's arms and their shapes changed into two large blades.

Gray stretched his arm out and a Katana manifested out of thin air.

Currently, they were within his consciousness. Any weapons which he wanted created, could be made on his will alone.

The two stared each other down for a while.

The first one to make a move was Gray, he raised his other weapon less hand and gestured at the Shadow to head right at him.

*Swoosh*

The Shadow kicked off the ground, charging at Gray in the process.

The system's orb, floated just above Gray. It watched over him in order to make sure that nothing went wrong.

With the shadow approaching him, Gray let out a deep breath and got into a stance.

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He placed his left leg in front of his right and bent his knees. After extending out his left arm, and pulling back his right with the Katana's blade pointed towards the shadow, he closed his eyes.

[Energy Manipulation...]

*SWOOSH!*

[Solar Energy... Gathering.]

Energy was being gathered into his body from the surroundings, filling up a glowing sun in his core.

The shadow appeared before Gray, swinging both it's swords diagonally down at him.

Gray was unable to pause these swords at glance because it was apart of it's body.

*SwoosH!*

[Pause Step]

Gray appeared above the shadow, thrusting his Katana down at it's back.

*Fwoosh*

The Katana went right through it, it didn't seem bothered by it at all nor did Gray feel any contact. An eyeball opened on it's back and stared directly at Gray.

[Shadow Leap]

The Shadow vanished, leaving behind a trace of itself.

It's figure appeared above Gray, with a swing of it's sword in motion at his neck.

With the sword just inches away from his neck, It's form temperarily became physical.

[Fast-forward]

*FwoosH!*

The Shadow's sketchy eyes widened, a fist suddenly appeared before it's face, caving it in as it rammed into it.

*WHAM!*

The shadow crashed into the ground.

Gray's extended arm could be seen slowly falling down the air above it.

"Ah... I finally hit you." He mentioned coldly as he dropped down.

The shadow slowly got up, staggering before turning to him.

The moment it turned, there the very same fist was again.

With every fraction of a second it drew closer to his face, the shadow quickly got out of it's physical form, watching as the fist went right through him.

"Oh, I forgot to pause." Gray mentioned once he saw his fist go through it.

Despite that, he didn't seem bothered at all. He was smiling.

Why you might ask? It was because he had gathered up enough solar energy and because the torture he was going to put the shadow through, was just beginning.

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