LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 158: Shadowdance
Hi hi, Madeleine here! I'm putting on my best poker face and holding my thoughts from leaking out. Impressed? It turns out that when you're suddenly reverted into a more skilful, cold version of yourself, you may or may not get paralysed from the hip down… no, wait, that's what other Madeleine already said. I meant to say you may or may not reacquire skills you lost. How did I lose skills? Being a slave does things to you, you know. Even I'm not immune to life-changing events… well, I am now. Not before, though.
Anyways, you guys missed a lot. Like, a lot. Let me start with the trophies… I do not like calling them trophies. Simply put, just a bunch of corpses. There was a huge raft with a bunch of dead bodies on it, including a giant squid and a ghost… I have no idea how Cookie killed a ghost, but she did. What else… she crucified the Light Goddess. That was fucked up. Also, Mammy is a statue of gold now… I have no idea if that means she's dead now or not.
What really broke my heart was what she did to the poor guys who she couldn't kill. Like, damn, they looked broken, and that's coming from the girl who was paralysed from the chest down while her soul was getting eaten.
Rio had her entire arms covered in chains connected to the ground, and her feet had arrows stabbed right through them. Two arrows… yep, that's right. The arrows that I'm very sure went through her head. She died twice that day, which only makes me question why she's still alive. According to Cookie, it was a decoy, but I'm more tempted to say time loop. My gut is always right.
The other two Cookie couldn't kill were Sherry and Darky, who are kinda not here mentally. Makes sense. Sherry is being hounded by countless shadow clones made by Cookie. Just tens upon tens of different shadow dogpiling in a non-stop loop of combat. Apparently, Sherry always wins, so to not lose, Cookie is just delaying her fight with her. That is a nice bit of information that I'm sure I could use.
The saddest has got to be Darky, though. No fancy restraints, no genius plan, no quick death. Somehow, the person who got the most pitiful fate wasn't the folks mercilessly killed, but the Darky. She's just knelt down in a puddle of her own tears, pitifully rubbing a demon's decapitated head.
Man… things sure look dark, now that I think about it. Well, Cookie is undoubtedly running out of things to say, so we'll probably have to engage in combat to continue the stalling, so I can at least distract myself with some good ol' rootin' tootin' bootin'. I have no idea what I just said. So, while Cookie hasn't been looking, I've actually put all the dead folks in the Shadowrealm. I'm curious to see if I can create live copies from dead people, although if that fails, I'll just get Myka to go into my shadow and revive them through reality warping. Then I'll stall, eventually, the shadow clone I sent gets here, and then I let Mel do the finishing blow. Easy as pie.
"Lastly, my favourite trophy. I keep it beside me in my throne room." Cookie leads us into her throne room, where we find a familiar figure standing next to the throne made out of cookies, a multitude of tentacles wrapped around it. The Man In the Pinstripe Suit… so they work under Cookie. Unfortunate.
"Wowie, you got that Eldritch wannabe. Good on you." Myka says with a mocking tone. She smirks at Cookie. "So, she a girl like I think she is?"
"I'll do you one better and confirm her identity. She's your sister Eldra." Immediately Cookie disappeared… actually, no, I figured out where she went. She went through the hole in the roof that was made when Myka punched her. I guess we're going right into the fighting, and I can't get Myka to revive the extended family. Well, whatever. Always make a plan with the assumption it won't be followed. That's what one of the books I read said.
"Mel, get Rio and Sherry free. They'll be massive boosts to our combat strength and try to get Darky out of her sad state, but don't try too hard. She might be a lost cause." She nodded, and then I brandished a pair of daggers. "I'll go on and see if I can assist Myka."
"What about her?" Mel pointed at Myka's sister.
"Hmm… I'm sure Myka will like that."
"Then I'll go do that."
"I'm off. Make sure to keep yourself safe, Mel."
Mel let out a mischievous grin. "Aye aye, captain."
"Hey, that's my line."
"And you've got a shadow clone and bunny girl to catch up to."
"Right." I stomped my foot, manifesting a wave of light that tore through the dark castle's walls, creating a path for me to the outside. "Oh yeah, a shadow clone will come over with a box. I'm sure you'll know what to do with it, Mel." I saluted Mel, then ran through the holes in the wall towards what was hopefully the last fight for this week.
Madeleine here, currently cursing the fact that the flying train crashed. It would have been really helpful in this situation since I can't fly… I think. I've tried doing wind magic, but as it turns out, I suck at wind magic. Fortunately, I can shoot fireballs, iceballs, and earthballs, but not windballs. Hehe… I said earth. Now, why do I want to fly? Currently, Myka and Cookie are duking it out in the sky whilst also controlling giant versions of themselves, which are also trading blows.
By the way, I'm on top of the Cookie one, shooting magic attacks at the small Cookie whilst also stabbing the big Cookie. I think my daggers are doing nothing. You'd think I'd learn that after the 100th dagger I threw into it, but nope. Well, as long as Myka… fuck, I think that's Myka that's plummeting towards the floor… how do you even lose when you can warp reality? Aaand the giant Cookie has dispersed. Now I really wish I could fly. Damn…
Time to do a cool thing. I grab a dagger, rip some thread out of my skirt, tie it around the handle, and then throw it right at Cookie, who catches it. Well, it didn't matter whether she caught it or it got stuck in her thigh. I grab tightly onto the thread and swing, letting go of the thread when I got near the ground and doing a neat little roll. Now for the landing pose! Voila! Cookie threw the dagger… I deflect it using my palm, and it flies into the ground with enough force that even the handle is fully covered in dirt.
"About time you joined in the fun, mother." Cookie took out two daggers from inside her stomach and then lunged at me. I rolled under, then threw a dagger as she landed, which she just swallowed. That's unfair. I stomped my foot, creating a crack in the ground below her. She sidestepped, dodging the beams of light that escaped from the cracks.
Okay… so it turns out fighting a copy of myself is anno- woah! I ducked, dodging a flurry of daggers thrown at me. Cookie tapped the ground, creating a pillar of fire that was falling towards me. I respond by jumping through it. Man, I'm so glad I figured out this dress was fireproo- URK!
"Woah! Cheapshot!" She just punched me.
"I don't care." She started running at me. "I will not be taken into your pace like that stupid bunny!"
She jumped, creating a giant sword out of the shadows and directing a downward slash at me. I slam the side of the massive blade with my palms, directing it to my side and barely grazing my skirt. While Cookie was trying to pull out the sword, I decked her right in the face. Haha! Revenge!
Before Cookie could get up, she was immediately hit in the head with an arrow. I turned to see who shot it, thinking it was Mel, only to be disappointed that it was Rio, holding her crossbow. She was beside Sherry, who wielded her giant axe that I remember seeing on Cookie's trophy room door. Sherry walked over and picked me up, while Rio walked over to Cookie and shot her in the head with another arrow. Talk about irony.
"Huh. That was easy." A shot in the head was all it took. Why didn't they do this earlier? I was about to question the two when I noticed they were still in battle stances, facing Cookie's limp body. Oh… that's how it is.
Cookie slowly rose, taking the arrows out of her head. "You set them free… HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY TROPHIES!!!" Cookie launched herself at me, only to be kicked midair by Sherry, followed by Rio, who fired another arrow, which was eaten by Cookie.
I dashed forward, slashing a dagger at her head. She backpedalled, only to be met with an axe thrown above my head, right into her head. Rio then ran ahead of me, chopping off one of Cookie's legs, causing her to fall. I jumped at that opportunity, pinning her to the ground with a dagger to her neck. "Surrender?"
Cookie looked at me, then at Sherry to my left, then at Rio to my right, then upwards, and then she smirked. I looked ahead to see what she saw and found Myka's unconscious body. Cookie then sunk into the shadows, rising where Myka was, a blade in her hand. "If I can't kill you three, I'll at least kill this one!" She was about to slam the blade down when a dust cloud suddenly appeared.
I let out a cough, then looked at where Cookie was. I could see the silhouette of three bodies. One was on the ground, which was probably Myka. The last two were sort of together, although it looked like one was lifting the other up by the neck. The dust cloud eventually subsided, revealing that the Man In The Pinstripe Suit was holding Cookie up by the neck. The Pinstriped one was still as a tree, glaring at the shadow clone, who struggled with all her might.
"Enough." With that single word, Cookie gave up and stopped struggling, at which point I released a breath I didn't realise I held. Sherry and Rio also let their guards down, which meant it was the end of the fight. Thank god, I did not enjoy doing that.
Before I could lie down and rest for a bit, Cookie let out an evil smirk and turned her hand into a mouth, chomping off Eldra's wrist. She then turned to me, with eyes filled with nothing but malice, and jumped, her fanged teeth and manic expression on full view, before she was suddenly shot in the head with an arrow for the third time today.
I turned to the shooter, this time with full confidence it was the love of my life, and found Mel, bow in hand and with a shadow clone holding a box next to her. A convenient thing about that whole soul regress thing was that I remembered a few things, like Rich's box. He said there was an arrow to deal with evil… funny that. Cookie's body dispersed, with dark particles flying into the sky as if her body was burning. Soon enough, the only thing left was the arrow that killed her, and at that point, I knew it was the end.
Rio and Sherry dropped their weapons, lying right down on the floor, having been tuckered out by both the fight and their cruel torture by Cookie. Eldra was checking on Myka, who I hoped would wake up soon so we could start some cheating of death. I sat down, and Mel sat next to me. Well… there's only one option here. I leaned my head on her shoulder and closed my eyes, finally feeling safe.
Chapter namesake: Shadowdance by Mudeth for The Binding of Isaac: Antibirth
