He reached the top of the mountain after nearly one hour of running. He dropped the bomb at the lip of the volcano and wiped his nonexistent sweat from his face.
Someone beside him asked him, "What are you doing?"
The shadow turned sideways and noticed the woman standing beside him. She was naked, so the smooth porcelain skin covering her whole body was exposed completely.
There were no wrinkles or folds in her skin. But there were tiny lines of cracks across her skin. A light within her was shining out of her through those cracks.
Glory-4 already had an inkling of what she might be. But the complete and utter failure of Life Siphon to work on her confirmed his thoughts.
Not only did Life Siphon fail. It felt as if he was trying to push a mountain. To him, it felt as if there was another mountain on top of the mountain he was standing on.
The shadow didn't have the extraordinary Perception ability, so it hadn't sensed anything until the demigod had arrived this close to him.
If he were Kelvin, he would be shaking in fear right now. He would probably be on his knees because of the overwhelming threat he would be experiencing.
But the shadow only knew this was a demigod. He was ignorant of the danger it was in.
Besides, he wasn't a living thing. He didn't feel fear.
He shook his head and said, "Nothing."
He might not be afraid, but Kelvin was afraid and wanted to avoid danger.
The lady didn't believe him. She said, "You're lying, aren't you?"
He shook his head in denial.
She pointed at the bomb beside him and said, "That's a bomb, right? You wanted to use it to blow up this mountain, right?"
The shadow shook his head and said, "I think you're mistaken. I have to go."
The lady didn't get angry. Instead she smiled and said, "You may go."
He backed away carefully and walked down the mountain. He saw that the lady had no intention to stop him, so he turned around and ran with all his might.
After a while, he returned to the top of the mountain and found himself face to face with the demigod again.
He hadn't even noticed that he was going in the direction of the mountaintop or that he was getting close to her. It wasn't until he was back on top of the mountain and was right in front of her that he realized that he had turned back at some point.
This turn of events frightened Kelvin, who was in the core of the world. He decided not to pretend anymore.
He directly recalled the shadow and deleted it immediately after to remove the effects of anything she had put on it He gave up on his precious bomb and his plan to use it against Icon without much of a thought.
The demigod frowned when the shadow clone disappeared. She looked around searching for him, but she couldn't find him.
She asked herself, "How did he run away?"
She thought she had successfully captured him. He was supposed to be unable to get away from her no matter where he goes. But he suddenly disappeared from the grasp of her ability.
She already thought he was weird because he was like a black statue. It wouldn't be far fetched to call him solidified darkness. But she thought it was result of his mutation, so she didn't mention it.
It is why she first thought he had escaped into a shadow or had collapsed and escaped into the ground. But she couldn't find any trace of that.
She couldn't figure out what he did, so she put it out of her mind. She hadn't come here for him anyways.
She turned her attention to the bomb and said, "This should do as a door knocker."
Having made up her mind, she kicked the bomb into the mouth of the volcano.
It was nearly ten tons, but she kicked it, and it flew through the air until it smashed into the simmering lava lake.
Then she stood on top of the mountain and waited.
A few seconds after, the lava began to boil. Something erupted out of the volcano and flew right at her.
It was the bomb. It flew out of the volcano in her direction.
She held out her hand to grab the bomb. Unfortunately, the bomb was moving at a great speed. It smashed into her hand with great force, which caused it to explode.
A ball of fire erupted from the bomb in a second. It covered the top of the mountain and created a sound as loud as thunder.
But that was all it did. It didn't damage anything because it was forced to shrink by the demigod.
A bomb with a yield equivalent to 60 tons of TNT exploded, but it was forced to shrink little by little until it became a ball of fire in her hand. Then it went out.
After a while, something came out of the fire. It was a short, bearded man. He was a dwarf.
He said to her, "You didn't have to throw a bomb into my house, you know. I'm not deaf yet."
She shrugged. "I didn't plan to use the bomb. But someone brought it to your doorstep, so I decided to use it."
The dwarf cursed. "Why would someone want to bomb my house?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. Besides, we have more important matters to deal with."
The two of them had a nice conversation. Then they went their separate ways.
Meanwhile, Kelvin was cursing in the core of the world. "What bad luck?"
He considered it bad luck that he encountered a demigod as he was about to execute his perfect plan. If he knew that he hadn't encountered one but two demigods, he might change his mind about that.
But if he knew that his great plan was to bomb the house of a demigod, he might consider his failure to be a good thing. However, he didn't know the trouble his blind shadow had caused, so he was at peace as he began to scheme again.
He said to himself, "Why do I need a volcano anyways? I can just get many bombs and set up a trap like my safe room. That ought to hinder Icon, if not kill him outright."
His eyes lit up as he spoke. He liked the plan so much that he clapped after coming up with it.
He grinned evilly as he sent one of his free clones to get the bombs he needed.
With Glory-1, Glory-2, and Glory-4 gone and Glory-6 still with him, he had only two choices for shadows that he could use. They were Glory-3 with the Mind Overseer ability and Glory-5 with the Extraordinary Perception ability.
He can still create those shadows, but they will only appear here in the core of the world with him. If he wants more shadow clones at his disposal on Earth 11, he will have to return there and create the shadows there.
He can return one leaving the shadows here to do his bidding. Unfortunately, he can't return to the surface currently because Icon is hunting him.
If his two shadow clones are destroyed, he will have no way to interact with the surface while hiding here in the core of the world. Which is why he needs to find a safe way to reach the surface.
He has to ensure that his plan works this time, which is why he used Glory-5. This shadow's extraordinary perception ability will help it avoid any danger and increase its chances of success.
This time, he didn't do anything fancy. He just piled the bombs up on an island in the ocean.
He piled the bombs up like a pyramid. Then he had his shadow clone set a timer for them and stay in the middle of the pyramid.
The unlucky Glory-5 remained at the center of the bombs, hearing the ticking of the countdown and also feeling mounting danger from his surroundings.
The source of this danger is obvious. In ten seconds, that danger will arrive. It is the time that the shadow had set for the countdown.
When there were two seconds left before the explosion, Kelvin replaced the shadow and appeared at the center of the bomb.
He didn't wait for the rest of the time. He took off with all his might using Juggernaut's Force.
But as he was running, he didn't sense the impending doom of a powerful enemy about to appear. All he could sense was the growing danger of the bomb.
This confused him. He asked, "Where is Icon? Is he not pursuing me anymore?"
He didn't know that Icon had lost track of him a few hours ago because the mark on his body had dissipated. So Icon couldn't continue teleporting to his location.
But he didn't stop running despite his confusion. He still had the bomb to worry about, after all.