Sophie Lani's glittering, delicate body slowly swam through the shadowy deep sea.
Beyond the area illuminated by her own radiance, the world in every direction remained pitch-black.
Yet although both were darkness, the nature of this darkness was utterly different from the one Ghost Shadow Hunter had encountered upon first arriving here.
For the previous darkness had originated from the Abyss Apostle's actions, whereas the darkness now had been personally planted by Sophie Lani herself.
At this moment, the profound darkness encompassing the entire deep-sea world was, in truth, all her "shadow."
The "shadows" bred and proliferated from within Ghost Shadow Hunter's womb expanded outward, turning guest into host, until they covered all the darkness here in her own black shadow.
At the same time, a malformed figure writhed and struggled before Sophie Lani.
Nearly a hundred meters tall, it had no head and no lower body—only a torso covered in mouths, noses, and scales, along with over a thousand twisted arms growing from within it.
Its identity was none other than the former master of this dark world, the Abyss Apostle—"Breath."
No matter how severe its physical wounds were, even if its body had been reduced to ashes, so long as it remained within its own domain of darkness, it could regenerate without end and revive without end amid endless gasping, gradually wearing to death any outsider who fell into this place.
It replaced the Abyss Core, the medium required for regeneration, with infinite darkness that light could not disperse.
This was the apostolic authority possessed by "Breath."
However, this trait, powerful enough to defy the heavens, swiftly crumbled to pieces before Ghost Shadow Hunter.
For Sophie Lani's shadow power was deeper than mere darkness.
Since ordinary light could do nothing to the darkness here, then she would use