The Final Experiment lasted a full hour.
When the experiment ended, the Shadow Passage vanished, and the two girls were expelled back to the surface, they had already become two writhing masses of shadow.
"Yes, this is it! The first perfect creation I've waited over a thousand years for!"
The mastermind's voice trembled slightly with excitement. He controlled his own shadow to spread over the larger of the two masses while hurriedly waving to the Stalk Man behind him. "Quick, get the other one under control too!"
"Yes!"
The Stalk Man nodded, took out a glass bottle, and strode over to the other shadow, reaching out to grab it.
But before he could even bend down, a beastlike roar suddenly came from the larger mass beside him. An enormous black shadow shot out of it, transforming into a pitch-black Shadow Fiend over three meters tall. The instant she appeared, she swiped a claw down, smashing the Stalk Man before her into a bloody pulp.
The sudden turn of events stunned the mastermind behind him as well. He hurried to manipulate the shadow beneath his feet, but after disposing of the Stalk Man, the berserk Shadow Fiend immediately turned her attacks on him.
Before his shadow could begin to change, she swung her arm and sent the mastermind flying with a slap.
The savage force instantly made blood pour from all seven openings of his head. His body broke apart and died while he was still in midair.
Several seconds later, both men revived more than ten meters away.
"Impossible. How could this happen?" The Stalk Man stared in alarm at the distant Shadow Fiend, who was driven by fury and madly smashing everything around her.
A Shadow Fiend that had just completed the "experiment" should have been extremely weak, like