The dark sea consumed them ravenously, sending them to the bottom of the lake almost immediately after they entered. Although there technically wasn't any water in this "sea", the sheer denseness of the materialized shadows made it impossible to breathe in them.
Despite the dense shadows, his Anecdote of Self and his crow wings were able to maneuver around normally, likely due to their semi-tangible properties.
Now that they were in the Lord of Shadows's specialized domain, the odds of Sang Pianyi winning this fight drastically decreased.
As he struggled to move around physically under the sheer density of the shadows, the Lord of Shadows was able to traverse the area faster than ever before. But Sang Pianyi persevered; he used his mystical wings to cut through the shadowy liquid and dart towards the surface, aiming to escape before the Lord of Shadows could stop him, or at least draw his attention so they could finish this fight before he ran out of air.
This worked well, as the Lord of Shadows suddenly appeared in front of Sang Pianyi, or at least, it seemed so. It was hard to tell, given that he was now even more shrouded in darkness than before, but it likely was him.
Sensing his presence through Ingenuity, Sang Pianyi raised his crow blade in preparation for an attack. Which would come soon after as the Lord of Shadows suddenly teleported in front of Sang Pianyi and attempted to land a hard strike straight to his abdomen.
To which Sang Pianyi predicted he would do, given that this was his domain, it was far wiser for him to be on the defensive. So he parried the attack with his blade pointed tilted diagonally.
Then, he continued to rise using his wings, which were able to traverse the shadow liquid much more easily than he. This attempt at running was swiftly met with more obstacles, however, as the surface of the lake suddenly solidified under the Lord of Shadows' command.
And, before Sang Pianyi could attempt to break through, the same cloaked Lord of Shadows appeared to be standing directly above the spot he would break out of, determined to watch him drown in the shadows with a sinister smile. Not that Sang Pianyi could see it, of course, his vision was still being blocked by the shadows.
Sang Pianyi grunted with disdain before preparing to break through to the surface with his blade. Reeling back to charge up his strength, and swinging as hard as he could.
Crash!
The hard surface of shadows began to crack and sputter before exploding under the force of the strike. Erupting from underneath the Lord of Shadows.
The man cloaked in shadows stood on top of the now destroyed surface of shadows, as if it were still solid, and continued looking at the fish trying to escape the bowl he had made with an amused expression.
At the same time, he looked rather bored.
Sang Pianyi furiously soared towards the surface, managing to reach it within a few seconds.
Just before he reached the surface, he poured ingenuity into his sigil once more.
Meaninglessly offering his lifespan wouldn't do him any good in the long run here, as their physical strength was around a similar tier currently; what he needed was an enhancement in skill.
'My sense of smell for a month.'
The subtle grey pulse emanating from the crow sigil signified that the deal had gone through, as he immediately experienced a moderate enhancement in Ingenuity perception and manipulation.
With this transaction, his sense of smell was taken away for a month, like he had asked, though if that were the only price he had to pay for power like this, then that wouldn't be any fun, would it?
Using his now enhanced perception, he realized that these shadows, although they were affected by the Lord of Shadows' ability, were not created by him, spawning an idea in his mind in a split second.
He made his movements as efficient and optimized as possible. Funneling the Ingenuity of the shadows directly into his crow sigil and Anecdote of Self, feeding it using the power of his enemy.
This was because the Anecdote of Self, being the direct source of Ingenuity, once deployed into reality, could absorb the Ingenuity of its surroundings to activate abilities instead of relying on its wielder. Of course, the main drawback with this was the risk of having one's soul out in the open, and the inability to add will and emotion to this Ingenuity at this level.
In a sense, it could be considered the equal and opposite reaction to the Lord of Shadows' power.
As the sigil fed on the shadows, the Lord of Shadows' brow narrowed, as he suddenly began hearing a choir of cackling laughter envelop the nearby area.
The murder of crows that were observing the battle screeched with enjoyment. Their gazes all lie on the Man cloaked in the shadows, as if eager to witness the downfall of such an individual on this night.
However, the Lord of Shadows wasn't letting Sang Pianyi just go around and take his shadows' ingenuity either, as he spoke with irritation whilst staring at the depths of the shadowy water, like he was beckoning something.
"Swallow."
Before he started applying a pulling force on the shadows away from Sang Pianyi, halting their approach and absorption by placing a solid barrier of shadows around him in the shape of an orb.
Sang Pianyi had already absorbed a vast amount of Ingenuity when this happened.
'Perfect.' He exhaled and inhaled deeply as he had finally gained a pocket of air to use. Leveraging the man's own fear of loss of precious materials had worked.
Now, he needed to utilize the crow sigil, which now appeared to be glowing and pulsing a silvery-black and moving around on the page maniacally, and also had the soft sound of cackling coming from it, to launch a proper attack against the Lord of Shadows.
'I need to keep a lower profile...To use his arrogance(eighth grader syndrome) against him, acting weak is imperative, so I'll have to wait for the proper time to land a sneak attack.' Sang Pianyi strategized in his small air pocket.
Then, he began to hear a strange sound coming from below him; it was a rhythmic vibration that echoed across the entire lake, like some sort of warbled, demonic sigh. As the suffocating feeling of the air pocket began to consume Sang Pianyi.
He tried to manipulate the shadows through ingenuity, but given the Lord of Shadows' direct influence over them, he was unable to make them budge.
The voice of whatever creature lay far below him started to become louder and louder. A malevolent humming that seemed to pierce through Sang Pianyi's eardrums without warning, softly.
As the noises became louder and louder, Sang Pianyi sensed the flow of shadows changing drastically; they were moving exponentially fast, like they were running for their lives from whatever came from beneath.
Not wanting to get caught up in whatever that thing was, he took a deep breath and cut the air pocket open with his crow blade from underneath, allowing for the shadowy liquid to propel him upwards due to the air pressure. Though it was unclear how dense the shadows truly were, given the depth of the lake being moderate, it was enough to push him up a bit.
Then, he cut the top of the solidified shadow ball that surrounded him to allow him to escape and move up towards the surface once more.
The sound of something large approaching him constantly drilled into his ears, as he diligently used his wings to fly, or I guess, swim, towards the top.
Sang Pianyi was never a fan of the deep ocean, from childhood to adulthood. It was always a bit creepy for him, so faced with this situation, he hauled his way out with all the strength he could muster without alerting the Lord of Shadows too much.
Though it seemed the Lord of Shadows was a step ahead of him, using his dominance over the shadows to apply force downwards and enhance the density of the shadows above him as he continued to struggle. Enhancing the difficulty of his operation by severalfold whilst cackling in bored interest, trying to siphon any dopamine he could get from this.
'I wonder what he'll do next? This man...He had quite a few tricks up his sleeve. It's been quite a while since I've met someone with abilities as interesting as his. Perhaps it would be better to take him to the young master...He'd be a valuable ally if we were on the same side after all.' He dazedly thought to himself.
'This is too slow, I'll fast forward.' As he began exerting force on the shadows, a long distance underneath Sang Pianyi.
Immediately, Sang Pianyi sensed a high concentration of Ingenuity approaching him from underneath, and with it, the ghostly hum of whatever creature was there became louder and louder.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The thumping and humming sounds got so loud to the point that they started to hurt Sang Pianyi's ears through their vibrations; in fact, his entire body began to feel numb, as his sense of touch and hearing were impaired partially.
'Arghhh...Get away from me! What kind of fish even are you! A shark's core ability?' He panicked while trying to flee as fast as he could.
Though it was to no avail, given the heavy restrictions being placed on his movements, even if his wings could propel him at high speeds in the air, the shadows weighed him back here.
He took a single glance downwards.
Everything underneath him looked to be pure void, without even a single bit of light illuminating the area.
His eyes had to bear the weight of what they observed. It was disgustingly grotesque. Strange. Foreign to this world. Even if he could only see what was closest to him through the heavy darkness, it was more than enough to grasp its most putrid features. The lightless pupils on each of the creature's rotten, bloodied teeth inside its colossal maw penetrated Sang Pianyi's mind without restraint, sending goosebumps of horror cascading through his body.
'What the...' He thought blankly as he paused momentarily in sheer awe and disgust of the creature.
Thanks to the Lord of Shadows' interference, whatever creature lay below Sang Pianyi had managed to catch up, and it didn't seem very friendly.