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After buying some blood, Jasper went straight to his room and began drawing a magic circle.
Yep—he used blood as the "paint." It took him a few minutes, but he managed to draw the circle successfully.
Jasper still remembered the steps clearly. He stepped into the circle and sat down.
Next, he needed his own blood to activate it.
He used a dagger to slice open his finger a little, and scarlet blood quickly oozed out.
Dripping his blood onto the circle, a red glow slowly spread across it. Jasper immediately felt something weird in his body.
The circle suddenly flared to life. Jasper was really glad he'd closed the curtains ahead of time—otherwise, someone might've seen all this and caused a ton of unnecessary trouble.
Then, the magic circle turned into red ropes, wrapping around Jasper and slowly merging into his body.
The whole process lasted about a minute.
When it was over, the circle vanished—but Jasper felt like something new had awakened inside him. Almost like a new instinct.
He closed his eyes to feel it out. A second later, his eyes flew open.
Time to summon the darkness within.
His shadow began to writhe, and soon, a new shape split off from it.
A tall figure appeared, and behind her were several sharp, black spear-like legs—almost like spider legs.
"Wait... do the Shadow Soldiers all have spider traits?"
Jasper tilted his head and said, "Take off your mask."
The figure did as told, removing her mask—and wow. The face underneath? Stunning. Like angel-level beautiful. So pretty it was hard to look away—no joke, even prettier than Annie.
Jasper's heart skipped a beat, but then it hit him: this was the face he most desired in his heart. It was basically his lust, given form.
He rubbed his head. After seeing that face, he seriously doubted he'd ever fall for someone else again.
Talk about digging your own grave...
Still... she was really beautiful.
Because of the spider-like features, Jasper decided to name his shadow soldier "Spider Shade."
He tried summoning more darkness, but nothing happened—no more Spider Shades. He realized it was because his shadow powers were still too weak.
So, he took Spider Shade with him into the forest behind the school.
"Alright," he said, "Let's spar a bit. Go all out—I won't hold back either."
Spider Shade nodded and in a flash, appeared right in front of him. She could shadow-step instantly from his shadow to right in his face.
Nice speed... but still a little slow.
Spider Shade lunged, her spear-like spider legs stabbing toward Jasper.
Her speed was way beyond human, but Jasper still dodged every strike with ease.
He even caught her during an opening and sent her flying with a punch.
She crashed to the ground and tried to get up.
But Jasper had already appeared behind her.
He threw a punch down at her.
Spider Shade's spider-sense kicked in—she rolled out of the way just in time.
BOOM!Jasper's punch slammed into the ground, leaving a huge crater.
"Whoa—so you've got shadow-stepping and spider-sense? That's seriously cool," Jasper muttered. Looks like Spider Shade inherited most of his powers, though clearly a bit weaker—probably because his own shadow power wasn't strong enough yet.
Still, she was pretty damn powerful.
Suddenly, Jasper asked, "Hey, can you shoot webs?"
Spider Shade got up and nodded. Then she shot black webbing from her wrists.
Jasper: "..."
"Wait, you can shoot webs, but I can't?! How is that fair?! That's straight-up gender discrimination!" Jasper complained. He still had to use the web-shooters Peter Parker made for him!
Spider Shade tilted her head in confusion, clearly not understanding.
"Ughhh!" Jasper punched a tree, smashing clean through the trunk.
Then he retracted his fist and said, "Let's head back."
Spider Shade nodded and melted back into Jasper's shadow—her home.
Monday.
Hands in his pockets, Jasper swaggered his way to school.
As soon as he got there, he went straight to sleep. He figured he didn't need to study anymore—Spider Shade could handle all that stuff now. They hadn't known each other long, but she'd already shown off some crazy intelligence.
In just one night, she'd learned everything from kindergarten to high school level.
Insane, right?
Jasper wasn't sure whether to feel jealous, proud, or both.
As her master, he should be proud of her talent. But as a person... yeah, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Maybe more than a little.
Still, the strongest feeling was happiness—because someone that perfect was actually under his command. Just thinking about it filled him with a weird sense of accomplishment.
Even though he planned to sleep the whole morning, the teacher ended up waking him. Since he couldn't get back to sleep, he just stayed awake.
That's when he noticed Spider Shade hiding in his shadow, still focused on learning.
Was she a total study maniac?
She was already so talented—and still working that hard. Like seriously, how's a normal person supposed to compete with that?
Jasper originally wanted to slack off, but seeing her so focused made him sit through the class too.
Afternoon.
To help Spider Shade study even more, Jasper went to the library.
As soon as they got there, Spider Shade dove into her studies.
Jasper rolled his eyes, then started studying too.
Spider Shade appeared from an empty corner—this time, she'd retracted her spider legs and taken off the mask, walking around openly.
But that angelic face of hers instantly turned heads.
Jasper glanced at her and couldn't help but think: Yep. Classic femme fatale.
Even just casually tucking her hair behind her ear had guys gulping like they'd just seen something out of a dream.
People were acting even worse than Jasper expected. He thought they'd at least act a little normal—but nope, one look at Spider Shade and it was like they'd all been drugged.
Yeah, she was insanely gorgeous—but was this reaction really necessary?
Then, her glossy lips moved slightly.
Immediately, a nearby guy clutched his nose and tilted his head back—probably trying not to get a nosebleed.
Seriously?! Was Spider Shade that destructive?
...Actually, kinda entertaining.
Before long, a crowd had formed outside the library. Everyone just wanted to catch a glimpse of Spider Shade.
Jasper started getting bored and left the library.
Right outside, he ran into Annie.
She looked dead serious and said, "You're my boyfriend now!"
Was she afraid he'd fall for Spider Shade?
Jasper couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I know."
"....."