While Leo was in Mexico City, Shadow, Lucy, Aarav, and Paulus fought beastmen patrols while searching the battlefield. Eventually, Shadow found Leo's rotted arms and his cracked mace, Gada.
The artifact shattered when Mahisha and Durga used it as a medium to hold back Unit 2.
Lucy was horrified seeing Leo's arms. She wrapped them up with the artifact and placed them inside the aircraft. Lucy removed the bracelet from his wrist and looked down. How many artifacts can one person ruin she asked herself? She laughed a bit because that was just the trouble that followed Leo.
Shadow looked around, and many feelings filled her. Why did so many beastmen have to die? Was her revenge worth this? Did anything change?
Seeing the beast-woman space off, Paulus walked over to Aarav. "Check on Lucy. I don't know how she is handling this. I will talk to the Shadow and see where we should go next."
Aarav agreed and went inside the ship to check on Lucy. Paulus walked over to stare out unto the war zone with Shadow.
"It looks like a lot went down here."
"This is what my race does when you don't agree with its philosophy," said Shadow through sending a mana message. Lucy taught her on the way here.
Shadow looked down. "Even though I didn't agree with the Deathclaw's actions, he at least fought for his beliefs." A strange feeling came over Shadow. For the first time, she wasn't blinded by revenge and understood what was going through Deathclaws mind.
She just like him broke free from their civilization and fought against the dictatorship of their culture. Even still, he killed the beastman she admired, and he had to pay for his actions.
Paulus looked at her and smiled. Since traveling with Shadow, his hatred for the other races subsided a little. He realized not all of them were here to wipe humans off the face of their planet.
"So where do we go after this?"
"To talk to an old friend. The man who took care of me." Shadow rubbed her throat. She hoped she could find him since he wandered around with the buffalo.
Inside the ship, Aarav walked up and placed his hand on Lucy's shoulder. "You know Leo, a tough guy."
Lucy just looked at him and smiled. She knew he was trying to cheer her up. She had to admit, Leo was tough as they come.
"Do you think we will find him? My dad only gave us three months."
"I don't know," Aarav said while shaking his head.
A pause came over them when blasters broke the silence. Lucy looked at Aarav and yelled, "we are under attack."
The two of them ran outside to see several hoverships coming their way. The new feline variant was leading them in the charge.
Shadow was about to run at them when Paulus placed his hand on her shoulder. "Let me have some fun this time." Shadow looked at the eager human with a big smile on his face. He threw both hands into the air and yelled, "Field of Darkness."
A pitch-black smoke cloud enveloped the incoming hovercrafts. The weaker beastmen eyes became pitch black, and they crashed inside the smoke. The ones that made it through unharmed started firing at them even more.
Paulus was running straight towards the remaining nine crafts. "Assegai of Darkness." Spears that were forged from dark mana were thrown at the enemy. For each spear tossed, another would be reformed in his grasp.
Five of the ships were destroyed. The leader leaped off her craft to execute Shadow Walk to block for the remaining craft. "Units attack the ship in the rear. I will face this human."
Paulus smiled. Since Shadow and Lucy's fight, he had been itching to fight Shadow. Now he got to do the next best thing. Seeing the beastman disappear. He activated Field of Darkness around him to hide. He knew that the feline variants were assassins. You can't hit what you can't see.
The feline leader ran around the black cloud looking for a chance to strike. A black spear with a two-foot shaft stabbed into her leg causing her to stumble. Paulus jumped out of the cover and stuck two black spears into each shoulder.
The beastman belted out a scream of horror until she passed out from it. Paulus didn't kill her. He left her fate up to Shadow to decide. The other did quick work of the beastmen. The only Core Builder, after all, was the leader.
Shadow tied them up and spared them. She didn't want to kill if she didn't have too. With this group being mostly Core Builders, it was easy to defeat enemies without killing them.
The leader awoke surprised she was still alive. Falling on the battlefield always meant death.
Shadow looked at her and sent her a mana message. "Take care of your men. Please don't be like Tigra." Shadow turned around and got into the airship. She had nothing else to say. Each beastman had to decide for themselves who they wanted to serve, Unit 1, themselves, or their people.
Shadow looked at the three humans she was with. These were the people Leo chose to protect along with herself. She told herself that these would also be the people she decided to serve to protect.
Returning to her brought back a lot of painful memories, but it also allowed Shadow to finally let go of all the demons weighing on her heart.
Eventually, they found Joe with his herd of buffalo. Shadow hugged Joe and introduced the other three to him. Shadow told them she needed to do something important and must cultivate.
That night on the eve of finally turning 100 years old, Shadow channeled her mana and cracked her core. She subsequently entered the first stage of Shattering.
Joe smiled while watching the phenomenon and smiled. "She is finally at peace."