Matt silently followed Diana musing about how he was stalking the so called goddess of hunting. He now understood that his fears that she was an actual goddess were unfounded.

She had just been around long enough to write her own self-aggrandizing legend.

He couldn't stop thinking about the way that Jack had called him out earlier that day.

Even though Jack had apologized, Matt was still ashamed of what he had pointed out. How was it possible for him to find perfect peace under these circumstances?

Was he the type of person who could remain calm in any situation? Or was there actually something wrong with him?

When he had opened his mind's eye, he had gained the ability to sense the presences of the people around him. It certainly wasn't mind reading, just a vague sense that there were other minds nearby.

Still, just the vague sense of presence that he had felt from Jack was enough for Matt to sense his extreme turmoil.

Jack was a nervous wreck. He was worried sick about Arthur and what would happen to his family if they lost. Matt couldn't sense his thoughts directly but Jack's distress was palpable.

However, Matt was in the exact same situation that Jack was. So why wasn't he feeling the same way?

He was concerned that there was something fundamentally wrong with him.

With a grimace, Matt put those thoughts aside for later. Whatever the case may be, he had a mission to complete. There was a thot that needed killing.

As he followed Diana through the giant hallway and up the stairs to the first floor, Matt was careful to keep his presence hidden with his newly-opened third eye. His qi was manifested and wrapped around him so that anyone who looked would see an empty stairway.

Earlier that day, while Matt and Zachias were alone in the simulation, Matt had finally consciously realized the nature of his qi. Shadow was just a convenient term for his aspect, but in reality, shadows were just the absence of light. They didn't contain any kind of physical substance.

Qi was the fundamental component of all matter in the Universe. It was always a physical substance, and Matt's was no different.

What they referred to as shadow, was just black matter. Black contained all the colors in the visible spectrum, and Matt had the ability to surround himself with a thick mist of matter and reflect any of those colors with his qi. It was how he created realistic illusions.

Matt had always known this instinctively, but he had only become truly aware of the fact after it was confirmed by Zachias.

The last time he had fought Diana, his illusions had been useless because he hadn't learned to hide his presence yet. She wasn't able to see through his shadow qi, but his unguarded mind was giving him away.

This time would be different.

Diana walked around to the front of the house until she came to the entrance hallway where she had kicked their asses last time.

Matt closed the distance between them as silently as possible. He removed the Sable Katana from behind his back and extended it to around three feet long.

He wondered what his Korean father would think when he learned that his middle child had become an actual ninja.

His approach was deathly silent. As Diana came to the central staircase and turned to ascend to the second floor, Matt made his move.

He decided to take her legs first since she still needed to tell him what she had done with his friend.

Matt would never know what alerted her to his attack. Maybe she smelled him. Maybe she could hear the blade cutting though the air. Whatever the case, it didn't matter.

All that mattered was that she had somehow managed to move at the last moment to avoid being hamstrung on both legs.

She wasn't fast enough, however, to completely save her left leg. Matt cut at least part of the way through her tendons just behind her left knee.

Diana caught herself before she fell face first up the steps. Her bow was in her hand and she was drawing an arrow back a moment later. By the time she spun around on her right leg and released the string, Matt was no longer standing there, only his shadow clone.

The arrow passed right through his fake double's chest and smashed into the column behind him. Where the arrow landed on the column, there was now a crater with the simple wooden projectile sticking out of the middle.

Matt had questioned Zachias about this phenomenon until he finally relented. Apparently, it had to do with reaching the Spirit Realm, the next stage of advancement beyond the Mortal Realm that Matt and his friends were in now.

The fact that they could use this ability meant that Diana and Janus had both reached the Spirit Realm.

Matt didn't care.

Diana might be stronger and more advanced than him, but even she couldn't hit what she couldn't see.

His shadows swirled around him, forming clones and keeping him hidden while he silently moved around Diana. She was releasing arrow after arrow into his illusions to disperse them.

Every few shots, she would fire in a random direction trying to get a lucky hit. Matt was rarely forced to dodge, however.

His shadow clones were strategically placed to make her think that he was moving around the bottom of the stairs when he was actually already beside her to her right.

Diana pulled her bow back to shoot another arrow, and Matt sliced through the string. She reacted much more quickly than Matt had expected, and before he could move away, she was holding onto his shirt collar.

It was the worst case scenario for Matt. As long as he could stay hidden behind his illusions, he would be able to cut her to pieces. Now that she had ahold of him, however, he was at a huge disadvantage.

If he didn't get back out of her reach, she would pull him apart with her superior strength.

Matt slashed at her outstretched arm with his katana while he tried desperately to back away from Diana. She had broken through his illusion, however, so she saw the attack coming and blocked with her bow.

With no other options, Matt retracted his katana all the way to the length of a dagger. He sliced through his own shirt starting about halfway down his chest all the way up to his collar. The black blade bit into his own flesh, but if it allowed him to slip her grip, it would be worth it.

Now, there was enough room to bend forward and slip back out leaving Diana holding nothing but a sliced up bloody shirt.

He wrapped himself in the shadows and stepped back down the stairs while holding his self-inflicted chest wound.

Diana dropped the shirt and focused on the bow in her left hand. Matt watched as the bow restrung itself right in front of his eyes. Also, the nearly empty quiver on her right shoulder refilled itself with more wooden arrows which seemed to condense out of nothing.

"So you do use wood qi" he stated. Matt had suspected as much.

The rage on her face would have been frightening if she wasn't standing on one leg. Now that Matt had broken her grip on him, he had the advantage once again.

"If you tell me what you did with my friend, I will let you hobble out that door right now." Matt pointed at the door behind him with his thumb while he rested his katana on his shoulder.

Diana snarled and pulled another arrow out of her quiver.

She had made her choice.