novelraw Chapter 285: Shadow Passage
Chapter 285: Shadow Passage
Chapter 285: Shadow Passage The shutting of the gate echoed in their ears, followed by an eerie silence that the both of them welcomed greatly. For miles, all they could see was darkness. Soren didn’t even know when they had entered—as if the very memory of passing through the gate had disappeared completely. His Soul Weapon wasn’t even quick enough to [Record] it.
After probing their surroundings for a while and noticing nothing that stood out, Soren finally decided to relax a little. He sighed, letting the exhaustion carry him through the darkness.
“It seems luck still favors us somewhat. We were that close to dying…”
“Of course we were!” Ynixia’s voice reached him. “What in Black Stars has gotten into you lately? Why have you become so much more reckless?”
Soren simply tilted his head sideways. “I’ve always been reckless though.”
“Not this reckless!"
“.....”
“A-anyway,” her voice faltered for a second. “You need to be more mindful of your actions as my knight. Only a foolish mage would ever attempt to confront a horde of enemies head on like that! Are you suicidal or something?!”
“Maybe I am suicidal.”
“I beg your pardon?” She did not expect such an answer.
After a slight awkward pause, Soren shook his head and sighed. “Let’s change the subject. Are we really inside the castle now? The darkness that oozed out of the gate seemed to have sucked us into it. But I don’t remember the details exactly.”
Ynixia took a moment to answer. “I believe that is right. Although… this situation is a little hard to comprehend.”
“What do you mean?”
“This darkness… It wasn’t something I saw in my dreams. What I saw instead was an opulent banquet hall, with numerous noble guests dressed fancily for the occasion. I was a part of the crowd, conversing with many of the noble ladies.”
So that’s why she mentioned a banquet at the end… He couldn’t really understand the meaning behind her cryptic words at the end.
“And, what else?” He asked the surrounding void only to receive a prompt reply:
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? You don’t know anything else about the castle?”
“I only know some of its details from the few remaining memories I still possess and that it holds a bridge on the other side that will allow us to cross the River of Loss. Outside of that… no, not really.”
His lips twitched slightly. You mean to tell me you dragged us all the way to this castle without even a clue’s worth of information? A part of him wanted to bury her coffin six feet under Carcosa’s dark soil.
“Ah! I do remember something else!”
“Oh?” A sliver of hope flickered once more in his chest.
“This castle… I remember it was led by a duchess. Her name was…
“What was her name again? Cas, something?...”
He massaged his temples. “Don’t ask me… Figure it out, damn it!”
“Alright, alright!” She snorted. “Ill try my best to remember…”
Sighing, Soren turned around and began to examine their surroundings more closely. Although he couldn’t exactly make out where Ynixia was, he could tell from her voice that she was close. And since the two of them had mysteriously made it here, he logically concluded that Albert must have also been whisked away.
Interestingly, walking around gave him no sense of direction or distance. He could only assume this was likely a subspace with its own inherent properties that disallowed movement.
“I’m going to see if I can obtain more information. If you don’t hear from me in the next few minutes, it will likely mean something happened to me.”
“What?!” Her voice quivered from beyond the veil. “Hey wai—”
Before she could utter a single objection, Soren gave the mental command to his Soul Weapon and activated [Eyes of the Fairy]. It took the book only a second to initiate the skill.
His information target was simple: the path they had mysteriously crossed.
Since he was still relatively exhausted from fleeing the horde, he needed to make sure that his target was extremely specific. Anything that could drain a lot of anima would be far too risky.
Not to mention, this darkness could also hide some truly horrendous secrets. Secrets he wouldn’t want to find out about. At least, not for now…
And yet, despite his methodical approach, the danger didn’t seem to mind chasing him anyway. What he saw after activating the ability truly sent shivers down his spine.
An alien, almost unrecognizable vision began to assault his brain. Veins began to protrude from his skin as his eyes burned the longer he watched. It felt as if he had uncovered a memory that shouldn’t have existed to begin with. He couldn’t look away, despite the pain.
He saw a bird eye’s view of the castle entrance—the imposing gate looming over them like an obelisk cutting through the mist. Facing it, Ynixia’s coffin could be seen tipped sideways, with Albert crawling toward it desperately. In front of the colossal shadow creature, a man wearing an unrecognizable expression appeared, holding his wand tightly as he faced the approaching army of monsters.
Soren paused, his eyes fixated on the visage of himself from the past.
Is that… me?
A part of him didn’t want to believe it. “When did I… smile like that…”
His face felt unfamiliar. Every detail was correct—there weren’t any flaws he could point to or alterations to notice. And yet, something primal within him wanted to reject what he was seeing.
Shaking his head, he decided to focus on the unfolding scene. As the projected version of him faced the horde, Ynixia who was still slumbering within the coffin said the phrase that allowed the gate to open:
“Open! May the Black Stars be my witness. I have arrived for the banquet!”
Her voice was a lot more muffled compared to how he remembered it but the rest of the details were exactly accurate. The gate awakened with thunderous quaking, grinding against the hard rock surface as new shadows emerged from within its gaping maw. Then the unexpected happened.
The three of them… turned into the shadowy mist?!
Soren watched in silence, unable to comprehend what he saw. The darkness seeping out from behind the gaps in the stone gate had merged with them. As if they had been absorbed within the shadows!
His frown deepened even more. But just when he thought the vision would end, a scene even more terrifying played before his eyes.
The mysterious dark fog… It didn’t just aim to consume them.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It was consuming the approaching horde as well!
Living shadow after living shadow, all of them swiftly evaporating into the dark mist. It didn’t matter how big or small they were—none stood a chance. The gate itself seemed keen on breathing in this new specimen.
Within seconds, the entire horde vanished completely. None of the Bursting Shades remained. And then… an even more colossal shadow approached the open Death Gate. Its presence loomed over his soul, as if vying for his attention.
Before he could even catch a glimpse of what had arrived, the dark mist soon took over the scene, drowning it in silence.
Only one phrase managed to make it through in the end:
“The mask…”
He felt the words piercing through his psyche, forever seared into his memory. The vision instantly shattered, along with [Eyes of the Fairy]’s activation.
Soren awoke seconds later, his expression twisted in fear as he desperately clawed at the surrounding darkness with his eyes, unable to see anything. His breaths came and went sporadically, faster than even his heartbeat.
“What’s wrong! Soren?! Can you hear me?!” The voice called out into the void, unsure if a response would ever arrive.
“I’m here.” The words sounded unsure leaving his lips.
“Thank the Black Stars... I thought you were truly lost forever when you didn’t respond immediately!”
Soren simply remained still, unable to respond. It was hard to have a conversation with everything he had just witnessed looming heavily over his mind.
Sensing the silence, Ynixia stopped talking for a few moments. But just when he finished organizing his thoughts, she asked him something he didn’t expect to hear:
“Soren… What exactly is your goal?”
His brows lifted slightly. “Goal?” Despite not seeing anything in the surrounding void, he could still tell from her voice that she was nervous about something.
“Yes. Your desires. Your goals. Your ambitions… Lay them out to me.”
“I don’t have any of that,” he smiled then shrugged.
“That is a lie.”
“Oho?”
“I know from the day you slid the lid off my coffin, that you desired something. I could feel it through your eyes.”
He chuckled, “What are you, a psychic? As I told you before, I have no goals—I am nothing more than a wandering ghost… or fairy… I live in the moment, chasing after fleeting amusement.”
“So is my plea amusing to you?”
“It’s not bad,” he thought about it seriously. “It's interesting to say the least. After all, the person who dragged your coffin around before your awakening seemed keen on making you my responsibility for some reason. It would be strange for me not to be curious about it—that is my nature, after all.”
“Responsibility…” The word lingered in the air for a while. “How descriptive.”
This time, Soren didn’t say anything.
“Do you truly possess no goal?” She asked again, this time with more sincerity.
He could only stand there, watching the darkness coil around itself in the distance. But then, his expression shifted slightly. He came to a decision he never expected to make.
He opened his mouth to answer. “My goal is to fi—”
Just then, a beam of light shot through darkness, sundering the shadows in its wake. It spread like a blaze, utterly unstoppable—in just a blink of an eye, no darkness remained in the surrounding space.
“What?!” Ynixia’s voice echoed with surprise and fear. It felt far easier to hear than before. Only after adjusting to the light did he begin to see where it came from.
Soren looked ahead while squinting, seeing the distant visage of Albert’s skeletal body laying on all fours on the now pristine white floor. The shadows clinging to him had become rather thin and withered—even the expression on his skulled face looked more grim than before.
He then tilted toward his left where a familiar black coffin now lay. Except, there was someone else standing next to it that looked rather familiar…
He squinted his eyes even further only to widen them again a second later.
“Ynixia?!”
The girl stood upright with a dumbfounded expression, glancing down at her own body in both horror and fascination. Her silver hair cascaded over her eye, shielding her from the unyielding illumination that clashed with her darkness.
After a few moments, she glanced up to see Soren for the first time—her gothic noble dress fluttering in the process. “Soren?” Her voice felt steady, but there was a hint of confusion hidden between the syllables.
Soren observed her closely, unsure of what to think. Indeed, just as he had seen her sleeping in the coffin, Ynixia was practically a porcelain doll. She looked human on the outside, but something about her existence always made him feel… uncomfortable?
No, perhaps it was fear all along.
Something about her always left him on edge. At first, he attributed it to simply his own trauma of seeing the Shepherd of the Nameless Fold. There was no denying that She was a terrifying existence to behold.
But after spending the past few months with her… Soren could no longer grasp why his felt that way about her. After all, Ynixia turned out to be nothing more than a simple young girl.
Her former noble status did make her slightly snobbish and elitist, but there was no denying her intelligence and kindness. She also possessed a childish side to her, evident in her insistence that he became her knight.
In a way, she somewhat reminded him of Cassi—
No.
He frowned, shaking his head to erase the thought. Glancing toward her, Soren took a step forward. “How long have you been able to move? Why didn’t you say anything before?”
She continued examining herself in complete bewilderment. “I… I’m not sure. The darkness must have concealed it. I’ve known that coffin for so long, I couldn’t even tell the difference between being inside or outside of it…”
His frown deepened. Could it be due to the castle absorbing the other living shadows as well?
He couldn’t be sure, but it seemed somewhat related. Waking up from her stupor, Ynixia finally glanced up and noticed Soren approaching. Unexpectedly, her expression shifted into absolute horror rather than relief.
“Stop! Don’t get any closer!”
Soren froze, confusion written on his face. “Huh?”
“I said stop!”
He had no choice but to comply. Furrowing his brows, Soren glanced at her annoyedly and crossed his arms. “So… What’s this about?”
“You’ll die!”
“What?”
“You heard me,” she stomped her boot, “You’ll die if you approach me! I’m serious! My body… its… It's cursed. Anyone who approaches me either becomes erased from existence or loses their memories. Those who are forgotten by everyone can never be returned…”
His lips twitched slightly. “But I’ve stood close by to you all the time.”
“The curse is only active when my body awakens,” she sighed. “That coffin… it acts as a seal. Of course, back when I had my original strength, I could turn the seal on or off depending on my mood at the time. But when I awoke in Carcosa, my power had all but vanished mysteriously. So much so, I became trapped within my own shell… And to top it all off, my memories were gone as well—that was when you discovered me.”
Soren stood still for a brief period, thinking back on everything they had experienced together. “I see… A few things are finally beginning to make sense.”
She glanced down at the surface of the subspace, trying to hide her shame. “I… I’m sorry for not telling you. I was afraid you wouldn’t agree to help me if you knew.”
“......”
Time stretched in the silence, taut and unmoving. Eventually, Soren let out a quiet sigh and dragged a hand through his ruffled hair.
“It’s fine. I’m hiding plenty of secrets too so I can’t exactly judge you.”
Ynixia gripped the seams of her dress tightly.
“Anyway… I guess that made for a good show, right?” Soren smiled, glancing past Ynixia’s slender frame into the emptiness beyond her.
She frowned and turned, following his gaze. But all she saw was a void of white stretching forever into infinity… Her confusion became palpable.
“What are you lo—”
Before she could utter her question, a feminine voice, softer than a pile of feathers, drifted from every direction.
“How did you know we were watching?”
Ynixia’s eyes widened in shock.
Soren chuckled. “Are you seriously asking me that?”
He heard a quiet sigh in response. “How clever…”
Indeed, from the very beginning of his probing of this space, he had been wary of outside presences watching over them. After all, his experience with subspaces in the past had usually denoted the existence of a ‘controller,’ someone who holds authority over how it operated.
Not to mention, the disappearance of the surrounding darkness occurred only after he uncovered the vision through [Eyes of the Fairy]... It became obvious someone was likely messing with them in secret. Though, he never expected them to be brazen enough to admit it that quickly.
“Show yourselves already, I don’t have time to waste on silly little pranks.”
After a little while, the ground began to shake as colossal cracks formed beneath their feet, stretching toward every direction of the space.
“Pray forgive our lack of decorum.”
All of a sudden, the world shattered, revealing a scene completely foreign to this forsaken world. Reflecting his eyes was a colossal opulent hall, draped in golden chandeliers and marble decorations. Nobles—all dressed in fanciful attires—danced in a wide circle, their laughter mingling with the soft murmurs of others conversing over wine nearby.
But what drew his and Ynixia’s attention the most, was what they wore over their faces. Golden masks, each carved distinctly from one another shined brightly beneath the chandelier light, making the spectacle more unnerving than it was exciting to see.
“I welcome you, Shepherd, to our annual Summit of Houses banquet. Your presence is truly an honor.”
They turned toward the voice in unison.
A tall woman stood before them, her crimson gown cascading outward like the bloom of a rose. Through the filigreed gold of her mask, sharp golden eyes regarded them with playful appraisal.
With a casual sweep, she dramatically tossed her black hair over her shoulder, then gathered the edges of her skirt and offered a graceful curtsy toward Ynixia.
“I am Duchess Cassilda of House Azrathiel. We are pleased to know of your safe arrival at Hyades Castle.”