Chapter 3187 — Chapter 3187 Pursuit of Light

The shadow's authority over his kingdom was absolute. There was nothing within its dark boundary that did not belong to him, so naturally, there was no one who drew breath. His land was a land of death, with only the shades under his control simulating the acts of the living.

And yet, he could not shake off the suspicion that something was hiding within the darkness, obscured even from his senses.

He could not sense any movement that could not be explained, and he could not hear any sounds that could not be traced to a predictable source. And yet, at times, he felt a faint, alien presence.

A presence that should not have existed in his dead kingdom — the presence of someone who was still alive.

‘How can this be?'

The shadow had killed everything in this land. Countless years had passed since then, and no one managed to enter the eternal darkness shrouding it. The humans who came to find out how the nation born from the Shadow Tribe had been wiped out turned back and fled in fear, while the Creatures of Corruption who dared to enter his domain were ruthlessly slain.

So, if there was a living being somewhere in his kingdom, it could only mean one of two things.

One was that someone had managed to sneak past his senses and was still hiding. The other was that someone had managed to survive his wrath and had been hiding from his gaze ever since.

Both possibilities left him displeased.

So, the shadow endeavored to find the source of the elusive presence. He explored every corner of his kingdom with special attention. He even ordered all the shades under his control to stop, wanting to eliminate the chance of their movements obscuring something he had failed to notice.

And yet, he failed to find anything.

‘Did I imagine the whole thing?’

If the shadow had a physical body, he would have frowned.

‘No, it was definitely here...'

From then on, he ordered his shades to stop for a few moments every day, hoping to sense the strange presence again.

Time passed, with nothing in particular happening. The shadow continued to rule his dead kingdom. Outside the vast expanse of his dark land, the world continued to change.

He had learned some news from the conversations of people who sometimes arrived in hopes of solving the mystery of the eerie darkness, but inevitably retreated after witnessing its frightening depths.

The Age of Gods was ending.

In fact, it was already over. Somewhere far away, the strange creature known as the White Abyss had withdrawn her grace from the people of the First Kingdom, appearing in front of them less and less. Eventually, she ceased responding to mortals altogether, becoming no more than an ocean of eternal flame burning furiously in the confines of her great temple.

The First Kingdom continued its existence for a few more generations, but eventually collapsed and splintered, thus ushering in a new age — the Age of Heroes.

All across existence, humans had become powerful enough to challenge the Creatures of Corruption openly. Instead of merely surviving in a hostile world, they were now fighting for dominion over it — led by exalted champions, of course. Strength was a question of accumulation, in most cases.

Throughout the Age of Gods, humans had been learning and accumulating knowledge — they went from hunting beasts with flint spears to forging intricate tools and weapons out of bronze. The copper knife that Tatal had treated with such awe would be seen as a common item now, an inferior and trifling blade no less.

Humans had learned how to work mystical and sublime materials, as well, which allowed them to create truly lethal weapons.

That was the deadly power of progress. They had progressed in countless other areas, as well, from sorcery to philosophy and agriculture. Being able to grow more food allowed more people to be born, which in turn allowed more champions to rise from their ranks.

A new and previously unheard-of concept, writing, was slowly spreading among some people — it was a gift from Hope, the Demon of Desire.

Humans had learned more about the Path of Ascension, as well, solving its mysteries and slowly developing essence techniques to climb it. When Tatal became a Transcendent, that had been a legendary feat — something nearly unheard of, let alone witnessed by many. But now, there were far more Transcendents around, all of them brimming with fighting spirit and resolve.

There were descendants of the gods among them, as well — humans with divine blood in their veins.

Harnessing the power of progress, humans ventured to conquer the world.

So, the world was slowly changing under their footsteps.

At the same time, the gods seemed to become more distant. While their avatars still existed, they rarely left the Divine Realms to roam the lands populated by mortals. Most of the daemons, too, had become withdrawn.

Mirage was spending more and more of her time inside her Great Mirror. Rime was exploring distant skies aboard her living ship. Ariel was rumored to have become fascinated by a beautiful monster, for whom he had built a magnificent palace from pure white jade. Nether spent his time by Storm God's side...

None of them, except Hope, seemed to be interested in humans that much.

And so, the heroes of humanity could stand tall.

No troublesome hero had grown brazen enough to try bothering the shadow, though, which he was thankful for.

Even if he felt that encountering a fool or two was only a matter of time.

Before that happened, though, he finally managed to confirm his suspicion and find the source of the strange presence.

That day, when the shades froze for a few minutes, he resorted to something he rarely did — he took a physical shape and appeared on the streets of the silent city.

All around him, shades stood motionlessly, each frozen in the middle of what they had been doing. After studying the eerie scene for a while, the shadow walked into the largest structure in the city — the temple dedicated to the six great gods — and made his way to its inner sanctum.

He had not dared to enter the temple before. Last he saw, the priests of the temple had been corrupt and greedy, hoarding riches and engaging in vices... still, nothing good could come from desecrating the home of the gods.

Even when the shadow commanded his shades to emulate the actions of living people, he had avoided sending anyone into the temple. The shades of the priests were only ever allowed to stand on its steps. Now, however, he made his way further inside. And there, in one of the treasuries hidden inside the inner sanctum, he found something that made his thoughts darken.

There, a box forged from metal lay on a pedestal — and not just any metal, at that. It was a Transcendent material akin to black silver, known for its great durability and crushing weight.

The box was wrapped in chains.

Hesitating for a moment, the shadow tore the chains and broke the lock, opening the heavy lid.

As soon as the lid opened, he hissed in displeasure. Brilliant light poured from beneath, pushing his darkness away — even if only for a moment. Then, the darkness grew deeper, and the light was suffocated, retreating to hide back inside the silver box. The source of the pure radiance... was a radiant, transparent crystal. The source of light was hidden in its depths, like a ray of sunlight trapped in clear ice.

Before the shadow could react, the crystal suddenly cracked, and the ray of light escaped from it like a brilliant arrow.

In the blink of an eye, it shot through the window and disappeared from sight.

‘How does this even make sense?'

All of the shadow’s kingdom was enveloped in darkness, and that darkness was the shadow. Even if the beam of pure light had managed to escape the temple, it would still remain within the shadow — but he could not sense it at all.

It was as if the light had hidden somewhere. And, indeed, that was the case.

A few moments later, the shadow found the light hiding inside the statue standing in the center of the city plaza. He destroyed the statue, and the ray of light escaped again.

Next, it hid inside a training dummy deep within the city barracks. The shadow destroyed the dummy, as well, but still failed to catch the annoying sprite.

That was how their game of cat and mouse began.

For the next few days, the shadow searched for the light, while the light continued to escape him. In the end, however, the shadow managed to drive the radiant thing into a corner.

Even if that corner was quite unexpected... It was a vast cave in the neighboring mountains — the very same cave the shadow had once called his home.

Taking a physical shape, he entered the familiar coldness and looked around. Everything was dark.

‘Where the hell is that damn thing?’

He walked around, and then kicked a small pile of rocks away with his foot.

Beneath it, a small figure was revealed, cowering and covering its head with both hands.

The shadow froze, staring at it with a surprised expression on his vaguely contoured face.

It was a tattered, dreadfully ugly doll. Unable to stay silent, the shadow opened his mouth and spoke for the first time in countless years.

"...Snuggle?"

The doll lowered its hands slightly and looked at him with its black, beady eyes. Then, unbelievably, it answered in a squeaky voice.

It said:

"I... I'd rather not!"