Shadow Slave

Armed with the understanding of just how dangerous the beautiful mountains towering above them were, the cohort set out deeper into the foothills. Because they didn't know much about the area and what type of creatures populated it, they decided to stay together.

While it would have been much easier to send Kai to take a look around from above, no one wanted to take this risk. As the result, the six humans moved in a tight group, much like they had on the narrow streets of the Dark City and in the Labyrinth.

…However, the landscape around them was vastly different. There were no growths of crimson coral covering the ground, just grass and outcroppings of grey rock. It almost felt like they were back on Earth.

Strangely, that made Sunny feel uncomfortable. Looking around, he could see far in every direction, with no walls of coral or ancient, ruined buildings obscuring his view. That made it harder for the Nightmare Creatures to ambush the cohort, but also impossible for the cohort to hide from anything that could have been watching.

'That is true, but… where are all the monsters?'

Indeed, no matter how hard Sunny looked, he couldn't see any movement whatsoever. It was as if the entire area was completely dead. They were surrounded by complete silence, which was broken only when a member of the cohort made a sound.

The picturesque scenery could have been peaceful, but felt eerie instead. Even Sunny's shadow seemed uncharacteristically listless.

Full of unease, they continued to move forward.

The plan was very simple. Because of Cassie's vision, they knew that the First Lord and his companions had traveled to the mountains the same way that they did, or at least followed the same route. That meant that both cohorts entered the foothills at approximately the same spot.

The other thing Cassie had told them was that they were searching for a vast pit in the stone. It was hard to miss something like that, so all they had to do was to move deeper into the foothills and look around.

grew more and more rocky, and the incline became rather steep. Soon, they were surrounded by tall boulders and had to walk

high above the labyrinth they had climbed. By now, it was far away and below them,

a bit of introspection, Sunny realized that it was something he had lost a

feeling of being connected to

though all of them understood that crossing the Hollow Mountains was an impossible task, simply knowing where they were

stranded as they had been before… but at least they weren't lost

a nice,

hurried to catch up with the rest

in the sky when they found the pit Cassie had described. It was situated in a valley just at the point where the foothills turned into proper mountains, and turned out to

throughout the whole day, they had not met a single living thing. In any other circumstances, Sunny would have been glad because

he looked down

A road clinging to the slope of the circular pit led to the bottom of it, wide enough for ten carriages to ride

either colossal steps or seats of an amphitheater built for giants. Here and there, massive blocks of stone stood,

the size of the deep quarry. Something connected

so this is where the materials for the mighty wall of the Dark City

was certain of it. To think that the ancient inhabitants of the Forgotten Shore had transported all that stone from this far away… the thought

a tense look on her face. Suddenly. she pointed to the center

"Over there, look."

he couldn't understand what the huntress was talking about, but then his heart