Shadow Slave

Chapter 1800: Return to the Black Mountain Chapter 1800: Return to the Black Mountain

Sunny often thought about the slave caravan, but he never actually tried to learn more about the events that had transpired in the Nightmare.

He knew that they had happened at the dusk of the Golden Age, not long before the start of the Doom War. Back then, the gods had grown indifferent and distant, and the soldiers of an expansionist empire that worshipped War wiped out the Shadow cult, burning down all its temples.

However, he did not know much about that empire and the lands it had conquered. The history of the Dream Realm was overshadowed by the calamitous destruction of the Doom War, and while it was possible to learn a thing or two about the previous eras, the devastation had erased most traces of the last human civilizations.

So, Sunny had never actually expected to behold the Black Mountain again.

He stared at its distant peak in bewilderment. Then, a sense of subtle curiosity bloomed in his heart.

‘...Might as well take a look'

Sunny actually felt a hint of sentimentality.

Back then, it took the caravan days to scale the mountain pass, Sunny remembered the agony of walking up the mountain road vividly - the cold, the pain, the biting touch of the iron shackles that shredded his wrists. He had felt so tired and weak, not knowing if he would survive the cruel march.

Many of the slaves had not, and ended up being tossed off the cliff after falling into the snow.

It was a hard thing, to climb a mountain while hungry and on the verge of freezing.

Today, Sunny simply stepped into the shadows and appeared halfway up the slope.

Step, step, and another step.

Just like that, he was standing below the towering edifice of the Black Mountain.

Thousands of years had passed since the day the slave caravan was destroyed. The mountain road had already been old and crumbling back then now, no trace of it remained.

For a few moments, Sunny contemplated staying here for a while to find the old bones. He was curious to know what had actually happened to the nameless slave and Auro of the Nine. Had they escaped the Mountain King? Or had they perished?

He was quite certain that Auro had survived. But what about the young temple slave?

However, Sunny quickly dismissed that idea.

It would take him months, or maybe even years, to dig through the snow and find the traces of the caravan if any traces remained, Even then, there was no guarantee that he would be able to tell anything about the past from them.

So, with a sigh, Sunny looked up, at the peak of the Black Mountain.

The only place he could visit was the mysterious temple that had stood there, surrounded by bones.

But before that...

rushing at him from all sides. A moment later, the snow

was

the spiked gauntlets of the Onyx Mantle to crush the abominations.

Until none remained.

red by blood, and a fine crimson haze

‘Huh.'

that a mad artist would paint after waking up from a feverish nightmare, Most of

of Mountain King's Larvae in Antarctica not too

different and much more powerful, they resembled the

Sunny smiled faintly.

be reunited

would have grown much more powerful

forces of Valor had eradicated the most dangerous Nightmare Creatures in this area of the Dream Realm during their march north, and they would not have tolerated a powerful Tyrant remaining

the Black Mountain, he would have been dealt

another step through the shadows and appeared

motionlessly for a while, looking ahead with an

was still there,

temple. Its colossal columns and walls were cut from black marble, with exquisite reliefs decorating the stygian pediment

black stones, parts of the roof had collapsed, letting in

did not change at all. It was as

thousands of bones scattered around, carpeting the ground. Some belonged to Nightmare Creatures, while some seemed to

think of

there so many bones

had devoured its victims? Somehow, Sunny doubted it. The Tyrant had consumed the slaves right

No, before that.

was this

Scholar mentioning that pilgrims used to climb the mountain in the ancient times. Who were these pilgrims, and

one of the Shadow God's temples that the Empire had destroyed, but the timing did not make sense. The destruction of the Shadow cult was a recent event during

offering to all the

Stranger still...

had still been alive at the time of the Nightmare. And yet,

Sunny shivered.

of them put in place by the Spell? Was the Spell even capable of creating illusory copies of the

Probably not.

And how had Shadow God granted him a blessing from beyond the

and death, after all. So, it wasn't strange to Imagine that they had a special relationship with