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...

him from all sides. A moment later, the snow exploded, and hideous figures lunged at him with frenzy burning in their

slaughter was swift and

gauntlets of the Onyx Mantle to crush the abominations. He danced between them like an

Until none remained.

red by blood, and a fine crimson haze hung

‘Huh.'

from a feverish nightmare, Most of them were Fallen Beasts and Monsters... and although he was sure that he had never fought such creatures

subjugated a legion of Mountain King's Larvae in Antarctica

and much more powerful, they resembled the Larvae

Sunny smiled faintly.

I be reunited with the Mountain

wasn't dead, it would have grown much more powerful

in this area of the Dream Realm during their march north, and they would not have tolerated

had survived the thousands of years without leaving the Black Mountain, he would have been dealt with by someone like Whispering Blade,

the shadows and appeared directly on the peak of the Black

for a while, looking ahead with an expression of

temple... was still there, under

of flat rock was covered with snow. In the center of it, illuminated by moonlight, stood a magnificent temple. Its colossal columns and walls were cut from black marble, with exquisite reliefs decorating the stygian pediment and broad frieze. lіghtn\оvеlс\аvе~c`о\m. Beautiful and awesome, it looked like a palace

parts of the roof had collapsed,

It was as if thousands of years had no effect on it

thousands of

think

there so many

the Mountain King had devoured its victims? Somehow, Sunny doubted it. The Tyrant had consumed the

No, before that.

was this temple,

Sunny remembered Scholar mentioning that pilgrims used to climb the mountain in

the Empire had destroyed, but the timing did not make sense. The destruction of the Shadow cult was a recent event during his First Nightmare...

the altar, the Spell described it as an offering to all the gods. It was just that Shadow had been the only one to

Stranger still...

of the Nightmare.

Sunny shivered.

offering... reached the actual gods, and not a substitute of them put in place by the Spell? Was the

Probably not.

And how had Shadow

last part wasn't that surprising. The gods were the ones who had created things like time and death, after all. So, it wasn't strange to Imagine that they had a special relationship with these laws, A god could very well respond to a question before it was asked, and bless a slave who had