Shadow Slave | A Slave Once Again

Chapter 16 : The First Lord

Third POV:

The cohort walked on the bridge, leaving the dark maze behind. Soon, they could feel the mist surrounding them grow thinner.

And at some point, it was gone.

They crossed the river without any trouble and returned to solid ground again.

Making several more steps, The cohort stopped and finally allowed themselves to tremble. Then, Caster opened his mouth and said in a hoarse voice:

"Are we through?"

Although Cassie had not said anything about the need to remain quiet, each of them subconsciously avoided speaking ever since entering the mist.

Only Sunny was speaking bizarrely every now and then.

Because of that, the sound of his own voice startled Caster.

A few moments later, Cassie answered in a hesitant tone:

"I... I think so?"

A few moments later Sunny's voice confirmed it

"We should be through."

Without wasting any more time, Sunny untied the cloth that covered his eyes and removed the wax from them. Then, he carefully opened them and looked around.

They were standing on a stone shore inside a vast cave, through which the underground river was flowing unobstructed. Some distance away from them, the wall of the cave came down, with the mouth of a wide tunnel visible in it.

By his side, other members of the cohort were removing the strips of cloth. Sunny could hear the sighs of relief coming from them.

However, his attention was instantly drawn to Nephis, who had already opened her calm grey eyes and was looking at something behind him.

Turning around, Sunny followed her gaze...

Just a few meters away from them, on the shore of the dark river, he saw a familiar human skeleton. It was sitting on the cold stones, its back straight, facing the water.

Unlike the ferocious undead from the catacombs of the Dark City, this one was tranquil and untouched by the corruption of the Forgotten Shore.

...This was the place where the First Lord of the Bright Castle had died.

The young man whom the members of the cohort only knew by his title had died on the shores of the cold underground river, just a few meters away from the bridge that he had used to escape the terrible place which, according to Cassie, no living being should have been able to escape.

Somehow, he had survived even without knowing that anyone entering the mist had to keep their eyes closed at all times. But in the end, the wounds he had received there - or somewhere up ahead - turned out to be too grievous.

Before the last vestiges of life abandoned him, the young man - the First Lord who had wrestled the Bright Castle from the Nightmare Creatures, created a safe place for the humans sent to the Forgotten Shore to live and led an expedition to find a way out of this cursed place - sat down and looked in the direction of the misty, dark maze.

...The place where his friends and companions had died, leaving him alone in the darkness of this forsaken underworld.

Looking at the skeleton that sat quietly on the shore of the river, Sunny couldn't help but feel a deep feeling of awe... and sorrow.

He had never met this young man, but somehow, it felt as though they knew each other very well.

Everything that humans had on the Forgotten Shore was thanks to his bravery, power, and skill.