My Shadow Monarch's System
Chapter 37: Ashen Wastes II.

Chapter 37: Ashen Wastes II.

The lands of Ashen Wastes were an oddity, although it faced towards North, Shadow felt none of the cold, or perhaps, was it his new skill that prevented him?

He looked at Liora who seemed scared, she looked around. "I don’t like this place at all, we should leave, go back and return the gold" her voice was weak and pleading but Shadow shook his head.

"It’s not worth it. Why are you risking your life. Our lives for mere gold!!!" She raised her voice.

"It’s not for the money Liora. People need us!" He spat back, although that was not truly his intention, he should have told her about his plans. But not yet, the time hadn’t come.

"People....." She stopped herself and bit her lip. She murmured something and looked around in fear.

Shadow watched her closely, feeling the need to console her, he had been the one to bring her out into this waste land.

"We’ll be fine, I promise" he said, "Besides, we’re not going too far deep in, just at the foot of the mountains, by the valleys" he pointed, trying his best to calm her mind.

The further they walked, the more Shadow took notice of things that were unnatural.

[NOTICE!]

Syl, what’s the matter?

[DO NOT INHALE THE RED MIASMA...]

What red miasma?

Syl? Are you there?

Shadow waited for a moment, but no reply came, he sighed heavily, looking around him. The plants had taken on a different hue, the leaves were black as the night sky, and so was the ground on which they stepped on.

Black tendril like things grew from everything, he looked to the trees and ponds that lay about, the black tendrils were there. Gradually, he noticed the thing that Syl was talking about.

Although it just seems like red diluted smoke, he inhaled a bit and coughed, he thought it was normal, but the cough didn’t stop.

"Hey are you oka---"Liora called out, seeming slightly bothered. Shadow held his palm out, warning her to stay away from him. Before he could inhale anymore of the damn smoke, with a wave of his hand, frost covered around both of them.

Liora looked surprised, that was the least thing she’d expected from him, she looked around alarmed, perhaps waiting for an enemy.

But Shadow kept coughing, it was getting to the point where he began wheezing out splutters of blood. He had to act fast.

Using his mana and ice, Shadow froze his insides temporarily, giving him some time to recover, then gradually he used his mana to search his body for anything that seemed alien to his system.

He felt something was moving there, something that shouldn’t have existed, guided by his ice, he pulled out at it with his mana, the thing had taken root in his throat and stomach. It was an Incredibly painful experience.

He bent over trying his best to not cave out his insides and pull out whatever had taken root in him, until he threw up fits of blood on the frosty ground, he threw up once more, something black mixed it with it.

Liora took the initiative and ran behind him, placing her hand on her back, she muttered a spell and healed him as fast as she could.

Shadow breathed out a sign of relief, then opened his eyes to see black tendrils squirming about on the frozen grounds. He looked around him, thankfully, the ice he had made around them stopped the Red MIASMA from protruding.

The black tendrils that came out from his body were the same he could see on everything about him. He shook in fear, if Syl hadn’t warned him, he would have been dead for sure.

Thank you Syl.

[....]

"What was that?" Liora asked taking a deep breath as Shadow stood up, "And why suddenly cover us with an ice barrier, and when did you learn how to manipulate ice?".

Shadow sighed, she asked too many questions, it reminded him of kids in their learning phase.

"Stay in the barrier, the red smoke will do that to you if you breathe it..." He pointed at the red spot on the ground, the black tendrils had stopped moving but that didn’t stop Liora from taking a few steps back in fear.

She looked around her in doubt.

"Just stay by my side, you’ll be alright" he promised. Yet he didn’t believe the words he said to her. Still, he pushed further, he had a village to save.

The deeper they went in, the abnormal the mana fluctuations were, a bush nearby rustled making Shadow stop in his tracks, letting his guard down here would mean death.

A rabbit jumped out of the bushel nearby, upon seeing the rabbit, Liora screamed and held onto Shadow even tighter.

Shadow watch in horror as black tendrils wriggled out from every pore, hair strand and opening on the rabbits body, it was hardly even recognizable at this point.

The rabbit looked at both of them, tendrils wriggled violently at its eye, it looked at both Shadow and Liora, and hopped towards them.

Shadow instinctively used mind manipulation, it worked on anything that had sentience, if it was alive and thought on its own, it would definitely work.

But it didn’t.

The rabbit seemed fazed, unbothered by the actions of Shadow and simply hopped slowly towards them.

"Stop it damn it" Liora shouted, he couldn’t depend on her to help him but he tried even more to take over the mammals mind, yet nothing.

There was only one case where mind manipulation couldn’t work. If the opponent was stronger than him...

Shadow looked at the hopping rabbit.

No! That couldn’t be...

The idea of being weaker than a rabbit completely appalled him, without dwelling too much on it, he held his hand up as an ice spear formed on it, out of thin air and flung it at the rabbit.

It impaled the rabbit to a tree nearby, the black tendrils wriggled about even more violently, trashing about as the host of its possession lost its life, the tendrils calmed itself, then moved onto the tree it was impaled on.

Shadow shivered visibly, hairs standing at the back of his neck.

He continued onward with Liora held on tightly to his right arm. Soon they arrived at the valley, there the red miasma was very little, it seemed as though the red miasma covered a certain range of the mountains but didn’t go too deep in.

He was still unwilling to let go of his frost barrier, but he looked ahead, before him stood two mountains, in the centre was a valley and in that valley was a cave.

The entrance lay bare open for all who passed to see.

"Something tells me we should NOT go into that cave". Liora cried out. "What if all of this is your imagination? This is needless... What would you do if that voice really didn’t exist?" She questioned him continuously.

"You saw a village with no villagers right?" He asked her, she slowly nodded.

"Then what other reason do we need?" He said once more. Liora looked away not wanting to admit defeat but he didn’t care, he just wanted to get this over with.

They walked towards the entrance, but just at the feet of the cave, something stopped Shadow. He saw a human leg, being feasted upon by a...

Is that a rat?

The rat feasted happily on its meat until it saw the two humans, it shrieked in anger, it’s red eyes flashing as it dragged its meat away, not wanting to share his prize. Before the rat could scutter further away into the cave, it froze in place, being held by ice.

"I knew rats would eat almost anything, but human flesh?" He questioned himself as he walked closer, he poked at the leg, it was frozen already but there were signs of freshness.

His gaze hardened as he looked into the depths of the cave, spreading his shadow sense, he felt at the shadows that lay ahead, the ones that moved and those that didn’t.

After a moment, he bowed his head in guilt, he had been too late, he felt the shadows of more than a hundred, all dead!

He considered telling Liora, but decided against it. Standing up, he held her hand and guided her into the cave without saying a word.

It was dark, she didn’t need to know, we just had to walk past the dead bodies and search for the other humans that existed in the cave.

He felt their presence but didn’t know where they were. It was odd, something was blocking his senses, something dark and unknown. Shadow gulped.

"Ilios" Liora muttered.

A ball of light burst forth, dispelling the darkness as Liora eyes met the horror that lay before her. Shadow moved to cover eyes but it was too late.

Liora let out a howling scream, one of horror and despair, her eyes bled out tears at the horror that lay before her.

Before her were heads, heads of children, men, women, all impaled on wooden sticks, their eyes were all missing as their mouths hung open.

Liora doubled over, throwing up the contents of her stomach, she looked up again, seeing the dismembered body parts of each of them laying at their feet.

She felt overwhelmed by disgust, throwing up again. Shadow stood behind her, watching the scene with a certain familiarity. He was sure, the cult was involved.

"Let’s go..." Shadow carried her to her feet, Liora seemed delirious.

"This isn’t real right? It’s all a joke you planned out for me. Those aren’t actual people right?" She said, hoping he would tell her what she wanted to hear, he could feel her hesitancy, she didn’t want to turn around and meet the dead eyes of the villagers.

People that were a jolly lot, just living their lives happily, farming, breeding, herding, eating. And now, now there were just...

Shadow looked away. Even he could stand to see such and not be affected, back then it had been goblins so he didn’t think much about it. But there were the workings of a human.

"Dispel the light. You’ve seen enough" he whispered as he held a shaking Liora. She whimpered, dispelling the light, the darkness swallowed them as tears flowed from Liora’s eyes.

He thought he had been ready for his task, to save this world and stop this madness. But he truly knew nothing of the nature of things that lived.

He held Liora tightly as she cried out her eyes, bawling and scratching, Shadow held onto her till the very end, she needed a certain level of assurance, she was his responsibility and he would do whatever he could to keep her safe. The one who hadn’t abandoned him.

***

"How far deep do we need to go?" Liora asked, her voice was almost gone from all the crying she had done.

She shouldn’t have summoned that light, she told herself, she should have trusted Shadow, letting him guide her till they reached wherever it was they were headed.

"We’re almost there, I can sense someone moving up ahead, although..." He stopped himself, looking harder as though he could really see in the dark.

But Liora has come to expect the unexpected from Shadow, she remembered their battle in the cave against Scar, how he had fought them without the presence of light, she couldn’t figure out.

"What are yo---" Liora felt a strong grip on her mouth, it was Shadow but he was panicking, she could hear his breathing, his heart rate, her eyes widened in shock.

Shadow was scared? Scared?

She didn’t even want to think about what could possibly make him of all people scared, she held her breath as she felt the vibrations of something approaching.

They ducked into a corner and stayed as motionless as possible, the little stones in the ground shook slightly as someone huge approached. It stopped a few meters from where they had been.

It sniffed the air, letting out a low growl.

"Humans!"

"Hmmm. Sweet humans!"

Liora felt her pulse rise, her heart thumping as fast as possible, that voice wasn’t human.