Chapter 294 To Leave A Dying World (1/2)

The journey through the Shadow Real

While the first feeeks had Arran gazing upon the ruined landscape ide-eyed wonder, he soon found that all it offered were variations on a single theme There were barren plains, barren wastes, and barren hills, all of them pitch-black, covered in a thick layer of Shadow Essence

The only traces of life left in the world were sparse, stunted growths that only barely qualified as plants, along with a rough kind of moss that covered some of the rocks strewn about the lands

And even that sad excuse for vegetation served little purpose, as there were no ani the rocks, nor birds in the sky In weeks of travel, Arran encountered not even a single insect

It see creatures that remained in the world were the Remnants, and whether those were truly alive, Arran did not know

Yetof all was the lack of Natural Essence Even with the Shadow Essence blanketing the lands, Arran was certain that he would have Sensed it if there was any By now, his Sense had grown strong enough for that

But no matter how htest trace of Natural Essence could be felt in this barren world It was as if all of it had been taken, or extinguished somehow

In his oorld, the vitality of Natural Essence pervaded every tree, plant, and even rock Even in the deepest caves and atop the highest mountains, traces of it could be Sensed Yet here, it was completely absent

He asked Karanos about the e said, the world had already been like this when he first found it And how it had happened, he did not know Perhaps the world's Natural Essence had gone extinct when its people and animals did, or perhaps it was the other way around

Whatever the case, the answer had been lost to tis related to the Shadow Real after its fall, and he knew nothing of the cataclys he knew ca the ruins, but even so, those had contained feers

The only thing Karanos could say with certainty was that once, this world had been h for hiht one day befall their oorld

It was a worry that Arran shared with his co witnessed the ruined world firsthand, he now understood that entire worlds could fall to disaster And if that was the case, his oorld ht face similar threats

Those worries were further fueled by what he had witnessed in the Ninth Valley's mountains

Arran did not knohether the Remnants in this world had caused the devastation or whether they were a result of it, but that si thought

But there was nothing he could do about it Once he returned to the Ninth Valley, he would scour its libraries for inforht help him understand the Shadow Realm, and perhaps find a way to stave off the threat — if there was one

But until then, his questions would have to go unanswered

The journey was a long one, and although Karanos did not have the answers Arran sought, Arran found hie's co their way through the wastes, Karanos regaled Arran with stories of his past He spoke little of ic — for all his power, he seemed to have little interest in the subject — and instead detailed the rise of A town into a center of trade and coh trade and politics weren't topics he usually cared for, Karanos told his tales with such enthusiashts sound like epic battles

To Karanos, perhaps they were

The man was a merchant at heart, ic And even if the world had forced hie, it was clear that necessity had brought hih Karanos's tales were plentiful, the journey was long enough that long stretches of ti

Arran used these hours of silence to study his sword and feed it his Shadow Essence, hoping that strengthening his bond to the weapon would allow hiain some control over it

But while Arran's efforts did strengthen their bond, it didn't take hi to discover just how vast an ocean of Essence the weapon held Compared to that, whatever Essence he fed itthat would take years of effort, if it was possible at all

Nevertheless, the weapon proved itself useful on several occasions While the barren wasteland held far fewer Remnants than the city, the ones it held still posed a deadly threat — or they would have, had Arran's sword not alar before either he or Karanos could Sense the of which the weapon warned

During their long months of travel, the Shadow Essence around the day, eventually turning so dense that even Arran's Sense could barely penetrate it

And as the Essence thickened, Arran's sword radiated an ever-increased aura of urgency, as if it saw a great disaster approaching

This aura only grew stronger when, nearly half a year into their journey, the Shadow Essence suddenly stopped growing denser The change happened in an instant, and it was like the Essence had so that prevented it fro further