Shadow Slave | A Slave Once Again

Chapter 15: The Mist

Third POV:

After a night's rest. The cohort ventured into the mountain range.

Armed with the understanding of just how dangerous the beautiful mountains towering above them were, the cohort set out deeper into the foothills. Because they didn't know much about the area and what type of creatures populated it, they decided to stay together.

While it would have been much easier to send Kai to take a look around from above, no one wanted to take this risk. As a result, the six humans moved in a tight group, much like they had on the narrow streets of the Dark City and in the Labyrinth.

Reaching the quarry, Sunny finally encountered a familiar sight. At the bottom of the quarry, there was a giant Nightmare Creature.

The abomination was enormous, easily twice the size of the Carapace Demon... who had already been as tall as a house. It looked like a strange insect, somewhat resembling a weird mix of a rhinoceros beetle and a praying mantis, with a smooth carapace, massive horn, and deadly blades attached to the joints of its limbs.

The whole creature seemed to be made out of stone and was the same color as the floor of the quarry. In fact, if not for Effie's warning, the cohort might have not even noticed it.

...That flesh, however, was broken and shattered, lying in piles on the ground.

The giant stone demon was dead.

And from the looks of it, it died by a human hand.

After a while, the cohort confirmed that the creature was slain by the hands of a human.

Sunny's discovery of the missing shards was solid enough proof of the fact that it was indeed the First Lord's cohort that had battled and slain the terrifying creature.

They had really found the signs of the lost expedition.

But there was another proof for this conclusion, this one irrefutable.

Nephis, who had wandered away from the remains of the demon at some point, suddenly called them over.

The members of the cohort glanced at each other, then slowly approached her, trying to understand what was it that she had found.

Changing Star was standing near one of the piles of rocks that were littering the ground around the body of the dead creature, looking at it with a solemn expression. Most of them came from its shattered carapace, while some were created because the floor of the quarry was broken apart and churned during the ferocious battle.

Why was Nephis so interested in that one in particular?

That's what the Cohort thought. Looking closer, The cohort finally realized that this pile of rocks was different from all others. It was lower, roughly oval in shape, its contour too perfect to be the result of a pure coincidence.

It seemed as though each rock was painstakingly placed here by a human hand, perhaps in hopes of making the pile as orderly and sturdy as possible.

Suddenly, a cold shiver ran down Sunny's spine. He finally realized what he was looking at.

This was not really a pile of rocks.

It was a grave.

Standing around the cairn, the members of the cohort looked at it with somber expressions — except for Cassie, who turned away and faced the mountainside, as though trying to hide her emotions.

Now that they knew what they were looking at, their mood suddenly became forlorn and solemn. People stranded on the Forgotten Shore were well acquainted with death and tragedy, but finding this lonely grave so far away from any place where another human could find it, lost under the alien grey sky of the Dream Realm, was still a poignant revelation.