The Shadow of the Accursed Executioner

Chapter 4: Idols in Ruin

"For eighteen thousand years, I, have not sighted the shadow... It were all I had simply remembered. Or perhaps, I, were simply blinded by the dark of this new world..." Panamex admitted, illuminating a cross-way.
As I had placed down Panamex like a bonfire during the tale, as I sat against the wall, my face half-lit like a lost soul, beside my pointless blade.
For within the dark there had loomed three passages.
The passages were steeped-so blind as to see nothing but the dark itself, as each entrance blew a faint breeze from the unknown, with a lingering haunt.
"You said...that the shadow had looked like me." I said, gazing into my cursed hand, depressed, then to gaze into Panamex's light, like a fire. "...What the hell are you talking about?"
"The mentioning of the one, the shadow, as I plunged with my bodiless self into the depths of the abyss... For you remain... peculiar."
"Get to the point."
"For the shadow had revealed a new form, stripped of the shadow itself, once a shadow among the Shadowmen beyond-an abyss of their own endless battles...it, had only a body such as you. However, it, had possessed a deep alteration..." Panamex described, "Long strands from its head, increased curvature, and two round, odd protrusions...!"
-Panamex gave me a clear description of the body.
I grabbed his horn then pulled against the rope for him to hang down my back along with my pointless blade, as I entered through the first passage.
It was only a short distance, passing over cracks and even a hole through the ground, that the remainder of the passage had collapsed entirely. Debris had formed a wall of crushed rubble from above. The ruin, the passage itself was likely created my man, I thought, standing a safe distance away from its own catastrophe. For exploring the passage was no longer possible, as I head back to the cross-way.
"To explore such a world... no longer of imprisonment!" Panamex spoke. "For I am grateful beyond, for the actions you have taken upon, with I."
"As long as you do what I say."
Then his eyes glowed in satisfaction. And even though he had lost everything-though most of his body, I was secretly amazed by his existence as a bodiless dragon of the sun. He, was a lifeless creature, yet a life-filled beast. And despite his imprisonment of eighteen-thousand years, along with the death of his elder brother, he, was a hopeful husk of his former self.
Returning to the cross-way as I entered through the second passage, the path stretched out as a plot, a hopeless face of dark. For there were no holes or no cracks across the grounds of the passage here, as Panamex's light shined beneath, revealing the stones of the floor. Then eventually scraps of steel began to appear in the light. And now each step I took, I placed my next one with caution, now noticing, that the scraps were the remains of attempted forgeries. Yet, all the pieces of steel had been tarnished, I thought, like someone, seemingly, had failed to create a simple and flat piece of steel many times, now stepping over the littered pieces then halting with a stern gaze, focusing my eye through the dark.
As I raise my gauntlet, then grip the hilt of my pointless blade.
"Immortality, you said. Did you...?" I mumbled low, now subtly reaching for Panamex's horn.
"I, cannot truly die," He added, "for the sun is an everlasting source of life-"
"That's all I needed to hear." I said, dropping him down onto the cold-stone floors of the passage.
I raised my right boot, then pressed against the back of his ancient head, scraping him forward like a boulder of light. And with my pointless blade, too large to wield within a narrow passage, I sheathed Floria's dagger and readied the blade.
"I, am grateful, to be of such assistance, Ghen."
"Just shut up and be brighter." I said.
"...But this shall be the brightest I am to be." He rebutted. "For overtime, my light has weakened. Yet only, if I had retained my body, then no darkness shall remain."
Continuing to grind the base of Panamex's skull against the ground, his light then discovered a room. A dead end.
For the pieces of steel which had been littered throughout the passage was scattered across the room as well. But here had sat an anvil, with what appears to be poorly-made swords surrounding it, a faggot of swords, along with a stump, cleanly-cut like a seat.
"This... is a fascinating place." Panamex complemented, his light flooding the walls of the room.
The room, which had looked to be a workshop.
A blacksmith's quarters, seemingly long abandoned.
A cold-stone room within a ruin, along with two coarse beds stacked with woven mats. And within each bed were bundles of leaves and reeds, as rough huddles to rest for two. And lastly there had sat a large bench, sturdy, yet oddly, one of the most well made benches I had ever seen.
"We're not alone." I said, searching across the bench, now placing Panamex above.
For I searched beneath the bench, to find a second stump, then dragging Panamex across the bench for additional light, he, then revealed a lengthy strip of pulp, as well.
An early creation of paper, I thought.
For the bench, had read of a note.