Chapter 96: Broken Citadel
Jaden turned toward the window, just in time to see an owl with black feathers staring at him. He narrowed his eyes as he thought.
’Isn’t that the owl—’ However, before he could finish his thought, their eyes met. His vision darkened as the world shifted.
His eyes trembled slightly before he opened them. He stood up, and a frown appeared on his face as he looked around. However, he couldn’t see anything. A few moments passed before his vision cleared and his heart calmed a little.
Looking around, he mumbled softly, his voice faint in the still air.
"What is this place?"
He stood upon a wide dune. The sand beneath his feet was deep black. Even its texture felt wrong—more like ash than earth. Above him stretched a vast sky painted in uneven shades of black and grey. A single moon hung high above, its pale light trying to pierce through the heavy gloom, yet failing to bring any warmth. This place had no colour except the shades of black and grey. It was as if this place were made out of shadows.
"How curious..." he muttered as he straightened his back. The sand clinging to his body fell as he looked around once more. He tried to channel mana into his eyes. But to his surprise, he couldn’t do so because he had neither mana nor the mana core.
His frown deepened, his brows knit together as he whispered darkly.
"What is going on?"
Though no one was there to answer, the answer was simply the silence that filled the dark dune.
He heaved a heavy sigh and began to walk; his steps left soft footmarks that were erased the next moment.
He didn’t know where he was, only that he had to keep moving to find out. A few moments passed, and the more he walked, the more certain he became, "this place really has no colour except the shades of black and grey..." he mumbled softly as he concluded, "could this be the shadow realm?"
Of course, he knew about the shadow realm; he had studied it while learning about souls. Shadows were a part of one’s being after all. Unlike souls, however, shadows didn’t need the being to be alive. That is why he also wanted to tread the shadow realm. Still, even humanity knew little beyond vague whispers of its existence.
Suddenly, a frown appeared on his face as he spat coldly.
"And that owl..."
He didn’t know what to say about that owl. He had met that hateful owl before in the forest south of the Elara Peace, or formerly Nightshade City. It had pushed him off the tree while he was breaking through to the Adept rank and had nearly killed Jaden at that time.
"To think I would meet the nightmares of the forest... in the waking world." He mumbled with a frown as he continued to walk forward.
Time passed, but he had no way to know how much. There was nothing he could do to find out the time; the moon that hung above was also still.
Soon, he stopped in his tracks. His gaze fixed on a vast citadel looming in the distance. The citadel was mostly in ruins, its walls full of cracks, and just like everything in this realm, it was also shrouded in shades of black and grey.
Jaden looked at it with narrowed eyes and shrugged. He didn’t have to think much about it, as it was the only place he could go to, after all. He began to walk towards it. A few moments later, he reached the broken citadel and mumbled.
"This is huge..."
He stepped inside the citadel, and just like outside, the inside walls were full of cracks, and rubble was piled up against the walls. The walls were decorated with intricate designs which hinted at the broken citadel’s opulence at some point in time. But the rusted swords that lay half-buried in the rubble made him think that whatever happened to this citadel wasn’t because of the ravages of time.
"What could have happened here?"
He murmured as he looked around with interested eyes and stepped deeper into the broken citadel. He continued his steps and passed a room, just as he stepped past the wall that parted the room and the hall. The shade of black and grey became deeper and darker. The shadows stretched further than they should have.
Finally, his gaze landed on the far end of the hall, a throne—tall and regal despite the cracks running along its surface... But before he could look at it more, he stopped in his tracks. Because, on the throne sat something that looked like a man.
The figure’s form was dark—so dark that it devoured the light around it. Its outline flickered slightly, and from that darkness, two ominously glowing blue eyes stared directly at him.
Jaden felt a shiver run down his spine as their gazes met. He staggered back a few steps as he felt something dark grip at his heart. Suddenly, the dark, malevolent being spoke.
"Who are you to dare dream about me? Know your place." Its authoritative voice echoed within the dark expanse of the room, and the shadows seemed to shift, as if moving under its command.
Jaden’s eyes widened as he heard the dark figure’s voice. His heartbeat quickened as he parted his lips to question the figure before him, but before he could, the world spun, and his gaze fell on a headless body. It was his body.
His vision darkened before he once again opened his eyes in the waking world. His thoughts scattered, and sweat drenched his trembling body. He tried to calm his quick heartbeat, but his body continued to tremble under the fear. But what frightened him the most was not his death but the being’s voice.
"How...?" He mumbled with disbelief and fear, painting his face, "How did it have the same voice as me?"