With the death of the reaper, Gale and the others slumped on the ground. Asher looked to the corpse of Ellen and remembered the night before.

His thoughts were broken when Ophelia asked, “What was that?”

Asher was also quite curious as he had never seen that rune before.

“It’s a self-created rune,” explained Gale.

“That’s dangerous, you could’ve been hurt,” chided Ophelia.

“But it saved our lives,” said Gale.

Figuring that nothing would come from telling him again, Ophelia stopped.

They rested a bit and tried to bury Ellen’s body as much as they could. They also made sure to take her valuables while leaving her clothes on her. Ophelia did this job as she couldn’t trust Asher and wouldn’t let Gale do such a horrid thing.

After, they proceeded to carefully explore around them. The walls exuded this dark aura as if it was cursing the very air around it. Soon the path led to a crossroad splitting off into three different ways.

“What now?” asked Ophelia.

“We should split up,” said Asher.

“I agree,” said Gale.

“But he’s just a kid!”

“Who can take care of himself.”

“Its alright lady Ophelia, I can handle myself just fine.”

Ophelia grumbled but conceded and said, “Ok but be careful.”

And so they split. Ophelia going left, Asher going straight and Gale going right.

“They were an interesting bunch,” said Arc as he turned into a bird and flew in front of Gale.

“At least we learned some things,” said Gale as he used “Dark Wings” and “Reflection”. He was unable to do this earlier because of the group. He would usually practice using spells so that he would be able to use them with little to no cost. In case he ran out of mana, Arc would supply him with the needed mana until he had fully recovered.

“What did they do to that reaper earlier?” asked Gale.

“They infused mana into their swords. In this way, they became unenchanted magic swords. They’re useful in a pinch if you don’t have enchanted swords against spirits.”

“Can I do it as well?”

“Yes, it’s similar to using rune magic only instead of mana pouring into the rune, the mana is poured into the sword itself.”

Gale tried it and it worked, the runeblade now had a blue colored edge emanating from it.

“That blue edge means that the blade had been infused with mana.”

“Is there a way to infuse it without causing this blue edge to appear?” asked Gale as he found the telltale sign to be a bit too outspoken.

“There is,” said Arc, “but you need a much larger pool of mana for it. And even though we are increasing it bit by bit, it is still not enough to do such a thing.”

Arc and Gale would increase Gale’s pool of mana by having him use mana until he ran out. This would increase his mana pool by quite a bit. Currently, Gale has a mana pool comparable to that of a mage trained for thirty years.

They continued their exploration of the path until it opened up. From this vantage point, a sprawling castle illuminated by dark blue fire rose above his head. The castle filled this whole opening leaving nearly nothing that wasn’t a part of the castle. It rose along with a stalagmite towards a giant blue crystal. Above this crystal was a stalactite that seemed to be a part of the castle as well. Just by looking at this castle, the large crystal looked as if it was hoisted up in the air by these two rock formations.

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In front of this castle was a group of flying robed figures. Between them floated the Asher and Ophelia. A small group of these figures flew towards where Gale was and with an intent, his clothes matched these figures making him look as one of them.

These figures came to Gale and spoke in a strange language. Gale didn’t know how to respond but Arc spoke in the same language. He had hidden himself again as a necklace when Gale changed clothes. The figures seemed satisfied with his answer and flew back towards the castle.

“What did you tell them?” asked Gale.

“That we were just out exploring. It seems that we stumbled across a city of Shadows.”

“Shadows?”

“A race of sentient reapers capable of creating their own cities and culture. Reapers generally act upon instinct even though they are capable of thought. But these Shadows are different. They have no form and are nigh immortal. So long as there is a shadow, Shadows will survive.”

“I don’t know what they are doing with humans but you can be sure that they aren’t up to any good. As much as they are civilized, they do not interact kindly with the other races. I would wager that they would use their bodies as carriers for other Shadows to attack human settlements. Once they do that, it would be difficult to even get rid of them. But of course, they’ll be safe.”

Gale sighed knowing that these humans would be safe. He didn’t know them well enough so he could care less about their health. Only that he was a link that he could use to gain connections in the human world that he actually thought about them from time to time. But at knowing that these Shadows might interfere with him he said, “So we should make sure that these Shadows don’t do anything to them then.”

“Quite, or we could just leave them alone. It matters little if we don’t know what they’re planning.”

One of the Shadows looked back towards him and looked as if it was waiting.

“Oh and they need you to follow him,” added Arc.

And so Gale followed the Shadows inside the castle.

The castle did not have many decorations, only simple hallways and rooms littered the castle. The Shadows Gale was following had Asher and Ophelia between them. They were floating with the backs to the ground and seemed to be dreaming.

“It’s an ability of the Shadows to put living creatures to sleep. This makes it easier for them to invade the creature and escape the sun,” explained Arc.

“Is it possible that the Shadows have already hidden within their shadows?”

“No, otherwise, they would’ve left them back where they found them. There must be some other reason.”

Soon they came in front of a tall decorated door. It swung open and in front of them was a spacious throne room with a large Shadow in regal attire sitting at a throne.

“Wake them up,” said the large Shadow when the group came in front of him.

Asher and Ophelia woke up and found themselves surrounded by monsters. They prepared to draw their blades but stopped when they looked at the large Shadow.

“I am the Shadow King, what business does your people have in my domain.”