Chapter 161: The Unnatural Night

With revenge no longer weighing on his mind, Thoren felt the knot in his heart loosen.

For days, he had carried the constant burden of vigilance.

Now that the Federation and the Slave Trade Guild had been dealt with, that invisible pressure finally lifted.

He no longer needed to glance over his shoulder every few moments.

For the first time in a long while, his mind felt clear.

Seated atop the back of the Undead Iron Roar Komodo, Thoren had been traveling for more than five hours without stopping.

The undead beast moved tirelessly across the barren landscape, its massive claws crushing stones and frost beneath every stride.

Unlike a living creature, the undead Komodo felt no fatigue.

It did not need rest.

And because of that, their journey through the Uncharted Territory had been swift and relentless.

Deep within Thoren’s chest, a powerful determination burned.

As they pushed deeper into the Uncharted Territory, Thoren encountered numerous powerful beasts roaming the wilderness.

Many of them radiated intimidating auras, their levels clearly far above normal commonly seen creatures.

But Thoren ignored them.

His eyes never strayed from the distant horizon.

His goal was the Shatter Sky, and everything else was merely a distraction.

If he stopped to deal with every beast he encountered, how long would it take him to finally locate the place?

Days?

Perhaps even weeks.

Besides, no one knew how vast the Uncharted Territory truly was.

The first floor of the Abyss stretched far beyond what ordinary awakeners could explore in their lifetimes.

Wandering aimlessly while hunting beasts would only delay his progress.

Thus, Thoren chose to ignore everything that did not directly contribute to his objective.

After another hour of relentless travel, the sky gradually darkened.

Thoren decided it was time to rest.

The undead Komodo eventually stopped in the middle of a wide rocky plain.

The land around them was barren and lifeless, filled with jagged stones and scattered boulders.

Only endless rock and dust.

Thoren did not even bother climbing down from the back of his undead mount.

Instead, he simply leaned against the rough scales of the Komodo and lay down.

Although his body was not physically exhausted, his mind had grown weary after hours of intense focus.

Deep sleep was the fastest way for him to recover.

As for danger, he was not concerned.

With a Level 17 undead beast guarding him, Thoren doubted that any creature in the vicinity could approach without him noticing.

The Undead Iron Roar Komodo stood like an immovable statue.

Its massive body radiated silent menace.

Anyone or anything that dared to approach would quickly regret it.

Satisfied with his surroundings, Thoren closed his eyes.

Within moments, he drifted into a deep and peaceful sleep.

Night descended completely.

Darkness thickened across the rocky plain like an endless ocean of shadows. The wind howled briefly before dying down, leaving the land in eerie silence.

At the center of that silent plain stood the towering figure of the Undead Iron Roar Komodo.

Its hollow eye sockets burned with fierce yellow soul fire, illuminating faint patches of ground around it.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble.

At first, the vibrations were faint, barely noticeable. But gradually, the tremor spread across the plain like ripples moving through water.

Something was approaching.

Far in the distance, the sound of monstrous beasts echoed through the darkness.

Low growls.

Distant roars.

Thud. Thud.

The ground trembled again, this time more heavily, as though some colossal creature was walking somewhere beyond the darkness.

The crushing sound of rocks grinding into dust echoed faintly in the night.

Then the wind stopped completely.

A strange tension filled the air.

For a brief moment, everything became unnaturally still.

The darkness around the undead Komodo seemed to deepen, thickening like an invisible curtain that slowly wrapped around the undead beast.

The horrifying sounds grew closer.

Closer.

Yet Thoren did not wake.

He remained asleep, his expression calm and completely unbothered by the strange disturbances around him.

As the seconds passed, the darkness surrounding the Undead Iron Roar Komodo seemed to stir.

It was almost as if the shadows themselves were alive.

The invisible presence in the air gradually grew heavier, becoming strangely tangible.

Then, faint cries echoed through the night.

They were eerie, ghostly sounds that drifted through the darkness like whispers carried by the wind.

The cries seemed distant at first.

Yet strangely, they also sounded incredibly close, so close that it almost felt as if they were whispering right beside the Komodo’s head.

And yet…

If one listened carefully, the sound still seemed to originate from somewhere far away.

The contradiction was deeply unsettling.

The eerie cries continued for several moments before suddenly stopping.

At the same time, the deep vibrations in the ground vanished.

Silence returned.

But the darkness continued to deepen.

It slowly swallowed the enormous figure of the undead Komodo, as if trying to erase its existence from the world.

Yet the blazing soul fire within the Komodo’s eye sockets continued to burn brightly.

Two fierce yellow lights shone like enormous fireflies in the endless black.

They did not dim.

They did not retreat.

Instead, they seemed to declare their presence proudly against the oppressive darkness.

Just then, two bluish lights flickered to life in the distance.

For a moment, the world consisted of only four glowing lights within the darkness: the Komodo’s yellow soul fire and the distant blue lights.

Then the blue lights doubled.

Two became four.

Four became eight.

Eight became dozens.

Within moments, the number multiplied into hundreds.

Then thousands.

Thousands of bluish lights surrounded the undead Komodo from every direction.

They hovered in the darkness like cold, watchful eyes.

Every single one of them was locked onto the towering undead creature standing in the center of the rocky plain.

Silence filled the world.

Even the wind seemed too afraid to move.

The Abyss itself appeared to be holding its breath.

Time passed.

No one moved.

Then, all the bluish lights vanished at once.

Just like that.

Gone.

As if they had never existed.

Lost within his dreams, Thoren merely shifted his sleeping position slightly, searching for a more comfortable posture.

He remained completely unaware of what had just transpired.

Slowly, the oppressive darkness faded.

The sky began to brighten as dawn approached.

A pale light spread across the horizon.

“Hmm…”

Thoren opened his eyes lazily and sat up.

He stretched his arms and let out a long yawn.

“Since arriving in the Abyss, this might be the best sleep I’ve had,” he muttered to himself.

He climbed to his feet and performed a few simple stretches, loosening his muscles.

Afterward, his gaze drifted toward the ground.

Something caught his attention.

Faint footprints.

“Hmm?”

Thoren stared at the marks scattered across the rocky plain. There were several of them, overlapping and spreading outward in multiple directions.

However, the shapes were unclear.

They did not resemble the footprints of any creature he recognized.

He studied them for several seconds but ultimately failed to make sense of them.

“Forget it…”

Shaking his head, Thoren decided not to dwell on the matter.

Whatever had passed through this place during the night was already gone.

He lifted his head and gazed toward the horizon.

The horizon stared back.

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but an endless rocky plain stretching beneath the pale morning sky.

“I have to find the Shatter Sky today.”

Determination burned within his eyes.

With the speed of his undead mount, he believed it would only be a matter of time before he discovered it.

Whoosh!

The Undead Iron Roar Komodo dashed forward, its massive claws smashing through scattered rocks as it surged across the plain.

The cold morning wind assaulted Thoren’s face as the undead beast cut through the air at tremendous speed.

While Thoren continued his search for the Shatter Sky, another group arrived at the frostbitten tundra he had left behind.

They wore long black robes with deep hoods that concealed their faces.

Without speaking, the group approached the massive fissure in the ground and descended silently into its depths.

Their movements were strangely quiet.

Almost unnatural.

It was as if their presence blended seamlessly with the frozen landscape.

Soon, they arrived at the collapsed ruins of the Slave Trade Guild’s hideout.

The cave entrance had been completely destroyed.

Broken stones and debris blocked the passage.

The group stopped.

An oppressive silence settled over them.

The air itself seemed to grow heavier.

For several long seconds, no one spoke.

Then one of the hooded figures finally broke the silence.

“Failed… again.”

The voice was strangely neutral, neither clearly male nor female.

None of the others responded.

Each of them remained motionless, lost in their own thoughts.

After a moment, another figure spoke slowly.

“We failed.”

The weight of those words hung heavily in the air.

Their mission had ended in disaster.

And the consequences of that failure loomed over them like an approaching storm.

A third figure shifted slightly.

“What are we going to do now?”

****

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