Eternal Freedom's Ascension-Chapter 98: What Sleeps Beneath
To avoid attracting attention of some nocturnal creatures, Kaiser closed the windows and the door.
The bonfire painted the room in an orange hue, shadows dancing on the wall.
He sat on the ground, staring at his seemingly inanimate shadow.
"You’ve gone quiet ever since I awakened. Are you always this passive?"
He asked, genuinely curious.
The only times his shadow had moved was if he was in danger—like the time it consumed the seeds of corruption that had been sent to him, and when he had killed Kara.
Back then, it had voraciously devoured her, not even leaving her body behind.
When the shadow remained unresponsive, Kaiser tilted his head.
"Now that I think about it... you’re just a shadow—of myself."
His gaze lingered on the shadow. "Did you take up that part of me that is only filled with boredom and indifference?"
Finally, the shadow moved. It stopped copying Kaiser’s sitting figure, but stood straight, stretching on the ground. Only its legs remained tethered to Kaiser’s feet.
"Oh? I guess I’m right."
Kaiser stared at it, his expression unreadable. ’If I could get Kara as a shadow just because my shadow devours her, why doesn’t it devour other creatures?’
He had a feeling the shadow was staring back at him, then it moved. Its hands rose, and it communicated with him through sign language.
’Do you ever have the desire of possessing those creatures?’
Kaiser blinked, a bit surprised by the fact it could reply to him using such a means. He rubbed his chin and thought seriously.
During the battle against the Voidborne, he had been unwilling to let the woman die. Perhaps, it was this desire that twisted into something darker and possessive.
’So because I simply didn’t want them, I didn’t... get them?’
Kaiser’s lips twitched. The shadow nodded to his question, making him facepalm.
"Goodness gracious..."
He really felt like knocking himself on the head. There were several creatures he’d have loved to possess as a shadow, but unfortunately he didn’t. The Abyssal Crawler he had killed in the boss room during the evaluation, was a great example of a creature he’d want under his command.
Although summoning a high-rank creature put a lot of strain on his essence reserves, he wouldn’t mind having them as trump cards.
’Hm?’
He sensed something enter the cathedral below him. Although he couldn’t directly see it, the shadow of that thing was vast, deep, and ancient.
His body shuddered instinctively, and even his shadow shrank slightly.
’This feeling...’
Kaiser’s pupils shrank, and he immediately stood up to put out the bonfire. As pure darkness enveloped the room, he stood alert, wary of the creature below him.
It moved about for a bit, its steps shaking the old building. After a few minutes, it stopped. Kaiser remained alert for over an hour, ready to respond to any movement below.
Surprisingly, there was none.
’It has slept?’ He thought to himself.
That creature... was definitely of the Ascended Realm. Although he didn’t know what rank it was, it was something that could kill him easily.
’Goodness gracious... this is really unnerving.’
Sleeping right above something that could kill him, he was prone to worries. However, he forcefully put aside these thoughts and slept on the bed. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
It was a bit comfortable, and before he knew it, he had succumbed to the pull of sleep.
...
Kaiser woke up to his biological clock, exactly six hours after he had slept. Surprisingly, the night had cleared up. Light spilled in through the cracks on the window.
Kaiser remained inactive for a few seconds, then stood up. He packed the ashes from the ground, consciously ignoring the existence of the Ascended Creature downstairs.
’It should have left right? After all, it came at night yesterday.’
He carefully opened the door to the room, then peered downstairs through the railings.
As he expected, the creature had left, making him sigh in relief. Whatever the creature was, he had no intention of meeting it.
’Ugh.’
He felt his stomach rumble, a reminder he needed to eat. Of course he could ignore that signal, but he didn’t. He needed to be at his prime always.
Summoning the Nameless Fang, he left the cathedral to hunt. After a few minutes of scouting, Kaiser noticed a small stone-colored shape moving across a broken stone slab.
His eyes narrowed, and he immediately threw his dagger.
The blade moved silently, striking the camouflaged creature smoothly.
It was pinned to the stone slab, its blood slowly dripping from the wound.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Stoneback Skink]
He approached the corpse, then picked it up with his dagger. It looked like a lizard, the size of a rabbit.
’It’s relatively weak. That must be why it has camouflage as a coping mechanism.’
Holding it by the tail, he returned to his temporary room after collecting some withered branches.
He got rid of its internal organs, making it hollow. Then he peeled off its old skin, leaving it with the soft skin exposed.
Afterwards he skewered it and began roasting it over the bonfire. He’d have loved to add some seasonings like salt, but there was no source of water nearby.
Thankfully, he could somewhat control the water loss in his body. In under thirty minutes, he had already eaten breakfast, and was ready to continue his journey.
Before he left the ruined cathedral, he picked up the books he found in the room for study later.
Giving the building one last look, he walked away.
......
Apart from the Sky Bridge connecting the First Isle to the Obsidian Wastelands, the other island were connected to each other by thick green vines.
Kaiser’s goal was to reach an edge of the island, then locate any of the vines connecting this island to another.
From the Ruined Cathedral, his journey was a bit smooth. He avoided uninteresting battles and only engaged creatures he was curious about.
By the time he arrived at the edge of the Island, his armor looked like it had gone through a lot. His breathing was a bit hurried, but he soon regulated it.
Standing at the edge, he peered into the abyss below, only to catch sight of something horrific.
