Chapter 770: The Shadow Enthrall [Part 1]
Northern hovered in the air, arms folded, his gaze piercing the brooding darkness below.
The cold winds clawed at his skin, but their scrapes were nothing more than whispers- harmless chills that even a child could endure. Any other person, of course, subjected to such cold, would likely shiver to death.
His eyes, each one sharp and splintered, scanned the ground with meticulous precision.
Northern's danger sense picked up nothing. His spatial awareness detected no anomalies. And yet, the Shadow Drifter had insisted something was wrong.
He had to be right. After all, they had survived something. And they were running from something.
Northern frowned slightly.
What he didn't like, however, was that this something had now become his burden-thanks to that strange, infuriating girl called Roma.
Not that he was surprised. Perhaps because he had taken the first step toward understanding her. Or perhaps because, in a strange way, she amused him.
A girl trying to protect others without a shred of power-relying solely on his strength and feeding it to the travelers like a warm meal of confidence.
He shook his head, chuckling under his breath.
'She really is a shameless one.'
Returning his attention to the ground, Northern scrutinized the shadows. Natural.
Undisturbed. Even his Chaos Eyes revealed nothing. He almost considered returning to the Beast of Burden.
But then-he froze.
He hated leaving questions unanswered. If there was something lurking beneath, he would find it.
His body flashed downward, skimming the treetops as his vision coalesced, sharpening with absolute clarity.
Even without a shadow-based talent, attribute, or ability, the night held no secrets from him. Darkness, shadows-it made no difference. His eyes could cut through them all.
Which was how he caught it.
A subtle movement. Barely a flicker.
Northern halted abruptly, hovering just above a certain tree. His gaze locked onto the ground below.
Narrowing his eyes, he studied it. And waited.
Then he saw it again.
This time, clearer than a fleeting glimpse.
The shadows were... moving.
A dark, grim frown settled on his face.
Like clouds of black mist, they crept forward, slithering beneath the dim radiance of the night sky. At first glance, the movement almost seemed natural-something ordinary eyes would dismiss as a trick of the light.
But Northern did not have ordinary eyes.
A Drifter's experience taught one how to see. And more importantly, what to question.
He had battled too many creatures, encountered too many horrors lurking within rifts, to mistake this for something mundane.
Shadows did not move of their own accord.
They saturated and receded in the presence of light.
Even under the stark and muted glow of the colorful sky, they should have been creeping, yes -but not forward. Not following the path of the skylight.
That was wrong.
That was unnatural.
Suspicion coiled in his gut, but he didn't rush. Instead, he lingered, his eyes narrowing and four pupils movint subtly as he decided to peer deeper-into the ligatures of the shadows. But therein lay another problem.
He didn't know what a shadow's ligatures were supposed to look like.
Still, something shifted beneath his scrutiny. Faint. Subtle. Almost imperceptible. Yet, undeniably sentient.
The shadows weren't just moving.
They were alive.
His suspicions solidified into certainty.
Without hesitation, he activated Soul Sight.
And then-
He saw it.
[Monster Profile]
Name: [Shadow Enthralls]
True Name: [Vagrant Of Shadows]
Rank: [Maelstrom]
Danger Level: [Apex]
Attributes: [Shadow]
Abilities: [Shadow Sea], [Dark Fear].
Northern winced-just slightly-his mind jolted back to the harrowing encounter with the first Apex Maelstrom he had faced.
The Kirithon.
The bastard had put him through hell. A relentless pursuer, a nightmare without end-their last battle had nearly torn the ocean apart.
But in the end, Northern had been the one to prevail.
Now, the Kirithon lay buried in his soulscape, a monument to his triumph.
A wicked smile stretched across his face.
'I should start a collection or something.'
With that thought, he leaped down from the tree, landing smoothly in a crouch before rising
to his full height. A mad blue light flickered in his eyes.
The Illusioned Hefter wove itself from his soul, manifesting into his grasp as he turned to
face the creeping darkness.
Now that he was closer, he could feel it.
The malevolent thing was like a storm. But not a raging tempest-no, this one stalked. It moved deliberately, pacing through the woods, engulfing everything in its path with eerie
patience.
And then-
It changed.
As it inched toward him, its form began to rise. The ink-black mass thickened, its towering shape devouring the trees, its edges bleeding into the night like a formless abyss swallowing
all in its wake.
Unnatural.
Ominous.
Northern stood there, watching as the shifting veil of shadows swallowed the landscape, shifting forward with an unrelenting advance.
His heartbeat-steady and controlled-suddenly pounded thunderously against his ribs.
A strange sensation clawed at his chest.
He couldn't quite place it.
But it was terrifying.
Northern froze.
'I'm... scared?'
The thought almost startled him more than the entity itself.
He was supposed to have mental resistance against things like this. His mind was supposed to
be beyond the reach of fear.
'At least... I'm sane enough to know that I'm scared.'
But that did not make it any less bearable.
His frown deepened.
Each passing second, the darkness crept closer.
And with it, the fear-it was growing.
It coiled around him, pressing down with an oppressive weight. The longer he stood there,
the more he felt it-thick, suffocating, inevitable.
But something was off.
The fear... it wasn't his.
It was spreading. Infecting the space around him like a disease.
Northern had stood frozen in place before, caught in its silent grasp.
But now-
Now, his mind was alive again.
Without hesitation, he shot backward, a single powerful leap widening the gap between him
and the advancing shadows.
'How am I supposed to fight shadows...?'
The question clawed at his mind, but no answer came.
Shadows were intangible. Physical attacks would be useless against them.
But standing there, frozen in thought, wasn't an option either.
'At least I have to try something.'
Northern gritted his teeth. He crouched low, pressing his palm against the ground.
'Let's see if it's trappable.'
From the point of contact, frost erupted-spreading like a rabid disease, consuming the dark landscape in a creeping white.
The purplish ice surged outward, hungrily devouring everything in its wake.
A thick wall shot skyward, encircling the shadows from all sides, sealing them within a frozen
-cage.
For a brief moment, Northern exhaled.
Then-
His breath hitched.
His face paled.
The shadows...
They didn't just ignore the ice.
They absorbed it.
Like ink spilling into water, the frost vanished into the shifting veil of darkness-devoured
without resistance.
Northern's fingers twitched slightly.
'It's eating it...?'
A new layer of unease settled over him.