Chapter 632: Shadow
"The slab is either the energy core or one of the critical structural supports of these ruins; forcibly removing it has indeed triggered a chain reaction." This thought flashed through Duke’s mind.
He had sensed it before, but hadn’t anticipated such a violent and rapid collapse.
Surveying his surroundings, Duke decided to immediately assume his dark form and escape into the shadow space.
After advancing to Level 1 Crystalized Mage, entering the dark form no longer required relying on the Shadow Cloak to access the shadow space.
Duke surrounded himself with yellow sand to obscure others’ vision, then transitioned into his dark form.
Once in dark form, his entire aura instantly turned ethereal and void, as if blending into the swirling dust, flickering shadows, and deep crevices and shadows caused by structural damage.
His body resembled ink dropped into water, spreading out in place, the color swiftly fading, becoming transparent, eventually disappearing entirely amidst the collapsing dust and chaotic light.
Instantly, all the noise, collapse, dust, and light—the entire sensory stimulation from the outside world—dramatically diminished and warped.
What he saw was a world of inverted colors, where everything stretched into bizarre streamlines.
The outlines of the ruins turned into a writhing, blurred-edged dark grey silhouette.
The falling stones became slow-descending, long-tailed dark red light trails, while the energy burst resembled mute, fleeting and extinguishing white flowers.
Sounds vanished, or rather, transformed into inexplicable distant hums and sharp howls, directly impacting the soul, unsettling the mind.
Real-world scenes were reduced to vague contours and flowing shadows, sounds became distant and distorted, and physical laws appeared unstable.
Ubiquitous shadow energy enveloped him like flowing water, with an icy chill and whisper-like erosion.
Even a trace might freeze a soul or warp a mind, greatly affecting spiritual power for ordinary creatures.
However, for Duke, now in dark form, the experience was far more complex.
Cold still pierced, whispers remained disruptive, but the ever-present shadow energy felt less like an invader and more like a too-intense hometown fragrance.
His body instinctively absorbed its purest elements, replenishing the consumption of dark form, his spiritual resistance greatly enhanced, the whispers akin to noise through thick glass—annoying but not truly harmful.
It certainly gave him a familiar sense of returning to the source, yet it was by no means a comforting home, more like a perilous homeland fraught with danger and overflowing with power.
Focusing his mind, Duke began gliding through this bizarre space, relying on dark form’s innate control over shadows.
Real-world coordinates morphed into vague anchors in his perception, he cautiously adjusted his direction, navigating toward the shadows outside the ruins, where the woods were dense.
Everything seemed alright; though his pace wasn’t swift, he was gradually distancing from the chaotic energy vortex at the collapse’s center.
After a while, without warning, the entire bizarre, color-inverted shadow space trembled violently.
Looking up, Duke saw, in the far distance, at the edge of a twisted shadow and inverted color horizon, an indescribably large silhouette slowly moving over.
The silhouette appeared to be composed of the purest darkness, its outline blurred, resembling a devouring nebula whirlpool or an unnameable form spanning dimensions.
Its scale surpassed Duke’s comprehension, as if filling every corner of the view, yet seemingly far away.
The sheer presence itself felt like the universe’s weight pressing onto the soul.
Before the silhouette, the violent energies, twisted laws, and disturbing whispers in the shadow space grew gentle and silent, as if paying homage to a supreme ruler.
An absolute instinctual terror seized Duke’s heart.
In its gaze, his dark form mildly trembled—not from fear, but reminiscent of a minor creature facing a prehistoric beast, unable to suppress physiological awe and alertness.
Duke acutely felt that, before this presence, he was less than dust.
Yet the silhouette didn’t seem purposely targeting him.
Its movement was slow and grand, as if following some ancient rhythm.
Even so, its inadvertent presence ripple had already rendered Duke’s shadow space area highly unstable, the spatial structure beginning to crack like glass, and the tamed shadow energy once again became violent, seemingly ready to converge upon, compress, and assimilate him into this silent part.
"Can’t stay here any longer." Duke didn’t doubt for a second that if the silhouette drew closer, or its passage alone caused ripples, it would be enough to completely dismantle his tenuous dark form, eternally trapping his soul in this eerie shadow or extinguishing it outright.
Under such circumstances, he had no choice but to leave the shadow space prematurely.
As if breaking through ice, or being forced out from viscous tar.
Duke’s figure emerged in extreme disarray from the shadows under a massive moss-covered rock slab, rolling onto the soft humus heavily.
Sunlight streamed through forest openings, and bird songs faintly echoed.
He returned to the real world, at the foot of a steep cliff outside the ruins’ valley, surrounded by dense shrubbery and vines, highly concealed.
Duke plopped to the ground, fingers barely movable, panting heavily, each breath laced with rust and internal pains.
Hints of the silent grand hum imparted by the terrifying silhouette in shadow space seemed to linger, making his soul tremble.
"What on earth is that thing..." The lingering fear crossed his mind.
Just that moment alone brought tremendous pressure.
But now wasn’t the time to ponder; Duke’s injuries were severe, worse than during the collapse’s epicenter, he had to find a perfectly safe place to heal immediately.
He hurriedly produced a tube with a fragment of Spring of Life, uncorked it and drank.
Using the Spring of Life for healing was a lavish act, yet given current urgency, he couldn’t afford hesitation.
One should save resources wisely, but when needed, must not hesitate to spend.