Chapter 383 — The Shadow Seal Ring
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
"She said this place felt comfortable and went off to find somewhere to sleep," Amber said with a wave of her hand. "She's probably soaking in some pool right now. Don't worry about her—she'll float up on her own once she's soaked enough."
Then her brow furrowed slightly, and she looked down at the shattered metal device. "Ranger, you stay here. I'm going to take a look in the Shadow Realm."
Suojilin turned serious at once. "You've found something?"
"Not certain yet. You'll have to wait until I'm back."
No sooner had Amber dropped that remark than her whole figure dissolved into a wisp of hazy black smoke in the air and scattered on the wind.
Suojilin stared blankly as Amber entered the Shadow Realm with such crisp decisiveness, and for a moment he was too stunned to react. "...Wasn't it said that this half-elf is usually a terrible coward?"
Amber, already within the Shadow Realm, could not hear what Suojilin was saying. She simply let her senses plummet swiftly through that state of straddling two worlds, and after a very brief instant she was standing with both feet upon the ground of the Shadow Realm.
Her black hair, grown long, danced in the air though there was no wind, her lower body wrapped in hazy shadow-mist. Having taken on her shadow-sprite form, Amber opened her eyes and observed the scene before her with curiosity.
The cavern had become a world of stark black and white; a formless light made everything within it clearly visible. And there before her, where the circular pit should have been, a churning mass of black cloud spun ceaselessly.
Just as she had sensed on the "material" plane, a door had indeed been opened here—only this door was located within the Shadow Realm.
Amber studied the ceaselessly spinning black cloud with curiosity, yet one hand unconsciously pressed against her own chest. "Strange... why has that inexplicable sense of familiarity vanished again...? It was clearly right here just a moment ago..."
She had barely gotten halfway through her murmur when a quavering, aged voice suddenly emerged from the cloud: "...Dwellers who crawl within the shadows... the descendants require your aid..."
Amber's eyes went wide. That sense of familiarity—the one that had made her disregard her own safety, that had even overcome her natural cowardice—was emanating from the mist once more. But before she could step forward, many other presences suddenly surfaced within the Shadow Realm, and she stopped herself short.
She hastily retreated several steps, and as she withdrew, one hazy figure after another emerged from all directions. Those figures had tall, slender builds and wore short robes or long gowns painted all over with peculiar symbols. They vaguely possessed human appearance and outline, yet their bodies seemed to be condensed from smoke—smoke that churned and surged beneath their symbol-covered garments, forever formless. Only the word "uncanny" could describe them.
These were the natives of the Shadow Realm—natives that were everywhere, yet impossible to observe. They could appear anywhere within the Shadow Realm, but scarcely any shadow master had ever laid eyes on them. Even Amber herself had dealt with these shadow dwellers only a limited number of times.
These shadow dwellers emerged from certain phase-spaces where they had been concealed, and rushed eagerly toward that door, toward that ceaselessly spinning black smoke. Many of them passed by Amber; now and then one would pause and swiftly glance at her, as though curious about a being who possessed the traits of both a shadow creature and a material one. But not a single shadow dweller truly stopped to converse with Amber.
"Ahem!" At last Amber could stand it no longer. She stepped forward and caught hold of one of them to ask, "Where are you all going?!"