Chapter 197: Shadow Knight

Gray left Cindy to rest near the pool of Tartarus Essence, her small axolotl body curled up inside her water container, her silver glow dim and steady. Lily hovered beside her, her five points orbiting slowly, her dark core pulsing with quiet vigilance. She wasn’t eating anything for once. She was just watching over Cindy, as if she understood that her friend needed rest.

Gray left them there and moved back into the bone chamber, his golden eyes sweeping the scattered remains. The jerky was still in his hand, and he chewed it slowly as he walked, savoring the salt and smoke.

’It’s strange,’ he thought, chewing slowly. ’I’m standing in a graveyard, surrounded by the bones of dead explorers, and I feel nothing.’

Maybe it was because he wasn’t human anymore. Or maybe it was just because he was hungry, and the jerky was good, and the dead were beyond caring.

He finished the strip of meat and tucked the wrapper into his pocket. Then he knelt beside the freshest corpse and began to search.

The man’s gear was better quality than the others, reinforced leather armor, a steel dagger still sheathed at his belt, a small pack strapped to his back.

Gray searched the pack first. Rations, a waterskin, a flint and steel, a coil of rope. Standard expedition supplies. Useful, but not exciting.

Then he checked the man’s hands.

[Ring of Storage (Small) ]

A magical ring enchanted with spatial magic. The ring contains a small pocket dimension used for storing items, supplies, and equipment. The interior space is approximately half a cubic meter.

Gray slipped it off the man’s finger and channeled a thread of mana into it.

The contents spilled out onto the moss.

Potions. Dozens of them. Small glass vials filled with shimmering liquid, each one labeled with careful, precise handwriting. Healing potions. Mana potions. Antidotes. Elixirs. A full medical kit, enough to keep an expedition alive for months.

Gray picked up one of the healing potions and studied it. The liquid inside glowed with a soft, red light.

"You guys really came prepared," he murmured.

He set the potions aside and kept searching. The next discovery made his golden eyes light up.

Alchemy equipment.

A portable set, compact and well-made. A small brass burner. Glass beakers and vials. A mortar and pestle carved from polished stone. A set of measuring spoons. And a thick leather-bound book filled with handwritten notes and diagrams.

Gray picked up the book and flipped through it. The pages were covered in dense script, formulas and recipes and observations. It was a journal, written by someone who had spent years studying alchemy.

"This is exactly what Cindy needs," he said.

He set the equipment aside carefully and kept searching. The next find was a small chest, its lid sealed with wax. He broke the seal and opened it.

Food. Dried meat, hard bread, preserved fruit, and several bottles of fresh water. Enough to last a week, maybe more.

He picked up one of the bottles and studied it. It was made of thick glass, with a cork stopper and a leather strap. Perfect for carrying water. Or, in this case, Tartarus Essence.

"Good," he said. "We can use these to store the essence."

He searched the rest of the body, but found nothing else of value.

"Guess they didn’t have any artifacts," he said. "Or they were already broken."

He stood up, brushing the dust from his knees, and turned to leave.

Then he stopped.

There was something on the floor.

A dark stain, leading away from the fresh corpse. It was dried, crusted, but recent. And it didn’t end at the body. It trailed away from the corpse, across the moss, and disappeared into a dark hole in the floor.

Gray knelt beside the stain and studied it.

The blood had been dragged. Someone had been wounded, and something had dragged them away.

He looked at the hole. It was small, barely large enough for a person to squeeze through. The edges were rough, as if something had torn its way through the shell.

And from the darkness below, he could feel a faint vibration. Something was moving down there.

Gray straightened, his golden eyes fixed on the hole.

"...What are you?"

His curiosity prickled. He wanted to know what was down there.

"...I’ll take a quick look," he muttered to himself.

He stepped toward the hole, his boots silent on the moss. The edges were rough, torn, as if something had burrowed through the shell from below. The darkness inside was absolute, a thick, suffocating black that swallowed the faint glow of the chamber behind him.

Gray activated his electroreception and vibration senses, letting the darkness become a canvas of electrical signatures and pressure waves.

He crouched at the edge of the hole and swung his legs over the side. Then he dropped.

The fall was short, barely a few meters, and he landed in a crouch on a surface of packed sediment and old roots.

He straightened slowly, his golden eyes useless in the absolute dark. But his electroreception painted the chamber in faint blue outlines, and his vibration senses mapped the walls, the floor, the ceiling. It was a small space, barely wide enough for him to stand, with a single passage leading deeper into the shell.

And something was standing in front of him.

Gray’s entire body went rigid.

The shape was humanoid. That was the only thing about it that made sense. It stood taller than him by a head, its body encased in dark, ornate armor that had once been magnificent silver etched with gold, a deep blue cape still draped over one shoulder, a helmet shaped like the snarling face of some ancient beast. But the armor was ruined now, dented and scratched and covered in a patina of rust and dried blood. The cape was torn and faded, hanging in tatters. And the helmet’s visor was empty, revealing nothing but darkness and two points of pale, ghostly light where eyes should have been.

The figure held a sword. A massive blade, longer than Gray was tall, its edge still gleaming despite the rust that crept along its length. The sword was pointed at the ground, but the figure’s posture was alert, waiting, as if it had been standing there for centuries and would stand there for centuries more.

The system flickered, and the analysis materialized.

[SHADOW KNIGHT OF DESTRUCTION — Level: ???]

HP: ??? / ???

MP: ??? / ???

Threat Level: UNKNOWN

« Analysis »

A being of darkness and destruction, born from the concentrated malevolence that pools in the deepest recesses of the Tartarus’s shell. The Shadow Knight is a fragment of the Seed of Destruction’s original power, given form and purpose by the darkness that birthed it. It exists only to destroy, and it will not stop until everything in its path is annihilated.

« Warning »

This entity’s power exceeds your current capabilities. Do not engage. Retreat immediately.

Gray stared at the creature, his heart pounding in his chest.

"...You’ve got to be kidding me."

The Shadow Knight laughed.

"Khakakakakaka"

Then it pointed at Gray with a rotting hand and spoke.

"You are a lost creature in this place. Do you seek destruction?"

Gray stared at the creature, the system’s warning still burned in his vision: Do not engage. Retreat immediately.

The Shadow Knight tilted its head, the empty visor tracking him with those two pale points of light.

"Speak, little creature. I have waited in this darkness for a very long time. The silence has grown tiresome."

Gray couldn’t believe that he had found a strong enemy here.

"...I’m not looking for destruction," he said carefully. "I was just curious about the blood trail."

The Shadow Knight laughed again, softer this time, almost amused.

"Curiosity. Yes. That is what the others said too. Before they died." It shifted its massive sword, the blade scraping against the sediment. "They came seeking treasure. Glory. Power. And they found me instead."

Gray’s golden eyes narrowed beneath his hood.

"So you killed them."

"I did." No hesitation. No remorse. "It is what I am. It is what I was made to do."

The Shadow Knight took a step forward, its armored boots crunching against the packed sediment. The temperature in the small chamber dropped.

"But you are different, little creature. You did not come seeking treasure. You came because you were curious. And you are not afraid."

Gray didn’t correct it. He was afraid. But fear and panic were two different things, and he’d learned long ago how to keep the latter buried.

"What are you?" Gray asked.

The Shadow Knight paused. The pale lights in its visor flickered, as if the question had caught it off guard.

"...I am a fragment," it said slowly. "A shard of something greater. Something that was torn apart and scattered across this shell like seeds in the wind." It raised one gauntleted hand and stared at it. "I remember being whole. I remember being purpose. Now I am only... this."

Gray’s mind raced. A fragment of the Seed of Destruction. Just like Lily. But where Lily was innocent, curious, playful, this thing was darkness and malice given form.

"Why haven’t you attacked me?" Gray asked.

The Shadow Knight’s visor turned toward him.

"Because you have not attacked me. And because..." It paused, the pale lights flickering again. "You carry something familiar. Something that was once part of me."

Gray’s blood ran cold. He understood what the creature meant, he knew Lily was here.

The Shadow Knight took another step forward.

"Where is it? The fragment you carry? I can feel it. A piece of the whole. A piece of me."

Gray’s hand tightened at his side. His golden eyes met the empty visor.

"She’s not yours," he said quietly. "She’s her own person now."

The Shadow Knight went very still.

"...She?"