Chapter 1800: Return to the Black Mountain

Chapter 1800: Return to the Black Mountain

Sunny often thought about the slave caravan, but he never actually tried to learn more about the events that had transpired in the Nightmare.

He knew that they had happened at the dusk of the Golden Age, not long before the start of the Doom War. Back then, the gods had grown indifferent and distant, and the soldiers of an expansionist empire that worshipped War wiped out the Shadow cult, burning down all its temples.

However, he did not know much about that empire and the lands it had conquered. The history of the Dream Realm was overshadowed by the calamitous destruction of the Doom War, and while it was possible to learn a thing or two about the previous eras, the devastation had erased most traces of the last human civilizations.

So, Sunny had never actually expected to behold the Black Mountain again.

He stared at its distant peak in bewilderment. Then, a sense of subtle curiosity bloomed in his heart.

‘...Might as well take a look'

Sunny actually felt a hint of sentimentality.

Back then, it took the caravan days to scale the mountain pass, Sunny remembered the agony of walking up the mountain road vividly - the cold, the pain, the biting touch of the iron shackles that shredded his wrists. He had felt so tired and weak, not knowing if he would survive the cruel march.

Many of the slaves had not, and ended up being tossed off the cliff after falling into the snow.

It was a hard thing, to climb a mountain while hungry and on the verge of freezing.

Today, Sunny simply stepped into the shadows and appeared halfway up the slope.

Step, step, and another step.

Just like that, he was standing below the towering edifice of the Black Mountain.

Thousands of years had passed since the day the slave caravan was destroyed. The mountain road had already been old and crumbling back then now, no trace of it remained.

For a few moments, Sunny contemplated staying here for a while to find the old bones. He was curious to know what had actually happened to the nameless slave and Auro of the Nine. Had they escaped the Mountain King? Or had they perished?

He was quite certain that Auro had survived. But what about the young temple slave?

However, Sunny quickly dismissed that idea.

It would take him months, or maybe even years, to dig through the snow and find the traces of the caravan if any traces remained, Even then, there was no guarantee that he would be able to tell anything about the past from them.

So, with a sigh, Sunny looked up, at the peak of the Black Mountain.

The only place he could visit was the mysterious temple that had stood there, surrounded by bones.

But before that...

He could feel enemies rushing at him from all sides. A moment later, the snow exploded, and hideous figures lunged at him with frenzy burning in their milky-white eyes.

The slaughter was swift and ruthless.

Sunny did not even summon a weapon, using the spiked gauntlets of the Onyx Mantle to crush the abominations. He danced between them like an omen of death, coldly and methodically destroying one after another.

Until none remained.

The snow was painted red by blood, and a fine crimson haze hung in the air.

‘Huh.'

Probably not.

If so, what did it mean? And how had Shadow God granted him a blessing from beyond the grave?

Well... that last part wasn't that surprising. The gods were the ones who had created things like time and death, after all. So, it wasn't strange to Imagine that they had a special relationship with these laws, A god could very well respond to a question before it was asked, and bless a slave who had offered himself as a sacrifice despite being dead.

Especially if that altar stood in a very special place.

The black temple...

Sunny hesitated, unsure of what to think. Now that he had found the ruined temple again, he realized that he didn't actually know anything about it.

He was certain of one thing, though. This place...

It felt sacred.

A sense of solemn, silent sanctity was emanating from the obsidian walls of the ancient temple. It looked majestic and beautiful in the moonlight, and although the ground around the ruin was littered with bones, it did not feel vile or ominous at all.

With a sigh, Sunny headed toward the broken gates of the temple.

And as he was approaching...

He felt it.

He did not see it, and he did not hear it. He did not even perceive it with his shadow sense.

But somehow, he knew.

There was something in front of him... a vast, invisible, intangible being. One that was reaching out to him, emanating a subtle sense of purity, loneliness, and power.

Suddenly, Sunny realized why there were bones scattered everywhere at the peak of the Black Mountain.

However, the guardian of the temple did not seem to hold any malice toward him. Instead, there was a sense of... joy, and recognition.

The invisible being was reaching out to something in Sunny's soul.

The golden light... the flame of divinity.

Sunny's eyes widened a little.

'I... I didn't even know.'

Back then, he had felt nothing when entering the temple. But the bones had been there, which meant that the guardian had been there, as well. And yet, it let Sunny in instead of adding his corpse to the pile of bones.

Because it had sensed a faint mark of divinity on his soul.

...The Mountain King, too. Since the Tyrant entered the temple, it must have been touched by divinity once, as well.

Sunny had not known how close to death he had come, and how lucky he was to survive.

‘Would it let me pass now?'

Taking a deep breath, Sunny looked forward, and stepped through the gates of the nameless temple.