Chapter 1956 Consider Death

In the end, Sunny lost more than he gained from his first venture into the Shadow Realm.

He had gained precious knowledge of what awaited him on the other side of the Gates of Shadow... as well as two black arrows, one smeared in his own blood. After retrieving the second arrow from the ceiling of the dining hall of the Brilliant Emporium, Sunny studied them both with a dark expression.

The arrows were not enchanted in any way. In fact, they looked quite simple, almost makeshift — the shafts were made of dark wood, the arrowheads were cut from obsidian, and the fletching was made from crow feathers. Nevertheless, there was nothing mundane about them.

Just by holding the two black arrows, Sunny could tell that he was holding something mystical. There was a quiet, deadly aura surrounding them, as if the arrows themselves had presence, akin to one a Saint would possess. Each was also much heavier than he would have expected, hinting that the materials used to craft them were not at all ordinary.

Sunny did not know who had crafted these arrows and from what, but taking a closer look at them, he was not at all surprised that the Onyx Mantle had been pierced.

He had created more than enough Memories to know mystical materials when he saw them. The materials used to fashion the two black arrows... were at least akin to something he would have harvested from a Great Nightmare Creature, but somehow even more daunting.

Even the shadows cast by the arrows were a little threatening.

There was something else about them, as well.

Sunny's expression turned even darker when he sensed something familiar about the black arrows.

If he wasn't wrong... they seemed to be imbued with the killing intent of the unknown shadow stalker, etched with their desire to see the prey die.

The arrows carried their own will.

"Well. I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Better yet, he was now in possession of two supremely lethal arrows. Sunny had many uses for something so precious... who knew, perhaps he would be able to return the favor and sink them into the heart of that damned archer one day. Sadly, he had lost something far more precious in return.

It was not the health of one of his avatars, either...

Grimacing, Sunny glanced at the Shadow Lantern.

It was his ability to use its [Gates of Shadow] enchantment.

Of course, he was still able to send shadows inside or call them back. However, now that the unseen assailant had shown their startling ability to follow shadows back through the gate of the Shadow Lantern, Sunny was wary of opening it again.

Who knew what would crawl out of the Shadow Realm the next time he did? By personally passing through the Gates of Shadow, Sunny seemed to have attracted the attention of at least one creature dwelling there. Now that the shadow archer knew his scent, it would not be impossible for them to wait patiently in the area where the Lantern led to.

Death... was a weapon created to fight against the Void and its Corruption.

Death was a tool to bring an end to that which had been endless before.

There was this peculiar detail that he had not really considered before. The souls of Nightmare Creatures were tainted by the vile corruption of the Void. And yet, once a Nightmare Creature was slain, the soul shards retrieved from its body bore no signs of Corruption. No Awakened had ever become corrupted as a result of absorbing soul shards.

Which meant that death somehow cleansed the souls of the Nightmare Creatures from the dark taint of the Void, putting an end to it.

But how could one end something that was supposed to be endless?

Sunny lowered his head and rubbed his face tiredly.

Was he thinking about useless things?

Maybe he was...

But then again, maybe he wasn’t.

Destroying something might end it, but if a thing was indestructible... then transforming it into something new was a kind of end, as well.

Shadow God had created death, but he had also become death. He swallowed everything that died, and gifted the dead the peace of an end.

Was that peace... the process of being stripped of everything that made a being themselves, grinding their very soul into a river of essence, and releasing that essence back into the world to live anew?

If so, it was a terrifying thought.

But also... a little comforting.

Most of all, it made Sunny think about his own soul, and the shadows that he himself carried within its dark depths.

Was his soul... a weak, tiny seed of a new Shadow Realm?

"Now that is really terrifying."

Shivering, Sunny threw these thoughts out of his head and walked into the material storage of the Brilliant Emporium with determined steps.