Chapter 3236: Toto, We're Not in the Shadow Realm Anymore
Before Shadow could break free from the insurmountable pull of the stone lantern, he was drawn into its gate. There was a moment of weightlessness, a moment of disorientation — and then he was suddenly blinded by bright light.
Slamming into something hard, Shadow fell and felt a cold, smooth surface under him. Grimacing, he pushed himself up and raised a hand, covering his eyes. It felt like the sun suddenly rose above the Shadow Realm… No, not quite.
Even before his eyes adjusted to the blinding radiance of day, Shadow already knew that he was not in the Shadow Realm anymore. The Mad Prince was not in his Soul Sea, either. Having used the reflection of a mysterious artifact that seemed to have been contained within Shadow’s soul all along, the madman vanished.
All of it was very confusing.
The answer to the mystery of what had happened was most likely hidden somewhere in Shadow’s memories, but he wasn’t particularly motivated to search for it. Still, considering the circumstances… he felt like it was worth putting in at least a little effort.
So, Shadow tried to remember.
‘What is that lantern?’
A slight scowl twisted his brow, and then deepened a little.
‘Shadow Lantern… a relic of Shadow God.’
It was a small and seemingly unassuming tool that hid a great secret — that contained the Gate of Shadow. Which was, for all intents and purposes, no different from a backdoor to and from the Shadow Realm.
For a moment, Shadow felt deeply embarrassed.
He, Smile of Heaven, and Noctis had spent years traveling to the Shadow Realm… but he had possessed the means of getting there instantly the whole time?
Shadow wanted to let out a deep sigh.
But no, it did not matter. Even if he had been aware of the Shadow Lantern’s existence back then, he would still have wanted to go on that long journey with them. After all, Shadow could have carried all three of them across the mortal realms in a matter of weeks or months at most. But he had chosen to travel like a mortal for a reason.
He was not entirely aware of the reason, but knew that the journey had mattered more to him than reaching the destination. A better question was… how had a relic of Shadow God ended up contained within his soul, and how did the Mad Prince know where to find it? These questions were most likely connected to the mystery of Shadow’s origin, so they were not something he was willing to pursue just yet — or perhaps ever.
Now, only the last question remained. What had the Mad Prince done, exactly?
He seemed to have shadowed the ability of a creature who could enter another being’s soul, then proceeded to manifest the reflection of the Shadow Lantern into its exact replica. Then, he opened the Gate of Shadow… and somehow connected its entrance to a different realm.
How? Shadow was not sure.
Perhaps the Mad Prince had left one of his incarnations in that realm ahead of their battle. Perhaps some other power or an underlying law of existence had been involved, used masterfully by the demented Nightmare Creature or the person pulling his strings from behind the curtain.
One thing was clear — even with the gate of the lantern open, there should not have been any overwhelming force pulling Shadow inside. The Mad Prince, certainly, was not capable of creating that pull. Which proved, without a doubt, that a third power was involved in everything that had happened.
What was it that the Mad Prince shouted at the very end?
‘You’ve been summoned by the Oracle of Thetis.’
The Oracle of Thetis… Shadow did not know that name. Was she the person the Mad Prince had kept referring to as Torment? He was not sure.
However, Shadow suddenly felt uneasy.
It seemed as though he was wary of oracles — that wariness was ingrained deeply into his bones.
‘In any case, I suppose I will know soon.’
By then, his eyes had already adjusted to the light, and his momentary disorientation passed.
Shadow was finally able to perceive his surroundings.
He found himself in a beautiful hall, its floor and walls carved out of pristine white jade — quite similar to the blade of the eerie sword the Mad Prince wielded. Torrents of sunshine, which he had not been exposed to in centuries, were pouring through arched windows. Cold wind made the intricately embroidered curtains dance and brought with it the smell of snow and ash. Those scents, two, were something Shadow had not experienced in a long, long while. That was not what his attention shifted to, though.
First, he looked at the jade floor beneath him.
Shadow seemed to be sitting in the middle of a vast runic circle inscribed on the floor, the countless runes of its complicated pattern still shimmering faintly with ethereal light as they dimmed and lost power.
He was not a great master of runic sorcery, but whoever had created this circle undoubtedly was. It was this sorcery that must have drawn him into the Gate of Shadow, therefore expelling him from the Shadow Realm… and, from the looks of it, the second function of the circle was to keep whoever entered it trapped inside.
‘So… a summoning circle?’
Shadow was amused.
He had never thought that he would play the role of a devil summoned from the depths of hell by a daring sorcerer one day. Of course, Shadow was not a Devil, and the Shadow Realm was not exactly hell… but it was close enough.
After studying the runic circle for a moment, Shadow raised his gaze and looked at the woman who stood outside its boundary, studying him curiously.
She was like a flower blooming in the snow, her striking beauty tantalizing. Her soft features seemed frozen on the edge between adolescence and adulthood, embodying both the innocence of youth and the weathered malice of eternity. Her eyes were like two radiant pools of molten gold, glistening with mischievous sparks. Despite her striking beauty, something about that young woman seemed eerily sinister — even Shadow, who had little reason to fear anyone below the Sacred Rank, felt slightly uneasy under her curious gaze.
Maybe it was because the young woman appeared human, but was clearly not — one glance at her soul revealed that she was a Supreme Tyrant.
And only creatures could rise in Class.
In any case, she seemed to be his captor.
“Well? What are you going to do about it?”
Her tone was slightly unhappy.
Shadow raised an eyebrow.
“About what?”
The young woman blinked, then pointed to the jade floor and spat angrily:
“This! This! My floor! What are you going to do about it?!”
Shadow blinked a couple of times, then looked down.
It seemed that the strain of forcefully pulling a Supreme Titan into the Gate of Shadow had exerted too much pressure on the pristine wide jade, causing a few deep cracks to appear on its surface. Now, those cracks spread outward from him like a web, reaching all the way to the edges of the runic circle.
‘Is she… demanding compensation from me?’
What was happening?
Shadow blinked, deeply confused.
“Weren’t you the one who brought me here against my will, though? Why should I do anything about your floor?”
The young woman stared at him in disbelief, then scoffed.
“What? How rude! I’ve never had a guest as rude as you!”
She stomped her little foot in anger. Shadow stared at her silently for a moment, baffled, then massaged the back of his neck.
“Am I really a… guest, though? It looks to me like I am a prisoner.”
The young woman gave him a deeply reproachful glance.
“That was the plan! But don’t you see all these cracks? The runic circle is completely ruined! You can just walk out of it whenever you want. That… that is really unfair!”
Shadow looked at her with a hint of compassion.
“I see. But should you perhaps have kept the fact that the runic circle is disabled a secret from me? I think that would have been wise.”
The young woman opened her eyes wide. Her lower lip trembled a little.
“Oh. Should I have?”
Her shoulders dropped, and she sighed dejectedly.
“Ruined… it’s all ruined. I’ve been preparing for so long. I even rehearsed a villainous speech! I practiced diligently in front of a mirror — before that brazen mirror had the audacity to comment on my impeccable evil laughter, that was. Argh! This is no fun at all. Why are all her friends so annoying?!”
At that moment, Shadow had to admit that he completely lost the thread of what was happening.
Just a few minutes ago, he was fighting with an Nightmare Creature who called himself the Mad Prince in the Shadow Realm. Now, he was somewhere else, sitting in the center of a broken runic circle, listening to an odd girl complain about her ruined plans of imprisoning him… and demanding that he compensate her for the trouble.
‘What… the hell is happening?’
He suppressed a sigh.
“Did you send that Nightmare Creature to kill me? Are you the Oracle of Thetis?”
The young woman flinched and stared at him for a moment, confused.
Eventually, she frowned.
“Kill you? He was only supposed to politely invite you to my palace, though?”
Then, she shrugged.
“Well, no matter. And no, I am not the Oracle of Thetis.”
The young woman grinned.
“I am the Jade Queen. Nice to meet you! Oh, and please, don’t fall in love with me immediately… I know that it is a lot to ask, but please be considerate…”