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“What the hell is going on?”
As soon as Ivy muttered to herself, another shadow rushed toward her once again. However, this time the shadow was so easily caught in her hand that it almost seemed ridiculous.
Seeing this, Sina realized that Juan had transferred his spirit into Ivy’s body.
Meanwhile, Juan clenched the shadow in his hand, then tore it apart with both his hands.
‘I didn’t know that shadows could be torn apart like that…’
Sina had a ridiculous thought in her head upon seeing the shadow scatter in the air, but soon nodded as she was convinced that the shadow would have no choice but to be ripped apart if it was hit by a sword as well.
But Juan’s hands were not intact either, since the shadow had the ability to cut through skin. Red blood oozed out of Juan’s hands.
“Ah, damn it. I forgot that this wasn’t my own body.”
Juan murmured awkwardly and stepped back. At the same time, Lenly quickly popped out and hugged Juan.
Juan, who instantly got trapped inside Lenly’s arms, looked at Lenly with perplexed eyes.
“Are you all right, Saintess… I mean, Your Majesty?”
“As long as you don’t treat me like a delicate princess, yes I’m fine. But I ended up leaving some wounds on the Saintess’ hands. I feel sorry for her.”
“I’ll take care of the rest, Your Majesty. I think I have a rough idea of the ecology of these things,” Lenly said.
Sina followed Lenly closely and watched out for the shadows fluttering from the front. The shadows were pacing around and showing irregular movements instead of rushing in again.
“You have a rough idea of these things?” Sina asked.
“These shadows respond to light. Or I guess it would be better to say that they respond to shadows. They will weaken and stop moving if we turn off the necklace hanging around His Majesty’s neck,” Lenly answered.
“What? This?” Juan asked as he lifted the necklace around his neck.
Sina did not doubt Lenly’s words, but she was concerned. Their enemies were creatures that moved around like shadows, and they wouldn’t even be able to see them once they turned off the light. The shadows seemed to be quite weak, but they were still strong enough to cut through skin.
“Come to think of it, this necklace has magic in it. You want to turn it off?” Juan asked.
“Yes, Your Majesty. If you leave it to me, we can safely escape the situation and…”
“No. That’s just ridiculous.”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty?”
“I might be weak inside the Saintess’ body, but did you really think that I’ll be generous enough to let these monsters that appeared before me escape intact? Captain of the Imperial guards, you say that you admire the emperor so much, but it seems like you know nothing about the emperor. I do not compromise with monsters.”
Juan muttered in a relaxed manner as he pulled off the necklace from his neck, then lifted it high up in the sky.
“Even if it can be solved through a conversation, I prefer to choose the path where I can tear apart and kill the enemy.”
The moment Juan briefly muttered something, the light of the necklace began to shine more intensely than ever. Juan couldn’t use magic inside Ivy’s body, since Ivy had never dealt with magic before unless it was through a catalyst. However, maximizing the ability of basic magic items was simple enough work for him to do even inside the Saintess’ body.
Lenly urgently opened his mouth.
“But Your Majesty! Because the enemies respond to light, we must…”
“That would only be valid if they are able to handle this much light.”
Bright white light that made it hard for all of them to open their eyes filled the entire corridor. As the corridor reflected the lights from wall to wall, the shadows ended up disappearing altogether.
Sina turned her head sideways and looked at the Saintess’ back, since she couldn’t look ahead at all due to the bright light.
The shadow monsters that were wandering in front of the party also shriveled up and rustled away in silence.
Then the light suddenly disappeared. In fact, it had only returned to its original state before Juan maximized the light, but for a while, Sina felt as if she was blind.
The shadows were completely gone.
“Well, I guess this is good enough for now,” Juan said.
“Your Majesty, what just happened…?”
Juan lifted the necklace. The jewelry on the necklace had a fine crack on its surface.
“I forcefully used the little bit of the magic inside this object. The lifespan of the necklace may have been reduced by about ten years, but I’ll make sure to get a better one for you.”
“...How did Your Majesty know that the shadow monsters would disappear if bright enough light was shone on them?”
“I’ve seen similar monsters before. Shadows are the servants of light, and I deal with fire and light. Things like that often bother me when my mana gets too old or piled up. Think of them as some kind of parasite. It’s been a long time since I've seen something like that.”
“Oh, then that means…”
“Yes. Perhaps the Pope being able to use my magic has something to do with this underground structure,” Juan smiled and lifted the necklace to eye level. “Besides, they saw the real owner of the mana. So they’ll be able to recognize who they have to bow toward from now on.”
A subtle shadow lay amidst the light emanating from Juan’s necklace.
At that moment, Sina freaked out as she found her own shadow swaying irregularly, but Juan reassured her.
“Relax. They won’t attack us now, and they are much weaker.”
“Why did you keep them alive? I thought you said you’d rip them all to death,” Sina asked.
“Well, it seems like these guys have been interrupting our exploration. They will help us figure out the underground structure and find a way if we tame them well.”
Sina nodded, convinced. The shadows they just saw were able to imitate voices and even mimic walls— they were camouflage monsters specialized to stay in the dungeons.
“Oh, come to think of it. Where’s Haild?”
Sina flinched and looked around in surprise upon hearing Juan’s question. Haild was nowhere to be seen.
Lenly, who had just been with Haild until a moment ago, hurriedly pointed to the direction he came from.
“He should be over there. He went in a different direction from me…”
At that moment, they saw something approaching them from beyond the darkness with a heavy gait—it was Haild who was approaching them with countless shadows piercing through him.
Juan quickly grabbed Sina who was about to run out toward Haild.
“One of their abilities is to gain physical control over your body if there are enough of them. They do so by taking control of the nerves and sending the wrong signals,” Juan explained.
“Will he be okay?” Sina asked.
“I guess we’ll never know unless we check him out. Step back if you don’t intend to cut off his limbs. I’ll take care of it.”
Juan shoved the necklace in front of Haild’s eyes.
***
“I don’t know what else to say other than that I’m ashamed of myself.”
Haild muttered, dropping to the ground. The shadows had penetrated Haild’s entire body to take control of his nerves and create hallucinations, but they all disappeared quickly once the light emitted by Juan’s necklace shone on him.
No matter how good Haild’s swordsmanship was, it was impossible for him to fight against the shadows in the dark.
“It’s clear that they respond to light considering that shadow monsters only appeared around Haild and the Saintess who were both emitting light.”
Lenly nodded as Sina spoke.
“Yes. It seems like all they can do without light is mimic voices and create hallucinations.”
However, it was impossible to wander in the dark underground structure without any light.
Lenly alternatively looked at Haild, Sina, and Ivy, then soon opened his mouth as if he had made a decision.
“Your Majesty, would you please take the Saintess out of this place and back to the surface?”
“What?” Juan lifted his eyebrows.
“The Saintess has already been injured. Of course, there is no doubt that Your Majesty is omnipotent. But exploring the underground structure inside the Saintess’ body is…”
Juan swung his necklace toward Lenly’s neck without listening any further. Lenly raised his hand and tried to block the necklace without even realizing it, but Juan quickly wrapped Lenly’s neck with the necklace as if he had read Lenly’s next move in advance. Then Juan tightly pulled the necklace to choke him.
“What are you trying to say? That I’m no good?”
Lenly groaned with a distorted expression.
Seeing this, Sina gasped and quickly ran toward the two.
“Juan, stop it!”
Juan let go of Lenly right away. A long red mark still remained on Lenly’s neck.
“I apologize. I acted like a child.”
Looking at Juan’s calm expression, Sina could see that Juan was neither upset nor emotional. Only then did she realize that Juan didn’t want to make much effort to persuade Lenly in the first place, since he already knew that Lenly had special feelings for Ivy.
“I understand that you are worried about the Saintess, but I must stay with the party to continue the exploration. I’ve been pretty pissed lately, you know. I thought that I’d get my body back and find out about the truth once I came back to Torra. But the fucking bastards ran away with both my body and the truth, my friend has lost her legs, and the only thing everyone around me does is whine. My patience is reaching its limit.”
Juan looked at Sina in silence for a while, then opened his mouth again, “And most of all, I don’t think you’ll be any safer without me.”
No one could disagree with Juan’s last sentence. As long as they continued to get lost, there was neither a way to break through the dungeon nor was there anyone among them who could cope with the shadow monsters if they ever appeared again.
“I would have sent a magician if I knew of this structure in advance. But fortunately, we do have one magician here,” Juan said.
“A magician?” Haild asked as if he was curious.
Juan calmly pointed toward himself and answered.
“I’m talking about myself. The shadow monsters are no longer a problem. No, in fact, they will help us.”
Sina and Haild couldn’t understand Juan’s words. However, Lenly looked at Juan as if he could not believe it.
“No way. Did Your Majesty use that light on the shadows to…”
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Instead of answering, Juan lifted the necklace back toward Lenly. It was not as bright as it was when the shadows were driven out, but a strong light that was enough to make the shadows even darker than normal was emitted by the necklace. Shortly afterward, a shadow wriggling behind Lenly’s back could be seen.
“Darkness is the absence of light, and shadows are the first servant of light,” Juan quietly whispered a magic spell.
The shadow swayed from side to side following the movement of the necklace. Not long after, Lenly’s shadow copied itself, going from one to two and two to three. Soon, the countless shadows began to move limply and head toward a direction.
“There we go. We won’t get lost anymore,” Juan said.
“Where are they going?” Sina asked.
“Where these guys were born. So it’s the place where the most amount of magic is piled up inside this underground structure. It’s also the most important part of this structure as well.”
While Lenly had been struggling for a week to find the way inside this underground structure, Juan had solved the problem right away by simply shaking a necklace a few times.
Sina already knew that Juan had absurdly incredible abilities, but she still couldn’t help but shake her head every time she witnessed it.
“Now diligently follow those shadows. It’s getting exhausting to stay in this body.”
***
Juan’s party had to walk for almost half a day without a break to follow the shadows. Juan felt a little sorry when he thought about Ivy who would suffer from intense muscle pain after the journey ended, and she regained consciousness. However, he thought that it would be better to get the business done as soon as possible and then let her take a rest rather than spend another day inside this damp and dark underground structure.
Juan’s party stopped in front of a huge door. The shadows that surged from all sides of the underground structure were constantly coming in and out of the cracks in the door. The sight of hundreds and thousands of shadows was quite frightening and made the party feel fed up.
Everyone except Juan could not help but nervously look around; there was no way to counteract them if these shadows decided to rush them all at once.
“Shall I open the door, Your Majesty?” Haild asked as he led the way.
Juan stared at the huge iron gate for a while, then soon nodded.
Haild and Lenly held one door each and pushed. The huge iron gates began to slowly open, and the interior space appeared.
Surprisingly, the interior was an empty cavity. It was a huge hall with only huge pillars and an empty floor. Shadows were circling around the round empty space like fish.
“...There’s nothing here.”
Haild looked around as if he was perplexed. It was a space the party had long since been looking for, but they couldn’t see anything but an empty space. There were signs of rough stone-cut construction, but no one could tell what this space was made for.
Then Haild inadvertently noticed that the letters which formed the patterns on the walls outside were also engraved on the floor.
The shadows were circulating along those letters.
At that moment, Juan opened his mouth.
“We can’t say that there’s nothing here.”
Everyone followed along Juan’s gaze.
There was something hanging from the ceiling, and Haild was the only one who couldn’t immediately recognize what it was.
It was a huge throne, just like the one in the Imperial Palace.
“It’s right under my throne,” Juan muttered.