"System," Lucien thought.[Ding!][System Command Accepted.][Analyzing Ancient Dialect and Blood-Script...][Translation Matrix Active. Overlaying translated text onto Host's vision.]Instantly, Lucien’s vision changed. A soft blue light swept across the walls. The chaotic, messy scratches began to glow. Above the scratches, neat, perfectly readable blue words appeared in the air.Lucien began to read.I am Lord Commander Varis of the Sun-Guard, the first block of text read. I refused to murder the true King in his sleep. For my loyalty, my eyes were burned out, and my wife was thrown into the pit. I die in the dark, but my honor remains in the light.Lucien’s breath hitched. He moved his eyes to the next block of blue text."I am High Scholar Elianor, Master of the Great Library, the wall read. The Usurper demanded I burn the ancient history books. He wanted to rewrite the past and pretend his dark magic was a gift from the heavens. I hid the true books. For the crime of remembering

Lucien fell through the air like a dark rock dropped from the sky. The wind screamed past his ears. His liquid shadow-cloak whipped wildly around him.Far below, the Forgotten Village was completely covered in panic.It was a nightmare. The massive sinkhole at the bottom of the giant cavern was pouring out freezing grey mist. Out of that mist, the endless white river of skeletons marched forward. Clack. Clack. Clack. Thousands of bony feet hit the stone floor in perfect rhythm. They held rusted iron swords and broken shields. Their empty eye sockets glowed with a hungry, evil red light.Inside the village, people were running in every direction. The peaceful glow of the blue and green mushrooms was broken by the chaotic shadows of terrified humans.Matriarch Elara stood on a low stone platform near the center of the village. Even though she was blind, she could feel the terrible, cold magic rising from the bottom of the cavern. She held tightly to the shoulder of a young girl who act

The villagers watching from below screamed in horror. Matriarch Elara gripped her chair tightly. But Lucien did not panic.He remembered the Enforced Evolution. He remembered the massive amount of holy energy he had eaten from the five hundred golden knights. He had mixed the holy light with the dark abyss inside his soul.As the giant scythe came down, Lucien opened his left hand. He did not call upon the dark shadows. He called upon the stolen sun.A blinding, brilliant flash of pure golden light erupted from Lucien’s hand.The Warden, a creature of absolute darkness, was completely blinded by the sudden burst of holy light. Its red eyes burned in pain. It flinched, missing its swing. The heavy scythe crashed into the stone roof inches away from Lucien’s side.At the exact same moment, Lucien pushed the golden light down into his own legs. The holy fire instantly melted the freezing Grave-Ice into steam.Lucien was free. He did not jump away. He stepped perfectly inside the Warden’

[Ding!][Sign-In Successful!][Congratulations! You have received a Mythic Tier Reward.][Reward Generated: The Army of Shadows.]Lucien read the words. Before he could even wonder what it meant, the ability activated. It did not activate slowly. It activated with absolute, terrifying violence.Lucien gasped. He dropped to one knee. His shadow, the normal, dark shape cast on the floor by the glowing mushrooms, suddenly disconnected from his boots. His shadow exploded.It expanded outward like a flood of black water. It shot across the smooth obsidian dais. It spilled over the edges into the dirt of the plaza. It kept growing. It moved faster than a running horse."Look!" Kael shouted, pointing at the ground.The villagers screamed and jumped back. Lucien’s shadow was covering the entire village square. It crept up the sides of the stone mausoleums. It crawled over the rope bridges. Within ten seconds, the entire floor of the massive cavern was covered in pure, pitch-black darkness.

The vision faded like smoke in the wind.Lucien blinked his eyes. The bright, golden throne room of the capital was gone. The cruel face of his ancient ancestor was gone. He was back in the real world. He was standing on the smooth, black glass of the Imperial Banishment Dais. The cold air of the graveyard brushed against his face. But the heavy feeling in his heart did not go away. It felt like a massive stone was sitting in his chest.At the top of the giant cavern, the battle was loud, but it was very short.Grand Inquisitor Valerius Vane had ordered his men to charge. He thought he was going to slaughter a village of weak, starving rats. He thought his mechanical iron wolves and his holy sun-bombs would burn everything to ash. He was completely wrong.Lucien’s new power, the Mythic Tier [Army of Shadows], did not just block the attack. It destroyed the attackers in seconds.Tens of thousands of ghostly knights rushed up the carved stone stairs. They were made of soot-black smok