The Ultimate Awakener

Golden Lamp

The man noticed Elion’s pale expression. He gasped before waving it off. “It’s fine if you don’t want to answer. But you fully know you can’t reach the awakening castle alone, right?”

He knows about the castle?

Elion was stunned. He hadn’t expected the man to know about the castle. If Derick truly knew its location, then he could help him—take him there.

“Do you know about the castle?” Elion, asked desperately.

Derick laughed before replying.

“Of course I do. I’ve been in this realm long enough to know its location.”

“Please… can you please take me there?” Elion, pleaded.

At that moment, the other four men gazed at him with wiry smiles that seemed suspicious.

“That means you’re an awakener?” Derick inquired.

He seemed calm—even happy—as he asked. Elion nodded before replying quietly,

“Yes. This is my first time here, and I’m heading to the castle you just mentioned.”

“Don’t worry, boy. I’ll take you there. We all will,” Derick chuckled. “We’re meant to help guide awakeners to the castle. You’re in the right place.”

As Derick spoke, the other four men nodded like fools, smiling weirdly.

At that moment, Elion’s suspicion grew stronger. Doubt crept into his heart with the fear of if he was truly in safe hands.Elion tried his possible best not to scare himself. He would do anything it took to survive.

Derick gently rubbed his hands on Elion’s shoulders before speaking. “You remind me of my son. He was brave and smart, just like you. Tell me more about yourself.”

Elion remained silent, refusing to talk—not because he didn’t want to, but because talking about himself was a nightmare he would rather not remember.

The man chuckled and passed the last piece of meat to Elion. “You have to eat something. You can’t spend the night without eating.”

Elion collected the meat hanging from the stick. He stared at it, then lowered it.

Derick chuckled, then continued what he was saying. “Remember I told you I have a son… right?”

Elion shifted his gaze to him and nodded.

Derick smiled faintly before continuing. “He died.”

“Died?” Elion’s face paled. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

The man chuckled sadly. “Not only that…”

Elion snapped his gaze back to him as Derick continued,

“I also lost my wife, along with my other kids.”

Elion felt sad for the man as he calmly asked,

“What happened to them?”

“We all came into the Shadow Realm looking for a better life. But fate had other plans. We were all captured, and my wife was brutally killed. Thereafter, I was taken in as a slave by the Dark Castle.”

So that’s how he ended up as a slave…

Elion thought as he stared at Derick. He thought all the stories Derick had told him were all fabricated.

Elion lowered his gaze, sobbing before speaking. “I also lost my dad nine years ago. He was a hunter.”

“Oh… I’m sorry about that.”

Elion shrugged his shoulders sadly and looked away. It had been so long, yet he could still remember his father’s face—how loving he had been.

Derick gently patted Elion’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry. All the people we’ve lost will be in a better place.”

Elion felt slightly comforted by the conversation. It had been a long time since he’d talked like this with anyone.

Elion had no friends. He was always bullied, so he chose to be alone—never wishing for friendship.

Elion was about to eat the meat Derick had given to him when, in the next split second, the rock sheltering them was split clean by a devastating strike.

Elion fell to the ground out of shock. He hadn't expected that.

Before them stood a massive creature, its mandibles elongated, its fangs cutting through the air like a chainsaw.

Elion froze.

The men jumped to their feet. The first to be dragged and pierced by the creature’s claws was Caspian.

His chest was torn open, and his head was sliced clean off, rolling across the ground.

Chaos erupted.

The men searched desperately for a way to fight back, but what they were facing was unlike anything they had ever seen.

Meanwhile, Elion hid against the cave wall that had been torn open. He watched as the second man, James, was slaughtered coldly. He also saw Derick fighting with everything he had.

Now only Ziko and Brian remained alongside Derick, all three trying their possible best to fight back.

Derick shifted his gaze to Elion and shouted sharply:

“Come to me! We have to leave now!”

The path was now clear enough for them to make a run, but Elion was too scared to move from his hiding place—but he forced himself forward.

Derick then turned to Ziko and commanded sharply,“Now! Do it—the light!”

Ziko immediately understood. He bent down and pulled a golden lamp from his bag. The moment he lifted it toward the creature, an illuminated light erupted from the lamp, and the creature stumbled backward as though afraid of the light.

It roared into the air and vanished into the darkness.

The men were now seriously injured. On the ground lay the dead bodies of James and Caspian.

“Fuck,” Brian gritted his teeth.

“This isn’t the time for grief,” Derick warned, his breathing heavy. “We have to move now. If not, those things will come back, and this time, there will be more than one.”

He shifted his gaze to Elion.

“Are you okay? Can you walk? I hope you’re not injured.”

Elion should have been the one asking Derick that question, because Elion had been hiding the entire time when the battle erupted, watching everything unfold.

Additionally, the lamp the men used was a magical one, infused with the same energy stone embedded in every corner of Vanguard’s massive walls. That was why the monster recoiled and fled.