Shadow Slave novel Chapter 3161

In the beginning, the world was vast.

The day sky shining upon it was the realm of Sun God. The night sky shrouding it in darkness was the realm of Storm God. The pale moon moving across the sky was the eye of Beast God, and it illuminated the mortal realms below.

The mortal realms sprawled far and wide, populated by all manner of beasts and creatures — as well as men.

Below the red dust of the mortal world lay the peaceful darkness of Shadow God's domain.

The realm of Heart God, meanwhile, existed in the souls of living things.

And in the heart of it all, imprisoned, was the Void.

...The world was vast, but the shadow was small.

And since the world was full of horrors, the shadow was afraid.

It crawled out of the water, hid in a dark place, and shook, feeling the ground around it quake and groan under the heavy footsteps of history.

No. The Demon of Desire, Hope, had not invented writing yet, so there was no history. The world groaned under the footsteps of the gods, who walked its surface — as well as others like them, who were more terrifying than fear itself.

For they were Creatures of the Void.

In the beginning, when the world was young, the gods still fought against those few of their kin who had escaped the cage of existence during its creation. The shadow clung to the cold stones of its dark cave, terrified.

For a long time, that was all it knew. It didn't even know itself.

Outside the cave, the world was changing.

One day, a harrowing, colossal form fell from the sky, impacting the earth like a dying planet. Its death cries shattered the heavens, and its fall broke the world. The ground splintered and rose in molten waves, forming towering ridges. The being's blood flowed into the dark depths like a sea, and before it could rise again, another shape plummeted from the fractured sky to press it down.

The first being was vast and harrowing. The second was beyond the concept of horror — bestial and ferocious, it was so great as to be entirely unfathomable.

The moon served as that being's eye.

Its infinite maw was full of fearsome fangs, and with those fangs, it tore into the fallen being, rending its flesh and spirit apart. The fangs cleaved the molten earth, as well, shaping it into tall and jagged mountains.

That was Beast God slaying a great Creature of the Void.

Once the creature was dead, Beast God devoured its endless expanse and slept for a while in the molten cradle. Centuries passed, and the world slowly cooled. The Hollow Mountains took shape, and the great caverns of the Underworld were formed below them. The blood of the slain creature became true darkness, and white mist seeped into existence through the fractures in the broken fabric of reality.

Finally, Beast God stirred awake, displeased by the cold, rose from the ground, and returned into the dark embrace of the night sky.

The shadow trembled.

Another day, a horror so terrifying that it defied description — defied being cognized or conceived of, let alone comprehended — rose from the depths. All six of the great gods fought it together, and it was only when the daemons joined them that they finally managed to drive the Void Being back down.

However, they couldn't kill it.

Instead, Sun God placed a prohibition on the absolute laws of existence, eliminating the concept of warmth and movement from the waters where the terrifying being of the everlasting Void dwelled. The ocean turned to ice, imprisoning the Void Creature in its depths. A vicious cold emanated from the frozen ocean, swallowing the lands around it and turning them into a frigid, lifeless wasteland.

The cold continued to seep into the world, spreading slowly.

Many other things happened, as well.

A small sapling turned into a great tree, its roots reaching the depths of the Shadow Realm while its branches supported the heavens.

A vast forest grew around it, becoming a blissful shelter for all living things. In time, however, rot and corruption spread under its branches, and it wasn't until the Demon of Repose created the seasons that its endless hunger for growth was confined.

Humans abandoned the cradle of the primordial forest and ventured into the vast expanse of the world.

The cage of existence was almost broken by the crushing strength of the Stone Titan, who was eventually destroyed by the Demon of Dread.

All memories of Dream God were erased from existence, leaving an echoing absence.

The divine syzygy splintered into myriad realms.

A nasty bird stole Weaver's eye.

Mirage, the Demon of Imagination, built a system of artificial lakes and created the concept of reflections. Because of her, the world was able to look upon itself for the first time.

Some were enamored by their reflections; some were dismayed...

The shadow didn't look.

Reflections did not exist in the darkness, and it was reluctant to abandon its lightless shelter.

It wasn't really interested in its appearance, anyway — however, because of that disinterest...

The shadow became aware of its own existence.

It had existed for a long time, but it had never been aware of itself. Now, the thought of being indifferent to its looks made the shadow realize that it had to exist in order to look like something.

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