Lord Shadow

‘Will you accompany me to go to the city?’

Sofia was shocked at this request.

‘You wish to tour Pandemonium? At this moment?’ She asked like she is trying to make sure she did not hear it wrong

Azief nodded.

He looks at the distant sky and he sighed. He had a premonition that something would change when he went into this journey.

He doesn’t know what would change but he could feel it.

And there is a reason why he wanted to see his Pandemonium

He had been thinking about this the moment he wanted to leave.

He usually ignores the people of Pandemonium and let them do what they want as long as it did not go beyond his bottom line.

They love him, respect him, in awe in him and worship him.

They treated him like the monarch of this continent.

But he never sees them before. At least not like see them, see them.

As he is slowly approaching more and more toward the area of Laws he understands something very important about humans and himself.

Intentions. Or will. Or determination. To walk to the Grand Path, one need to have unswerving will.

An unbreakable determination. And the guide for walking this path is one intentions.

He wanted to see more. He wanted to see his people and their will. When he became a part of Heaven he saw a Will.

Not his Will. Not the Heaven Will. But a Will that seems stretched and connecting all across living thing.

Like a source that powers Life and give life strength.

Then what is this Will? Azief had been thinking about that question a lot and he came to the conclusion that Will is the Will of humans.

Each human has a soul and each soul has a will. But all those Will could create something tangible if only they knew how.

He once asked what is Heaven Will? He got his answer. He confirmed it. But what is his Will? He knows his intentions but what is his Will?

And what can it do? And can it transform?

He is slowly grasping with that understanding and he knows this is not something he should rush about.

What is his Will? These kind of question could drive one crazy if one had not walk far enough. Azief know he is walking on his own grand Path.

And it is still a long walk to the end.

He did not know that even a she is thinking of this he keeps moving forward, and Sofia silently follows him from behind

He had experienced a lot in this world.

His experience in the Six Life of Azul still give him many benefits and in retrospect enables him to have this kind of fast development.

There is six path of reincarnations in Azul life and he suffer and experience all kinds of blessing and tribulations in there.

To some people he is still young but his soul is old. He lived a long time in those sabers.

His Six Finger Path is derived from the Six Path of Reincarnation and from the experience in those life.

In each of that spell there lies a will in them, corresponding to one reincarnation of Azul life. It is a Will.

Azief in those many lives experience what it feels like to be happy just to see flower blooms in spring, and feeling sad to see flower wither.

He sees the eternal changes of the world, the turn of fortune and misfortune and feel sorrow.

In those lives as he watches the rise and fall of the tide of human life, he felt the impermanence of life.

He embraces all that and accept all those feelings. As Azief is thinking all this he did not know that he had walk quite a long way from the hut.

Behind her Sofia could see that Azief is in a daze but she did not try to interfere.

It is like Azief is gaining some inspiration.

She just keeps walking behind him.

As she saw some of the Shadow Guards in the distance she shakes her head at them and gesture for them to leave and the Shadow Guard melded back into the darkness and disappeared from sight.

Azief is still thinking about all of this matter.

He wanted to reach the realm like Azul. But he knew that such a realm is not reached simply because one wanted to reach it.

Sometimes luck is needed. Sometimes one needed a stroke of inspiration.

By now Azief is slowly reaching to the Pandemonium entrance gate.

When the palace guards saw that it was Death Monarch walking to the gate, they wanted to kneel but then they saw Lady Sofia behind Death Monarch gesturing them to shut up and open up the gate.

So, they do not dare make a sound as they slowly open the entrance gate.

Azief is still walking not realizing what is happening. His foot keep walking forward but his mind is lost in his thought.

Sofia fears that Azief would lose his inspiration or whatever he is doing and cut short his concentration. The only thing she could do is to minimized the distraction.

The Shadow Guard watch in the distance hiding in the darkness of the alleys, blending in with the crowd.

Azief and Sofia is slowly walking out from the Palace and is now entering the most bustling marketplace in front of the Centre Palace.

As they enter, some of the people that is selling and buying, look oddly at this pair of young man and woman.

The Lost Boys in the distance were also feeling weird looking at these two people.

They look oddly incompatible with the scenery here, like they were an entirely different being from them

Not many people knew how Death Monarch appearance since there are not that many that dares to look him in the eyes.

But warriors or people who adventure throughout the seven seas and the four corners of the land of course knows Death Monarch appearance because they got news with his picture (most of it blurry) and could afford to buy footage of Death Monarch.

But to some, the closest they could see to Death Monarch appearance is in his Temple worshipped by some cults.

Most of them were carved by the sculptor that believes in worshipping Death Monarch

And most of those statues depicted him under his hood with a cold face, unsmiling and stern with no details on his face or how he looks like as his face is covered by the black robe

To the Lost Boys who roam across the city alleys and streets, they look at the two people like they were idiots.

These are the marketplace. If the woman did not push a few people away from them that young man would have bump into many people already and might create a conflict

They didn’t look like merchants and they didn’t look like hunters. Hunters usually would look a little more shabby

And they are not the military considering how they did not carry that aura of military. One of the merchants was about to scold Azief when Sofia notices it.

She snorted, waved her hand and wind gust push the merchant away as the merchant was hurl away, colliding with a large stall, crashing all over the other merchant wares.

Azief did not even notices this commotion.

The merchants were about to call yell for the guards and he himself is slowly standing up amidst the destroyed wooden stall and was about to give that woman a piece of his mind.

but then he saw that the woman brought out a bow and then the merchants eyes shakes and he gulped.

His back sweated and his hand trembles and he went weak on the knees. His eyes look at the woman. She was beautiful but when his eyes landed on the bow, it was then that fear sets in.

He recognizes that bow. Many people wanted the replica of that bow on his shop before so he did make a replica of it for parents to buy for their children.

Because of that he could recognize it even from afar. And he didn’t think the bow on that woman hand is a replica.

It is this realization that fills him with fear and dread.

Because if that is the real thing, then this woman is none other than that Archer and the man in front of her, wearing an all back outfit could only be that person.

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Ending it with a cliffhanger. Leave some comments and vote for the story