Published at 17th of September 2024 5:16 pm

Chapter 87 The Last Shadow: 10 Into the Abyss

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The dust from the avalanche settled in the narrow pass, leaving Kojiro, Katsuro, and Yui standing amidst the debris. Their breath was heavy, their bodies covered in scrapes and bruises, but they had survived the first trap. Ahead of them loomed the entrance to the abyss — the mountains that hid the Order’s base deep within.

Kojiro’s mind was still reeling from the sudden attack. The Order knew they were coming. It wasn’t just that they had set traps, but the precision with which the boulders had been triggered suggested a level of surveillance Kojiro hadn’t anticipated. They were walking into the enemy’s stronghold, and now it was clear that every step was being watched.

“We need to move,” Katsuro said, his voice low but urgent. “If they know we’re here, there will be more traps ahead.”

Yui wiped her brow, her sharp eyes scanning the cliffs above. “This was just the beginning. They’ll try to funnel us into more traps the closer we get. But if we stay unpredictable, we can avoid their deadliest ones.”

Kojiro nodded. “We can’t let them control the pace. We’ll have to change our route.”

Yui smirked, a glint of confidence flashing in her eyes. “Good. I hate sticking to the path.”

She led the way again, moving with the grace and ease of someone who was used to navigating dangerous terrain. Katsuro followed close behind, and Kojiro brought up the rear, his senses on high alert. Every shift of the wind, every creak of rock underfoot could be the trigger for another deadly trap.

The mountains were a labyrinth of jagged cliffs and narrow ridges, each twist and turn seeming more treacherous than the last. The air grew colder as they climbed, the thin mountain breeze biting at their skin. But despite the harsh conditions, Kojiro felt a strange clarity settle over him. His thoughts focused, his movements precise. The further they went, the more he realized that there was no room for error.

Hours passed in tense silence, broken only by the occasional crunch of gravel beneath their boots. Yui navigated their path with uncanny skill, leading them through hidden alcoves and steep climbs that Kojiro would have thought impassable. But as they neared the heart of the mountain range, something shifted.

They came to a sudden stop as Yui raised her hand. She crouched low, peering ahead into a narrow ravine that cut through the mountainside. Kojiro felt it too — the subtle change in the air, the oppressive silence that now weighed heavily on them. The wind had died down, and the usual sounds of nature had disappeared.

“There’s something ahead,” Yui whispered. “Something… unnatural.”

Katsuro narrowed his eyes, gripping the hilt of his blade. “Can you sense it?”

Yui nodded, her expression tight. “It’s faint, but it’s there. A presence. Dark, like the shadows we’ve been hearing about.”

Kojiro crouched beside her, scanning the ravine. It looked empty at first glance, just another stretch of rocky terrain, but his instincts told him otherwise. There was something about the stillness that unnerved him.

“This might be a diversion,” Kojiro muttered. “To lure us into a false sense of security.”

Yui glanced at him, her brow furrowed. “Or it’s something worse.”

Katsuro stood up, his eyes cold and resolute. “We keep moving. If the Order has something waiting for us, we’ll deal with it.”

They pressed on, more cautiously than before. The ravine walls loomed high on either side, casting long shadows that seemed to stretch and shift unnaturally as they walked. Kojiro kept his hand on his kunai, ready to react at the slightest sign of danger.

Then, without warning, the air grew thick and heavy, like a wave of oppressive energy washing over them. Kojiro’s chest tightened, and a cold, dark presence settled around them.

“Do you feel that?” Kojiro asked, his voice tight.

Yui nodded, her eyes narrowing. “It’s coming from up ahead.”

They continued forward, and as they rounded a bend in the ravine, they saw it.

At the center of the narrow path stood a lone figure, cloaked in black from head to toe. The figure’s face was hidden beneath a hood, and a faint, eerie glow emanated from the edges of the cloak, as if shadows themselves were seeping out.

Kojiro’s heart pounded in his chest. This was no ordinary ninja. The dark energy radiating from the figure was suffocating, and Kojiro instinctively knew this was someone tied to the Order.

Katsuro stepped forward, his hand already on the hilt of his sword. “Who are you?”

The figure remained silent, its head tilting slightly as if observing them. Then, with a voice that sent a chill down Kojiro’s spine, it spoke.

“You’ve come far, but this is where your journey ends.”

Kojiro tensed. There was something unnatural about the voice, as if it were layered with echoes from another world. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t a person they were dealing with, but something else entirely—something born of the shadows themselves.

Katsuro drew his blade, the metal gleaming in the fading light. “We’re not here to fight unless we have to.”

The cloaked figure let out a low, rasping chuckle. “Oh, you will have to.”

Before anyone could react, the figure moved. It was impossibly fast, a blur of black that seemed to melt into the shadows around them. One moment, it was standing in the center of the path, and the next, it was behind Katsuro, striking out with a blade that seemed to appear from thin air.

Katsuro barely managed to block the attack, the force of it sending him skidding backward. Kojiro drew his kunai, his muscles tensing as he prepared for battle. Yui had already vanished into the shadows, positioning herself for a counterattack.

The figure moved again, darting between them with a speed that was almost inhuman. Kojiro’s eyes struggled to follow its movements as he dodged a strike aimed at his throat. He slashed out with his kunai, but the blade passed through nothing but air.

“It’s using the shadows,” Yui called out, her voice sharp. “It’s phasing between them.”

Kojiro cursed under his breath. This was exactly the kind of dark power the Weaver had warned them about. The figure wasn’t just fast—it was manipulating the shadows themselves, using them to move between planes of existence.

“We need to force it into the light,” Kojiro shouted, his mind racing. “It can’t hide in the shadows if we take them away!”

Katsuro nodded, flipping through a series of hand signs. “I’ll take care of that.”

In an instant, Katsuro unleashed a powerful jutsu. Fire erupted from his hands, a blazing torrent that lit up the ravine, casting away the shadows and forcing the figure to retreat. For a brief moment, Kojiro saw the figure clearly—a gaunt, skeletal form wrapped in tattered black robes, its eyes glowing with an otherworldly light.

The figure let out a screech as the fire burned away its hiding places, and for the first time, it faltered.

“Now!” Katsuro shouted.

Kojiro didn’t hesitate. He charged forward, kunai in hand, aiming for the figure’s exposed chest. But just as he closed the distance, the figure let out a guttural growl, and the shadows surged around it again, swallowing it whole.

Kojiro skidded to a stop, his kunai stabbing into empty air. The figure was gone, vanished as if it had never been there.

Yui reappeared beside him, her face pale. “That thing… it wasn’t human.”

Katsuro sheathed his blade, his jaw clenched. “It was a sentry. A guardian of the Order.”

Kojiro wiped sweat from his brow, his heart still racing. “If that was just a guardian… what’s waiting for us inside?”

Katsuro’s eyes darkened, and his voice was grim. “Whatever it is, we’re going to stop it. No matter what.”

Ahead of them, the entrance to the Order’s base loomed like a gaping maw, dark and foreboding. The path to the Chamber of Shadows was open, but now more than ever, Kojiro knew they were stepping into something far more dangerous than they had imagined.

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