Yadrith stared at his shadow, and suddenly it changed shape. Earlier it had been stretched out due to the only light source being the fire. Now, the shadow was perfectly fitted to his body as if he had been pasted on the ground.
'How bizarre.'
He gave the shadow a simple command, and it climbed out of the ground. It was an exact copy of his body; it even had a replica of the Stone Sword on his back.
"Woah...!" He exclaimed, taking a step back. "Benson has given me something truly amazing."
With a silent order, the shadow stretched out, blocking the entrance of the cave.
"That feels a bit better..." He paused, "Oh."
He had forgotten to dispose of the bodies. Now that Benson's influence had vanished, he no longer felt anything for Karadael besides a small yearning—a yearning that could hardly be called romantic.
'I guess I should bury them.'
He moved toward Karadael's body and suddenly felt a wave of emotion attack his mind. He backed up, and emotions receded. However, when he approached Karadael a second time, they appeared once more.
"I think I understand." He swallowed and changed his intent.
Earlier he had moved toward her to give her proper rest; now he moved toward her to throw out her foul corpse. The emotions no longer welled over his mind.
"So if I bend to the emotions, they'll become stronger?" He spoke outwardly, and his shadow withdrew from the wall, taking hold of Karadel's body—it then quickly slid across the ground, growing in size, collecting both Benson and Vincent.
Then with another command, it threw the bodies outside the cave; as it exited his sight, he felt an odd danger and quickly recalled the shadow, ordering it to seal the wall once more.
'Such a convenient Regalia, though I can feel a strange omen when my shadow gets too far from me.' He smiled. 'If that's the case, I'll just make sure it never gets too far while in the 'Casting Shadow' state.'
"Now then." He took a glance back at Mahaya, then flexed his bicep. An overwhelming amount of power surged through him. Right now all of his bodily functions felt as if they had been improved; he felt younger, more energetic... He felt incredibly powerful.
"I could bask in this feeling forever."
He unsheathed his sword and performed a few short sword forms he had learned from Oliver. They were more precise, deadly, and filled with powerful will. Especially the will—it was permeated into the world with a far more formidable force.
'Hm...' He dropped his sword as a test and noticed his body was much weaker. "I can see why I was much stronger than Benson, Karadael, and Vincent. It was my will of life, transmitted through my sword."
He picked his sword back up and felt an immediate boost in power.
'Because they were threatening my life, my Rekh was much stronger earlier.' His left eye suddenly widened. 'Doesn't that just mean I'll always be at my peak in life-or-death situations?'
His mouth stretched into a wide grin, realizing how impressive he really was. He was no longer a burden to Mahaya and Oliver.
"Now we just need to find a way out of place."
Vincent, Karadael, and Benson, plus whoever they had brought with them, couldn't escape. But Yadrith didn't worry too much about it. His compulsion begged him to leave now that he was in top form, and he could only obey.
He moved over toward where he left the cloak to dry and wrung it out.
'Good enough.'
He fixed Mahaya's clothes and placed the cloak on her body. Then, he promptly sat her on his back.
"Let's try this."
His shadow dissipated back into his form and travelled up his body. He commanded it to coat him and Mahaya. Soon after, the two were covered in a black shell. He stepped out of the cave and felt no coldness from the wind.
Oddly enough, he was able to breathe, hear, and see through the shadow. Yet, he couldn't feel the cold air.
'I wonder what type of attacks it can withstand.'
He imagined his shadow jumping in front of Neo Ogma's dagger and deflecting it. His face scrunched up. 'Eh... I don't think that's happening. Benson probably only wore it because of the cold protection, though I don't think it's durable enough to withstand a powerful attack.'
Regalia did not get stronger with Rekh mastery.
He continued through the snow in a much better condition than before. He wandered a bit aimlessly, now with powerful protection from the cold and incomparable strength compared to before.
With his new senses, he could see through the storm's darkness partially.
'My will prevailed over yours, tundra.' He smiled, running at his full speed.
Everything was a blur, and he felt invincible.
Until a structure appeared before his eye: a tall, pure-white gate.
'Huh? There's something down here? Why didn't Vincent or Karadael mention it?' He accelerated, arriving at the gate in less than a minute.
'It's bigger than I thought.'
The colossal gate was about 20 ft tall, and there seemed to be condensed mist surrounding it. He couldn't see what was past the gate.
'Hm... There should be an entrance somewhere.'
He thought about slipping through the gate, but for some reason it just seemed impossible to him. So, he followed the edge of it toward the left before arriving at the main entrance. It was obviously the entrance, as there was no gate. It was simply open.
Yadrith stared at the two large pillars, forming an arc around the entrance, with an odd look. 'Who could have built all of this?' He frowned while approaching one of the pillars. 'It looks maintained...?'
The pillar had no blemishes and was sparkly clean despite the region being desolate and hosting a deadly storm of ice.
"To have not eroded at all?" He muttered, tracing a finger along one of the pillars. Then, turning his head toward the foggy mist obscuring the entrance, he smiled nervously.
"Let's enter," He spoke, while taking a step toward the mist. His foot entered the mist, passing through it. His smile widened, and he took a full step through it.
"What...?" He blinked, feeling a bit of pain in his eyeballs. The sun he had not seen in almost a week was blazing down from above. He was suddenly reminded of a phenomenon.
"This is the eye of the storm..." He blinked once more and noticed there was no snow around him. In fact, it was warm. A stone path was under his feet, and surrounding that was green grass... Something he hadn't seen in what felt like forever.
He looked forward, and his brow lowered. His eye focused, a massive structure was far in the distance! An onyx palace, unlike anything he had seen before.
"A castle?" He spoke in disbelief, taking steps forward. However, in his trance he felt a grip on his shoulder. His entire body trembled, and he turned.
Nobody was there.
"What are you doing?"
He heard a low voice.
"Oh? Mahaya, I forgot." He let out a sigh of relief. 'The drastic change in temperature probably woke her up.'
Mahaya slid off his back and took a few awkward steps; clearly her legs were numb.
"Where are we?" She asked while scrutinizing the black palace in the distance. She began to tap her head, clearly jogging her memory.
"Well... It's a long story."
He quickly told her about how they fell into a zone without ambient Rekh, the Pelsacians that had tried to eat her, and how he entered the First Step.
"That much happened? In just a little less than a day?" She let out a sigh. "I'm sorry about the trouble I caused you."
He chuckled, "Don't worry too much about it, alright? You've helped me plenty of times."
For the first time, he saw what he believed to be a slight smile on Mahaya's face. He smiled seeing her lips curve up, but seeing his expression caused her to straighten out her own and cough twice.
"Do you want to continue? Usually, places like these involve something dangerous."
"There's nothing for us out there; we might as well see what's here."
Mahaya shook her head in response. "You said earlier the fall wasn't far; in my True Form I'll be able to reach the top of the cliff with my body."
His mouth slightly parted, "That would be perfect."
He had forgotten that Miel was a giant spider. It would make sense that Mahaya's True Form was that of a colossal snake.
He turned to face the exit of the mist and then looked back toward the palace.
'It's a bit disappointing.' He thought about what could possibly have been inside. "Let's leave." He looked at Mahaya, ready to escape this area and find Oliver.
"Ohoho...!"
Yadrith and Mahaya heard a soft snap. Space began to tear and distort before they could even react to the voice. They were both violently pulled forward through space, yanked away from the exit.
Yadrith's eyes widened, and he let out a faint breath. He stared at the sight before him while cold sweat trailed down his temples. Standing before him were two titanic onyx doors covered in a majestically sculpted mural.
The mural depicted many scenes. A snake devouring the corpse of a beautiful woman. A snake shedding its skin and ascending into a dragon. Humans worshipping a dragon flying above them. And the last scene was of five creatures born under the dragon, one of which looked like an elf, a spider, an owl, a wolf, and a dragon.
'This must be the story of Sefirah...?'
He blinked, looking over it one more time.
'No, it's the story of Veerhun...' He let out a faint chuckle. 'It's depicting him as the snake?'
"I have prepared a meal for you, my guest.... Why leave when you have just arrived? Come! Enter my home and have a conversation with me...! Feel free to take your time; there are plenty of peculiar sights in my domain!"
Yadrith folded his lips and looked at Mahaya, who was staring at the mural with a blank expression.
He looked back at the mural and finally understood what a True Demon was: 'Those who have the qualities of Veerhun's children... Or what appear to be his children in the mural.'
Many demons had horns, fangs, extra limbs, or simply oddly colored skin, such as red skin. True Demons were more direct, being called dragons or spiders instead of mundane demons. Of course, the True Demons with elongated ears like elves still confused him.
'They probably aren't called elves, but something else more fitting... More importantly, I wonder who is behind that voice.'
He didn't feel any hostility from it, but rather an insanity or madness like Karadael's group. Though, this fellow was infinitely more powerful to be able to directly pull people through space. There was nothing Yadrith or Mahaya could do against this figure.