Page 94 of Mountains of Mist and Magic

A low growl echoed through the canyon, a shadow shifting in the corner of her vision. Renya spun, her blade slicing through the air. To her shock, the blade of the sword started to glow and emit light. The beast recoiled, its form flickering and insubstantial. The phantoms kept coming, and she kept slashing. After a minute, she noticed something strange—the way the creature seemed to swell and grow more solid when she hesitated, when fear flickered in her heart. The realization struck her like a bolt of lightning: these beasts fed on fear.

Another growl, this time from behind. She turned again, slicing at the darkness with the radiating blade. The beasts thrived when her fear surged, their forms gaining substance and strength. But when she struck with confidence, they weakened, their shapes dissolving into the ether.

The shadows thickened, coalescing into grotesque forms. Eyes glowed with malevolent hunger, claws extended to render flesh from bone. Renya felt the fear rising, a tide she struggled to hold back. The beasts around her morphed into terrifying visions: the senator, his eyes full of malicious lust; the sirens, their figures murky and eyes dead; the Shadow Realm soldiers cutting a path through the Twilight Kingdom. Even the tygres resurfaced, snarling and hissing. But when she reflected on the terrifying events that had once paralyzed her, she felt a spark of defiance. She had survived that. She would survive this.

With a cry, she lunged forward, her blade cutting through the nearest beast. It dissipated with a screech, the shadows retreating momentarily. She pressed on, each swing of her weapon fueled by determination, each strike a defiance of the fear they sought to exploit. The weapon seemed to work like a solar flare, emitting light that pierced the darkness.

The canyon seemed to come alive with their struggle, the very air vibrating with the clash of light and dark. Renya's breath came in ragged gasps, sweat mingling with the dust of the ancient backdrop. But she did not falter. With every movement of her sword, her confidence soared and her fear retreated. The beasts then got smaller and smaller, weaker and more defenseless.

One by one, the beasts fell, their forms dissolving into absolute nothingness. Renya stood alone in the silence that followed, the echoes of the battle slowly fading. She lowered her blade, her body trembling with exhaustion. But no longer fear.

She stood for several seconds, breathing hard. Turning the weapon over in her hands, her eyes caught a phrase etched on the base of the blade.

Light Bringer.

Of course. This was her destiny. She nearly smiled, hoping that this signified the end of her trial, implying her piece in the prophecy was complete. She waited, listening for a voice, a sign, or any kind of indication that she was finished.

But nothing came. Sighing, she slid the huge sword through the other side of her belt, feeling a tad silly with two blades crossing and hitting each other as she walked farther down the canyon. Her mind wandered as she moved through the odd landscape, with deadened trees mixed in with healthy trees strewn about the valley. Her connection with Grayden was gone, and she found herself worrying about the others on the beach. It felt like they'd been gone an eternity, rather than just a day. She was also concerned about Selenia and Phillippe. Since they'd each taken off on their own path, she hadn't heard or seen anything from them. Even though they were all on the same mountain, she felt completely isolated, which led her to wonder if she was truly still on the mountain, or if she was in some kind of magical plane, a place that didn't exist in time or space.

Directly ahead of her, her attention was pulled towards a dark shape. She hurried her steps, her boots crunching on the dry sand-like texture of the canyon floor. Again, the juxtaposition of the scenery baffled her. There were live plants intermixed with dead ones, with nothing in between. The underbrush was either dead, or thriving. It puzzled her, but she pushed the strange detail away.

The closer she came, she realized that standing before her was a giant stone obelisk, like the one she'd seen at the Tidal Kingdom when Cressida had unlocked her powers. However, this obelisk seemed...active.

Like a volcano spewing lava, this large archway was emitting...shadow. The closer she got, she realized that tendrils of shadow were curling around her, and she watched with horror as it circled a healthy, green tree. The tendrils continued to slither around like serpents, engulfing the tree in shadow. As the shadows wrapped the tree tighter and tighter, Renya watched with horror as the leaves on the tree started to rot before her eyes, the vibrant green turning quickly into a sickly brown. The robust trunk became brittle, dead and decaying within seconds.

With a loud crack, the branches of the tree fell to the ground and the shadows moved on, leaving behind nothing but the skeletal remains of the tree. The landscape suddenly made sense to Renya, and her heart filled with horror as she watched the shadows, inky and dark, move through the forest.

Now feeling a sense of urgency, she hastened to the obelisk, eager to stop whatever was causing the rotting darkness of shadow. But as soon as she was within a few feet of the archway, the shadows retreated from the forest and became twisting and converging, taking shape.

In front of her, a wraith made up of shadows loomed menacingly. With no real body and only an outline appearing somewhat like a person, it moved with a haunting fluidity, hovering above the ground and blocking the obelisk.

Renya trembled from head to toe as the monster grew, reaching a height of twenty feet or perhaps, even more. She looked behind her, hoping to retreat back to the forest, but the wraith's shadowy fingers blocked any path but directly ahead. A fear like she'd never experienced before gripped her insides, and she froze, unsure of what the next move was.

Then, a symphony of desperation moved throughout the canyon as the wraith began to moan and wail, the sound coming out as a deadly hiss. Renya shook herself, trying to summon courage that was buried deeply. With shaking hands, she pulled forth the glowing sword, holding it high above her head. The wraith moved backwards from the light and let out another sinister hiss.

Renya continued to brandish her sword, but no matter how fast she was, the wraith was faster. It dodged every slash and slice, moving with agility that surpassed anything Renya had seen before. She quickly realized that the sword was enough to protect her, but not enough to banish the haunting figure before her.

Soon she was out of breath, exhausted from the stalemate. She realized that something wasn't right; there was no way for her to banish this monster, no way to bring about its end.

But then her eye caught on the obelisk. Every time Renya moved towards it, the shadowy monster curled itself around it. It was protecting it. Protecting the shadows...from her.

It must be the sword, Renya thought, breathing hard. She took another couple of deep inhales, and then surged ahead, sword held high. The wraith whined, a sharp, keening sound—and Renya dashed ahead, the shadow tendrils parting like the Red Sea as she reached the obelisk. Before the shadow wraith could react, Renya threw the sword through the archway triumphantly.

Nothing happened. The sword disappeared into the shadows, leaving her completely vulnerable to the wraith.

She didn't understand. The sword was what the wraith was afraid of, wasn't it? But no sooner had she questioned it, the wraith came nearer to her but then retreated.

Everything finally clicked.

She was the light bringer. It wasn't just a title in a prophecy or a magic sword. It was her: her bravery, her love for her friends, the hope she brought others. The more she thought about it, she realized her skin itself had started to tingle, and she looked down. Her entire body had begun to glow, and the wraith started squirming as if in pain. In a flash, Renya moved towards the archway and jumped through it, praying that this time, her assumption was correct.

Chapter Forty-Seven

In one moment, Phillippe was climbing, moving forward up the mountain, and in the next instance, a white light flashed across the sky, and the ledge he was climbing up suddenly transformed and smoothed until he was holding nothing. He panicked, but instead of falling off the side of the mountain, his feet hit solid ground.

He still couldn't see anything; the light around him was painfully bright. It was like looking directly at the sun; he squinted and looked down, his eyes watering.

“Hello?” A voice ventured into the bright nothingness. But it was a voice he recognized.

---