The Shadow King.
His presence thrummed in the earth, in the trunks of the trees, in the very shadows choking the air. It pressed against my senses until I almost staggered beneath the weight. And yet, it was not the blind, mindless malice I had expected. It was colder, stranger—measured. A will testing the edges of my light, circling, waiting.
I frowned, my steps slowing. The stories we had heard, the legends of this creature, had painted him as a monster—a being of pure darkness and malevolence.
But now, standing in his domain, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to him than the tales suggested.
The forest was dark, yes, and filled with a strange magic, but there was no sense of the mindless evil I had expected.
“High Priestess,” Leonidas said, snapping me from my thoughts. His voice was tight, his knuckles white on his sword hilt. “Do you sense him?”
I nodded, though my unease deepened. “The Shadow King is near.”
As if my words had summoned him, a sharp crack split the air.
The ground heaved. Shadows burst upward, thick and oily, coiling around one of the Paladins before he could even cry out. He crashed to the ground with a strangled shout, his sword clattering from his grip as the tendrils dragged him down.
The others reacted instantly, swords drawn, the light of the Sun flaring from their blades as they hacked at the dark tendrils.
“Stay together!” Leonidas barked, raising his sword high, its blade glowing with golden light. “Form a defensive line!”
The Paladins moved fast, shields locking, swords blazing with solar fire. Their discipline was flawless, but the forest did not care. More shadows erupted, snaking between their legs, lashing around their throats, slamming them back against the blackened trunks with terrifying speed.
I raised my staff, calling on the power of the Sun, and a blast of golden fire erupted from my hands, searing through the darkness. The tendrils shrieked as they burned, recoiling into the soil. For a moment the Paladins staggered free, gasping, blades flashing.
But the relief was short-lived.
The darkness surged back twice as strong, rising not just from the ground but dripping from the branches above like tar come to life. They fell in curtains across our formation, splitting the line, disorienting the Paladins.
“Keep formation!” Leonidas roared.
They tried. Gods, they tried. But the forest itself betrayed them.
I watched in horror as Marcellus, his copper colored hair shining like a beacon in the dark, swung his sword in a clean arc, severing a tendril in two. His blade flared bright…and then sputtered. His eyes widened as the golden light guttered like a dying candle.
“No,” he rasped, clutching the hilt tighter, willing it to ignite. But the shadows had wound around his arms, his throat. Theyyanked him upward, slamming him into the tree canopy. His scream ended in a choking gurgle before the dark swallowed him whole.
“Marcellus!” Leonidas surged forward, but another Paladin, Sera, blocked him with her shield, saving him from a tendril that would have pierced his chest. She pivoted, her blade carving brilliant arcs — until the ground beneath her feet turned to quicksand-black. She sank with a gasp, shadows climbing her legs, her waist.
“High Priestess!” she cried, her face pale with terror.
I hurled a bolt of fire. It struck, searing the tendrils back long enough for her to wrench free. But even as she staggered toward us, something shifted in the air.
The forest… laughed.
It was not sound exactly, but the rustle of leaves, the groan of trees bending where no wind stirred. Mockery, alive and suffocating.
Another Paladin fell then—I did not see how, only his cry cut short as shadows enfolded him. And another. Each loss struck me like a hammer blow to the chest.
“Stay with me!” I commanded, steeling my voice. I thrust the staff skyward, unleashing a dome of light. Golden fire radiated outward, pushing the shadows back, illuminating a circle of blessed ground around us.
The Paladins gasped, their faces drawn but eyes blazing anew with hope. They regrouped, shields raised. For a moment, I thought we might hold.
But the forest was endless.
The light pressed the shadows back only so far. Beyond the dome, the dark grew thicker, denser, watching. And then—as one, it struck.
From every side, from the ground, from the canopy, from the very air.
