From the moment Shade had entered her domain, the Goddess of Knowledge had been watching him carefully.
The death of the elf soldier did not concern her.
To her, the death of one citizen was nothing more than a drop in an endless ocean.
After witnessing lives rise and fall for thousands of years, she had long since grown numb to such things.
Mortals perished like ants beneath the march of time.
What truly captured her attention was something far more unusual.
A shadow had left the Shadow Realm , That mere fact alone was abnormal to say the least.
Shadows were not known for their kindness for a reason.
Most of them were the remnants of monsters that had died in battle against humans or other intelligent races.
Those shadows were violent, instinct-driven things that can only be commanded by the shadows of higher ranking.
However, The shadows of intelligent beings were different,They could still think.They could still remember fragments of who they once were but even those shadows could not act freely as they can still be commanded by the shadows of higher rank.
It was not judged by strength,any process of nobility or anything else but the mere fact alone that how much the shadow realm recognizes you as its holder.
So the more you're recognized by the shadow realm itself the more powerful shadow you can command by yourself.
As these commands if not done willingly are forced to them by the shadow realm itself and no shadow can disobey it.
That's the absolute law of the shadow realm that every shadow must have to follow no matter what the situation is.
As for leaving the Shadow Realm, there were only two known possibilities to begin with.
First.
You were a high-ranking shadow capable of crossing realms by your own power.
Second.
A higher shadow had opened the gates for you so you can cross over to the shadow realm.
Which meant the question was obvious.
'Did this weak shadow have a powerful shadow backing him from behind?'
She did not know.
At first, she had considered sending one of her servants to capture him. It would have been easy.
He was weak.
Very weak.
But since he carried no life force at all, Meaning her ability will not work on him.
Many believed that her ability allowed her authority over nature and her title Goddess of Knowledge came from collecting Knowledge but they were wrong.
Even though her curiosity was strong it wasn't enough to gather the sheer amount of Knowledge she has gathered now.
It was one of the best and worst aspect of her
of her Authority.
Her Authority was the very concept of life force itself.
Only few people know her true Authority.
As she continued to observe what she saw surprised her and that meant a lot from someone who calls herself the goddess of Knowledge.
He moved like a newborn creature trying to understand the world for the first time.
This was the simple conclusion she had formed in her mind.
But the true shock came later.
When he took the physical form of the soldier he had just killed.
At that moment she recognized it instantly.
A Divine Shadow.
There was no possibility of mistake.
Even if he was a million times weaker than a true one, the nature of his existence was unmistakable.
Divine Shadows were beings that could almost be considered gods that were loved by the shadow realm to the core.
Not true gods with their own realms of authority, but something incredibly close.
In the hierarchy of shadow-kind, they stood just beneath the Shadow God himself.
When a mortal died, their soul traveled to the underworld to be judged.
Their shadow, however, was drawn into the Shadow Realm.
Yet somehow this boy had taken the shadow of the soldier he had just killed and bound it to himself.
That ability belonged only to Divine Shadows.
Which meant the impossible had just occurred before her eyes.
Her curiosity ignited like a hungry lion who had found his most delicious prey.
It burned stronger than it had in centuries.
So she acted.
She invited him to her palace and once he arrived, her surprise only deepened.
He carried not only the nature of shadows but Something tied to dreams too.
Inside her divine palace, almost nothing could be hidden from her perception. Every drop of power, every strand of energy revealed itself to her senses.
Yet this creature before her was something she had never encountered before.
A being connected to both shadows and dreams.
Two forces that should never mix and had even been at war with each other.
Now only three questions echoed inside her mind.
'What exactly was the creature sitting in front of her?'
'What race did he belong to?'
And most importantly…
'What kind of energy did he absorb to grow stronger?'
The title Goddess of Knowledge stirred restlessly within her.
Because the existence of this boy was a mystery she had never encountered in all her endless years.
And she intended to uncover every single piece to the last single minute detail.