"Stygai is just ahead," Jaben said, pointing toward a vague shadow in the distance.
After flying for more than two hours, they had crossed the labyrinthine abyssal canyon and finally reached the outskirts of the corpse-city, Stygai.
Lynd didn't need Jaben to tell him they had arrived—he could already see it for himself. With his special vision, he saw immense streams of magic swirling like smoke around the canyon ahead.
Deltos also sensed the danger in that magic. It felt like a volcano ready to erupt—what showed on the surface was just the smoke and ash, but the true threat was buried deep below.
Deltos immediately relayed the sensation to Lynd, who didn't let him get any closer. Instead, he guided them to a relatively open area along the Ash River, far from Stygai, where they landed.
As Deltos touched down, he let go of Jaben. After flying for over two hours, Deltos was exhausted. His whole body ached and he was too weak to stand. He crawled over to a nearby rock, sat down, and pulled several vials of potion from his pouch, mixing and drinking them. Only then did his face regain a bit of color.
Lynd stepped down from Deltos's back and stood by the Ash River, gazing at the distant silhouette of Stygai at the end of the waterway.
After dismissing his special vision, he looked upon the city with his ordinary eyes—the most terrifying place in all the legends of the world of ice and fire.
Only part of Stygai was built from neatly cut and polished bricks. The majority of the city, including its main structure, had been carved directly from a massive slab of black stone. Even the bricks themselves were shaped from the excess material cut out during that process. Like Asshai, Stygai was a city built entirely of black stone.
But the black stone foundation of Asshai was completely different from Stygai's. In Asshai, the black stone was massive and flat. It too was sunken into the ground, but only shallowly—less than five meters deep. In contrast, the black stone of Stygai was prismatic, with one end plunging deep underground—hundreds, maybe even thousands of meters down. Only the tip of its peak jutted above ground, forming the visible city of Stygai. The rest remained buried beneath the earth to this day.
Because most of the black stone in Stygai was still underground and untouched, its magical power remained intact. Unlike in Asshai, where much of that power had already faded, the volcano-like force Deltos sensed was coming from the buried stone below.
"Even just looking at it makes you feel a strange kind of nausea," Jaben said, having regained some strength. He stood and leaned against a rock, his gaze lingering on Stygai with a mixture of awe and unease.
"Nausea?" Lynd raised an eyebrow, then looked at Jaben with a smile. "Master Jaben, you're from Asshai."
All the buildings in Asshai were made from black stone. Ordinary folk might feel sick just looking at them, but spellcasters who lived there long-term never seemed to mind.
"I'm just being honest—it has nothing to do with me being from Asshai," Jaben replied, unfazed by the teasing. He paused, sensing the cliffs and caves around them, then frowned. "Something's not right. Where are the demon packs that used to live here? Why are all the caves around us empty?"
"There were a lot of demons living here?" Lynd asked, turning to him.
"Yes," Jaben nodded. "I visited Stygai over a decade ago. Back then, the surrounding area was full of demons." He pointed along the flow of the Ash River. "Their territory extended far beyond what we can see. They were tough to deal with, so I didn't go any deeper than the edge of their domain."
Lynd ventured a guess. "Could they have migrated somewhere else?"
"Impossible," Jaben said firmly. "These demons have lived here for countless years—maybe even since the city was first built. There's no way they'd just leave."
Lynd didn't press further about the demons. Instead, he looked Jaben over and asked, "How's your body holding up? Can you stay here on your own?"
"I'm feeling much better, no need to worry," Jaben said as he pulled a few black pearls from his belt pouch. "Even if the demons return, I can protect myself. Go handle your business—I'll be fine."
Once he was sure Jaben was okay, Lynd gave Deltos instructions to take to the skies again and circle above. He was to watch over Jaben while gathering power, ready to assist Lynd in launching an attack on the ruins of Stygai at a moment's notice.
After Deltos soared back into the air, Lynd began walking along the gravel path that ran along both sides of the Ash River, heading toward the city of Stygai.
Jaben, meanwhile, found a suitable spot to sit. He placed the black pearls around him and wrapped himself in his black cloak, vanishing into the shadows.
Though the path Lynd walked on was littered with rubble, a closer look revealed that the broken stones could be pieced together into full slabs. It had once been a carefully constructed stone road. When Stygai was first built, it had clearly maintained strong connections with the outside world.
Judging by the traces at the bottom of the canyon, the Ash River must have formed later. Originally, the entire canyon floor had likely been paved with stone slabs—wide enough for seven or eight carriages to travel side by side.
But for reasons unknown, the entire city of Stygai eventually underwent some kind of abnormal change, becoming a dead city. The nearby rivers and streams were polluted and turned into the River of Ash.
The River of Ash flowed through the valley, gradually corroding the terrain until it carved out the current riverbed.
As Lynd drew closer to the abyssal canyon where Stygai lay, a faint shaft of light from above allowed him to finally see the city in full.
The canyon that housed Stygai hadn't formed naturally. It was created by extreme heat—most likely when the massive black stone used to construct the city fell to the ground. Its surface must have been searing hot, and when it struck, it plunged into the earth like a hot knife through cheese. The surrounding rock was superheated and melted into lava, which caused the ground to collapse, gradually forming the enormous chasm seen now.
Lynd came to this conclusion because the cliffs around the canyon were marked with extensive lava traces, including formations of solidified lava that looked as if they were still hanging from the rock face. Embedded in the cooled lava were large quantities of obsidian—known as Dragonglass.
Up close, Stygai was far larger than he had anticipated. The entire city was shaped like a spiraling pyramid, with various types of buildings constructed along each level, rising upward until culminating in an obelisk at the top. Sunlight from the cliff's edge shone directly onto the obelisk's peak.
The visible structures on the surface were only the outer shell of the city's architecture. Its true core lay within the black stone itself. The original builders had hollowed out the exposed portion of the black stone, following the pattern of the spiral staircase outside, carving out over ten interior levels. Each level was densely filled with structures, but unlike the varied styles on the exterior, these inner buildings were all carved directly from the rock, giving them a completely different look and feel.
Lynd had just arrived at the stone bridge leading into the city and was preparing to cross the River of Ash to explore the inner city and see if Euron Greyjoy had already made it here.
But suddenly, a message came from Deltos, directing him to the confluence of the River of Ash and a smaller tributary—something unusual had been found there.
Lynd immediately made his way over. When he reached the small riverbank formed at the junction, his expression turned serious.
The shore was littered with monster corpses—about fifteen or sixteen in total. They were all humanoid in shape, with bat-like wings, sharp horns and fangs of various shapes on their heads, and black scales covering their skin.
"These must be the demons Jaben mentioned," Lynd muttered, stepping forward and crouching beside one of the corpses to examine it.
He quickly inspected each body. Just as Jaben had speculated, these demons could very well be a mutated offshoot of the people of Stygai. Their internal organs, muscles, and bone structures weren't all that different from humans. The only major difference was that their hearts and brains contained crystalline, stone-like masses resembling gout stones. These strange stones radiated black stone magic, suggesting that the demons were capable of using some form of magical power.
Aside from examining their anatomy, Lynd also investigated the cause of death. Every single one had been killed the same way—with fatal strikes to the heart and brain, as if pierced from behind by a sharp blade.
Just as he was finishing his inspection, the shadow behind him suddenly rose up. In both hands it held knives shaped from darkness itself. Silently, it crept toward Lynd, aiming to stab him in the head and heart.
But before the shadowy blades could touch Lynd's armor, a surge of freezing cold erupted out of nowhere and instantly froze the shadow solid.
At that moment, more than a dozen similar shadows emerged from the surroundings and tried to attack him. One by one, they were all frozen in place by the power of the Frozen Dragon rune.
Though these shadow assassins were intangible entities, impervious to ordinary weapons, Lynd's rune power was a rare exception. If he chose to, even his greatsword, the Blade of the Banished Knight, could destroy them.
In truth, ever since he learned that the mage hired by Euron as a guide was a master-level Shadowbinder from Asshai, Lynd had been on alert for the shadow magic they were most skilled in.
Earlier, when he spotted the demon corpses, his special vision had already revealed the dozen or so shadow assassins lying in wait around them—created by a Shadowbinder. So he decided to play along and bait them all into revealing themselves, trapping them in one go.
Then Lynd retrieved a pendant from his belt pouch. The gem at its center was a clear crystal, and the metal frame around it was inscribed with runes.
He held it up and channeled the power of the Nameless King's rune into it. Instantly, the crystal glowed with a soft, milky-white light, illuminating the entire area. The light pierced through every shadow assassin, causing their forms to fade and grow translucent. Within a few breaths, they had completely vanished—leaving the crystal in Lynd's pendant pitch-black, dark as ink.
Lynd's Silent Court, the Mage Association, and the Temple of the God of Magic were home to a wide range of spellcasters from different schools. Among them were more than twenty Shadowbinders—not including the apprentices.
Given this, it was only natural that he wouldn't miss the opportunity to research countermeasures against various magical disciplines. The method he had just used was one such technique specifically developed to deal with shadow assassins.
He did have other ways to eliminate shadow assassins more efficiently, but using those would be a waste. After all, creating shadow assassins required extremely rare and demanding conditions, and sustaining them for long periods was even more difficult. In the entire world, only the Shadowbinder master named Quemor had ever managed to do so.
Now that these shadow assassins were sealed inside the crystal, taming them was out of the question—but he could bring them back to the Black Hollow and hand them over to Malora and the others for study. It was said that shadow assassins touched upon secrets involving souls and the realms beyond death.
Lynd returned the crystal pendant to his pocket, then turned and continued toward the inner city of Stygai. Once inside, he paused and sniffed the air. Judging from the still-liquid blood on the monster corpses, it seemed Euron had only arrived recently—perhaps just a few hours earlier.
According to Quillor, when Euron first arrived in Asshai, his ship carried a large number of wights. The local spellcasters, mistaking him for a powerful necromancer, chose to keep their distance.
Back when Lynd had Deltos burn Euron's ships, there were indeed wights aboard, but their numbers didn't match Quillor's report. It was clear Euron had brought many of them along on his journey to Stygai. Lynd was now following the foul, rotting scent they left behind.
Although the city of Stygai was already thick with the unique putrid odor of the River of Ash, which muddled his senses, Lynd still managed to isolate the distinct stench of the wights. He followed it through the ruined city, heading toward a large hall at the city's center that resembled a temple. As he walked, he drew the greatsword of the Banished Knight from his waist.
...
Meanwhile, Deltos, circling in the skies above, felt the black stone magic within Stygai beginning to stir and gather. This mutated energy had a strange masking effect that was cutting off its connection to Lynd.
Following the plan Lynd had prepared in advance, Deltos launched an attack on the city.
It swiftly beat its two pairs of wings—one embodying storm, the other frost—drawing in moisture from the air at high speed. A dense black cloud began to form above the ruins of Stygai. Lightning crackled within it, flashing repeatedly as it surged toward Deltos. Using its body as a conduit, the gathered energy amplified many times over and discharged as massive pillars of lightning that struck the city below.
Each thunderous bolt tore through the twisted black stone magic that had been accumulating within the ruins. The corrupted structures of Stygai began to melt under the relentless barrage.