Shadow Seer
by Roman Prokofiev
Rogue Merchant
Book #3
Magic Dome Books
Rogue Merchant
Book #3: Shadow Seer
Copyright © Roman Prokofiev 2021
Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin 2021
English translation copyright © Sofia Shcherbakova 2021
Published by Magic Dome Books, 2021
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-80-7619-230-0
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the shop and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.
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Table of Contents:
Chapter 1
Interlude: Project Hell
Chapter 2
Interlude: Pandorum
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Interlude: The House of Darkness
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Interlude: The Event
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Interlude: The Watchers
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Interlude: The Watchers
Chapter 18
Interlude: The Bazaar
Chapter 19
Interlude: Project Hell
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
About Roman Prokofiev
Chapter 1
Release all absorbed souls?
I TOOK A DEEP SIGH, trying to calm my heartbeat. By chance, I was going to light a fire that would be hard to quench. Let the cowards fear the fallout!
Yes.
A whirlwind of shadows burst out of my blade like a trail of translucent ink and spun across the hall, absorbed by the magic of the artifact cage. Behind its bars, shadows split, fusing into separate shapes that rapidly became flesh. After all, a full day had already passed, and NPCs could immediately respawn inside the circle. The Pandas stared at the cage, transfixed, as a cadre of succubi raged there, recoiling in horror from a lone female silhouette with a terrifying title above her head: Ananizarte, the Goddess of Darkness. The goddess was clearly in a mood. A glowing aura flickered around her, and her eyes flashed with furious scarlet flames.
“Nothing personal! It’s just the Pandas contracted me to kill a god,” I told Ananizarte. Her ardent gaze fixed on me, she slowly spread her hands, and the cage exploded into a myriad of tiny fragments that swooshed through the air.
The time had come. It was easy to die right there, in the center of her divine fury, but my plans didn’t include a death like that. I activated Shadow Run and vanished from sight, traveling into the Shadow Plane. The hall transformed before my eyes as if I were looking through a filter. A thick crust of bones crunched beneath my feet, and lesser shadows shrunk back from me in fear. How many people had the Pandas killed in that place, really?
But I didn’t have time to examine them. Three steps, only three steps! I used the fact that Jerkhan was still staring at Ananizarte while using his shield to deflect the shards flying at him and approached him from behind.
Then I left the Shadow Plane. Two blows, quick as lightning. The first cut the chain between the ogre and Weldy. I pushed the girl aside with my free hand, away from the madness in the center of the hall. My second hand drove my blade into the opening between Jerkhan’s helmet and a black spiked pauldron, right into the muscles of his ripped neck. Take that, scum!
Somehow, the ogre managed to react in time. He darted back, making Aelmaris pass an inch short of his body. His retaliation was immediate, and a blow of his black axe broke through my attempt to parry, knocking me back to the wall. Ironically, his timing was fortunate, as a tendril of the dark crimson whirlwind fell right into the spot where we had fought, scooping up the screaming ogre, crucifying him, and enveloping him in flames. Scathing fire breathed in my face, singeing my eyebrows and eyelashes and applying a fire-based DOT.
Despite not seeing a thing, I found Weldy and hurriedly activated the Greater Shield of Shadows, my surprise number two. Once, a scroll with that spell had saved Alex and me in the thick of a PROJECT raid. Ten minutes or ten million hit points of damage seemed too much to be overcome right off the bat, even by a goddess...at least I hoped so.
Something unthinkable was happening in the center of the hall where the cage used to stand. It was completely covered in a swirling pillar of fire and darkness with rapidly growing tendrils. The Pandas spun around it together with other debris, as if caught in a tornado. Despite their demonic armor, their health bars dwindled away at the speed of light. The succubi, fifty of which had been trapped in the sword, were trying to flee, screaming in terror. A stream of winged demonesses rushed toward the only exit, knocking down the arriving Pandorum warriors.
The floor kept wobbling, and the sounds of alarm reverberated across the Atrocity. Lots of Pandas were about to arrive; we had to go, pronto! I put my palms on Weldy’s face. She stared at me with an empty, apathetic expression, a fresh scar on her forehead. Her neck was bruised and bloodstained around the spiked collar. I pulled at it as hard as I could, trying to break the enchanted band and failing.
All right! Trying to keep cool, I slowly pulled away the edge of the collar and
