Wendell was a Light Seeker—and possibly the last Light Seeker left. As someone who searched the Nine Kingdoms for the lingering remnants of light, he was far beyond the required age. His body was too old, his spirit had withered, and every part of him kept reminding him that he was utterly unfit to join this expedition. Insisting on going could only end with him dying far from home.
Yet he still resolutely left the warm, comfortable Twilight City and embarked on this one-way journey.
And this was his second departure.
Wendell had once undertaken a Light Seeker's journey. Twenty-eight companions had traveled with him then—half of them had carelessly died from the fatal disease caused by mana corrosion not long after crossing the first rainbow bridge, while the rest had perished one after another in Niflheim's deadly poisonous mists. Before that journey was even halfway complete, the entire party had nearly been wiped out. In the end, Wendell and the sole surviving companion dragged their broken bodies back to Twilight City with great difficulty, but that one remaining companion died tragically in nightmares and spasms on the third day after returning home.
But thanks to the mercy of the ancestors, Wendell survived—and had remained healthy until this day.
Ever since heaven and earth collapsed and the light vanished, this world had been shrouded in searing darkness. Hundreds and thousands of Light Seekers had set out across the endless night, plunging into the darkness to search the ravaged remnants of the world for the dim light that had survived the apocalypse. Yet no one had ever brought back truly good news. The vast majority of Light Seekers had become rotting corpses in the twisted wasteland, often unable even to leave complete remains, while the very few who were as lucky