Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2837

‘Go back to the Tomb of Ariel.’

Technically, that was an erroneous statement.

Sunny had never been inside the Tomb of Ariel, after all. Neither had anyone else — no human of the War Realm, that was. Asterion had attempted to reach the Great Pyramid once, but failed to overcome the Nightmare Desert and was forced to turn back.

What Sunny had visited and endured was the phantom version of the Tomb of Ariel conjured by the Spell. It was easy to confuse the two, at times, but the distinction was important.

So, it wouldn't be correct to say that Cassie had sent a message telling him to go back to the Tomb of Ariel. Rather, she was telling him to enter the real Tomb of Ariel, for the first time.

‘No wonder...’

No wonder the Chain Breaker had been drifting in the Great River. No wonder that, unlike the other members of the cohort, Sunny and Nephis had taken the roles of themselves in the Nightmare, as opposed to the roles of local heroes.

No wonder he had met a future version of himself in the Estuary.

It was all because Sunny and Nephis were going to enter the real Tomb of Ariel, and therefore leave their mark on the Great River. Since the Great River flowed from the future into the past, everyone who had ever entered the Great Pyramid would have been placed into the Nightmare by the Spell — Daeron and his champions had been, and so were Sunny and Nephis.

Sunny had always suspected that he would have to visit the Tomb of Ariel one day. Now, he knew that the day had come, and that the reason he had to return there had something to do with defeating Asterion. There were several possible reasons he could think of that would make the Tomb of Ariel a key to defeating the Dreamspawn, actually.

First and foremost, there was the nature of the Great River itself. The Great River was unfathomable and supremely perilous, but it also presented a rare opportunity to anyone who could survive its treacherous currents... an opportunity to escape the confines of time.

Eurys had told Sunny that he would need hundreds of years to become qualified to attempt Apotheosis naturally. In the Tomb of Ariel, those hundreds of years could become no longer than a single day... if he was lucky enough.

Sadly, he wasn't Fated anymore, so there was too much luck involved in that potential plan for Sunny's taste.

And speaking of being Fated... the Tomb of Ariel also held the key to reclaiming his fate.

Sunny knew that the Vile Thieving Bird had escaped the collapsing Nightmare by stealing his fate and using his connection to the Nightmare Spell to sneak into the real world. It was most likely still in its nest at the heart of the Tomb of Ariel — the real one this time, not an illusion conjured by the Spell.

And that odious bird still had his stolen fate in its possession.

So, if Sunny were to slay the Vile Thieving Bird, chances were that he would be able to reclaim his fate, become Fated once again, and be remembered by the world. He would regain his True Name and become a carrier of the Nightmare Spell once more, which would allow him to challenge the Fifth Nightmare...

That was something Sunny had already decided to do, but now, there was an additional reason for him to venture into the Tomb of Ariel and face the Vile Thieving Bird.

A dire reason, at that.

He did not know whether it was the fact of becoming Fated itself or the possibility of challenging the Nightmare and becoming Sacred that was meant to help him defeat Asterion, but both options seemed promising.

And lastly — albeit somewhat far-fetched, as far as plans went — there was the Vile Thieving Bird itself.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify