Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2909

The Deathless were retreating from the Tomb of Ariel, leaving a vast swath of the desert around it empty.

Now, only the remnants of the invading army were left on the white sand in front of the towering black edifice of the great pyramid. Azarax and his undead warriors grew still, a sea of them facing the vast expanse of Ariel's Hell. The scattering of battered shades was still slowly moving away from the mouth of the enormous tunnel, led by Saint.

In the pale radiance of the distant stars, her eerily gorgeous face was still and emotionless, her flawlessly white stonelike skin smeared with ruby dust.

Slayer was apart from everyone, still in the form of a grotesque lioness, her sable fur darker than the night. Her hide was covered in ghastly wounds, and she was breathing heavily, shrouded in a mantle of ghostly fog. Sunny shivered and turned to the Tomb of Ariel, sensing a terrifying swarm of shadows escaping from it into the night sky.

"Nephis..."

She must have sensed it, as well.

As she looked up, he could feel her tensing.

"What is it?"

After a long moment of silence, she said in a distant tone:

"There are clouds obscuring the sky..."

Then, she exhaled slowly and outstretched a hand, summoning the Blessing.

“No... those aren't clouds. They are butterflies. The Nightmare Butterflies — thousands of them, perhaps tens of thousands. Maybe more."

Sunny suppressed a groan.

Tens of thousands of Great Beasts and Monsters... at least. Millions of them had been nestling inside the pyramid in the Third Nightmare, so the clouds Nephis spoke of could spread to devour the entire Hell of Ariel.

The entire Dream Realm, even.

‘This night just keeps getting better.’

He gritted his teeth.

The Nightmare Butterflies were already moving down from the great height of the black pyramid, rushing toward them like a dark tide. He couldn't see them, since his eyes were still covered, but he could feel the terrifying movement of their shadows.

The dreadful swarm had been summoned by the alluring scent of human souls... Supreme souls that were burning with the Flame of Divinity.

"We can't defeat them all." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

He hesitated, and then said quietly:

“We need to escape. We need to escape into the Tomb of Ariel."

That was the only way.

There were probably more Nightmare Butterflies inside the pyramid than there were outside. However, when Sunny and Nephis sailed the Great River, only a couple of them had ever descended from the inner walls of the Tomb to the endlessly flowing waters below. So if they managed to reach the River... then, perhaps, they would be safe from the nightmarish swarm.

Sunny turned to Nephis briefly and spoke in an even tone:

“Summon the Chain Breaker. The ship will be destroyed if we simply dive into a sea of Great Monsters, so somebody will have to clear a path through the swarm. Saint will steer it, while the rest of us will defend it. You will have to take point, Nephis. Azarax and I will help however we can."

Nephis had been weakened by the loss of the Longing Domain and was merely a Supreme Demon now, but she was still the best person for the job. She excelled at aerial combat, as well as at fighting against vast groups of enemies. So, even if Sunny and Azarax were stronger at the moment, she could do to the swarm of Nightmare Butterflies what they couldn't.

The Seventh Seed or not, they still had to survive. They still had to accomplish their mission.

‘The Seed...'

Sunny was distracted for a moment, almost succumbing to the maddening Call.

If the Seventh Seed crowned the Tomb of Ariel... the tomb where Oblivion had been buried... then the one on the Moon had to be the Seed of the Sixth Nightmare. The final Nightmare one had to conquer in order to become Divine.

The path to Seed of the Fifth Nightmare, meanwhile, was hidden in America.

So, the road to the end of all of this was already revealed.

Or, at least, to the end that Nephis envisioned and wanted to reach. Sunny himself still believed that the last Nightmare they had to conquer was the Sixth one, and that they had no reason to risk everything for an ambiguous payout after becoming Divine.

Becoming Divine, after all, would allow them to face Unholy Nightmare Creatures in battle. And that was all they needed to ensure the survival of humanity in the Dream Realm for thousands of years to come.

The gods, who had been by their nature Void Creatures, were dead. The last of them was imprisoned by the Nightmare Spell. So unless a swarm of new Void Creatures broke through the cage of existence or the Nightmare Spell started showing signs of coming undone, he saw no reason to tempt fate.

It was pure folly.

But, still...

The Nightmare. It called for him. Its call was so sweet...

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