Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2927

The seven suns that illuminated the Great River were fashioned from the soul cores of the Stone Titan — an Unholy Titan the Demon of Dread had once slain. The suns were gone now, and Sunny was standing on the fragment of one of them.

The crystalline island was dead and lightless, utterly devoid of the luminous radiance that had illuminated this world once.

Sunny glanced around, mildly stunned. It was not every day that one walked on the surface of a sun, even if this one had been artificial.

‘It's empty.'

He meant that there was no essence left in the shard of the sun... which itself had been a soul shard once. Either the light that had been contained within it dissipated when the sun was destroyed, or someone had absorbed it, like humans absorbed soul fragments by crushing shards in their fists.

‘Was the Thieving Bird very hungry?’

Imagining that the odious bird had consumed the suns instead of simply stealing them made Sunny shiver.

What if the damn thing was an Unholy Terror now, not a Cursed One?

If that was the case... there was no point in trying to fight it. Sunny had defeated numerous creatures of a higher Rank than his in the past, but he was not arrogant enough to believe that he had a chance in a battle against an Unholy Abomination. He was not ready to face those horrors yet, not by a long shot.

Nephis glanced around. The small flame dancing above her palm suddenly turned into a roaring plume of white fire, chasing away the darkness.

In the dead silence that surrounded them, her even voice sounded almost unbearably loud:

"Let's explore.”

They meticulously searched the entire island, hoping to find something — anything — to help them understand what had happened in the Tomb of Ariel. However, after an entire hour of fruitless exploration, they found nothing. No clues, no traces, no great mysteries hidden under the indestructible surface of divine crystal...

All in all, the fragment of a broken sun was utterly dull.

There was nothing exciting about it, only the vast expanse of jagged edges and uneven slopes.

“Do you think the River had gone shallow because the fragments of the sun fell into it?"

Nephis hesitated before responding.

"I am not sure. We do not know what sorcery Ariel had used to suspend the Great River in the air and make it flow endlessly, so we can't know what broke it.”

She sighed and added in an uncertain tone:

“Maybe it happened because of this fragment. Or perhaps the River is simply dying because something stopped its current. In any case, we might encounter more of such shallows... it is good that both of us can fly."

Sunny nodded.

They rested on the fragment of a shattered sun for a while, then left it behind and continued on their way to Aletheia's Island. Nephis had been right. As they traveled across the Great River, they encountered more of the shallows — none had shards of the broken sun floating in their center, though. There was just emptiness... a vast and quiet emptiness permeated by eternal darkness.

Sunny carried them forward as the Onyx Serpent when the waters were deep. When the waters turned shallow and collapsed into pools of emptiness, they flew.

Just like that, a few days passed.

Sunny was in a much better shape by now, and the Shadow Legion was almost entirely restored. However, he felt worse than he had before.

It was the silence... the silence was getting to him.

Sunny and Nephis were not made for this kind of quiet. They had been born into a world at war, and spent most of their adult lives under the crushing pressure of conflict and strife. They were used to combat and battle, always fighting against impossible odds.

So, peculiarly enough, the deathly tranquility of the Tomb of Ariel was more tiresome than the harrowing peril of the war-torn Hell.

‘I almost want something to happen...’

Sunny knew better than to think such thoughts aloud, but could not help himself. He would gladly take a battle against some kind of horrible Abomination over this dark, peaceful stillness.

But no Abomination appeared.

And so, they made it to Aletheia's Island undeterred.

The thick mist that had surrounded it once was gone. The colossal whirlpool was gone, as well, and instead of floating in the air above it, the island was simply resting on the water.

The enormous sea serpent with scales as black as onyx slithered onto the shore of Aletheia’s Island and turned into a man with porcelain skin and onyx eyes, his gaze dark and somber.

A moment later, a malevolent obsidian dragon landed heavily on the sand, turning into a slender woman who seemed to be woven from darkness, shrouded in a mantle of ghostly smoke. A graceful knight wearing a suit of fearsome black armor walked out of the shadows, two ruby flames burning behind the visor of her helmet.

Finally, a woman who was like a radiant goddess landed softly on the shore, her silver hair dancing in the wind.

Sunny glanced around the familiar landscape, feeling deeply uncomfortable. His stay on Aletheia’s Island had been up there with the worst experiences of his life, so being here again did not feel great.

Nephis was her usual self, though, as if returning to this harrowing place did not bother her at all.

“This was where we killed Undying Slaughter."

Nephis lingered for a moment, then added in a wistful tone:

"I only ever spent a single day here. But it felt like eternity."

She was recovering, as well, and her emotions were slowly returning.

Heading toward the towering cliffs, where treacherous steps were carved into the stone, she said in a neutral tone:

"In any case, the loop seems to have been broken. So, we do not need to worry about spending an eternity here... I think.”

Sunny smiled weakly.

"Well, as long as you're sure."

There was no Sin of Solace whispering into his ear anymore, so he would probably not even remember being in a loop again. Or perhaps his Will would pierce the revolutions of time... Sunny did not know, and was determined not to find out.

“We'd better be careful. There were a lot of powerful Nightmare Creatures on this island in the past."

He nodded to acknowledge Neph's warning, even if he knew about the abominations of Aletheia’s Island far more than she did. He had been killed by most of them at least once, after all.

"Let's go."

They ascended the stone steps and entered the forest. Neph's flame drowned a wide circle around them in bright light, but beyond it, darkness reigned... naturally, Sunny’s eyes could pierce through it, and his shadow sense had already enveloped the entire island.

“Who knows? The First Seeker might still be alive. If so, I might be able to kill it again.” 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

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