Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2929

They left Aletheia’s Island soon after.

The journey to Verge was long, but uneventful. The waters of the Great River grew more and more shallow the closer to the Defiled City they got, and they had to fly for long stretches of time.

Wanting to save Nephis from having to use her Aspect all the time, Sunny politely suggested that Slayer should carry them on her broad draconic back.

...That was the closest he came to losing his head for the second time, this time to a dragon's fangs instead of a sharp blade. Luckily, most of his shades had already been mended. So, in the end, the two of them rode on the backs of two Obsidian Wasps, flying above the Great River at an astonishing speed.

Nephis lighted their way, and from afar, they must have looked like a shooting star that rushed across the endless expanse of the Great River, its brilliant radiance reflecting in the still, dark water.

As they neared Verge, however, Sunny dismissed the Wasps and manifested shadows into a thin layer of solid matter atop the River, creating a perfectly flat island that stretched several kilometers in all directions.

Prepared for battle, they continued forward on foot.

As they did, Nephis remembered the final battle of the Third Nightmare... the battle Sunny had missed.

“Verge was a city of the Seekers of Truth once — one they built as close to the Estuary as they could. But when we found it, only the very edges of the city remained. The rest was buried under the First Seeker."

Sunny had heard the story before, but never in much detail.

"What was it like, the First Seeker?"

Neph's expression turned grim.

"It was... a vast, formless mass of red flesh that covered the world like a spreading tumor. The entire city was overgrown by it, and the flesh was spilling into the Great River, infecting it. The First Seeker was continuing to grow, as well. When we beheld it for the first time, it was easy to imagine that this abominable flesh would cover all of the Great River one day, consuming the entire Tomb of Ariel.”

She lingered for a while, and then added: 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Much worse was the fact that the First Seeker was not merely an abomination. It was the source of the Defilement — the origin of the horrid curse that had befallen the Great River. Touching its flesh meant becoming instantly infected by the Corruption... so how were we supposed to destroy it?"

Nephis shook her head.

“And there were the Defiled themselves. Even if all the Plagues were gone by then, the ruins of Verge still teemed with abominations. They were powerful and ancient, as well — many of them were Corrupted, some were Fallen. The First Seeker itself, and countless Nightmare Creatures guarding it... it all seemed like an impossible task for a handful of Masters to complete."

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

“And you just... blew it all up?"

Nephis smiled.

“No, not really. Not immediately, at least. That thing was too vast to be destroyed even by my flames."

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