Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2974

Keeping his identity from becoming lost with the help of the Chain, Sunny channeled the essence of Serpent and assumed its form.

Actually, the form of Soul Serpent was the opposite of what those words usually meant — it was a state of utter formlessness inherent to the shadows, and therefore the reason why they could take any shape. Sunny found it surprisingly easy to assume that shapeless form. After all, there were a lot of parallels between him and Serpent, as well as between the powers they wielded... and for a good reason.

Serpent was unique among Sunny's Shadows. Sunny had earned the rest of them in a variety of ways, most of them involving slaying the original... the Stone Saint, the Ravenous Fiend, Nightmare, Slayer, the Mordant Mimic. As such, his Shadows came from creatures he had met and killed.

But Serpent was different. It had been given to Sunny by the Nightmare Spell as a reward for mastering the first step of Shadow Dance, and was therefore a remnant from the times when Shadow God ruled the Realm of Death. It had also been born a Shadow Creature, as opposed to becoming one after its original was destroyed.

As such, Serpent was closer to the ideal of a true shadow than anyone else. And Sunny, as the person who had inherited his Aspect from a divine shadow, was walking the path to becoming such a creature himself.

So, he managed to shadow Serpent with surprising ease. It almost felt natural... the feeling of something vital missing did not bother Sunny this time, either, like it had when he was trying to replicate Slayer. Sunny channeled the power of the Soul Serpent, turning himself into a weapon capable of slaying deities.

The nameless Sovereign of Death became the Slaying Blade, and wielded himself to kill the loathsome Terror who had stolen his name and his fate.

‘I am going to kill you, wretch...’

Driven mad by pain and almost destroyed, his essence running dry, Sunny growled and redoubled his vicious assault on the wounded, bleeding Thieving Bird.

This time, he felt the difference.

His Will did not change, and it didn't grow more potent either — however, his ability to express it became much more refined and pure, as if his nebulous body had become the perfect vessel for channeling death. As a result, the same amount of effort yielded far greater results, affecting the Vile Thieving Bird and its daunting vitality far more than it had before.

The Thieving Bird shrieked, a hint of discomfort — nervousness, even — finding its way into the odious creature's harrowing voice for the first time.

...And just like Sunny, it redoubled its efforts to destroy the eerie things clinging to its feather, as well.

Sunny groaned, feeling his soul coming undone.

He laughed, feeling the body of the Thieving Bird shudder in the deadly darkness of his inescapable embrace.

‘Die, die... die, you abominable thing!’

The two of them plummeted through the maze of broken time, straining to destroy each other.

Various eras and places on the Great River flashed past Sunny, barely registering in his dazed, frenzied mind.

He saw a great city being besieged by an azure sea serpent and his army... he saw a stone island rising from the depths to answer the call of a beautiful philosopher... he saw a delicate body in a flowing silk shroud being lowered into the water as countless people cried, seeing her off on the last journey...

Sunny's nebulous body had become tattered and small, seemingly ready to fall apart. But, at the same time, the Vile Thieving Bird was growing weaker. Its vitality was swiftly being drained as the poison of Death Will permeated it, while its strength was diminishing.

Its movements had already slowed down considerably, and its attacks grew less confident.

But it was still alive.

Still alive and not showing any signs of being ready to die, even.

‘Damn it! Die, die! Why won't you die, wretched horror?!’

The Vile Thieving Bird answered with a pained, panicked cry.

Even if it was not on the threshold of death, it seemed to have grown wary of Sunny.

In the next moment, they broke through another fissure and found themselves...

In a chaos so violent and inconceivable that Sunny almost lost consciousness for a moment.

All around them, a fractured darkness was being ravaged by a terrifying storm. Devastating rain fell upon them, and bolts of lightning flashed nearby, making the air crackle.

Worst of all, the laws of existence seemed to be broken in this terrifying place. Reality was completely twisted, its sharp edges cutting into Sunny's mind like endlessly folding blades. At first, he thought that they had failed to escape the broken eternity that dwelled in the gaps between the fissures, but this place was much more violent, much more unstable, much more devastating.

‘A time storm...'

Even if nothing about Sunny was shiny and desirable, it stole from him. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

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