Shadow Slave novel Chapter 3208

Chapter 3208: Out of the Frying Pan

’Curse it all!’

As the wind howled and the endless bolts of lightning scorched the sky, a furious mass of dark clouds churning like a celestial ocean, the Night Garden plummeted toward the ground. At first, Nightwalker simply meant to descend below the clouds to shield his warriors from the rising moon — but now, the living ship was wounded too severely to be controlled, and its fall had become unstoppable.

Of course, the titanic creature holding it in a crushing grip was not helping the situation either.

The hull of the great vessel was slowly devouring its flesh, but the damn abomination was too vast and too powerful — there were fractures slowly appearing on the miraculous wood already, and the damage being dealt to the Night Garden was far beyond what the living ship could return.

Usually, slamming into the ground would not have been a major concern. However, with the ship already damaged, a collision could very well become catastrophic — not to mention that the impact would devastate countless districts of NQSC.

The Night Garden was a dozen kilometers from stern to bow, after all, and its mass was incalculable. The speed of its fall looked deceptively tame because of its size, but in truth, it was dire.

Nightwalker couldn’t right the ship with the damn Titan weighing it down, though.

Sinking his colossal, ethereal fangs into the flesh of the monster, he tore off an enormous chunk of flesh and bellowed, his eerie voice drowning out the deafening roars of the storm.

His Transcendent form, the Starbeast, was uncanny and immensely powerful. However, one thing it did not possess was vocal cords capable of human speech... it was alright, though. Because Aether could understand him.

So, what Nightwalker was relaying to his warriors was quite simple:

"Aether! Concentrate on its right shoulder joint! Take its remaining wing off!"

Almost immediately, the soldiers below rushed to turn the cannons. Some were crawling across the deck, dazed by the terrifying presence of the Titan... some were dead, having been turned into bloody stains. But no one had abandoned their duty.

Nightwalker’s Saints were all going all out to free their ship from the abomination’s grasp, as well.

But it was not going to be enough.

Perched on the creature’s endless back and tearing it to shreds with his ethereal fangs, Nightwalker could see the ground clearly. The devastated landscape of the abandoned battlefield beyond the walls of NQSC was drawing closer and closer.

They were not going to kill the Titan in time.

They were not even going to sever its one remaining wing in time.

Even with Nightwalker expanding space to extend the calamitous fall, it was not enough — the world he was trying to reshape with his Will was permeated by the Will of the colossal Nightmare Creature, after all, slowing him down.

’Goddammit!’

Looking up, Nightwalker hesitated for a moment, then turned into a torrent of starlight and flashed toward the scarred and battered Mainmast Pagoda. Once inside, he slid across the floor of the runic hall and jumped to his feet, bending space to enter the runic circle in one step.

There, Naeve was standing on one knee, blood streaming down his face. The runic hall had sustained severe damage, but luckily enough, the circle itself was intact — steering the living ship without it was not impossible, but quite difficult.

"Grab the rails!"

Nightwalker’s voice boomed across the entire main deck of the titanic vessel, sending the soldiers scurrying to grab something as if their lives depended on it. The Night Garden was supposed to keep them firmly standing on the deck no matter what maneuvers its helmsman had in mind, but with how damaged it was, there was no telling what would happen.

There was nothing to grab onto in the runic hall, though, so Naeve simply grabbed onto the belt of Nightwalker’s armor.

The Night Garden careened, its bow moments away from crashing into the ground...

But just before it could, an enormous fissure opened in the fabric of reality, revealing an endless black void that was illuminated by countless stars and dreamlike nebulas.

The bow of the living ship plunged into the Dream Gate, which had opened parallel to the ground. The colossal fissure swallowed the entire great length of the Night Garden — from the runic hall, it looked as if they were falling into the starlit sky.

Then, the Mainmast Pagoda crossed the Dream Gate, as well.

A moment later, Nightwalker was blinded by brilliant light.

He was assaulted by unbearable heat.

The howling cacophony of the endless storm disappeared, replaced by a deafening litany of countless monstrous wails.

When Nightwalker’s eyes adjusted to the light, what he saw...

Was a world on fire.

The Night Garden had exited the Dream Gate upside-down, momentum taking it higher into the azure sky. It was already spinning to right itself, but for now, all Nightwalker could see was the ground — the vast expanse of a sandy desert, all of it drowning in an ocean of silver flame.

Myriads of Nightmare Creatures were moving in that flame, the black fractures of Nightmare Gates towering above them like dark pillars. The air was full of winged abominations as well, all of them fusing into a harrowing swarm. Far in the distance, a battered city was unleashing a hail of explosive rounds into the swarm, streams of tracer rounds twisting like radiant snakes.

The dreadful sight was like a scene from hell... but it wasn’t some distant inferno.

The Night Garden gave Nightwalker the ability to open his Dream Gate between two points in the same realm, and that was what he had done, bringing his ship to the Western Quadrant.

They were currently in the Sahara Desert, where the forces of humanity were fighting a desperate battle against the advancing tide of abominations.

The hull of the Night Garden cracked precariously as the Titan tightened its coils, and since the titanic ship appeared right in the middle of a great swarm of winged abominations, those monsters were shifting their attention to its vast expanse as well.

Nightwalker gritted his teeth.

"All battle crew below Transcendent Rank! Kill the vermin! Don’t let a single bastard land!"

As the Night Garden spun, aligning its main mast with the boundless sky above, the soldiers let go of the rails and unleashed a squall of attacks at the churning swarm. The Saints, meanwhile, kept attacking the Titan.