Shadow Slave

Back then, it took him a couple of seconds to realize what she was talking about.

"The spire from your vision? The one with seven seals?"

Cassie nodded.

"Yes. In my dream, it seemed to be as tall as a mountain. I could even see it from the walls of the human castle, looming in the distance like a crimson spear piercing the skies. When the sun sets, the Spire's vast shadow falls over the castle and stretches east, as far as you can see."

She was silent for a moment, then added:

"The feeling I got when looking at the Crimson Spire was very similar to what you had described, only much more intense."

Sunny frowned, trying to remember the exact words Cassie had used to describe her vision. Seven severed heads guarding seven seals… a dying angel being devoured by hungry shadows… feeling of extreme terror and loss…

What was the deal with that Spire, exactly?

"Is it crimson because it's made out of the same stuff as the labyrinth?"

The crimson "coral" surrounding them was not, in fact, coral. It's just what they called it based on some resemblance, for the sake of simplicity. The actual nature of the strange material remained a mystery.

Cassie hesitated.

"Maybe it's the other way around. Maybe the labyrinth is made from the same stuff as the Spire."

In other words, the Crimson Spire might have been the source of all this madness. Still, it was just a theory — there was too little information to confirm it.

However, Sunny did feel that the Spire was, in one way or another, at the center of all things that they had encountered. He just hoped that it wouldn't be their final destination.

Knowing the reason behind his restlessness, Sunny was able to endure it much better. He even found a hidden benefit to this situation — as long as he sensed the shadow of the Crimson Spire, he could pinpoint the direction to the human castle, since it was situated somewhere between their location and the source of the shadow.

In a sense, the Crimson Spire had become his inner compass.

"Get ready."

Shaking off the distracting thoughts, he

close to the Bone

their eyes on this towering landmark. It was visible from quite a distance, sharply contrasted against the crimson coral and the grey

coral, with its arching spine protruding especially high above the ground. It was impossible to say what the terrifying creature had looked like while it was still alive, but one thing was certain — it was gargantuan even by the standards of the dark

remains of dead leviathans, their massive bones forming natural arches and palaces throughout it. They were easy to

seemed as though the coral was actually growing out of the old bones and spreading in every direction, slowly consuming the world. When he looked at the crimson mounds surrounding the colossal remains, he couldn't help but see them as rivers of ancient, solidified

if they were to dig deep enough into the black mud to find the roots of the crimson forest, they would find

What a scary image.

the Bone Ridge was especially large. Thanks to that, a portion of its long spine was tall enough to remain above the water during the night.

to scale the dead leviathan and make sure that no other creature

kill it, since there was

step was often the

front of the creature's cracked, misshapen skull. With its lower jaw missing or buried under the mud, the upper formed a

terrifying palisade of teeth and entered the cave. With his shadow leading the

tunnel, with stark beams of light falling through the gaps between

Echo entered the spine, its chitin legs produced a loud,

Nephis grimaced.

"Any movement?"

with the shadow and shook his

Star looked forward and slightly lowered

"Let's proceed."

had not noticed any danger, they still summoned their swords before moving forward. It was not their first time being ambushed at the edge of

precautions turned out to be unnecessary. Nothing was hiding inside the gargantuan remains, so they were able to reach the highest point of the spine without having to cut

to safety, the sun was already setting. The dark sea was returning, filling the inside of the sea monster's spine with the echoing sound of rushing water. Sunny took the saddlebags off the Echo and

were in desperate need of a bath. Leaving the girls alone to give them an

black, dim water slowly rise and devour the ivory whiteness. He had to make sure that nothing would crawl out of the water at the

of his mind preoccupied with observing the rising tide, the other half was free to wander. Sunny summoned the runes

Shadow Fragments: [96/1000].