Shadow Slave

The chain leading to the Shipwreck Island was about four kilometers long, which was on the shorter side by the Chained Isles standards. As a swift shadow, Sunny would have been able to ride it all the way to his destination in just a few minutes. Sadly, the heavenly chain was currently drawn taut and nowhere near the Sky Below, which meant that its links weren't covered by a thick layer of shadows.

He was going to have to cross it on foot.

As the ground behind him started to move, announcing the approach of something far more hungry and terrifying than the swarm of gluttonous maggots, Sunny slid out of his hiding spot, dashed toward the edge of the island, and jumped down.

Falling through the vast expanse of the blue sky, he landed on the iron surface of the heavenly chain, rolled down a few meters, and then finally caught his balance.

The chain stretched far into the distance, rising higher and higher until it connected with the slowly descending Shipwreck Island. Unlike how it was with the other pieces of land Sunny had seen in this strange region of the Dream Realm, the chain didn't simply disappear into the soil, but instead led to a tall stone structure that resembled a castle gate. Two massive pillars rose high into the sky, overgrown by vines and moss.

The gate itself had been broken a long time ago, and now, the space between the pillars was empty, the wind passing freely through its vast opening.

...Further away, the corpse of the iron giant continued to sway in the air, his one remaining hand pointed at the Sky Below.

Summoning the Cruel Sight, Sunny turned it into the spear and cautiously moved forward.

The further he walked, the lower the Shipwreck Island descended, until finally the heavenly chain became almost horizontal. In about an hour, Sunny crossed the abyss separating two isles and approached the stone structure he had noticed from afar.

Up close, it was even more monumental. He found out that he had been wrong, though: the pillars did not seem like they had ever served to house a massive gate. Instead, they just reached for the sky, built for some unknown purpose. There were weathered steps cut into each of the pillars, leading all the way to the top.

Sunny frowned.

enough

top of the monumental pillars the Crushing must have been suffocating. With a shrug, he used the Dark Wing to glide

a low hill, Sunny stopped and looked

lines of the graceful and narrow hull. The ancient wood somehow remained untouched by

no rivers and no seas remained a

spark appeared in

I am

a dark smile, he shifted his gaze and

dead, withered tree coiled around it, its naked branches stretching into the sky like bones. Sunny recognized that tree, even if it looked very different from how it was depicted on the reverse side of the

ship he had

have come from inside the wreck, or at least was connected to

to scout the vicinity of the island and search for the traces left by the dead Chain Worm. But now, he felt as if this scouting

zero,

he only had to sneak into the wreck, explore

see any Nightmare Creatures moving across its surface, but he knew that there had to be some, and that they were going to be of the truly dreadful

wasn't going

'It's worth it…'

***

island. No matter how hard he looked and how much his shadows roamed around, he couldn't see any abominations anywhere near