Shadow Slave

Guided by a golden rope that glowed faintly into the red murkiness, Sunny swam forward. The waters of the river of time, mixed with the crimson blood of a Great Monster, were cold and tumultuous. The battle of two harrowing abominations had turned them into a whirlpool of raging currents.

'Just how far is this wound...'

Suddenly, Sunny saw something enormous appear from the murky red darkness and shuddered. He was swimming past the giant eye of the titanic turtle, now hollow and devoid of light. His figure was like a speck of dust in front of it.

The Azure Serpent had long feasted on the Black Turtle's left eye, but the right still remained. Even though Sunny knew that the ancient behemoth was dead, he couldn't help but feel as if it was staring at him.

Looking away, he pushed himself through the water.

'We're not far from the creature's neck, then.'

Every second could be their last, so Sunny was tense. The battle of the dreadful abominations could shift in their direction at any moment. More than that... the Nimble Catch allowed him to swim with great speed, and Neph's silver anklets were the same. However, she did not seem to possess a Memory similar to the Essence Pearl, and had to hold her breath.

They simply couldn't linger.

Fortunately, the dark thoroughfare of the turtle's enormous neck emerged from the cloudy redness soon. It was encased in massive bands of tarnished silver, which overlapped to form a flexible, but impenetrable armor.

Sunny caught up with Nephis as they followed the road of silver to the point where the monster's neck ended. There, its armor was torn apart and bent, sharp jagged edges surrounded by bloody foam. The stench of blood was much stronger here, and the water was much darker.

Nephis changed her direction, knowing where to go.

A dozen seconds later, they reached the gaping wound in the body of the Great Monster. Sunny froze for a moment.

'That...'

Turtle's flesh, it actually burrowed inside like a hungry worm, tore through the insides of the monster, and then crawled out from

of them was like a dark tunnel, not too different from the one through which he

Was humbling.

can kill that

to

Black Turtle tilted, impacted by the shockwave of the terrifying clash between the Azure Serpent and the invading butterfly. It swayed slowly, and

while the other half was still submerged in it. A red current was flowing out, trying to push them away. Sunny gritted his teeth and struggled against the flow, eventually

a great amount of water

'Crap!'

dire speed, slamming against its flesh and holding tightly to the golden rope. After what felt like an eternity, the current grew weak, and he managed

later, Nephis appeared from the water as well. She raised her hand, igniting a wisp of white flame on it to illuminate

took a deep breath, suddenly realizing how close the two of them were

however, Sunny couldn't help but notice how tightly Neph's wet tunic

gaze away and studied the dark tunnel of the Great Monster's

exactly like one would imagine such a place to look. Not that people had reasons to try

of the tunnel, which was mostly consumed by darkness, were uneven, spongy, and red. The lower half of it was covered by tumultuous water, while the upper half was filled

from the bottom of the tunnel like a pale pink mountain. While he