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...'

a hungry worm, tore through the insides of the monster,

like a dark tunnel, not too different from the one through which

Was humbling.

can kill that damned snake, didn't

on the rope to get his attention,

by the shockwave of the terrifying clash between the Azure Serpent and the invading butterfly. It swayed slowly, and the dark tunnel of the

half of the gaping, bloody hole was above the surface of the water, while the other half was still submerged in it. A red current was flowing out, trying to push them

however, the current was reversed, and a great amount of water flowed into the body of

'Crap!'

to the golden rope.

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

deep breath, suddenly realizing how

Black Turtle, both looked like a horror show... however, Sunny couldn't help but notice how tightly Neph's wet tunic stuck to her body, and how close to transparent the light

then forcibly tore his gaze away and

place to look. Not

the upper half was filled with an almost unbearable stench of blood. Rivers of red were flowing from the walls and the ceiling, mixing

the vertebrae of the Black Turtle, which protruded from the bottom of