Shadow Slave

Sunny did not know how far, exactly, they had traveled away from the dark island, but the distance had to be immense. His shadow shell was not only enormous, it was also created to reign in the water. Considering that he was moving with the current of the Great River, his already great speed was enhanced even more.

So, he decided that it would be safe to rise to the surface.

Gradually ascending, he tore through the radiant abyss and finally raised his head above the glistening waves.

Still clinging to his horns, Nephis slumped down and breathed heavily. It had been hard for her to withstand the resistance of the water, which had been battering her like a ram for so long.

The greater Sunny's speed was, the greater was the resistance. She had already been exhausted by straining her Ability beyond its limit, and enduring the feverish race through the depths could not have been easy.

But now that the onyx serpent's head was above water, Nephis could finally rest a little.

The sky was still impenetrably black. A soft glow was rising from the river, illuminating the vast emptiness of its flowing expanse. The view was as dreamlike and magical as it had been on the first day Sunny had seen it...

But his heart was pierced by despair.

It was because even now, after leaving the dark island so far behind, he couldn't see any hint of land anywhere around them.

An old doubt crawled into his mind, sapping strength from his tired body.

'What if there is no land... what if this whole world is nothing but water...'

Gritting his fangs, Sunny let out a quiet growl and strained every fiber of his shell to accelerate even more.

With his onyx snout as the spearhead and his black dorsal fin as a sharp blade, he cut the glowing surface of the Great River. Faster, faster... he was not out of essence yet.

There was a certain sense of exhilaration he felt, flying toward the horizon with terrible speed. The speed, the might of his shell, the slender weight of Neph's body pressing down on his scales, and the empty vastness of the boundless black sky... it was almost liberating.

But, at the same, his heart was drowning in anxiety, fear, and dread.

And soon, he was proven right to be afraid.

Sunny felt an ominous premonition and rose his head a little higher above the water. In the next moment, his serpentine eyes narrowed.

There, ahead of them... the surface of the Great River was seething and boiling. A boundless krill swarm was swiftly moving to meet them, hundreds of thousands of Corrupted Beasts burning with a mad desire to devour the onyx serpent and his rider alive.

body shuddered, but he tried

is not

rushing toward Sunny was the largest he had ever seen by far, enough so that even the Azure Serpent might have

not constrained by the need to defend his prey, and while the krill were numerous, they were

importantly, they were

His feverish thoughts dissolved into a simple, bestial need to outrun the swarm. The

the time he saw it, there

'Damn it!'

picked herself up and summoned a sword, Sunny plunged into the mass of krill. The water surged around him, creating a

snapped, and Neph's

free of the swarm. Sunny had just barely reached the edges of the rough water patch, and even though they had to go through the krill at the very end, the expanse of the Great River in front of them

might, skirting the pursuing swarm and increasing the distance between

'Faster, faster, faster...'

the krill were left far behind. Nephis slumped again, clutching her sword with

did not have a lot of essence

The onyx serpent flew like an arrow... no, much faster than any arrow could fly. But

the first swarm,

was a harrowing creature that

almost ensnared and devoured them,

more horrors than he could count. Flocks of predatory birds that seemed to have pearls growing in their desiccated flesh, invisible creatures that were able to instantly turn large spans of the river into adamantine ice, ghostly lights that burned in the depths of the water,

long body was fast, mighty, and tenacious. He was incredibly fast and at home in the water. He had outrun the krill, tore through the rotting seaweed, dove into the depths to avoid

escaped

However...

He was exhausted and well past

was still no land in

the time the seven suns slowly appeared from beyond the horizon, chasing away the impenetrable darkness, and the Great River

He was utterly spent.

a matter of willpower anymore. It was simply a matter of not having anything else to

despair consumed

then dissolved

intangible, and was then thrown out of the embrace of the shadows, finally

body felt like it was about to burst. His lungs felt as if they were consumed by fire. His head was heavy, and

to the change

fine. He was dying from thirst,