Shadow Slave

The time storm raged all around them. The current of the Great River, which had always been calm and constant, turned into a furious tide... being carried and tossed around by it, the ketch flew forward with terrible speed.

Tall waves rose and fell, and hurricane winds howled like frenzied beasts. Everything around them was drowning in a boiling fog. Blinded by it, deafened by the roaring thunderclaps, the three of them had lost all sense of time and direction.

There was only the feeling of the wet deck beneath their feet, the soaring and plummeting of the wooden boat, and the physical strain of enduring the cataclysmic fury of the storm. Faced with its inconceivable wrath, Sunny couldn't help but feel how tiny and insignificant he was in the face of the unnatural disaster.

...And that was with Ananke holding the worst of it at bay, as well.

The eerie, deeply distressing feeling of the immutable laws of the world turning vague and volatile was still there, muted but indescribably oppressive. He felt sickened, both physically and mentally. It was as if the solid foundation of his very being had suddenly been replaced by shifting quicksand, leaving him shaking and unstable.

Perhaps that was what madness felt like.

'Damnation...'

Steeling his heart, Sunny tried to ignore the appalling sensation and concentrated on his task - scooping up the water that had been thrown into the ketch by the storm and tossing it overboard. There was a lot of it, but he and Nephis could still keep up. It was just that... this simple task had turned out to be much more demanding than he expected.

Simply existing in the wildly rocking boat was already an exercise in endurance. Considering the dire speed of the current and the height of the waves, it felt as though some demented giant was playing catch with their bodies, throwing them high up and then slamming them down with ferocious power.

Keeping his balance was not only tiring, but also difficult - every muscle in his body was under strain, seemingly at all times. The movements of the jerking ketch were chaotic and impossible to predict.

failed to continuously adjust to the constant changes,

he had to

better, with the help of Shadow Manifestation. But their struggle against the

going to have to burn through his

'I was wrong...'

it was not a battle. But it was. It was just as physically straining, just

for many days without ever allowing the fighters to rest and breathe for even a minute. How dreadful would that

least the enemy was a mindless

being mechanical. Sunny still had to remain focused and actively pay attention to the motions of the ketch, but he didn't have to think, analyze the situation, and come

for Nephis.

to maintain the mystical protections around the

times if not for the swift and precise judgment of their

the small figure of the young girl who was holding the steering oar firmly, peering into the mist. Her face was pale, but

was worried about

worried about a great

with multiple days of this hell still remaining