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 It was as if the solid foundation of his very being had suddenly been replaced by shifting quicksand, leaving him shaking and unstable.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

exist... he had to move, scoop up

of accomplishing that task. He could do more, and do it better, with the help of Shadow Manifestation. But their struggle against the storm was going to be an

sooner rather than later - then, he was going to have to burn through his essence to keep his battered body moving, hoping against all hope that his reserves were deep enough. Wasting it on frivolous things would have been a shortsighted

'I was wrong...'

they plunged into the storm, Sunny had noted that it was not a battle. But it was. It was just

a battle that had lasted for many days without ever allowing the fighters to rest and breathe for even a minute.

least the enemy was a mindless force of

thus draining his mental powers. While arduous and exhausting, his task was not too far from being mechanical. Sunny still had to remain focused and actively

for

have to maintain

dozen times if not for the swift and precise judgment of their

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

worried

was worried about a great deal

few hours into the storm, with multiple