Shadow Slave

Bringing the ketch to the towering side of the battered ship... the Chain Breaker... Sunny and Nephis lingered for a while, looking up. Both felt more than a little bit of apprehension, but at the same time, they were relieved.

Traveling across the perilous expanse of the Great River on a mighty ship would be much more reassuring than on a small, damaged sailboat.

Eventually, Nephis summoned the familiar golden rope and glanced at Sunny.

He nodded, then hesitated for a moment.

Bending down, Sunny picked up Ananke's black mantle and looked at it with a forlorn expression. It was the only thing she had left behind... the last reminder of her existence, if one didn't count the ketch itself.

It was also the vestment of the priests of the Nightmare Spell.

He remained motionless for a while, then silently wrapped the mantle around his shoulders.

As soon as his body became shrouded by the dark folds of the nebulous fabric, Sunny felt a strange shiver run down his spine. He had donned the black mantle in honor of Ananke, to have something to remember her by, but the act suddenly seemed deeply symbolic.

It was as though he was devoting himself to Weaver... which Sunny had no intention of doing.

And there was another, far more chilling detail.

'This mantle...'

Was he just imagining things, or was it eerily similar to the tattered rags the Mad Prince wore in the nightmare? It was hard to tell due to how faded and sunburnt the rags were, but if he just pictured what they might have looked like decades, or even hundreds of years ago...

in the end, he

will not define

that, he took a step forward and joined Nephis, who had already thrown the rope up, tightening the loop at its end around the broken railing of the ghost ship. She gave it a couple of tugs,

Sunny followed.

down on the deck

eerie feeling gripped

the ancient vessel was both familiar and unfamiliar. It was very similar to the one he had spent so much time on - both in the Dream Realm and the Second Nightmare. However, there were also glaring

it was hard to tell what the differences were exactly...

- as if some enormous beast, or a legion of them, had torn through the ancient wood with monstrous claws. The railings were shattered and broken in many places, the mighty siege engines lay broken

had been punched through the deck, as well, revealing the devastated interior of the ship. Their jagged edges hinted that something dreadfully powerful had either broken into the cargo hold, or had broken free

a

saying anything, he sent his shadows to scout

swift and corduroy search, they had not discovered anything except for more signs of a furious

out a

empty. There's no

had appeared in her hand as soon as they climbed aboard.

"Let's explore properly."

spent some time tentatively exploring the abandoned ship. Everywhere they went, they were met with signs of dreadful devastation. Sunny knew for a fact how enduring the enchanted wooden walls of the Chain Breaker were... he shuddered when imagining what kind of forces could have brought it to such

been damaged so severely, it was because Cassie had thrown it down from the skies and rammed an immortal Saint at full speed. This time, however, it seemed the ship had withstood a harrowing and prolonged assault before being breached, at which point

drifted in the currents of the Great River for gods knew how long. As a result, there was nothing left to tell them where and when the ghost ship had really come from, and who had fought

beings could have devastated the ancient vessel to such a degree, nor did he know what kind of defenders could have resisted

was good

deck and rested in the shade of the sacred