Shadow Slave

In the end, Sunny failed to get the wraith to say anything informative. Just as usual, all the answers he received were either vague and misleading, or outright insults that had nothing to do with the question.

Later, in a somber mood, he left the shadow of the sacred tree and walked around the ship, examining its state. Sunny felt odd in light of the things he had learned and suspected to be true.

'Ah, it's infuriating.'

He seemed to have stumbled on the truth, or rather, on a big chunk of the truth. However, there were still plenty of missing parts, and those were the parts that contained the most important answers.

His mind was spinning, coming up with one baseless theory after another. Sunny was unable to glean the true meaning of it all, but what he did manage to do was completely exhaust himself mentally.

Eventually, feeling foul, he threw the manic desire to get to the bottom of things right here and now out of his head and settled near the ketch to start weaving another Memory for Nightmare.

The fiery sunset lasted for the entirety of the day, and was then replaced by the ghostly radiance of the night. Here in the western reaches of the Great River, even the opalescence of the water was different. It was shifting between deep carmine, vibrant crimson, and rich maroon... as if they were truly sailing on a river of blood.

The nights they had witnessed before were dreamlike, but this one... this one was like a scene from a darkly beautiful nightmare.

Sunny and Nephis had not slept for a single moment, too wary to close their eyes.

In the morning, the impenetrable darkness of the night was once again replaced by a blazing sunset. It seemed like one of the seven suns was always within reach, drowning in the currents of time.

The further west they sailed, the dimmer the light became. Eventually, they were surrounded by a fiery dusk.

"Sunny... isn't the current strange?"

Neph's voice sounded tense.

Currently, he was holding the steering oar, while she was leaning over the railing nearby.

sent one of his shadows to take a look overboard. It took him a long time to understand

'Strange.'

of the Great River...

the same direction. But now, it seemed as if the currents were twisting, not only carrying

the direction of the setting

gripped the oar

be nearing

but it was not limitless. That was one of the first things they had asked Ananke, hoping that there was a shore somewhere in this

there was

was limited from west and east - from dusk and dawn, as the River People called these directions - but a bottomless dark abyss. It was as though the river flowed through nothing, suspended in the void

A colossal and unceasing waterfall where the waters of time spilled into the abyss and disappeared into the boundless darkness.

Chain Breaker toward the abyss with ferocious force - but the subtle change in the direction of where the water flowed indicated that the edge was already not too

Which was good news.

it meant that they were even

last

Sunny inhaled deeply.

if we overshoot Fallen Grace and end

considering that there was no one except Defiled further downstream than the last human

last human city was still

and especially how long they had spent in the eerily tranquil eye of

Grace might have

no telling whether Dusk was friend or foe, let alone whether

be ready

their location with the help of the navigation tools, Sunny silently gave his Shadows a

bow of the graceful ship, Saint released her darkness with indifferent poise. Nightmare stirred in the shadows, his crimson eyes igniting with dangerous light. Fiend rose from the deck, infernal flames burning behind the