Shadow Slave

The Chain Breaker had set sail once again. This time, they had to travel back to the middle area of the Great River, where the sky was azure. They also had to travel some distance into the past - not enough to bring them anywhere near Verge, but deeper than any of the three had ever ventured.

Sunny spent the first morning lazing in bed and staring at the ceiling. He was thinking about Wind Flower. The strong winds, the twisted currents, the colossal whirlpool that pulled ships to their doom, and the island flying above the dark abyss... all of it sounded rather nasty.

There was the fact that the tower standing on the island had once belonged to a powerful Seeker, as well.

The Seekers of Truth were people who had entered the Tomb of Ariel at the same time as the sybils, or even earlier than them, but for an entirely different reason.

The Seekers had not been searching for salvation from the devastation of the doomsday war. Instead, they had braved the Nightmare Desert and found their way into the tomb built by the Demon of Dread due to their thirst for knowledge.

...Out of curiosity, basically.

They had not been a unified group of people, either, but rather disparate individuals united only by the similarity of their obsession with knowledge.

'Bunch of weirdos...'

Who would climb into a dreadful tomb simply to satiate their curiosity? Sunny would never!

Well... he had entered plenty of dangerous ruins to satiate his desire to explore the Dream Realm. But that was an entirely different matter! Firstly, he received contribution points for his exploits, from time to time. Secondly, none of those ruins had been left behind by terrifying deities.

'Come to think of it, a couple of them were...'

Like the Ebony Tower. But he had not ended up there out of curiosity. He had ended up there out of greed! That was a much better reason, so... he was not like those weird Seekers at all....

In any case, Sunny was not excited to visit the stronghold of a powerful Seeker. Not even considering the fact their desire to learn Ariel's truth had caused the birth of the Defilement, these people did not seem trustworthy at all.

A hidden island where a mysterious Seeker had lived before disappearing without a trace, surrounded by a nearly impassable barrier of water, wind, and twisted time... yes, that did not sound ominous at all.

'Damnation...'

Of course, they did not really have a choice. Effie and Jet were there, so Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie couldn't turn back.

fear the

coming up with plans to defeat it. But it was the not knowing what waited for them at the center

being anxious, he decided to distract himself by doing something useful. Climbing out of his bed with a sigh, Sunny finally left his cabin and went to

Nephis was holding the steering oar, while Cassie was making

for a few moments, then approached

Can I take another look

and pointed to the sacred tree. The beautiful staff stood there, propped

"Thanks."

the sybils, Sunny went to his usual spot in the shade of the ketch and sat down on

'Let's start, then...'

weaving the basic enchantments around a Transcendent soul shard. His goal was simple - to turn the Guiding Light into a Memory, so that it was easier to use and

left staring at the wooden staff with a deadpan expression. His eye

'Damn it!'

to place the rudimentary weave inside the relic, the lightless strings of shadow essence dissolved in the blinding radiance hidden within the white wood. It was as

work, for

curse, he stood up and put the Guiding Light back under

disheartened, Sunny went to switch with Nephis at the steering wheel. He guided the ship as she practiced with her sword,

the view a great

spent some time staring at the Estuary Key, not at

meal with Nephis and

created more essence strings to replace the ones

the battle with the Drowned and

After all that...

admit to himself that he

'Huh.'

to feel bored... usually, there had always been something pressing for him

outskirts, and did not change at all after

moments of intense and unreasonable danger were separated by long stretches

long... it would take them some time to reach Wind Flower, but they would certainly have to fight for their lives many

Creatures - maybe today, maybe tomorrow, or the day after that. There would be dangerous anomalies waiting for them under the waves, as well - perhaps some of those described on