Shadow Slave

1415 Empty Shells

Sunny would have held his breath if he wasn't a shadow at the moment. Out there, in front of him, something massive was hiding in the fog. If not for the slight movement just now, he would have mistaken it for another pile of towering bones… that movement might have saved his life.

'Curse it…'

Because of the mist, he could only see a vague, dark shape. The details were obscured, and he could tell that the creature was enormous. It also instilled him with a deep, bestial feeling of dread.

A strange, sweet smell permeated the air.

Sunny froze, hiding in the skull of a dead leviathan. He did not know what to do — moving forward was out of the question. But moving back could potentially inform the enemy of his presence as well.

That only left Shadow Step.

However, before he tried to slip away, Sunny lingered for a few moments.

Something was gnawing at him. Why did this presence feel… familiar?

He had felt a strange familiarity ever since entering the monster graveyard. It was faint, but unmistakable.

'Why?'

Had he been to this part of the island already, in one of the revolutions that he did not remember? No, that did not make any sense. Before becoming aware of the loop, Sunny had to have repeated the same actions over and over — going forward alone to rescue Jet, and dying to Undying Slaughter's ghostly blade.

So how could anything on Wind Flower feel familiar?

At that moment, a strong gale blew from the direction of the vortex, and the mist receded.

The giant creature hiding in the fog was revealed in all its eerie, grotesque beauty.

Sunny shuddered.

The massive shape he had noticed… was a revolting butterfly.

white bone. It had six long, seemingly fragile legs that ended in sharp points, and two enormous, faceted eyes that were like orbs of pure darkness. Between them was a disturbingly long, oily-black beak, which was currently bent into a spiral like an elephant's trunk. Two long antennae rose

butterfly was about a hundred meters

the Serpent King for an entire month for the right

the Dark Butterfly? What is it

past from the beginning of the Nightmare,

Sunny felt

familiar with, it was also subtly different. The pattern of bone-white scales on its belly was not the same. The jagged edges of its wings were not the same. The length of its antennae was not the same,

been staring at the original Dark Butterfly for an entire month, so

might have belonged to the same tribe of

to say

'Damn it!'

Nightmare supposed to be? And here he was, hoping that things would go easier if he chose a different path this

they tried

had just gotten much more

go around the monster

followed a whim and peered into the soul

few moments passed before a coherent thought

'...What?'

the aerial giant's carapace, where the tendrils of the revolting darkness

were no nodes of spreading Corruption. And neither were there radiant suns of shining soul cores. Instead, the creature's

was no soul inside that

The Dark Butterfly was…

'It's Hollow?'

left as empty shells — living, but truly dead. However, he had never heard of

if abominations did not travel between the two worlds in their sleep?

an abomination's soul was somehow destroyed without damaging the body, there was a small chance that the body would

then cautiously left the skull of a dead leviathan.

like the shadows

had frightened him so much…

for a while, observing the gargantuan creature. The Great Monster sat among the bones with its wings laying listlessly on the ground. It seemed to be breathing, but other than that, it remained absolutely still. Its giant, faceted eyes were dull