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.

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

black butterfly was about

had battled the Serpent King for an

the Dark Butterfly? What is it

traveled so far into the past from the beginning of the Nightmare, and yet, this grotesque horror somehow ended catching up to him nevertheless. Had it

Sunny felt a

on its belly was not the same. The

Dark Butterfly for an entire month, so he remembered its ethereally alien appearance

one… might have belonged to the same tribe of Nightmare Creatures, but was a different abomination

to say that it wasn't

'Damn it!'

now a Great Monster… just how impossible was this Third Nightmare supposed to be? And here he was, hoping that things would go easier if he

they tried to fly away from the island and were caught by it in the air, there was

gotten

have to go around the monster graveyard,

mist was already flowing back to hide the eerie creature. Before it did, Sunny followed a whim and peered into the soul of the Dark Butterfly, wanting

froze, dumbfounded. A few moments passed before a coherent thought could form in

'...What?'

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

of spreading Corruption. And neither were there radiant

soul inside that monstrous body

The Dark Butterfly was…

'It's Hollow?'

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

two worlds in their sleep? Their rotten souls were always

destroyed without damaging the body, there was a small chance that the

hesitated for a few moments, and then cautiously left the skull of a dead leviathan. Sliding closer to the giant butterfly,

shadow was empty, like the shadows of all inanimate

had frightened him so

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 and