Shadow Slave

Sunny remained motionless for a while, looking around.

The bottom of the lake was dry now, revealing the towering remains of the ancient Nightmare Creatures. Well... relatively dry. Although most of the water had been drained into the dark abyss, large puddles of it still remained here and there.

The remains of the abominations were still glistening with moisture, as well. Which meant that countless invisible horrors were still crawling all over their surface. He was not going to feed Fiend with these abandoned treasures any time soon.

'Damnation.'

Sunny's shell was still being eroded, as well. Luckily, the rate at which it was dissolving had decreased drastically. By now, he would be able to climb out of the empty lake and discard his ragged diving suit without being eaten alive.

Looking up, he saw the mist slowly flowing down the slopes of the former lake. Very soon, it was going to shroud everything here, just like everywhere else on the island. Turning slightly, Sunny stared at the corpse of the giant winged creature and fought the temptation to try and fish the soul shards out of it.

But no, there was no time, and the corpse still gave him a sense of danger... there had to be countless invisible creatures permeating it, after all. Even if the dead abomination was not the original source of the contamination, it was without a doubt being slowly devoured from the inside by it.

Finally, Sunny glanced at the slope of the lakeshore.

There, not obscured by the crimson water anymore, several dark openings were revealed, each a few meters in diameter. Those were the aqueducts that used to feed water into the moat of Aletheia's Tower.

Now that the lake had been drained... the moat would soon run dry, as well, dealing the first blow to the system of enchantments maintaining the time loop. Which meant that Sunny's mission here was accomplished.

He hesitated for a few moments, then threw one last glance at the darkness hiding beneath the island. Struggling against the sudden sense of vertigo, Sunny walked to where the lid of the sluice gate was laying on the wet stone, gathered his strength, and threw it back in place with a grunt.

into the metal ring with a loud ringing sound,

'I should hurry up.'

and there was still some

dashed to the shore, mentally reviewing his performance. In retrospect, he could have saved himself some trouble by exploring the bottom of the lake as a shadow first, then returning to the shore, safely

had not known if there were unknown dangers hiding in the lake. Provided the information he

'I succeeded, didn't I?'

damaged Shadowspawn Shell. The towering figure

safe distance away, near Effie, Sunny shivered and summoned his clothes back. Finally, he allowed the Shadow Shell to dissolve into

him a

flushed

Sunny smiled weakly.

you can say

at the sea of

our job here is done. Next, we need to rendezvous with Nephis, Cassie,

hid

had been dangerous... but what Cassie had to do in

hope they

of the Nightmare Creatures had left their usual haunts, attracted by the havoc that the dead army had wreaked on the southern shore. Of course, the risen corpses had all been destroyed

of time to

wide chasm that had given Sunny so much trouble in the past. Dismissing Nightmare and the Covetous coffer, he led

of the revolting millipedes crunched under their feet like autumn leaves and crumbled into ash. Despite the fact that Sunny was used to this scene, he still