Shadow Slave

1485 Traveresing the Vortex

Traveling through the twisting underwater tunnel was a constant struggle… but, strangely enough, it was mostly safe. Just as Wind Flower had said, as long as the Chain Breaker did not touch the water, there was little inside the vortex that could threaten them.

If the flying ship did touch the spinning walls of the tunnel, though, death was all but guaranteed — not only because of the terrible current and the obliterating pressure, but also because causing even the smallest ripple was going to alert the harrowing beings dwelling in the unfathomable depth of the Great River of their presence.

Staying away from the walls was not challenging at first, but the deeper they descended, the more perilous that situation became. The tunnel grew narrower, while its twists became more frequent and steep with each passing day. Sometimes, it bent so much that the Chain Breaker flew forward for a while instead of continuously descending.

It was as though they were really traveling through the intestines of an unimaginable beast.

Worse of all was the fact that the tunnel was not static. It constantly moved, undulating, making it seem as though the walls of spinning water were pursuing the graceful ship.

Perhaps they were.

Sometimes, the water was shrouded in abyssal darkness. Sometimes, it shone with blinding light.

Nephis steered the ship in the darkness, but when the depths of the Great River ignited with beautiful radiance, Cassie had to take the oars. The rest of them were forced to escape to the interior of the flying vessel, leaving her to face the harrowing shapes moving through the radiant water alone.

Anyone would have been shaken and mentally strained by having to endure the horror and pressure of those terrible creatures in solitude. Despite that, Cassie remained calm and seemingly unperturbed… Sunny did not know if that was a good sign or not.

What he did know, however, was that they would have never survived the journey through the vortex without the Chain Breaker. They would have been long swallowed by the Great River if Cassie had not repaired the enchantment circuit, as well.

As it was… Sunny felt that they would, perhaps, make it to the other side of the vortex unscathed.

Days passed in tense silence. The deeper they descended, the more palpable the pressure assaulting their minds was. The abyssal darkness was suffocating, and the radiant light was dreadful. More than that… at some point, the world itself became strange, playing tricks with their minds.

Time was growing convoluted and elusive, as if it, too, was being crushed by the oppressive weight of the water surrounding them. Sunny and Nephis,who had already experienced something similar in the time storm, were less affected by this strangeness than the other members of the cohort. However, eventually, they too grew accustomed to the eerie unstableness of time.

With time, space had also become unreliable.

At first, Sunny thought that it was the Chain Breaker's flight that had lost its smoothness, making the flying ship shake and shudder from time to time. Sometimes, it would jerk, and sometimes, it would sway.

But then, he realized that it was the fabric of reality itself that had becometwisted.

the lower deck entrance to the stern would

was carrying was still hot and

'That is… not good.'

at the tea cup in his hand, then at Nephis,

it was not the deck that had been stretched like a rubber

the space between the ship and the walls of the tunnel

the surrounding darkness seemed

do about it. Worrying about being torn apart by fractured space was not going to do him any

distracted himself by concentrating

enchantment of the Covetous Coffer to allow it to store living beings. He had not copied the weave of a Supreme Memory,

the enchantment to remove the limitation on inanimate objects, but he was nowhere near knowing how to integrate

at all. So, unless he wanted a living being to suffocate to death, placing

they did not need to breathe. However, Sunny struggled to imagine

did not share these thoughts with the shadows, but they still started to avoid the toothy chest, for

Time slowly passed.

it was

dreadful each

was not getting narrower anymore. However, its twists and turns

And then, one day…

Breaker seemed to

disappeared. Standing up from where he was sitting, he noticed the other members of the

heard Neph's

the stern, he saw her gripping the steering oars so hard that her hands had turned white. She was moving both oars in a strange manner… not slowly and

'What the hell?'

Nephis even moving the oars

at the walls of the tunnel, Sunny

had turned

The twists and turns that Nephis had been cautiously navigating were now flashing past them, forcing her to steer the ship as fast as she could… and much faster than that, even, if they wanted to

'Doesn't make any sense…'

was confused for