Shadow Slave

1491 Dark Boundary

"Sunny, the sails!"

Before Jet's shout even faded, Cassie and Sunny were already moving. He called upon the shadows to raise the sails of the Chain Breaker, while she rushed to the runic circle. Nephis turned to look into the darkness, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword.

'What kind of disaster have we stumbled into now…'

Grasping the steering oars, Cassie skillfully turned the ship to borrow the force of the wind. At the same time, the runic circle ignited, absorbing strands of her essence — now that the enchantment circuits were repaired, it was not to power the sorcery of the ancient vessel, but simply to control it.

Finally, the Chain Breaker came to a halt, hovering in the boundless darkness of the Tomb of Ariel.

Sunny approached Jet and Effie, tracing their gazes into the distance.

"What is the… matter…"

His voice faltered.

Out there, far away…

The world ended.

It was hard to see, even for Sunny, because the end of the world was perfectly black, barely distinguishable from the darkness that surrounded them. But still… there was a vast, seemingly endless surface in front of them, stretching in all directions as far as the eye could see, like a boundary of the world.

Smooth and lusterless, like polished stone.

It took him a moment to realize what he was looking at.

'It's the… inner wall of the pyramid.'

The endless black boundary was just that… the wall of Ariel's Tomb, seen from the inside. However, it dwarfed anything he had ever seen. The towering walls of the Dark City were like a speck of dust in front of it. The great ramparts of Falcon Scott were like sand.

Looking at the endless black wall, Sunny was stunned by its sheer magnitude. For a moment, he wondered… was the interior of the pyramid truly large enough to encompass an entire realm, or was it him who had been reduced to the size of an ant?

Well, in any case… Jet's warning had come in time. The Chain Breaker was not going to crush into the endless wall of black stone anymore. They had already stopped, and there was plenty of distance between them and the boundary of Ariel's dreadful world.

But then, a slight frown appeared on his face.

Turning to Jet, Sunny remained silent for a moment.

of how special his sight was. She, however, did not share his ability

and Effie known to

"What is it?"

was looking forward with a somber expression. She remained silent

smell it? It reeks of

and

eyes were

powerful souls, far

her expression was grave. Seeing it, Sunny

His frown deepened.

wouldn't be wary of just any soul. What kind of

the distant black boundary and strained his eyes, trying

the best chance of discovering the hidden

is it… I can't see

witnessing the inner wall of the Tomb had subsided, Sunny could study it in more detail… not that there was a lot to study. It was just a

it was that the wall was not smooth, as he had initially thought. Rather, it was uneven, as if covered in countless ridges and bumps. Those ridges and

at the irregularities,

there are caves in

Then, he suddenly froze.

the wall of the black pyramid, something had

was tiny and at the very periphery of his vision, so if Sunny had not been looking at the wall of Ariel's Tomb intently, he would not

slightly, he stared at a particular spot. What was it? He still couldn't see any creatures hiding in the recess between the strange,

one, as well as a mental one, like trying to perceive something as a part

that Sunny's hair stood on end, and his face became as pale as that of

petrified, he swayed

'D—damnation!'

Powerful souls…

recesses of the endless wall. There were no caves hidden between the

entire surface of the wall was covered by abominations, who

and ridges… were the edges of

by a colossal swarm of numerous Dark Butterflies. There were myriads

also ready to awaken if anything

took an involuntary

place Song and Valor

in the waking world could quell. But there were countless Dark Butterflies dwelling inside the black pyramid… protecting its boundary… waiting for some fool

to