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.

because of how special his sight

had Jet and Effie known to warn

"What is it?"

somber expression. She

you smell it? It

head and glanced at Jet, raising

icy blue eyes were radiating

are souls… powerful souls, far

and relaxed, but now, her expression was grave. Seeing it, Sunny

His frown deepened.

of just any soul. What kind of

his eyes, trying to discern something… anything… to understand

best chance of discovering the hidden threat, the

I can't

Sunny could study it in more detail… not that there was a lot

thing, it was that the wall was not smooth, as he had initially thought. Rather, it was uneven, as if

at the

something hiding in the seams. Maybe there are caves in the stone? I don't see

Then, he suddenly froze.

the wall of the black

and at the very periphery of his vision, so if Sunny had not been looking at

What was it? He still couldn't see any

shift, like concentrating on a near object instead of a distant one, as well as a mental one, like trying to perceive something as a part of a whole instead

end, and his face became as

he

'D—damnation!'

Powerful souls…

of the endless wall. There were no caves

entire surface of the wall was covered by abominations, who

bumps and ridges… were the

of numerous Dark Butterflies. There were myriads of these eerie Great Monsters resting on the endless black surface,

also ready to awaken if anything

took an involuntary step

is the place Song

that only a few people in the waking world could quell. But there were countless Dark Butterflies dwelling inside

would try to desecrate the tomb that the