Shadow Slave

1492 Back to the River

The Chain Breaker escaped from the slumbering legion of the monstrous butterflies, traveling further and further away from the endless black surface of the pyramid's wall. Sunny counted the seconds, afraid that a dark cloud would rise into the air and chase them.

Tense silence permeated the air, and none of the cohort members spoke.

Powerful winds wandered the hollow darkness around them. The space itself was acting strangely, making it feel as if the world was not quite right. The distant ribbon of the Great River was drawing nearer at tremendous speed.

After a while, he took a deep breath.

'We should be safe now… right?'

He wasn't sure. Sunny had thought that he knew a lot about the Tomb of Ariel, but now, he felt that the unassuming daemon was far more sinister and mysterious than it seemed.

And why wouldn't he have been? Ariel did not leave that strong of an impression, true, but that was only in comparison to his three harrowing siblings — Weaver, Nether, and Hope. The Demon of Dread was still a true deity, though… a being capable of challenging the gods and tearing down the heavens.

Of course, this pyramid of his would be just as dreadful. In fact, it was a testament to how adaptable people were that Sunny had learned to take this terrible place for granted — a tomb built from the body of an Unholy Titan, containing a mystical river created from the Titan's blood.

Was he insane to hope that they could escape its boundary unscathed?

...But in the end, they did escape. None of the Dark Butterfly had awakened or rushed to pursue them, allowing the Chain Breaker to freely dive into the darkness. The space itself rippled and flowed, streaming past the flying ship like liquid.

It was a strange feeling.

They were descending toward the Great River much faster than it should have been possible. Eventually, Sunny let out a relieved sigh.

"We are safe… I think."

Hearing him, Cassie allowed the sacred tree to shine once again, and its soft light enveloped the deck.

fatigue. The last few days had not been easy on them… and the days

with a

hell was

well. He remained silent for a moment,

of the pyramid. And on that wall… countless Great Monsters, crowding its surface like horrid mold. Thankfully, they seemed to

dismayed, and he could easily understand why. The words "countless" and "Great Monsters" were not supposed to ever appear next to each other. And yet, here in

there are only a few dozen Saints in the

Nightmare was more dreadful than the rest. But not by much, most likely. Saint Tyris, Beastmaster, Bloodwave, Wake of Ruin, and the other Transcendents…

never underestimated the Saints, but he found a

most of them seem

Sunnygazed at the Great River and let out a

I don't think that there is anyone between us and the river.

stood together in silence and looked at the colorful ribbon

Eventually, Nephis spoke:

we need to decide what

***

while Fiend crouched near the runic circle at its stern. A motionless figure in red garments could be seen under the glowing branches —

there were no humans in sight. All five of

were too exhausted to come up with plans, but had no other choice. It was necessary to decide where to

had satiated themselves, there were a few

need to find Kai and the other guy in Twilight. Hopefully, there will be other fighters there to help us take

gave him a

thought that Twilight was

for

not destroyed… just lost. Whatever that means. We had

His expression dimmed.

Nightmare are meaningless. We don't even know if the remaining Plagues are still alive, or how many Defiled are left in Verge. Perhaps their power has dwindled enough for the Spell to decide that we can handle it all ourselves. No, even that is an fundamentally false assumption, because the balance of forces within