Shadow Slave

1503 Approaching Twilight

Sunny and his companions had come to Twilight expecting a battle — and now, that battle was swiftly approaching. The identity of the enemy was far more fearsome than they had expected, as well. In fact… it was far too fearsome, while the scope of the battle was far too great.

The situation had changed too fast, leaving Sunny shaken.

'It's strange.'

He had spent… how long? Around eight months in this Nightmare. It was already longer than his stay in the Kingdom of Hope had been, and that was without even considering the long stretches of time that passed without being experienced by him. But still, Sunny had not expected the culmination of the Nightmare to happen so suddenly.

And that was what the battle in Twilight promised to be — the most dreadful and deadly confrontation they would experience in the Tomb of Ariel. The threat Verge posed paled in comparison to it. If they were to win here, in this lost and forsaken city, the rest of the Nightmare would be simply an epilogue.

Of course, that was only so because of Nephis and her [Longing]. Still…

Sunny was struggling to adjust to the shifting landscape of the Nightmare.

Nevertheless, he was ready.

Now, there were six challengers working together to pass the dreadful trial of the Spell. Well… five-and-a-half, considering that Mordret's physical body was frozen beyond the walls of Twilight. Three of them possessed Divine Aspects, two were among the most deadly Masters in the world. There was Cassie, as well, whom Sunny could not even place into any kind of power hierarchy.

Together, they tried to come up with a plan to kill the Dread Lord and liberate Twilight. Or rather, an approach — there was too little information and too many unknown factors to formulate a specific plan. The best they could do was learn everything there was to learn and come up with various strategies, then switch between them according to the situation.

mirror version of the floating fortress once again, the six of them looked beyond its walls, into the twilight haze

was strangely withdrawn. Eventually, he

time. Remember… stay close to me at all times. I will try

for a moment

course, we can still stumble on that monster directly. If that happens… well. At least it

jumped over the battlement and swiftly climbed down the crumbling wall of the fortress. The

the fortress on the other side. Sunny and his companions were able to descend easily, stepping on the carapace of a dead behemoth that floated in the still

there,

it was not the only defensive measure prepared by Twilight. The Dread Lord

was covered by a carpet of giant corpses. The abominations that had perished here had been terribly mangled, their grotesque bodies littered with ghastly wounds. Here and there, broken ships were floating in still water, with masts that rose into the haze like

headed to the edge

however, the frozen time would have already started to envelop us. The most insidious part is that we would have been none the wiser. Eventually, our time would have halted entirely, without us ever knowing.

of the dead abomination disappeared underwater, he easily jumped onto the next

The sooner we reach the heart of

the dreadful field of floating corpses. With each step, Sunny felt his mood turning more and more grave. The horrid landscape surrounding them was somber, bleak, and silent… but it was

reflection of Soul Stealer could be somewhere close, stalking the twilight haze. He could not allow himself to

'Damnation.'

sometimes walking across the shattered decks of empty ships. There was not a single living soul aboard them… however, the closer they got to Twilight, the more well-preserved the corpses of the dead crew

it, I

for a moment, glancing at one of the dead warriors. The man looked as if he had

Prince of