Shadow Slave

1542: Last Journey.

And there it was.

They had left on the last journey of this tumultuous, dreadful Nightmare.

For Sunny and Nephis, it was especially poignant, because they had come from the far reaches of the future — and were now on their way to the furthest reaches of the past, where Verge stood.

It must have been especially emotional for Cassie, as well, because she was leaving the city she had spent a whole year ruling and trying to preserve. Now, its fate depended on whether they would be successful in their battle against the First Seeker.

In any case, she would never see Fallen Grace again.

None of them knew if it would even exist, in any kind of way, should they prevail. However, it was inevitable for Fallen Grace to be destroyed should they fail.

The blind girl did not look back. Instead, she stood at the bow of the flying ship, facing the setting suns. The others gave her some space, knowing that there had to be a storm of complicated emotions weighing on her heart.

Only Sunny could see her face, visible to the shadow that was hiding close by.

Cassie's face was not wistful or sad. Instead, it was full of resolve and determination… impatience, even. It was as though she had been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.

Which was true, of course. Apart from Mordret, she had spent by far the longest in this Nightmare. Sunny knew that he was sick and tired of the Tomb of Ariel. The blind girl had to be feeling the same, but much more intensely.

«We've been here for so long.»

and got to know the culture of the River People there, fought against all kinds of underwater horrors on the way to Aletheia's Island, withstood the insidious hell of the time loop, dove into the depths of the Great River and emerged

more time in the Tomb of Ariel than in Antarctica, not to mention

here longer than

that was without even counting the unknown number of cycles the seven of them had lived through before

soared above the waves,

face and retreated to his cabin. There, he concentrated on preparing for the alteration of

to Verge, he felt a sense of urgency and wanted to finish

day passed in meticulous work,

the duskward edge

much like the dawnward edge, but also different. The enormous, inconceivable waterfall was the same. The powerful current that threatened to destroy anything plunged into its crushing embrace was the same. The dark void

different from the soft lilac glow of dawn. Instead of the tender radiance, the water here was burning with an intense crimson glow, almost like it was on fire. 𝐥ìg𝚝𝔫օ𝑣𝓮𝓵w𝓸𝓻𝐥𝓭~𝙘օ𝕞. The inconceivable waterfall that stretched in both directions as far as the eye could see was painted vibrant red,

was almost as if a sea of blood was spilling

that dreadful sight, the members of the cohort gathered on the deck. The distant whispers of the falling water had grown into a deafening roar, making it hard

So, they remained silent.

breaking point of the waterfall and flew into

then disappeared in the howling of the wind. They had returned

previous time they had visited the boundless darkness. That was because, unlike the first time, the Chain Breaker would be crossing the space within the

the Dark Butterflies becoming aware

long the journey across the empty space in the middle of the looping river would take. The last time, they had arrived back to the surface of the Great River rather quickly — but that was because space itself behaved

to be much faster than simply sailing all the way to the dawn

If nothing unforeseen happened.

feeling both wary of the challenge ahead