Shadow Slave

Just as it was in the black void beyond the Great River, the space itself acted strangely in the empty space contained at the center of endless loop of flowing water. The Chain Breaker had been traversing the vast emptiness for a while now — at least a day or two, from how it felt — but Sunny was not at all sure how far they had traveled.

All he knew was that the point of the Great River from which they had left seemed far away now, while the point which they hoped to reach was not as distant. It shimmered in the darkness, both alluring and terrifying.

Navigating the flying ship toward Verge was not very hard, because it was situated near the Source. So, all they had to do was aim for the last stretch of clear water before the area of the Great River shrouded in hazy mist.

A long time ago, close to the start of the Nightmare, Sunny had an epiphany that the strength of his allies was his own power, as well. Therefore, he had become determined to increase the strength of the cohort as much as he could, in any way he could.

He had been faithful to that determination up until now. Apart from the very action of gathering every member of the cohort from across the Tomb of Ariel, that had mostly taken the form of arming them with powerful Memories. Sunny had spent much of his time developing and improving his skill as a sorcerer for that purpose.

Now, his ability to weave had improved tremendously compared to the start of the Nightmare. Studying Ananke's Mantle had allowed him to make a qualitative leap in understanding of the fundamental principles of weaving,and by studying many Memories in order to alter them, Sunny had improved his overall ability, as well.

As a result, Neph's Crown of Dawn had become a Supreme Memory. That was still his most valuable achievement, because that single Memory was able to empower all the rest of the Memories at their disposal. Of course, Sunny had not stopped there..

He had also provided his allies with four additional altered Memories — Kai, Effie, and Cassie now wielded them, preparing to use his gifts in the battle against Torment, the First Seeker, and the remnant forces of the Defilement.

His help was not limited to Memories, either. Whether on purpose or not, Sunny had also helped his friends grow stronger as individual warriors. Jet had received her Aspect Legacy and was now wielding the chilling mist blade. Kai had acquired the [Dragonslayer] Attribute, which enhanced his body and elemental resistance.

Nephis seemed to have regained her lost confidence. Her understanding of her Divine Aspect had deepened, and with it came the Knowledge of Fire — one of the boons of her mysterious Aspect Legacy.

was also a

well. Not even mentioning his sorcery, here in the Tomb of Ariel, he had mastered the fourth step of Shadow Dance and perfected the Shadow Shell technique. He had become

in front of him at the end of the harrowing Southern

somewhere between the two, there was a version of himself that Sunny never wanted to meet, let alone fight. The Mad Prince,

«Are we ready?»

the Spell called for him to wake up. So, he threw

was not

many enchantments. Its weave was inconceivably vast and intricate, and although he was not trying to change it entirely, he still needed

anything, trying to isolate and transplant a single nexus was proving to be much harder than simply altering the entirety of a spellweave. The elaborate tapestry of essence strings was deeply interconnected — no single thread existed in isolation,

fate. The string of a person's fate did not exist in isolation, either — it touched the fates of countless other people, stretching from the past into the future, and thus influenced,

strings of fate was beyond what mortals like him could achieve, but he could manipulate strings of soul essence with great finesse. ?ìg??օ???w????~?օ?. Therefore, he could alter the weave of the silver blade to make

to be restored, of course, albeit taking a different shape. Slowly but surely, countless lightless threads of shadow essence became intertwined

in the bloody menagerie of monsters under the arena of the Red Colosseum, to creating Memories for the Brilliant

lessons he had learned were put to use, allowing him to create a lethal sword for Nephis. He knew that she would achieve

every achievement she made with the silver

a fighter, was feeling a strange exhilaration as he worked on the complicated Memory. It was the

then, finally, everything

two pairs of shadow hands, Sunny took a deep breath, picked up Weaver's Needle,