Shadow Slave

Some time later, Sunny saw thin lines moving in the air. Drawing closer, he saw something that resembled spiderwebs blowing in the wind, frayed and torn.

The only thing was that each string of the ghostly spiderweb was many kilometers long, and there were numerous such strings, moving between the sky and the surface of the Great River like tattered sails.

Some of them were white, but as Sunny guided the ketch between the billowing strings, he stared to encounter more and more of them that were bright red. Eventually, it was as though he was traveling through a forest of red threads.

Navigating between them was not easy, but he was reluctant to come close to any of the strings, or allow the wind to bring any of them closer.

Eventually, Sunny witnessed something else. Out there in front of him, far in the distance, an immense depth dweller was weakly struggling against the current, its body enveloped by several dozen of the white spiderwebs. The creature's carapace seemed impregnable, but the strange strings did not seem to care. They simply grew through it, penetrating the leviathan's body.

As they did, their color slowly started change from white to red, the redness spreading from the point of contact with the abomination's flesh along the length of the strings.

Blood. They were drinking the leviathan's blood.

Turning pale, Sunny gazed at the forest of vibrant red strings that surrounded him, stretching far into the sky, permeating a whole region. His fingers turned white on the steering oar of the ketch.

He escaped that horror, as well.

And many more like it, although not unscathed.

Sometimes, Sunny had no choice but to fight, unleashing the full fury of the onyx serpent or his other shapes on the creatures that wanted to consume him. Some of them, he managed to kill... but most of them, he simply escaped after delivering several painful wounds.

By the end of the day, Sunny was bloodied and exhausted. His essence was on the verge of running dry, too.

dusk came, and the Crown

more beautiful, and more harrowing, than any other night Sunny had experienced in

of it, he was barely alive. But he

a few deep wounds when

were beaten and battered, but

of its masts had cracked, its

a single word, and had not

could withstand much more than that. 'Well... maybe not

of the dawn of time, though, it was that the necessity to constantly be alert and on edge made it completely impossible for him to consider the consequences of what he had done... ?ìg??օ???verse~?օ?. the fallout of breaking his promisese, abandoning his friends, and leaving for the Estuary instead of fighting side by side with

wonder what they

now. Nephis and the others had already learned of his absence. They must have even had enough time

were most probably advancing toward

did not have

is it? Where

calculate how far he had

From up there, it almost seemed

from the surface of the Great River, the distance between the two

been moving fast, both aboard

all accounts, he had

Light, which pointed directly forward, and summoned what little was left

the night was