Shadow Slave

Chapter 1796 End of the World It was a black, glistening millipede that lunged at him from under the deadfall. Its armored body was about three meters in length, as wide as an adult man's torso. Instead of a pair of mandibles, it had an eerily human mouth full of sharp, needle-like fangs.

The millipede was a Corrupted Beast.

Sunny did not move from the saddle and simply turned his head with a dark look. Before the creature could reach him, dark tentacles rose from the blackened surface of the dead tree and enveloped it, slamming the abomination down. Then, they moved like saws, their undersides turning into sharp blades.

A few heartbeats later, the millipede was sawn into a dozen bleeding chunks. It struggled weakly, and then grew still.

Sunny dismissed the shadows and stared at the gruesome remains incredulously. Then, he sighed and looked up.

"...I'm supposed to eat that?"

Before he could jump off the saddle to harvest the millipede's meat and soul shards, though, he sensed a tide of shadows moving in his direction.

Soon enough, the broken forest came alive. It looked as if a flood of darkness flowed from under the ancient trunks, rushing at him with terrible speed. A deafening rustle assaulted his ears.

Sunny cursed in a stifled voice.

The flood of darkness was not the second coming of the Dark Sea - Instead, there were more millipedes slithering towards him. Thousands of them, at least, all of the same Rank and Class as the first one.

Sunny was powerful. He was even powerful beyond belief, if compared to an average Saint. However, he was not inclined to battle a swarm of thousands of Corrupted Beasts.

Dismissing Nightmare, he turned into a shadow and fled. A moment later, the tide of millipedes flowed over the remains of their fallen sibling, and in a split second, the meat he had been reluctant to collect was gone. Not even a piece of black chitin remained.

Gliding away stealthily, Sunny let out a bitter, mental sigh.

'No wonder.'

No wonder none of the Sleepers of the Forgotten Shore had managed to find salvation by trying to reach another region of the Dream Realm. Even if they somehow managed to traverse thousands of kilometers of the crimson labyrinth, hiding from the Dark Sea at night, all that awaited them beyond the coral was death.

Hollow Mountains and Nightmare Desert were a death warrant. But this Burned Forest was not any better. It was another Death Zone.

Sunny had no doubt that there was no salvation west of the Forgotten Shore, either.

‘Doesn't matter.’

the swarm of millipedes behind, he

***

a long time to make his way through the Burned Forest. He was quickly reminded that he was at the bottom of the food chain - after that first encounter with the swarm of Corrupted Beasts, he met many more Nightmare Creatures, most of them much more powerful than the millipedes

Great abominations on the outskirts of the forest... as for its

It was to the point where he had to remain in the form of a

the rest. Because of that, he could rotate them when there was a need, letting the

way, he managed to survive crossing the Burned

he rested, and days when he hid

Sunny witnessed something that rattled him

the taller remnant left behind by one of the burned trees, he could suddenly see deep into the forest, where an enormous depression in the earth was carpeted by

middle of that vast

that

be considered a plateau. Each bulging, blackened

destroyed such a tree. When it had stood whole, its crown must

there had truly been a world tree,

innumerable living beings that must have lived on

‘...I'm so small.’

in a dark fissure between two

tree, and the being who had

that

For now, at least.

***

after that, Sunny continued his journey. He arduously made his way through the Burned Forest,

did not rise at night

though. It was illuminated by countless stars, and although the moon did not show itself, he could see a ghostly radiance sometimes,

more and more severe. Sunny was no stranger to cold, but still, he was starting to struggle

and at some point, he could not see ground at the bottom of the deep cracks in

if he was approaching the edge of

journeyed on, overcome by strange

the boundary of the Dream Realm? There was curvature to the horizon here, so reasonably, this strange world was supposed to be a sphere, just like Earth. So, he might end up entering the Stormsea from the

work in the Dream Realm. So, Sunny could easily imagine that the world would just end, opening up into an endless dark abyss. Or maybe an infinity

on the edge of