Shadow Slave

Chapter 1879 Bone Crack The second war party left the camp, but the first one did not return.

That was because Nephis had conquered the fissure, and for a while, the expedition force was busier than usual.

While Summer Knight and his soldiers clashed with the sprawling jungle, the entire encampment was dismantled and moved forward, chasing the vanguard to the edges of the abyssal chasm.

The great fissure used to look like a jagged wound on the surface of the sun-bleached bone, its terrifying depths full of impenetrable darkness. That darkness was gone now, replaced by a boiling mass of black smoke and brilliant flame. A billowing pillar of smoke was rising into the overcast sky, falling into the stormy clouds.

The great bridge of vines connecting the Hollows to the surface was on fire, but it was stubbornly clinging to life. New sprouts of scarlet growth were shooting out of the smoke, trying to crawl their way onto the surface of the white bone. There was a chain of sweaty soldiers positioned along the edges of the fissure, burning the monstrous saplings down before they took hold.

Looking at the vermilion tendrils slithering out of the crack, Sunny couldn't help but think that they looked like fibers of bloody muscle tissue.

…Perhaps that was what the scarlet jungle truly was — the flesh and tendons of the colossal skeleton that were desperately trying to regrow and envelop its bones once again, but were burned away by the merciless sky before the dead god could rise from its deathbed each time.

Over and over again, for eons…

'What a disturbing thought.'

Sunny arrived near the fissure at the head of the marching column. The camp of the expedition force was relocating here — both to make building an extermination outpost around the chasm easier and to lessen the return time for the troops battling the jungle. The first war party, which had recently finished its shift, did not have to return at all this time.

He left the soldiers behind and walked to the very edge of the fissure, where a lonely figure could be seen, looking at the billowing flames. Nephis had dismissed her Transcendent form and the outer layers of her armor, enduring the suffocating heat in light clothes. Her fair skin was smeared in ash and soot, with beads of sweat glistening on it like tiny jewels.

He glanced into the infernal depths of the burning chasm and then turned to face her.

Sunny remained silent for a moment.

"Did you… melt down your armor again?"

Nephis looked at him with no emotion in her cold, grey eyes.

Eventually, however, a subtle smile twisted her lips.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

chuckled, then

suits of armor from the enchanters of Clan

delicious food and comfort her, chasing away the emotionless coldness dwelling in her eyes with the warmth of human touch and connection. However, he could at least show her that there was someone she could lean

do the former, but only the Lord

not

said with a hint of envy

I am sure

Nephis looked doubtful.

rate at which the Spell bestows us Memories seems to have reduced considerably. I am not

Sunny was surprised.

"Really? I... haven't noticed."

had killed some Great abominations before being erased from the tapestry of fate — the Vile Thieving Bird's Spawn, Daeron of the Twilight Sea... he had received a Memory both times, but then again, Sunny

Nephis nodded.

must take more… more of whatever it is that the Spell uses to create Memories

world, but only three Sovereigns. So, her conclusion made

being able to receive bountiful rewards from the Spell, but his bitterness had been alleviated

to prepare, the Sovereigns would have been drowning in

more valuable, since his knowledge of weaving was deep

the billowing flames, Nephis asked

remember what you felt when you received

eyebrow, surprised

I

a moment, then added with a

It might not be powerful or useful, but it is a… a memento of the things that

glanced at

about you? What did you feel when

a couple

received it, since it happened at the very end of my Nightmare. But later, when I had time to

Nephis sighed.