Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2630

2630 /2675

Sunny did not want to admit it, but he was troubled.

The battle had been intense, and the enemy was powerful... but that was not the reason for his unease.

The fact that the nightmare creature had turned out to be immortal wasn't, either.

Even the knowledge that there was a vast horde of these undying fiends populating the Eternal City was not the reason why he felt so somber.

No...

The real reason why Sunny was troubled was that he could not make sense of the monstrous youth.

'There was something quite strange about this Nightmare Creature, to the point that he was not even sure if he was correct to call it one.

First, Sunny did not see what he usually saw when peering into the souls of abominations

- there was

the vile darkness of Corruption, true, but it did not possess the usual nodes that served as sources of the spreading, tumorous infection. So, he could not even guess the Class of the creature, only tell that it was roughly of the Great Rank.

Second, even Cassie could not tell what the monstrous fiend was. All she could say after peering at its essence was a few cryptic words:

[It is... like a part of a greater whole hiding inside an usurped vessel.]

Then, after falling silent for a while, she added in a hesitant tone:

(But the greater whole it is a part of is itself incomplete, longing to be mended.] The fact that Cassie's Dormant Ability could not draw knowledge about the eldritch horror was already a cause for concern. Her words describing what little she did glimpse were even more worrisome.

'A part of a greater whole, usurped vessel, incomplete...'

What the hell did it mean?

And what the hell was the corrupted immortal, really?

Sunny sighed.

The cocoon of black chains continued to stir subtly, since the horrid fiend was still struggling to break free. Sunny could keep it bound without too much trouble... but he could only do so by maintaining the manifested shadows personally. Making the chains permanent would weaken them, which would allow the monstrous youth to escape.

Which meant that while he could contain this particular abomination — or maybe even a thousand of them - he could not contain them all. He could not even contain most of them, which was a problem.

He grimaced and looked at the black underside of the rolling sea above them, with silver light reflecting from its restless surface.

Suddenly, it occurred to him that this was a kind of black sky, as well.

"Ah... this is going to be quite a spectacle."

Jet wore a somber expression, her icy gaze hiding a hint of some dark emotion. She lingered for a while, looked at her scythe briefly, and then said in a neutral tone:

"We can still retreat, you know."

Sunny slowly shook his head.

"No. There's nowhere to retreat." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He looked away from the pile of black chains and turned to her.

"It might seem like we can escape to safer waters, but that is an illusion. There is nowhere safe in this world... in two worlds, even. Anywhere and everywhere can and will tum into a worse hell. All of existence is a warzone, so if we can't deal even with this much, then what's the point of seeking safety somewhere else?"

Jet let out a hollow chuckle.

"This much is a city full of immortal Great Ones, though. With an army of wraiths added as a free bonus. So what are we going to do?"

Sunny studied her for a while, then smiled darkly.

"For now... I suggest you take a few steps back."

Jet frowned.

"Why? What are you going to do?"

Sunny looked around, noting that he could not see the wharf from behind the tall buildings.

"Let me show you. This should be far enough, I think." Fresh chapters posted on novęlfire.net

Saying that, he reached into his soul...

And summoned something.

****

Not long before that, Aiko made her way to the throne room of the Dark Castle, carrying the latest report. Her boss was lounging on his throne, as usual, looking into the distance with an amused expression.