Shadow Slave

1488 The First Plague
Sunny felt a headache approaching.
Something was very wrong here.
How could the Six Plagues exist?
The Great River was a time loop — just like Aletheia's Island had been, but also
different.
On Aletheia’s Island, time moved in a circle. A single day endlessly repeated
itself, and a new cycle started each time that day ended. The Great River,
however, was a bizarre place where time and space were one and the same — it
flowed from the future into the past, and so, those who traveled it were also
traveling across time.
The cycles of the Great River did not start once a certain period of time passed.
They were both a measure of time and a measure of space — to reach a new
revolution, a person had to travel all the way to the Estuary, which was also the
Source, and cross the boundary between the past and the future.
Then, they would be sent to the point in time and space when they had first
entered the Tomb of Ariel. So, if the Chain Breaker sailed past Verge and braved
the Source, the members of the cohort would be sent to different places on the
first day after they had entered the Nightmare.
Sunny would find himself on a piece of flotsam, Nephis would be stranded on the
corpse of the Black Turtle, Cassie would return to Fallen Grace on the day the
other sybil succumbed to the Defilement, and Jet and Effie would be back to
living the harsh lives of the River Nomads.
Sunny shifted slightly.
Still, it did not explain how both the members of the cohort and the Six Plagues
could exist at the same time. If their version from the previous cycle had braved
the Source — on purpose or by accident, while searching for the entrance into
the Estuary — they would have disappeared.
More than that, the Plagues had been rampaging across the Great River for
decades, perhaps even centuries. How could that be?
“Well, why not? There's all kinds of weirdness happening with time in the Tomb of
Ariel. Do I really want to doubt that something like that is possible?"
Especially now that Sunny knew about the Source — a misty place where the
past and the future met, and where the meaning of time lost all reason — he
could not be surprised by anything.
What would happen, for example, if someone entered the Source, but then
turned back and left the way they had come instead of crossing the boundary of
the future? What would happen if they left from a different point than where they
had entered? What would happen if they stayed inside the Source for a while,
allowing the current to move past them?
He did not know.
Sunny did know one thing, however.
The method of starting a new revolution might have been different from Aletheia's
Island, but its effect would be the same.
Once someone returned to the past, their memory of the previous cycle would be
erased. Their soul would be restored to how it had been before. No signs of them
having traveled the Great River in the past would remain.
Which meant...
Sunny shivered.
“Not again, please!"
The words he had shouted while waking up, on the first day in the Nightmare,
echoed in his ears.
'H—how... how many times have we challenged this Nightmare?"
The existence of the Six Plagues proved that there had been at least two cycles.
But there could have been more. Ten cycles... a hundred cycles... a thousand
cycles...
There was no way to tell. Since no one remembered the previous revolutions,
nothing would change when a new one started. They would repeat the same
actions over and over again, just like Jet had fought and been killed by
UndyingSlaughter over and over again.
Until Sunny arrived, and became aware of the loop.
Suddenly, he felt his heart beating wildly.
“Wait...."
Despite being trapped in the time loop of Aletheia's Island, Sunny had eventually
gained the ability to remember the previous revolutions. He did not know how
long it had taken, but at some point, he was assaulted by a persistent sense of
déja vu, and then became fully aware of the loop.
That was because the Sin of Solace was stuck in his mind, and the loathsome
sword wraith was somehow immune to the effect of the repeating time.
Sunny felt that he was on the verge of realizing something extremely important.
“The Sin of Solace..."
The Mad Prince was haunted by the odious apparition, as well.
So, if the cohort was trapped in the infinite loop, didn't it mean...
That he would have gained the ability to remember the previous cycles of the
Great River, as well?
'“D—damnation!"
Sunny's eyes widened.
The Mad Prince... no, perhaps even an earlier versions of himself... would have
realized the cyclical nature of the Great River. And from that point forward, each
cycle would have been different.
Because Sunny had become a variable.
He must have tried to change things. He must have tried to conquer the
Nightmare desperately... and in such a way that none of the members of the
cohorts died.
And Nephis survived till the end.
...But, for some reason, he had failed.
Or maybe that mission had been doomed from the start.
Had he become aware of the grand loop before and after becoming infected by
the Defilement?
The Defilement, after all... was knowledge. Terrible knowledge that corrupted the
souls of those who possessed it. So, even if Sunny reached the Source and
returned into the past after being infected by the Defilement, the infection would
have returned with him.
Had he gone mad under the mental strain of endless loops first, or had he found
the true Estuary and been driven insane by the Defilement first?
Had Sunny been the first of the Six Plagues, and the one who had infected the
other five?
In any case...
'So why do I not remember anything? If my version from the previous cycle was
corrupted by the Defilement, why is my soul free of it?"
He flinched.
Wasn't the answer obvious?
What could cure the infection of cursed knowledge?
...Oblivion could.
In order to be cured, he had to forget the cursed knowledge before returning to
the past.
“The Key of the Estuary.’
A mysterious Memory that had been there, in his soul, when he found himself in
the mist on the first day of the Nightmare. A Memory that possessed a passive
enchantment that did not seem to have any effect on him.
An enchantment that consisted of two parts — one directed outward, one
directed inward.
And which had something to do with the Sin of Solace.
Sunny took a deep breath as the truth of the Estuary Key finally revealed itself.
It's... a muzzle."
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The purpose of the mysterious
Memory... was to prevent the Sin of
Solace from shari 9c kpowédge
oe Previous Ld $ with Sunny. So
that he never remembered what had
happened in the past, and therefore
never learned the cursed knowledge
of Defilement. The content is on
popsnovel.com! Read the latest
chapter there!
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That was one part of its
enchantment. The other, much more
burdensome hn Guia
ogy the EstNa® k y immune to the
change of cycles. To make it remain
3 \
in Sunny's soul even if he crossed the
boundary of the Source and was sent
into the past. The content is on
popsnovel.com! Read the latest
chapter there!
Visit popsnovel.com to read full content.
That was why the Mad Prince had
been so interested in the Great
Tyrant slain by the Sean

oi 5
Aig Fower Bek sé the Tyrant
rained dead no matter how many
revolutions passed... its death had
been made permanent, carrying over
from one cycle of the loop to the
next. The content is on
popsnovel.com! Read the latest
chapter there!
Back then, the Defiled madman must have already been trying to create the
Estuary Key.
To cure himself of the Defilement... and make another attempt to conquer the
Nightmare. No, not just conquer it, but do it in a specific way.
To erase the mistake he had made... or maybe the crime he had committed.
“Murderer...
Sunny gulped for air.
At that moment, he realized something else.
There were only three of the Six Plagues left: Soul Stealer, Torment, and the
Dread Lord.
The Mad Prince... was gone.
He did not exist in the Tomb of Ariel anymore.
Because he had crossed the boundary of the Source and sent himself into the
past.
He had become Sunny.