Shadow Slave

1491 Dark Boundary

"Sunny, the sails!"

Before Jet's shout even faded, Cassie and Sunny were already moving. He
called upon the shadows to raise the sails of the Chain Breaker, while she rushed
to the runic circle. Nephis turned to look into the darkness, her hand resting on
the hilt of her sword.

"What kind of disaster have we stumbled into now..."

Grasping the steering oars, Cassie skillfully turned the ship to borrow the force of
the wind. At the same time, the runic circle ignited, absorbing strands of her
essence — now that the enchantment circuits were repaired, it was not to power
the sorcery of the ancient vessel, but simply to control it.

Finally, the Chain Breaker came to a halt, hovering in the boundless darkness of
the Tomb of Ariel.

Sunny approached Jet and Effie, tracing their gazes into the distance.

"What is the... matter..."

His voice faltered.

Out there, far away...

The world ended.

It was hard to see, even for Sunny, because the end of the world was perfectly
black, barely distinguishable from the darkness that surrounded them. But still...
there was a vast, seemingly endless surface in front of them, stretching in all
directions as far as the eye could see, like a boundary of the world.

Smooth and lusterless, like polished stone.

It took him a moment to realize what he was looking at.

"It's the... inner wall of the pyramid.

The endless black boundary was just that... the wall of Ariel's Tomb, seen from
the inside. However, it dwarfed anything he had ever seen. The towering walls of
the Dark City were like a speck of dust in front of it. The great ramparts of Falcon
Scott were like sand.

Looking at the endless black wall, Sunny was stunned by its sheer magnitude.
For a moment, he wondered... was the interior of the pyramid truly large enough
to encompass an entire realm, or was it him who had been reduced to the size of
an ant?

Well, in any case... Jet's warning had come in time. The Chain Breaker was not
going to crush into the endless wall of black stone anymore. They had already
stopped, and there was plenty of distance between them and the boundary of
Ariel's dreadful world.

But then, a slight frown appeared on his face.

Turning to Jet, Sunny remained silent for a moment.

He could see the surface of the wall because of how special his sight was. She,
however, did not share his ability to see in the darkness.

So how had Jet and Effie known to warn them?

"What is it?"

The huntress was looking forward with a somber expression. She remained silent
for a moment, then grimaced:

"Can't you smell it? It reeks of Nightmare Creatures."

Sunny slowly shook his head and glanced at Jet, raising an eyebrow.

Her icy blue eyes were radiating a chilling cold.

"There are souls... powerful souls, far ahead.”

Soul Reaper was usually easygoing and relaxed, but now, her expression was
grave. Seeing it, Sunny felt a shiver run down his spine.

His frown deepened.

“Jet wouldn't be wary of just any soul. What kind of power..."

Cursing inwardly, he turned to the distant black boundary and strained his eyes,
trying to discern something... anything... to understand what was threatening
them.

Knowing that Sunny had the best chance of discovering the hidden threat, the
rest of the cohort fell silent.

“What is it... I can't see anything..."

Now that his initial shock of witnessing the inner wall of the Tomb had subsided,
Sunny could study it in more detail... not that there was a lot to study. It was just
a solid black surface, stretching endlessly into the darkness. He was too far away
to notice anything else.

Well... if there was one thing, it was that the wall was not smooth, as he had
initially thought. Rather, it was uneven, as if covered in countless ridges and
bumps. Those ridges and bumps looked tiny from afar, but they should be
dozens, if not hundreds, of meters across.

Sunny peered at the irregularities, thinking.

“There might be something hiding in the seams. Maybe there are caves in the
stone? I don't see any entrances, though..."

Then, he suddenly froze.

Out there on the wall of the black pyramid, something had just moved.

The movement was tiny and at the very periphery of his vision, so if Sunny had
not been looking at the wall of Ariel's Tomb intently, he would not have noticed it.
Turning his head slightly, he stared at a particular spot. What was it? He still
couldn't see any creatures hiding in the recess between the strange, irregular
ridges.

Then, his perception shifted slightly. It was just a mundane shift, like
concentrating on a near object instead of a distant one, as well as a mental one,
like trying to perceive something as a part of a whole instead of a separate entity.
It was at this moment that Sunny's hair stood on end, and his face became as
pale as that of a ghost.

Instantly petrified, he swayed slightly.

'“D—damnation!"

Powerful souls...

There was nothing hiding in the recesses of the endless wall. There were no
caves hidden between the bumps and ridges where dreadful abominations could
dwell.

...Instead, the entire surface of the wall was covered by abominations, who clung
to it like moths.

The bumps and ridges... were the edges of millions of black wings.

The inner wall of Ariel's Tomb was obscured by a colossal swarm of numerous
Dark Butterflies. There were myriads of these eerie Great Monsters resting on
the endless black surface, seemingly asleep...

But also ready to awaken if anything disturbed their slumber.

Sunny took an involuntary step back.

“This... this is the place Song and Valor wanted to conquer?’

One Great Monster was a calamity that only a few people in the waking world
could quell. But there were countless Dark Butterflies dwelling inside the black
pyramid... protecting its boundary... waiting for some fool to set them free.

Or maybe waiting to destroy anyone who would try to desecrate the tomb that the
Demon of Dread had built.

Sunny shuddered.

“Ariel... that lunatic... just what did he build? And why?"

Turning his head slowly, he looked at Cassie with hollow eyes and asked quietly:
"Cassie... can you extinguish the radiance of the sacred tree?"

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She seemed confused for a moment,

then nodded. In the next MRrpEehiie
beautify ight ofthe sting tee grew
dimPher, eventually disappearing

entirely. The content is on
popsnovel.com! Read the latest

chapter there!

Sunny let out a shaky sigh.

The lanterns illuminating the Chain Breaker were extinguished, as well. Soon, the
members of the cohort found themselves in absolute darkness.

Only Sunny and Cassie could move freely in the absence of light.

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Unable to look away from the

harrowing sight of countless black
butterflies crowdinaesuiace of

the Shel or wall, he calmed his
wildly beating heart and said in a

hoarse whisper: The content is on
popsnovel.com! Read the latest

chapter there!

"Cassie, take us away from here. Back to the River... fast. As fast as you can!"
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The Chain Breaker moved, slowly

turning its bow. The greaking githe
masts, (ngratediibark and the

ripple of the billowing sails sounded

like thunder to his ears. The content

is on popsnovel.com! Read the latest
chapter there!

'If they notice us... we die. I have survived many situations in which I had no
business surviving. But this one... there's no surviving that."

They had to get away.

Sunny gritted his teeth and waited.

A few moments passed, then a few moments more.

A minute.

The Chain Breaker was gliding toward the distant Great River, steadily gaining
speed.

“Faster, faster..."

Sunny never expected that he would be praying to return to the Great River one
day. But here he was, doing just that.

...Perhaps someone had heard his prayers.

Eventually, the dreadful wall of Ariel's Tomb disappeared from view, and the
beautiful ribbon of the Great River drew closer.

One chapter today, three chapters tomorrow.