Ranobes » Shadow Slave » Chapter 1485: Traveresing the Vortex
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Chapter 1485: Traveresing the Vortex
Shadow Slave

Traveling through the twisting underwater tunnel was a constant struggle… but, strangely enough, it was mostly safe. Just as Wind Flower had said, as long as the Chain Breaker did not touch the water, there was little inside the vortex that could threaten them.

If the flying ship did touch the spinning walls of the tunnel, though, death was all but guaranteed — not only because of the terrible current and the obliterating pressure, but also because causing even the smallest ripple was going to alert the harrowing beings dwelling in the unfathomable depth of the Great River of their presence.

Staying away from the walls was not challenging at first, but the deeper they descended, the more perilous that situation became. The tunnel grew narrower, while its twists became more frequent and steep with each passing day. Sometimes, it bent so much that the Chain Breaker flew forward for a while instead of continuously descending.

It was as though they were really traveling through the intestines of an unimaginable beast. Worse of all was the fact that the tunnel was not static. It constantly moved, undulating, making it seem as though the walls of spinning water were pursuing the graceful ship. Perhaps they were.

Sometimes, the water was shrouded in abyssal darkness. Sometimes, it shone with blinding light. Nephis steered the ship in the darkness, but when the depths of the Great River ignited with beautiful radiance, Cassie had to take the oars. The rest of them were forced to escape to the interior of the flying vessel, leaving her to face the harrowing shapes moving through the radiant water alone.

Anyone would have been shaken and mentally strained by having to endure the horror and pressure of those terrible creatures in solitude. Despite that, Cassie remained calm and seemingly unperturbed… Sunny did not know if that was a good sign or not. What he did know, however, was that they would have never survived the journey through the vortex without the Chain Breaker. They would have been long swallowed by the Great River if Cassie had not repaired the enchantment circuit, as well. As it was… Sunny felt that they would, perhaps, make it to the other side of the vortex unscathed. Days passed in tense silence. The deeper they descended, the more palpable the pressure assaulting their minds was. The abyssal darkness was suffocating, and the radiant light was dreadful. More than that… at some point, the world itself became strange, playing tricks with their minds. Time was growing convoluted and elusive, as if it, too, was being crushed by the oppressive weight of the water surrounding them. Sunny and Nephis, who had already experienced something similar in the time storm, were less affected by this strangeness than the other members of the cohort. However, eventually, they too grew accustomed to the eerie unstableness of time.

With time, space had also become unreliable. At first, Sunny thought that it was the Chain Breaker's flight that had lost its smoothness, making the flying ship shake and shudder from time to time. Sometimes, it would jerk, and sometimes, it would sway. But then, he realized that it was the fabric of reality itself that had become twisted.

He understood it while carrying a cup of tea, brewed with the invigorating water of the Endless Spring, to Nephis. Usually, a walk from the lower deck entrance to the stern would have taken him less than a minute, and a few dozen steps. However, this time, Sunny counted at least several hundred steps before reaching the runic circle. The tea he was carrying was still hot and steaming, though. 'That is… not good.'

He stared at the tea cup in his hand, then at Nephis, who was steering the ship without seemingly having noticed anything strange. 'What if it was not the deck that had been stretched like a rubber band, but one of us?'

What if the space between the ship and the walls of the tunnel suddenly contracted?

Suddenly, the surrounding darkness seemed much more terrifying.

But there was nothing any of them could do about it. Worrying about being torn apart by fractured space was not going to do him any good, either. So, Sunny distracted himself by concentrating on weaving. After around seven cycles of darkness and light — he couldn't tell exactly how many because of how strange time had become — he successfully altered the [Capacious Chest] enchantment of the Covetous Coffer to allow it to store living beings. He had not copied the weave of a Supreme Memory, but rather borrowed a few elements from it.

Sadly, it was a futile effort. Sunny might have changed the weave of the enchantment to remove the limitation on inanimate objects, but he was nowhere near knowing how to integrate a livable space into the chest's storage space. There was no meadow, no forest, and no river inside of it. Which meant that there was also no light, no water, and no air there. There was nothing at all. So, unless he wanted a living being to suffocate to death, placing them inside was out of the question. Theoretically, he was able to hide his shadows in the Covetous Coffer now, since they did not need to breathe. However, Sunny struggled to imagine why he would want to do such a thing. Maybe to punish them for misbehaving…

He did not share these thoughts with the shadows, but they still started to avoid the toothy chest, for some reason.

Time slowly passed. Or, maybe, it was passing quickly. All Sunny knew was that the depths of the Great River seemed more and more dreadful each time he looked into the abyssal darkness. Even Cassie was starting to look unnerved. The tunnel was not getting narrower anymore. However, its twists and turns were becoming wilder.

And then, one day…

The Chain Breaker seemed to stop. Sunny was startled as the familiar feeling of motion completely disappeared. Standing up from where he was sitting, he noticed the other members of the cohort looking perplexed.

Then, he heard Neph's stifled yelp.

Looking at the stern, he saw her gripping the steering oars so hard that her hands had turned white. She was moving both oars in a strange manner… not slowly and smoothly, like usual, but instead forcefully and with a sense of urgency. 'What the hell?'

Why was Nephis even moving the oars if they were standing still?

Looking at the walls of the tunnel, Sunny flinched. The walls… had turned into a blur. The Chain Breaker was frozen in place, but the tunnel itself was flying past it at tremendous speed. The twists and turns that Nephis had been cautiously navigating were now flashing past them, forcing her to steer the ship as fast as she could… and much faster than that, even, if they wanted to survive.

'Doesn't make any sense…'

Sunny was confused for a moment.

How could the flying ship both remain in place and be steered around the bends of the tunnel?

It was as if the world itself was being spun and moved by Neph's hands. But then again, when was the last time the world made any sense? Perhaps the static position of the Chain Breaker was simply a matter of perspective. Perhaps, they were simply being carried by some unfathomable, eerie force. What did it matter?

The only thing that mattered was for Nephis to guide them through the swiftly moving tunnel.

And she did. Completely focused, she guided the Chain Breaker, not allowing the water to swallow it. A minute past, then another, then another…

Then, an eternity. Suddenly, the tunnel disappeared. Something flashed, blinding Sunny, and was then replaced by darkness. He could feel motion once again.

…In fact, he could feel a lot of motion!

It was as if the Chain Breaker had been shot from a catapult. Their speed was so dreadful that he was instantly blown back a dozen meters, and only managed to remain on the ship by clutching at the railing. 'D—damn!'

Sunny felt a tremendous force pushing him back, and a hurricane wind crashing into him with primal fury. All he could do was grit his teeth and hold on for his dear life. Slowly, their speed decreased. Nephis, who had been pressed into the aplustre, pushed one of the oars and rolled the ship. It was only then that Sunny realized that the Chain Breaker had been flying upside down. As the flying ship revolved around its axis, Sunny fell on the deck and weakly picked himself up. It seemed that they had escaped the vortex.

Shadow Slave
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  1. Offline
    kollosus_na
    kollosus_na
    + 6 ⋅ 7 -
    Hrm… another very well-written and descriptive chapter that feels like filler lol
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      citoxE
      citoxE
      + 0 ⋅ 0 -
      Womp womp womp
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  2. Offline
    Pro100zver25
    Pro100zver25
    + 13 ⋅ 1 -
    1492: Back to the River.

    The Chain Breaker escaped from the slumbering legion of the monstrous butterflies, traveling further and further away from the endless black surface of the pyramid's wall. Sunny counted the seconds, afraid that a dark cloud would rise into the air and chase them.

    Tense silence permeated the air, and none of the cohort members spoke.

    Powerful winds wandered the hollow darkness around them. The space itself was acting strangely, making it feel as if the world was not quite right. The distant ribbon of the Great River was drawing nearer at tremendous speed.

    After a while, he took a deep breath.

    "We should be safe now... right?"

    He wasn't sure. Sunny had thought that he knew a lot about the Tomb of Ariel, but now, he felt that the unassuming daemon was far more sinister and mysterious than it seemed.

    And why wouldn't he have been? Ariel did not leave that strong of an impression, true, but that was only in comparison to his three harrowing siblings — Weaver, Nether, and Hope. The Demon of Dread was still a true deity, though... a being capable of challenging the gods and tearing down the heavens.

    Of course, this pyramid of his would be just as dreadful. In fact, it was a testament to how adaptable people were that Sunny had learned to take this terrible place for granted — a tomb built from the body of an Unholy Titan, containing a mystical river created from the Titan's blood.

    Was he insane to hope that they could escape its boundary unscathed?

    ...But in the end, they did escape. None of the Dark Butterfly had awakened or rushed to pursue them, allowing the Chain Breaker to freely dive into the darkness. The space itself rippled and flowed, streaming past the flying ship like liquid.

    It was a strange feeling.

    They were descending toward the Great River much faster than it should have been possible. Eventually, Sunny let out a relieved sigh.

    "We are safe... I think."

    Hearing him, Cassie allowed the sacred tree to shine once again, and its soft light enveloped the deck.

    The members of the cohort glanced at each other, their faces full of weariness and fatigue. The last few days had not been easy on them... and the days before that had been even more dire.

    Jet looked back with a bleak expression.

    "What the hell was there, in the darkness?"

    The others looked at Sunny, as well. He remained silent for a moment, then shrugged.

    "The wall of the pyramid. And on that wall... countless Great Monsters, crowding its surface like horrid mold. Thankfully, they seemed to be slumbering, and none noticed us."

    The members of the cohort were dismayed, and he could easily understand why. The words "countless" and "Great Monsters" were not supposed to ever appear next to each other.

    And yet, here in the Tomb of Ariel, they did.

    "Seriously... now, I understand why there are only a few dozen Saints in the world."

    Surely, this particular Third Nightmare was more dreadful than the rest. But not by much, most likely. Saint Tyris, Beastmaster, Bloodwave, Wake of Ruin, and the other Transcendents... all of them had survived harrowing trials similar to this one.

    Sunny had never underestimated the Saints, but he found a new sense of admiration for them.

    "No wonder most of them seem so... distant."

    Shaking his head, Sunny gazed at the Great River and let out a sigh.

    "Anyway... I don't think that there is anyone between us and the river. So, we should be safe for now."

    Without saying anything, they stood together in silence and looked at the colorful ribbon that floated in the darkness far, far away.

    Eventually, Nephis spoke:

    "Then, we need to decide what to do next."

    ***

    The Chain Breaker hovered in the emptiness, illuminated by the soft radiance of the sacred tree. Saint stood guard on its bow, while Fiend crouched near the runic circle at its stern. A motionless figure in red garments could be seen under the glowing branches — it was the Echo of the sybil that Cassie had summoned, finally restored after sustaining severe damage on Aletheia's Island.

    However, there were no humans in sight. All five of them were below the deck, sharing a meal.

    They were too exhausted to come up with plans, but had no other choice. It was necessary to decide where to land, now that they were returning to the Great River.

    After everyone had satiated themselves, there were a few minutes of silence. Eventually, Sunny spoke:

    "Well... our primary goal remains the same. We need to find Kai and the other guy in Twilight. Hopefully, there will be other fighters there to help us take on Verge."

    Jet gave him a curious look.

    "Other fighters? I thought that Twilight was destroyed."

    Sunny hesitated for a few moments.

    "No one really knows what happened to Twilight. Technically, it was not destroyed... just lost. Whatever that means. We had the idea that there might be survivors there simply because, otherwise, this Nightmare seems to be impossible."

    His expression dimmed.

    "...That was before, though. Now, any preconceived notions we had about the Nightmare are meaningless. We don't even know if the remaining Plagues are still alive, or how many Defiled are left in Verge. Perhaps their power has dwindled enough for the Spell to decide that we can handle it all ourselves. No, even that is an fundamentally false assumption, because the balance of forces within the Nightmare has been tempered with."

    As he finished speaking, Cassie added:

    "Our plan was to explore Wind Flower... Aletheia's Island... to find you two, then return to Fallen Grace, regroup, and sail for Twilight. However, the situation is a bit different now, because we can reach both cities from up here. We can even travel directly to Verge, not that it's a good idea."

    Nephis nodded:

    "So, what we need to decide today is whether we want to go directly to Twilight, or recuperate at Fallen Grace first."

    Effie and Jet glanced at each other. Neither of them had been to Fallen Grace or knew a lot about Twilight. At the same time, due to the difference in how the members of the cohort had experienced time in the Nightmare, they were the most exhausted of the five.

    Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie had spent more time inside the Tomb of Ariel, but they at least had plenty of downtime between the many harrowing ordeals. Effie and Jet, however, never had an opportunity to rest.

    After a few moments of silence, Effie smiled:

    "What's the point of delaying the inevitable? Let's go directly to where Night and that Valor princeling are. Wait, or is he a Song princeling now? Anyway... the sooner we get them, the sooner we can escape this damned Nightmare."

    Jet grinned.

    "I agree. I consider myself a very patient woman, you know... I waited for a long, long time to get a chance at Transcendence. But now, my patience is running thin. Let's conquer this Nightmare as soon as possible."

    She secretly threw a glance at Effie's belly, but did not add anything else.

    Sunny sighed.

    "Well, then..."

    He looked at Nephis, remained silent for a moment, and nodded.

    "It's unanimous. We are going to Twilight, I guess."
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    1. Offline
      Pro100zver25
      Pro100zver25
      + 14 ⋅ 0 -
      1493: Sins of the Past.

      The plan of action was clear. In the next... however long it was going to take, the Chain Breaker would traverse the empty darkness and return to the Great River. They would aim to land as close to Twilight as possible.

      Granted, no one knew where the lost city was located, exactly. All they knew was that it was situated in the reaches of the Great River where the sky was painted lilac by the light of dawn, as well as the general era when it had been established — the latter was inscribed on the slates recovered from the drowned temple.

      So, Cassie was going to guide the Chain Breaker to the stretch of the River corresponding to that era, and they would explore the currents from there.

      Sunny felt a bad premonition when he thought about Twilight, and the blind girl seemed troubled, as well. Neither knew what was waiting for the cohort there... but, whatever it was, two things were certain.

      First, that they were going to face a trial no less dangerous, and most likely far more terrible, than anything they had experienced in the Tomb of Ariel yet... which was saying a lot, considering how utterly dreadful Aletheia's Island had been.

      Second, that the Mad Prince had to have arranged something to happen in Twilight, as well.

      There were four fixed events in each cycle, after all — Nephis and Sunny entering the Tomb of Ariel in the far reaches of the future, upstream of Weave, Cassie entering the Nightmare in Fallen Grace, Effie and Jet entering the Nightmare among the River Nomads... and Kai entering the Nightmare somewhere near Twilight, accompanied by Mordret.

      It would be strange if the Mad Prince had not included the lost city in his schemes.

      "Something unspeakable is waiting for us there... I can feel it."

      Sunny's expression was bleak.

      Nevertheless, he felt strangely hopeful. Precisely because the Mad Prince had most likely already done something to give them a chance, no matter how small. Was it arrogance, to have faith in the devious nature of his former self? He did not know, and he did not care.

      Additionally, Sunny had two more hidden advantages. The Crown of Twilight he wore was going to grant him a nearly inexhaustible reserve of essence in the land — well, waters — of constant dawn. More than that, it was a key to the defensive arrays of Twilight. All he had to do to gain control of them was reach Daeron's throne room.

      He and Nephis were two of the most powerful Masters in history, and their power only became greater when they were together. Jet received her Aspect Legacy, while Effie could inspire all three of them with her Ascended Ability and support the cohort from the back with javelins.

      There was Cassie, as well... the unassuming seer who was actually the hidden ace of the cohort. Her affinity to mysteries and revelations could resolve many problems that would otherwise be unsolvable, and warn them of the most dire threats in advance.

      So, overall, he judged that their chances of tackling Twilight were not bad. Right now, however...

      Sunny hid his face behind a cup of tea and furtively studied the faces of his companions.

      There was another conversation they had to have. He sighed.

      "This is silly..."

      They had not discussed the revelations about the nature of the Great River, the true identity of the Six Plagues, and his own role in all that had happened yet.

      It was indeed stupid, to feel ashamed of the actions of his Defiled past version... but he was. How did one go about telling his friends that he had turned them all into Nightmare Creatures in the past life?

      Or maybe even in countless past lives?

      "It is probably... just as awkward as telling the girl you're in love with that you killed her."

      Sunny coughed.

      "But then again, adding that your evil version betrayed the other Defiled and brutally slaughtered countless innocent people just to create a future where she remains alive... should count for something, right? I mean... it's a bit romantic. Right?"

      He suppressed the desire to groan and looked away.

      What was this insanity? Who else had a life as unhinged as his? Eventually, Sunny sighed.

      "Now, let's talk about the Great River itself. You should have realized something after seeing it from afar. I realized a few things, as well... and they might very well affect how this Nightmare ends."

      Trying to keep his voice neutral, Sunny shared what he had deduced. The cyclical nature of the Great River, the existence of the Source and how the past and the future were connected through it, the fact that it wasn't their first time challenging the Nightmare, the commonalities between the great loop of the River and the artificial loop of Aletheia's Island...

      Among those commonalities was his ability to slowly become aware of the repeating nature of time, which led to his eventual Defilement — and, therefore, to the Defilement of the rest of the cohort and Neph's death.

      Lastly, Sunny explained why he thought that the Mad Prince was gone, and how the influence of his demented predecessor was still affecting everything that was happening on the Great River, and in particular to them.

      He did, however, keep a few things to himself... for example, the fact that the vile madman had been enslaved by the Dread Lord.

      As well as why the Mad Prince had been so obsessed with rewriting the past.

      In the end, Sunny took a deep breath and said, his voice a bit stifled:

      "So, uh... sorry, I guess. You know, for creating the Six Plagues."

      The other members of the cohort stared at him silently for a while. He winced.

      "You can at least say something, damn it..."

      At that moment, Jet chuckled.

      "What are you apologizing for? It's not your fault. You and I both watched over people who failed their First Nightmare and became Nightmare Creatures... so, you should know better than most that the person is not to be blamed for what the abomination does."

      Effie looked at him with a mischievous smile.

      "Right. But, since we're apologizing for what our evil twins did, sorry for squishing you like a bug. A very small, teeny-tiny... squishy bug. That's what Devouring Beast did, right? Should I feel guilty about it, as well?"

      Nephis shook her head.

      "We don't know what happened during our first cycle in the Nightmare, and how you ended up entering the Source. Perhaps the rest of us were already dead, by then... so, you might have saved us all, to begin with. The only thing that matters is what happens in this cycle. And making it the last."

      Cassie didn't say anything, and simply nodded. Sunny sighed.

      He didn't really feel responsible for the actions of the Mad Prince, but it was still nice, to know that his companions had his back... no matter what.

      At that moment, Effie leaned back and said:

      "On that note, doofus... can you tell your chest to stop trying to bite my arm off? I know there are still plenty of tasty things inside! I won't take much... well, all of it, at least..."

      He laughed.

      "Go get your own tasty things. Do you think we don't see you wolfing down those berries from your locket without sharing them with anyone?"

      As the members of the cohort moved past the identity of the Mad Prince and started to discuss the bizarre secrets of the Great River, his gaze brushed past Cassie. The blind girl was listening quietly, cradling a cup of tea in her hands.

      For a moment, a shadow ran across Sunny's face.

      He had become aware of the loop on Aletheia's Island... but hadn't Cassie become aware of it, too?

      Wouldn't the same had happened with the cycles of the Great River, then?

      ...And, unlike him, she didn't have the Estuary Key to prevent her from remembering.

      Sunny studied the blind girl for a moment, then shook his head. No, that was impossible.

      Back on Aletheia's Island, Cassie must have regained her Memories because of being exposed to the Sin of Solace through him... even if she had never admitted it. So, the restriction placed on the sword wraith was protecting her, too.

      Otherwise, it would be not Cassie, but Torment sitting across the table from him.

      Watching as the blind girl took a sip of her tea, and then smiled at Effie's joke, he finally allowed himself to relax.

      There was little time left for them to rest and recuperate.

      Once the Chain Breaker reached Twilight... Sunny had a feeling that none of them would have an opportunity to rest for a long while.
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        Pro100zver25
        Pro100zver25
        + 12 ⋅ 0 -
        1494: The Edge.

        Standing on the deck of the Chain Breaker as it barreled through the empty darkness, Sunny felt a strange mix of horror and exhilaration. That was because the distance they had to cover could only be called... cosmic.

        He did not know how far the Great River was from the walls of the pyramid, exactly, but it had to be an astronomical number of kilometers — perhaps not as immense as the distance between Earth and the Moon, but of a similar proportion.

        If so, logically, it would take them years to return... however, space itself was acting strange in the interior of the Tomb of Ariel. Judging by how fast the Great River was drawing closer, they were going to reach it in a matter of days, or weeks at most.

        In any case, it didn't stop Sunny from imagining that he was on a spaceship.

        "Come to think of it... can the Chain Breaker travel through space?"

        It probably could, considering that the force propelling the flying vessel was sorcerous in nature. However, that didn't mean that the helmsman and the passengers would survive space. So, this was probably as close as Sunny would ever get to being a taikonaut... a cosmonaut? Astronaut? Whatever the word was.

        Not the least because, according to Jet, Earth's orbit hid dangers that even she wasn't qualified to know about.

        With a sigh, he looked away from the Great River and went to sit beneath the branches of the sacred tree. He preferred to spend his time leaning on Ananke's ketch, but the Sin of Solace was less likely to bother him here. Therefore, Sunny reluctantly abandoned his previous spot.

        With only a few precious days left before they returned, he wanted to concentrate on weaving. There were five Supreme soul shards inside the Covetous Coffer, and Sunny still remembered his sincere desire to make the cohort as strong as possible.

        Sadly, even after studying the soul arsenals of his companions, he didn't find a Memory that could be easily elevated to the Supreme Rank. There were a number of Transcendent Memories between the five of them, but very few that were both suitable and within his ability to modify.

        The only real exception was the Sin of Solace. Sunny felt that he could elevate the Rank of the cursed jian rather swiftly... however, he was wary of making it any stronger.

        Before, Sunny had only been concerned about making the sword wraith more powerful. Now, he also had to worry about the relationship between the Sin of Solace and the Estuary Key.

        The Sin of Solace was a Transcendent Memory of the Fifth Tier, while the Estuary Key was a Supreme Memory of the Sixth Tier. Was it really a coincidence that the Key was exactly one Rank and one Tier above the Memory it was meant to suppress?

        If not, what would happen if this balance was broken by his meddling?

        Considering that the consequence of failure was becoming infected by the Defilement, Sunny did not wish to take unnecessary risks. The jade jian was already capable of cutting through Great Nightmare Creatures with the help of the Crown of Dawn, anyway.

        So, Sunny was forced to leave the Supreme soul shards to gather dust in the Covetous Coffer, and turned his attention to the Covetous Coffer itself, instead.

        He was still researching a way to turn this unique Memory of his into half of an Echo, which would most likely allow him to make a perfectly fine Shadow.

        Why would he want to turn the Covetous Coffer into a Shadow?

        Well, for one... both the storage space, the physical size, and the flexibility of what the Coffer could be turned into depended on the potency of Sunny's soul. The peculiar Memory was already far greater than the small, toothy box it had been once. If Sunny became a Transcendent Terror, who knew what form the Coffer would be able to assume?

        Apart from that, even after all these years and the countless horrors Sunny had experienced during them, he still remembered the Mordant Mimic as one of the most vile and troublesome creatures he had ever killed. Plus, the bastard had once belonged to Noctis, and could produce soul coins.

        Who wouldn't want to have a Shadow like that?

        Entertaining himself with such thoughts, Sunny spent a few days blissfully pouring over his plans to create an artificial Echo — no matter how dysfunctional.

        They were getting closer and closer to the Great River.

        The distant ribbon slowly grew larger. Soon, it was already covering half of the horizon. The seven tiny motes of lights turned into furiously radiant spheres, painting the bow of the Chain Breaker with stark light.

        Then, the Great River completely obscured the darkness beyond.

        At that point, they were not blindly flying forward, but instead aiming for a particular stretch of it. The winds surrounding them were growing stronger, and the light of the seven suns suffused the air, making it seem as though they were sailing through the sky once again.

        Finally, after slightly more than a week, they reached the Edge.

        Sunny knew that they had arrived because a flood of essence suddenly entered his soul. Of course, in reality, it was not coming from an outside source — rather, it was the innate replenishment rate of his cores that had been enhanced by the Crown of Twilight.

        In any case, the Crown had recognized dawn, and so, its mystical enchantment activated.

        Sighing, Sunny left what he was doing and climbed to the upper deck. There, the members of the cohort had already gathered, looking forward. There, in front of them...

        A colossal waterfall was plummeting into the abyss, stretching in both directions as far as the eye could see. Painted in the hues of beautiful pink and lilac by the pale light of dawn, the dreamlike clouds of water vapor flowed into the darkness, sparking with reflected sunlight.

        The distant roar of the impossible waterfall was like a soft whisper, for now.

        It was an incredibly beautiful sight.

        Stunned by the magical beauty, Sunny let out a quiet sigh.

        "...Why must this dreadful place be so breathtaking?"

        With that, he glanced at Cassie, who was holding the steering oars.

        Guided by her hands, the Chain Breaker soared above the waterfall, flew above the water for a few hours more, and finally landed on the surface of the Great River.

        They had returned.
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          Turnc4406
          Turnc4406
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          Pro100zver25, you are a hero among men.
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          Owl_Incarnate
          Owl_Incarnate
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          Hail Pro100zver25 joy
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    Ryuk
    Ryuk
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    Thanku 🤯
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    Turnc4406
    Turnc4406
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    That's a lot.
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    Pro100zver25
    Pro100zver25
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    1489: A Variable.

    It had to be true.

    The Mad Prince must have traveled in time to become Sunny... for one simple reason. Sunny could not possess the Key of the Estuary otherwise.

    He took a deep breath and grasped his head, feeling dazed.

    "There are answers... too many answers. For once."

    The turbulent swarm of revelations was yet to settle in his mind, and there was no clear picture.

    "Everything makes sense now. But also, nothing makes sense."

    Sunny felt that he understood the true nature of the Great River. He also understood the sequence of events that had transpired prior to the current cycle. It all came together nicely... except for one glaring inconsistency.

    The existence of the Six Plagues was a paradox that could not be explained by what he knew. But that was alright. He did not know everything, after all, especially not in a place as bizarre as the Tomb of Ariel.

    However, if Sunny simply accepted the paradoxical existence of the Plagues as fact, everything would fall into place. For example, the fact that Wind Flower had met both the Mad Prince and Sunny — just like Effie and Jet coexisted with Devouring Beast and Undying Slaughter, Sunny coexisted with the memories of his previous self.

    The vile madman was gone, but the scars he had left on the Great River remained. Like Weave, which he had destroyed. Or Ananke, whom he doomed to a life of loneliness and loss.

    "So, how did it all happen?"

    Sunny contemplated the Third Nightmare, numb to his surroundings.

    The first thing he had to admit was that he did not know, and would most likely never learn, what the initial shape of the Nightmare had been. The reality of the Great River had been irrevocably changed by the Six Plagues. So, the challenge the original cohort had faced was entirely different.

    It were the Six Plagues, after all, who had taken control of Verge and led the forces of the Defilement to devour the cities of the River People, undoubtedly accelerating the demise of the River Civilization. Without them, the cohort might have found many powerful allies to aid them in slaying the First Seeker.

    However, during that first cycle, something had gone wrong. Somehow, the cohort ended up entering the Source instead of laying siege to Verge...

    "No, not quite right."

    It was possible that everyone had entered the Source — but not necessarily so. Sunny could have attempted to find the Estuary alone, for some reason. But he definitely had entered the mist and crossed the boundary. That was how the first cycle had ended.

    And, therefore, an unknown number of cycles began.

    Eventually, influenced by the [Hideous Truth] enchantment of the Sin of Solace, Sunny had grown immune to losing his memory of the past cycles. Becoming... a variable. A single variable that broke the system, introducing chaos to a predetermined flow of events.

    At that point, several things could have happened.

    Perhaps he continued to search for a way to conquer the Nightmare and preserve the lives of his companions, failing cycle after cycle and eventually going mad. Perhaps, guided by unknown reasons, he continued to search for the entrance to the Estuary that was hidden somewhere in the mist of the Source. Perhaps, by then, he was already infected by the cursed knowledge of the Defilement.

    In any case, eventually, there came a time when Sunny was returned to the beginning of the Nightmare already harboring the seed of Corruption in his mind.

    And that, of course, changed everything.

    The other members of the cohort were infected by the Defilement, as well. Nephis died at their hands.

    ...Kneeling on the deck of the Chain Breaker, Sunny shivered. His face was deathly pale.

    "What happened next, then?"

    It was obvious...

    The Mad Prince was released from Shadow Bond, finally fulfilling his wish... becoming free.

    However, his freedom did not last long.

    Ironically, the madman was enslaved by one of the people he had surrendered to the Defilement — Kai. Then, the corrupted cohort found a new goal. To conquer the Nightmare and be released into the real world by obliterating the River People civilization.

    And so...

    They somehow found a way to travel into the distant past, to the days long before the first day of the Nightmare... and at the same time became foreign invaders of the new cycle. Sunny did not know how, but he had an inkling that the Source and the Estuary were somehow responsible for the birth of this bizarre and eerie paradox.

    Over time, the members of the corrupted cohort grew stronger, eventually Transcending... or rather, falling deeper into Corruption. Ananke had already told Sunny that it was possible for those who followed the path of Ascension to reach Transcendence without conquering a Third Nightmare. Similarly, it was possible for Fallen Nightmare Creatures to become Corrupted.

    The Fallen Terror of the Crimson Spire, for example, had been evolving into a Corrupted Titan when Nephis killed her. The former members of Neph's cohort achieved a similar feat inside the Tomb of Ariel.

    And thus, the Six Plagues were born.

    They subjugated Verge and led the forces of the Defilement to annihilate the River People. Even Twilight, the city of challengers led by the Serpent King, fell to their insidiousness and might.

    They should have conquered the Nightmare decades ago, by all accounts...

    If not for the Mad Prince.

    An eerie, twisted smile appeared on Sunny's lips.

    Conquering the Nightmare was what the Dread Lord wanted. But it was not what his slave wanted.

    And so, the vile madman conspired against his master.

    It seemed that the Mad Prince was still harboring a desperate obsession.

    One that had nothing to do with spreading the Defilement to every corner of the Tomb of Ariel, obliterating the River Civilization, or unleashing the Six Plagues into the real world.

    Sunny did not know what that obsession was...

    But he could guess.

    "Be careful of what you wish for."

    Those were the words that the Mad Prince had carved into the piece of flotsam drifting in the mist of the Source, over and over again, with his nails. It wasn't hard to guess that he regretted fulfilling his wish.

    What did Sunny want?

    To be free.

    That wish of his... had killed Nephis.

    He shuddered.

    "The Mad Prince, that bastard... was that what he wanted to achieve?"

    To rewrite history and ensure that Nephis survives.

    "Perhaps..."

    And so, the Mad Prince started scheming as he prepared for the arrival of the members of the cohort. He trapped Undying Slaughter and Devouring Beast on Aletheia's Island. He had met with Wind Flower and learned how to create the Estuary Key.

    He massacred Weave, and then sent a dream message to Ananke, instructing her to meet Sunny and Nephis in the far reaches of the future when the time came.

    ...And gods knew what else. Sunny simply did not know the extent of preparations the Mad Prince had undertaken to ensure that, in this cycle, the events of the Nightmare went exactly as he planned.

    The reality of the Great River had already been entirely changed from how it had originally been by the existence of the Six Plagues. And the vile madman manipulated it even more, purposefully setting the stage for his future self.

    And then, when all the preparations were done, he simply entered the Source and ceased to exist, transferring the Estuary Key to Sunny.

    Ensuring that he would not be poisoned by the Defilement immediately after entering the Nightmare, unlike how it had happened in the previous cycles.

    And here they were.

    Sunny let out a long sigh.

    "That treacherous madman..."
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    1. Offline
      Pro100zver25
      Pro100zver25
      + 8 ⋅ 0 -
      1490: No Bounds.

      Truly, a treachery that knew no bounds. Sunny had succumbed to the Defilement and betrayed the cohort, only to betray them once again once they were made into the Six Plagues by him. Killing one of his masters in the process and weaving countless schemes to destroy the other.

      He... did not really know how to feel about it. Was he supposed to be proud of or appalled by his former self?

      "I might... have to stop resenting the Spell for calling me that."

      In any case, he felt a deep sense of regret.

      Because he wouldn't be able to strangle the mad bastard with his own two hands.

      Sunny sighed.

      Well, there it was. The truth.

      Of course, there were still many things that made little sense, or no sense at all. The most obvious of them, of course, was the paradoxical existence of the Six Plagues, who had not only traveled to the distant past of the River Civilization, but also lingered in the Tomb of Ariel despite the start of a new cycle.

      "They really broke all the rules."

      Sunny also did not know where the Mad Prince had found the Chain Breaker before arranging for it to be discovered by him and Nephis. He also did not know why the vile madman destroyed Weave, denying them the support of the Followers of Weaver, and many other things.

      Some of them, he was probably never going to learn. But it was alright.

      The Tomb of Ariel had never been a place that could be fully understood by a mere mortal. And he already knew the general shape of things.

      "So what?"

      That knowledge, really... did not change anything at all.

      Their goal remained the same. Travel to Twilight, retrieve Kai and Mordret... then gather whatever strength they can and attack Verge to slay the First Seeker. If anything, that goal had only become less impossible to achieve.

      Not only were three of the Six Plagues already off the board, but there was no telling what else the Mad Prince had arranged to help the cohort conquer the Nightmare. Were the rest of the Plagues even alive? Perhaps he had already dealt with them, the same way he had dealt with Devouring Beast and Undying Slaughter.

      "What is this weird feeling... it is as if I'm being helped by myself, from beyond the grave — and not only that, but that dead version of me is also a truly dreadful Nightmare Creature."

      Had a more bizarre sentence ever been spoken?

      Although, technically, Sunny did not speak it aloud. And the Mad Prince was not technically dead... just erased from existence by traveling back in time.

      "Yeah, that definitely does not sound just as bizarre."

      At that moment, Sunny realized that he had been kneeling on the deck of the Chain Breaker for quite some time, staring at the distant Great River and spacing out. It must have been quite a strange sight...

      Before he could look around, however, a shadow fell on him. Raising his head, Sunny saw the Sin of Solace, who was looking at him with a dark expression.

      "Fool... are you done acting like an idiot? Oh, wow. Judging by your stupid expression, that idiot brain of yours finally managed to digest some information. Pathetic. How long has it taken you to realize something that should have been apparent on day one?"

      Sunny stared at the sword wraith, then smiled darkly.

      "You know... I know. You rotten bastard. How many times have you poisoned me with the Defilement?"

      Indeed, the Sin of Solace was the reason Sunny had become the Mad Prince. But, strangely enough, the sword wraith was also the reason why the Mad Prince had managed to preserve a shred of lucidity. Keeping him forever torn between two mutually exclusive states... and, therefore, forever in agony.

      How sinister.

      Sunny's eye twitched.

      "Answer me, you piece of trash."

      The Sin of Solace stared at him, fury burning in his eyes. He clearly wanted to say something... but he couldn't.

      The Estuary Key forbade him.

      Not only that, but it also prevented the innate connection that Sunny shared with the splintered piece of his mind from serving as a conduit for subconscious knowledge about the previous cycles of the Great River and the secrets of the Estuary.

      And, on top of that, that Memory was the first one Sunny had ever seen that functioned even without being summoned. Its passive enchantment was in effect despite the Estuary Key resting within his soul, both silencing the sword wraith and preventing time from influencing the jagged piece of black rock.

      "Amazing."

      Just how skilled of a sorcerer had he become after countless years of being a Corrupted Titan?

      Sunny sighed.

      It did not matter. The cost was much too high. It was unbearable.

      Nevertheless, the Key of the Estuary was a promise of what he could potentially achieve, one day.

      "Right. The others might be concerned about me suddenly going catatonic."

      Or maybe, they were petrified by dire revelations of their own. Looking back, Sunny saw the members of the cohort.

      Cassie was staring at the distant ribbon of the Great River, her expression distant. She must have realized the same things Sunny had... perhaps even more. Nephis was even more expressionless than usual. She seemed to have grasped the truth, as well.

      Jet and Effie, however, knew less about the Tomb of Ariel. It did not appear that they were interested in the sight of the Great River at all. Instead, they were on the opposite side of the Chain Breaker, staring into the darkness beyond.

      By then, the inertia carrying the flying ship forward had mostly dissipated. They were slowing down.

      Nephis sighed.

      "So that is what the vortex is."

      Sunny glanced at her in confusion.

      "What?"

      She pointed at the Great River.

      "It's flat. Although its shape makes it so that the entirety of the river is one plane, there are actually two sides to it. The tunnel we traveled through is simply a passage that connects one side to the other. In other words, we did not descend to the bottom of the Great River. We simply passed through it, emerging from the other side."

      And at some point, they were catapulted out of the vortex at such a tremendous speed that the Chain Breaker soared high above the surface of the river.

      How long was it going to take them to come back?

      Sunny winced.

      "We don't even know how long we spent on Aletheia's Island. Months could have passed... years, even... before I became aware of the loop."

      Was Kai doing fine?

      What about Fallen Grace? How were that brat Cronos and its other residents fairing?

      "We need to return as soon as possible."

      There was also Effie and her baby. Sunny did not know what would happen if she gave birth within the Seed. Would the baby, who had been conceived in the waking world, be a Riverborn or an Outsider? What would happen to it after they conquered the Nightmare?

      "Children are resilient..."

      There was a reason why the Spell infected young people. Young souls were much more malleable, and could withstand the Awakening better. Of course, no infant had even been sent into the First Nightmare, so there was no telling what would happen.

      This was not a First Nightmare, either. It was the Third.

      If they conquered it...

      Would Effie's child become a Saint as an infant? Or would the child's soul collapse under the strain of Transcendence?

      Sunny did not know.

      "Damnation..."

      He remained silent for a while, then shook his head.

      "It's going to be fine. I refuse to believe that it won't."

      Just as he thought that, Effie suddenly cursed.

      In the next moment, Jet yelled:

      "Stop this damned ship right now!"
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      1. Offline
        Pro100zver25
        Pro100zver25
        + 9 ⋅ 0 -
        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?"

        She seemed confused for a moment, then nodded. In the next moment, the beautiful light of the rustling tee grew dimmer, eventually disappearing entirely.

        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.

        Unable to look away from the harrowing sight of countless black butterflies crowding the surface of the endless stone wall, he calmed his wildly beating heart and said in a hoarse whisper:

        "Cassie, take us away from here. Back to the River... fast. As fast as you can!"

        The Chain Breaker moved, slowly turning its bow. The creaking of the masts, the rustle of leaves, and the ripple of the billowing sails sounded like thunder to his ears.

        "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.
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        1. Offline
          Royalty Ducky
          Royalty Ducky
          + 5 ⋅ 0 -
          Thank u so much 😁😁
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  6. Offline
    Pro100zver25
    Pro100zver25
    + 12 ⋅ 0 -
    1486: Colorful Ribbon.

    The Chain Breaker was still flying at high speed in the direction it had been expelled from the vortex. Thankfully, Nephis had rolled the ship in time, preventing the members of the cohort from plummeting down... but Sunny was still pressed into the deck, struggling to stand up.

    The world was dark, with only the soft glow of the sacred tree illuminating it.

    Finally, he rose to his feet, swayed slightly, and called out in a stifled voice:

    "Is... is everyone alive?"

    He could see Nephis nearby... she was safe. Looking across the deck, he noticed Effie leaning on the sacred tree, a startled expression on her face. Luckily, the huntress did not look injured.

    Jet was a bit further away. It seemed that she had used the fifth form of her mist blade, the scythe, as a hook to keep herself in place. Her icy blue eyes were alert and focused.

    Cassie had been sleeping in her cabin when the strange event happened, so she was definitely fine — the blind girl might have suffered a few bruises, but she wouldn't have been thrown overboard.

    "I'm fine!"

    "Alive is a strong word."

    Hearing Effie and Jet answer his question, Sunny let out a relieved sigh. Almost at the same time, Cassie appeared from below the deck, looking a bit haggard.

    With each member of the cohort accounted for, he relaxed a little.

    They seemed to have escaped the dreadful whirlpool. At least it looked that way.

    The twisting tunnel was gone, replaced by a vast empty space. The oppressive feeling Sunny had felt in the depths of the Great River was gone, too, and time seemed to be flowing naturally as well.

    Space, however...

    Space was a bit strange.

    Sunny struggled to describe the wrongness he felt, but it was definitely there. Humans, after all, were not meant to perceive the fabric of space —why would they, considering that it was meant to be constant and immutable?

    But many immutable concepts had become vague with the descent of the Spell. Especially here in the Tomb of Ariel, many things that he had considered absolute had proven to be less than reliable. The existence of the Tomb was in and of itself a paradox, considering that it contained an entire world.

    Nevertheless, even though Sunny could not perceive the fabric of space, he could still sense that something was wrong with it. He just could not explain what.

    "What is going on? No, first... where are we?"

    There was no sound of the water splashing against the hull of the Chain Breaker, no sunlight, no glow that suffused the Great River at night. There was only darkness, silence, and wind.

    Frowning, Sunny glanced at Nephis. She was still holding the steering oars, but at the moment, there was nothing for her to do. The ship was still flying... rising?... due to inertia, and it was impossible to control it until that inertia dissipated.

    He studied her face, making sure that Nephis was alright, and then looked behind her. There was nothing there... only a vast, boundless darkness.

    The wind played with her beautiful silver hair.

    Neph looked at him, too. She hesitated for a few moments, then said cautiously:

    "I think... we have left the vortex."

    That was self-evident. No, actually... it was not. Nobody knew what was at the heart of the Great River, so there could very well be a vast empty space inside it. However, somehow, Sunny did not feel as if they were buried under an inconceivable mass of flowing water.

    So, what then? Had they reached the bottom of the Great River?

    If so, then why had they been thrown up instead of being thrown down? In fact... the Chain Breaker was still rising, even though the speed of its ascent was growing slower and slower with each second.

    "What the hell happened?"

    Nephis looked uncertain. She frowned, struggling to find an answer, and eventually said with no confidence in her tone:

    "I'm not sure. It felt... as if we had crossed a boundary of some sort. You saw what happened next yourself."

    She wanted to say something else, but then suddenly froze. A few moments later, her eyes widened a little.

    Nephis raised a hand and pointed at something.

    "Sunny... behind you..."

    Sunny knew that there was nothing immediately behind him —otherwise, he would have felt it through shadow sense. Frowning, he turned around and looked into the darkness beyond.

    It was just as empty as what he had seen before, but when he shifted his gaze lower...

    Sunny grew still.

    "What... am I looking at?"

    There was nothing behind Nephis. But in the direction where he was currently looking, something floated in the darkness. It was like a colorful ribbon painted in lilac, azure, and crimson, with parts of it drowning in shadows. Seven small motes of light slowly moved through the darkness around it, making for a beautiful sight.

    The ribbon created a circle, its surface twisted on itself like a Mobius strip.

    It took Sunny a few moments to realize what the ribbon was.

    "It's... it's... the Great River..."

    His eyes widened, as well.

    Because there was nothing but emptiness between the Chain Breaker and the colorful ribbon, it was all but impossible to determine distance, and therefore scale. However, he knew...

    Lilac, azure, and crimson were the three regions of the Great River — dawn, day, and dusk. The seven little motes of light were the seven suns. The areas of the ribbon where the light of the suns did not reach were shrouded in shadows... however, at least one sun was always on the opposite side of the ribbon, its light penetrating the mass of water and making the water glow.

    The Chain Breaker was... far, far away from the Great River.

    And the empty darkness around them was the interior of the Tomb of Ariel.

    However, Sunny forgot all about the black pyramid and its creator.

    His eyes were locked on the beautiful ribbon... which twisted on itself... like a Mobius strip...

    His whole body shuddered, and his face turned deathly pale. His heart was suddenly consumed by dread.

    His mind was deathly still.

    His lips trembled.

    Sunny felt like he was suffocating.

    "...It's a loop."

    The Great River twisted on itself, flowing endlessly, its surface never interrupted.

    The Great River... the entirety of it... was an infinite loop.
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    1. Offline
      Pro100zver25
      Pro100zver25
      + 11 ⋅ 0 -
      1487: The Source.

      Sunny stared at the distant Great River, frozen in place. His face was motionless.

      However, there was a storm raging in his mind. Fragmented truths that he had learned, witnessed, and experienced in the Tomb of Ariel were moving, colliding with each other, and clicking in place with a dreadful noise. The inconceivable truth of their Nightmare was slowly revealing itself.

      From start to finish... it was all...

      He was suddenly overcome with fear.

      Shifting his gaze slightly, Sunny studied the beautiful ribbon that twisted on itself, forming an infinite loop.

      Deep crimson, vibrant azure, soft lilac... the seven suns shining in the darkness...

      It was like a dream.

      "How can this be? How can the Great River flow in a circle?"

      But then again... of course, it could.

      In hindsight, it made so much sense.

      There had always been a paradox in how the Great River was described. Because it was always described as "endless"... Sunny had not paid it much attention before, assuming that the word was simply there to provide flavor. But he should have known better. The Spell was always deliberate with its choice of words.

      The description of the Stifled Scream read:

      [...a great river was contained within it, flowing endlessly from the future into the past.]

      But how could a river of time be endless? The past wasn't infinite. If the Great River really flowed into the past, anyone sailing it would reach the point beyond the origin of time eventually — so, by definition, it could not flow endlessly.

      Only it could. Because its estuary was also its source... within the Tomb of Ariel, the past was connected to the future, creating a single whole. The proof was right in front of him.

      There was a reason why the Nightmare Creatures populating the Great River were most powerful in the far reaches of the past, near the Estuary, and in the far reaches of the future, where Sunny had initially come from. The two were one and the same.

      He frowned, then shook his head.

      "No, wait... that doesn't make sense."

      If the Great River was an infinite loop, and the past turned into the future, having no end... then what about the Estuary? The existence of the Estuary was also undeniable. Not only was it mentioned in the descriptions of the Stifled Scream and the Shroud of Graceless Dusk, but it was the reason why the Seekers of Truth had come to the Tomb of Ariel, as well.

      They had come to find the secrets that the Demon of Dread had hidden in the estuary of the Great River...

      The hideous truth he had wished to be free of.

      And when Aletheia, the First Seeker, had finally found it, the Defilement was born.

      The whole purpose of the Great River was to reach a point before time existed — before the gods were born, and therefore outside their control. At least that was what Sunny and Nephis believed.

      So how could there be no Estuary?

      "There is. The Estuary exists."

      Shifting his gaze, Sunny studied the length of the beautiful ribbon. From this distance, he could not really see the current of the Great River, but he did see a few things.

      For example, a stretch of it was shrouded in boiling clouds, which gave birth to immense cyclones. That was the area of the river that corresponded to the end days of the Doom War, while the cyclones were the time storms it created.

      The colossal whirlpool where Aletheia's Island had been situated was hidden from view, but Sunny saw a tiny speck on the crimson layer of the twisting ribbon. That was Fallen Grace. He thought he saw another city on the lilac layer. That had to be Twilight...

      The second most noticeable anomaly, though, was a spot where the surface of the Great River was obscured by mist. The mist was absolutely impenetrable, covering a considerable length of the river. The flow of time near it seemed restless even from a distance, which meant that it was absolutely devastating up close.

      Sunny suddenly felt cold, realizing that not only was there an Estuary...

      "No, that is... that is impossible."

      ...But he had already brushed against it.

      Something seemed to explode in his head.

      "Of course..."

      Looking at the distant Great River, Sunny took a shaky breath.

      He was remembering the first few days he had spent in the Nightmare, drifting on a piece of flotsam in a place shrouded in mist.

      Back then, everything about the situation had seemed strange and bizarre. So, he had never properly questioned where that place was. However, now that he thought about it... even considering the general weirdness of the Great River, those first days were especially odd.

      The mist, the piece of flotsam, and what had happened next...

      Actually, Sunny had never seen his makeshift raft sailing out of the mist. Instead, he simply heard the water roaring and was thrown underwater when the suddenly furious current overturned the piece of flotsam. By the time he resurfaced, the seven suns were shining above his head.

      Most importantly, the mist was nowhere to be seen — upstream or downstream. All around him, there was only the sparkling, dreamlike expanse of the Great River, as if the mist had never existed at all. There were also the demented runes carved into the underside of his raft.

      ...It was almost as if he had been sent there through time and space instead of simply being carried downstream by the current.

      And now, Sunny felt almost certain that that was exactly what had happened.

      That misty place where he had spent the first few days of the Nightmare... was the outer boundary of the Estuary. It was also the source of the Great River.

      It was a place between the past and the future, where the laws of time were twisted and broken. The entrance to the true Estuary — the space that existed beyond time, containing Ariel's secrets — was hidden somewhere in the mist.

      Aletheia had found it, but Sunny simply drifted past, being carried by the current. When the piece of flotsam reached the boundary of the Source, he was expelled from it, appearing in the far reaches of the future — in the area of the Great River corresponding to the point in time where the person whose role he took had entered the Tomb of Ariel.

      "Wait..."

      Sunny was suddenly covered in cold sweat when he remembered a few more details about his time in the mist... in the Boundary.

      Hadn't he been tormented by nightmares of madness, despair, and dreadful obsession there? Hadn't he screamed, waking up...

      "No, no... not again... please..."

      Hadn't the Sin of Solace inexplicably become perfectly complete and real out there, in the mist?

      And the Great River... was a loop...

      Sunny shuddered.

      A terrible premonition grasped his heart with icy claws.

      Sitting on the deck of the Chain Breaker, he gazed at the distant river and whispered:

      "The Six Plagues... are not the future versions of ourselves."

      Sunny closed his eyes.

      "...They are our past. They are us from the previous revolution of the Great River."
      Read more
      1. Offline
        Pro100zver25
        Pro100zver25
        + 12 ⋅ 0 -
        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 Undying Slaughter 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 deja 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."

        The purpose of the mysterious Memory... was to prevent the Sin of Solace from sharing any knowledge of the previous cycles with Sunny. So that he never remembered what had happened in the past, and therefore never learned the cursed knowledge of Defilement.

        That was one part of its enchantment. The other, much more burdensome part... was meant to make the Estuary Key immune to the change of cycles. To make it remain in Sunny's soul even if he crossed the boundary of the Source and was sent into the past.

        That was why the Mad Prince had been so interested in the Great Tyrant slain by the Serpent King in Aletheia's Tower. Because the Tyrant remained dead no matter how many revolutions passed... its death had been made permanent, carrying over from one cycle of the loop to the next.

        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.
        Read more
  7. Offline
    ErectileReptile
    ErectileReptile
    + 17 ⋅ 0 -
    I love this author. Most would have given the vortex journey a few paragraphs. Guiltythree breathes life into every small part of his story. That’s how you make a world.
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  8. Offline
    REN・DOVERঐ
    REN・DOVERঐ
    + 15 ⋅ 0 -
    Just one!!? gloom

    This arc is exciting, no doubt but I feel it's time to speed things up a bit middle
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