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Chapter 1556: Dangerous Knowledge
Shadow Slave

Shadows suddenly danced across Cassie's beautiful face as she lowered the Guiding Light. "That was because Torment had a message to deliver to me, so that her wish could be fulfilled. And that message could only be delivered face-to-face."

She took a deep breath. "So, she infiltrated Fallen Grace and modified the shackles that bound Dusk. She also wrote an accord of what happened in the previous cycles and left it for me to read. Finally, she crawled into the Temple of Dusk and met me, delivering the message."

Cassie's voice turned cold, and her expression became ruthless:

"However, she was still a Defiled. And, unlike the Mad Prince, she did not have a whisper of Ariel to keep her from losing all of her humanity. All she had was a cruel weave of restrictions and commands to push her toward the desired outcome, and that weave was not flawless."

She looked at Sunny without any humor in her eyes. "So, after completing the mission of delivering her message to me, she instantly attempted to consume me. She was still being held back by the authority of the Dread Lord, though, and so… she died by my hand, instead."

There was silence for a while. The ketch reached the shore of the icy island and scraped against it, coming to a stop. Sunny stared at Cassie, his thoughts in turmoil. 'So… she knew everything, all along.'

It took him a long time to learn the truth about the Great River, the Source and the Estuary, the Six Plagues and their connection to the members of the cohort, and the purpose behind the schemes of the Mad Prince.

Of the Mad Prince and Torment, to be precise. The two Defiled horrors were partners in crime… in more than one sense. Even though Torment was barely a living being, from what Cassie had told him, her mind shattered and her will chained by the restrictions of her own creation and the authority of the Dread Lord. In a sense… Sunny had been right. The Mad Prince had indeed a plan in place to remove Torment from the cohort's path. She had been used and discarded, sent to be slaughtered by Cassie in Fallen Grace. He did not doubt for a moment that the outcome of their fight had been calculated by the vile madman in advance. The only thing he was not sure about was if Torment knew about it and went to her death willingly… or at least as much as she had been capable of exercising her broken will. There were numerous questions on his mind, but two of them were the most important. What was the message Torment had to deliver?

And why had Cassie not shared her knowledge with the cohort?

'The answer to the second question should be evident, by now.'

Whether Cassie intended to or not, she had let it slip. When she told him about the version of her from the previous cycle — the one that had eventually become Torment, turned into a Defiled abomination by the previous version of him — she said that the Cassie of the past had never intended to escape the Defilement. That she had known what the future Mad Prince was planning, and allowed herself to be infected with the Defilement by him despite that. Which meant… that Cassie had been scheming long before that happened. That she had needed to be Defiled, for some reason. Before escaping Corruption come the next cycle. He gritted his teeth. "So… you knew all along, and kept quiet? You did not share any of that knowledge with us, acting surprised when we learned the dreadful truths of this Nightmare? Did you not think, at least once… that maybe it would be good for us to know what we were getting ourselves into, before plunging ourselves into the sea of danger and suffering?!"

Cassie faced him calmly. "Why? Because sharing my knowledge has worked so well in the past? Sure, Sunny. You of all people should know how dangerous knowledge is, what knowing something that you aren't supposed to know can do, and what revealing secrets can destroy."

She turned away. "What would have changed if I told you? We would have still needed to go to Aletheia's Island. We would have still needed to go to Twilight. Sure, we could have prepared better for what was waiting for us ahead… but I am not omniscient. I only know that much. Would it have made a difference? Or would it have just made us complacent and arrogant, leading to our deaths?"

The blind girl smiled sadly. "Most of all, would any of our preparations have been more thorough than what the Mad Prince and Torment had already prepared for us?"

She shook her head. "So, I think I will keep my knowledge to myself. That way, at least, I won't be blamed for the decisions the rest of you make, when you make them."

Sunny laughed bitterly and stared at her, his eyes full of dark amusement. "Oh… now you decide to keep your knowledge to yourself. Good, good. It's just a pity that you couldn't do the same on the Forgotten Shore, before turning me into a damned slave!"

He had not planned to bring the distant past up, but hearing Cassie say those words, all of the resentment he had buried in his heart suddenly flooded to the surface. Perhaps it was not unexpected, though. All this time, Sunny had hated the fact that he was made a slave by Nephis. Nephis had not used that power against him, so that hatred of his was more of an abstract thing, born from the fear of what could potentially happen.

Not that it made it invalid. Recently, however, the situation had changed. The harm Shadow Bond was doing him had turned from abstract to very real. Its existence was the thing that stood between him and Nephis like an impregnable wall, making the idea of them having a future together seem beyond reach. That was what Cassie had taken from him, as well.

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Comments 34

  1. Online Offline
    Bastard Son of Fate
    Bastard Son of Fate
    + 0 ⋅ 0 -
    Ngl I never really hated Cassie for turning Sunny into a slave even tho I didn’t like it cause it was understandable but I still don’t like her she’s annoying
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  2. Online Offline
    LycanFlood
    LycanFlood
    + 12 ⋅ 1 -
    She shook her head. "So, I think I will keep my knowledge to myself. That way, at least, I won't be blamed for the decisions the rest of you make, when you make them."

    This ticked me off, she quite literally is to blame for sunny becoming a slave, i don't know why she's acting like she's innocent
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    1. Offline
      Alfametadol
      Alfametadol
      + 0 ⋅ 0 -
      она извлекла из этого урок и действует с новым опытом
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  3. Offline
    Dadadai Shukosha
    Dadadai Shukosha
    + 0 ⋅ 0 -
    Now the discussion will get good.
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  4. Offline
    Deathseeker
    Deathseeker
    + 24 ⋅ 0 -
    Ik mc will never forget what happened to him 😔
    Mad respect
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  5. Offline
    ㅤㅤㅤ
    ㅤㅤㅤ
    + 18 ⋅ 0 -
    1563 Terrors of the Past

    Sunny raced to the Source, afraid of the passage of time. It was ironic, really...

    Before the fateful conversation with Cassie, he had been tense and concerned about how the cohort would survive the battle for Verge. Now, however, he was concerned that they would destroy it too soon.

    He had been worried for Nephis, but now, he was wary of her.

    Changing Star seemed like something almost inevitable, now that his fate — or lack thereof — depended on how fierce and unrelenting her assault on the monstrous First Seeker would be.

    Human mind was funny that way. It was colored by what one desired, making the same thing appear entirely different depending on the circumstances.

    And so... Sunny needed to hurry.

    He guided the ketch, pushing the currents forward with the help of the Crown of Dawn. The graceful boat seemed to be gliding on the water, moving with incredible speed. The shore of Verge had long disappeared from view, and there was nothing in front of him except for the vast expanse of the Great River.

    The air itself felt different here, at the dawn of time. The waters were treacherous and full of peril. Now that Cassie wasn't with him, Sunny had no way of knowing where danger lurked. So, he remained as alert as possible, extending his shadow sense as far as he could.

    That caution saved his life on more than one occasion.

    The far reaches of the past, which corresponded to the very dawn of the Age of Gods, were not only full of bizarre and lethal hazards, but also of all kinds of harrowing Nightmare Creatures.

    This span of the Great River was just as dangerous as the far reaches of the future, where Sunny had faced the Azure Serpent, the Black Turtle, the Dark Butterfly, and the countless other abominations that had almost feasted on his flesh.

    There were Great Nightmare Creatures here, too, each of them vastly more powerful than Sunny was, despite all his growth. Most of them were faster than him, as well, and possessed senses that reached much further than his.

    So, Sunny was in constant danger. He couldn't even outrun these abominable monstrosities... but, luckily, there was one thing at which he was superior to most, if not all of them.

    It was flexibility, and being able to adapt to almost any situation.

    When some inconceivable being rose from the depths to pull him under the water and devour him, Sunny summoned the shadows and turned into a giant butterfly, carrying the ketch with his six long legs.

    When a terrifying abomination descended from the sky, he turned into the onyx serpent, hid the ketch in his maw, and sought safety in the depths.

    There were other forms he could shape himself into, as well, each helpful in its own way. Of course, maintaining the shell cost him a lot of essence, so, afraid to drain his reserves of it, Sunny mostly remained in the ketch, guiding it away from potential perils by hand.

    Still, on that first day alone, he almost lost his life a few times.

    There was a moment when the water under him suddenly boiled and moved at incredible speed, threatening to overturn the boat. Sunny instantly summoned Saint, using her weight to balance the ketch, but that was merely the start of the disaster.

    An enormous span of the Great River, as far as the eye could see, instantly turned into a furious vortex. The speed of the current was so terrible that the hull of the ketch almost splintered, bombarded by powerful waves. It was pulled sideways, sliding deeper and deeper into the whirlpool.

    Desperate to save himself and his vessel, Sunny opened the gate of the Shadow Lantern and called upon the shadows, forming the shell of the Dark Butterfly. His vast wings moved, throwing him into the air. His six legs grabbed onto the ketch, lifting it from the raging water.

    Luckily, he was fast enough.

    As Sunny rose high into the air, he was able to observe the cause of the catastrophic turbulence that had turned the current of the Great River into a death trap. When he did, his very soul shuddered.

    There was a colossal, inconceivable maw hidden beneath the waves, stretching from one horizon to another. The terrible whirlpool that had almost shattered the catch was caused by these titanic jaws opening and sucking in an immense plain of water.

    And entire span of the Great River disappeared into the harrowing maw of the underwater colossus, whose body mercifully remained unseen....

    Sunny fled into the sky, never looking back.

    At another time, he noticed the air far in the distance trembling, as if from heat.
    However, as Sunny drew closer, unable to avoid the strange area, he realized that there was no heat. The air was not trembling, either.

    Instead, there were fissures in the fabric of space itself above the current, hidden in the sunlight and almost invisible. If not for his intuition ringing alarms, Sunny might not have noticed the hidden fractures in the world at all.

    When he did notice them, however, and tried to glimpse what was hidden in the folds between the broken pieces of space, he saw millions of dark eyes looking back at him, full of hunger.

    The current was pulling the ketch right into the area of the River plagued by the fractured space.

    Horrified, Sunny assumed the form of the onyx serpent and dove into the depth, hoping to hide from the gaze of the hungry abyss that hid in the fissures. However, the space was broken beneath the waves, as well.

    Only there were no eyes there. Instead, hidden in the shattered space, there were countless corpses of dreadful Nightmare Creatures, all broken, twisted, and partially devoured.

    Diving deeper and deeper into the darkness, until the pressure was crushing enough to almost destroy the mighty shell of the sea serpent, Sunny escaped that horror, as well.

    But there were many more to come.
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      ㅤㅤㅤ
      ㅤㅤㅤ
      + 13 ⋅ 0 -
      1564 Returning to the Source

      Some time later, Sunny saw thin lines moving in the air. Drawing closer, he saw something that resembled spiderwebs blowing in the wind, frayed and torn.

      The only thing was that each string of the ghostly spiderweb was many kilometers long, and there were numerous such strings, moving between the sky and the surface of the Great River like tattered sails.

      Some of them were white, but as Sunny guided the ketch between the billowing strings, he stared to encounter more and more of them that were bright red. Eventually, it was as though he was traveling through a forest of red threads.

      Navigating between them was not easy, but he was reluctant to come close to any of the strings, or allow the wind to bring any of them closer.

      Eventually, Sunny witnessed something else. Out there in front of him, far in the distance, an immense depth dweller was weakly struggling against the current, its body enveloped by several dozen of the white spiderwebs. The creature's carapace seemed impregnable, but the strange strings did not seem to care. They simply grew through it, penetrating the leviathan's body.

      As they did, their color slowly started change from white to red, the redness spreading from the point of contact with the abomination's flesh along the length of the strings.

      Blood. They were drinking the leviathan's blood.Turning pale, Sunny gazed at the forest of vibrant red strings that surrounded him, stretching far into the sky, permeating a whole region. His fingers turned white on the steering oar of the ketch.

      He escaped that horror, as well.

      And many more like it, although not unscathed.

      Sometimes, Sunny had no choice but to fight, unleashing the full fury of the onyx serpent or his other shapes on the creatures that wanted to consume him. Some of them, he managed to kill... but most of them, he simply escaped after delivering several painful wounds.

      By the end of the day, Sunny was bloodied and exhausted. His essence was on the verge of running dry, too.

      But then the dusk came, and the Crown of Twilight replenished his dwindling reserves.

      After dusk came the night, though, and it was more beautiful, and more harrowing, than any other night Sunny had experienced in the Tomb of Ariel.

      By the end of it, he was barely alive. But he was alive, nevertheless.Sunny did not allow his blood to flow, and his bone refused to break. Even his soul, which had received a few deep wounds when he used Shadow Incarnation to form his shells, was potent enough to withstand the damage without falling apart.

      Saint, Fiend, and Nightmare were beaten and battered, but alive, as well.

      The ketch too survived. Even though there were new scars on its hull, one of its masts had cracked, its sails sporting signs of hasty repairs, Ananke's boat was still in one piece.

      Throughout all of this, Sunny had not said a single word, and had not even allowed himself a single groan.

      Pain was his old friend. He could withstand much more than that.

      'Well... maybe not that much more.

      'He was exhausted, both physically and mentally. If there was one good thing about the horrors of the dawn of time, though, it was that the necessity to constantly be alert and on edge made it completely impossible for him to consider the consequences of what he had done... the fallout of breaking his promisese, abandoning his friends, and leaving for the Estuary instead of fighting side by side with them in Verge.

      'I wonder what they are doing, now...

      'The scouting teams must have returned, by now. Nephis and the others had already learned of his absence. They must have even had enough time to digest it, to a degree, albeit not come to terms with it.

      They were most probably advancing toward Verge....

      Which meant that he did not have a lot of time left.

      'Where is it?

      Where is it?

      'He was trying to calculate how far he had traveled from the Defiled city,and how that distance translated to what they had seen from the black void. From up there, it almost seemed as though the wisps of mist shrouding the Source touched the walls of Verge.

      But from the surface of the Great River, the distance between the two was nothing short of vast.Still... Sunny had been moving fast, both aboard the ketch and when summoning his shells.

      By all accounts, he had to be getting close.

      He glanced at the Guiding Light, which pointed directly forward, and summoned what little was left of his patience.

      Finally, the night was over.

      The seven suns rose from beyond the horizon once again, chasing away the darkness. The waters of the Great River grew dim. A soft twilight enveloped the world, and with it, a flood of essence poured into Sunny's soul.

      He let out a relieved sigh, summoned the Dying Wish, and used what little charges were left in the charm to heal the most dire of his wounds.It was then that he saw it...

      A wisp of mist drifted past him, disappearing into the gloom of twilight.

      Feeling his heart skip a beat, Sunny spun and looked forward, trying to see what was hiding beyond the horizon.

      The horizon... was hazy. It also seemed to be drawing nearer with each moment.

      'This is it!'

      Both relieved and excited, Sunny called upon the waters of the Great River, making the current run faster. The ketch flew forward, drawing closer and closer to the wall of mist.Soon, it was surrounded by tendrils of thick fog. They flowed past the ketch, drifting above the waves. In front of him, the world turned somber and gloomy, rare rays of sunlight breaking through the veil of mist.

      Then, the mist obscured the sky entirely, making it seem as though nothing else existed in the world.Sunny found himself in familiar surroundings.

      After nearly a year of wandering the dreadful expanse of the Tomb of Ariel...

      He had finally returned to the Source.
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  6. Offline
    Fenne04
    Fenne04
    + 13 ⋅ 0 -
    Ah, Shadow Slave is a peak book.
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  7. Offline
    ErectileReptile
    ErectileReptile
    + 13 ⋅ 0 -
    Something tells me the wishing well will be a major reason why things went the way they did.
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  8. Offline
    King greed5764577557
    King greed5764577557
    + 1 ⋅ 0 -
    I need rest for more chapter gloom
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  9. Offline
    yumtumtum
    yumtumtum
    + 10 ⋅ 0 -
    if the mad prince could leave a message for sunny to be careful what he wishes for, does that mean the mad prince recognized all of cassie's plans, including her "apology" as well as what ever he wishes for is a bad idea?
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    1. Offline
      Rei-absolute
      Rei-absolute
      + 5 ⋅ 0 -
      The author is letting agents dream
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  10. Offline
    حمد
    حمد
    + 11 ⋅ 1 -
    Sunny the spell truly gives you justice with the name Treacherous Shadow what a disappointment your choice was the only way to break free from the cycle is to stop, by trying to break fate you only act like it wants from you.
    Obilivon is the answer
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