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Chapter 1567: One Last Time
Shadow Slave

Sunny remained silent, watching the Sin of Solace with a somber expression.

'Well… that much is obvious.'

Of course, he was not the first version of himself to reach the Estuary. There had been the Mad Prince, as well…

However, the next words of the sword wraith made him flinch:

"Oh, there were numerous Mad Princes before, too. All making schemes and striving to change something that could not be changed, the despicable bastards. Paving the way for their lesser versions… like you… to make it to the end. Each cycle a little different, but ultimately the same."

The apparition took a step forward and spat, his voice trembling with hatred:

"Gods… I'm so tired of this boring play. Each time you escape the Defilement, you are given the choice of remaining with your allies. And each time, you choose to betray them. You… you really are a piece of scum, you know that? Do you know how many times you've broken your promises? How many times you've betrayed Changing Star in the name of seeking freedom?"

The Sin of Solace laughed and gestured to the sea of broken ships. "Look! Look, Lost from Light! Each of these wrecks is a monument to your sins."

Sunny remained silent as he looked at the broken ships, feeling a bitter emotion rise in his heart. It was a tough pill to swallow… to be disappointed in himself. But then, he smiled darkly. Sure, knowing that he was an unreliable and treacherous, selfish person was bitter. But did it matter, really? He still did not regret his choice. More than that… he was still going to see it through. So what if all his previous selves had failed? They weren't him. He was the latest, and therefore the strongest. He wielded the accumulated legacy of all who came before, granted to him by the Mad Prince — the latest Mad Prince there had been — who remembered all the previous cycles through the Sin of Solace. They might have failed, but Sunny was not going to. He didn't have to be the first... he simply needed to be the last. It was impossible for him to fail. Because the Nightmare was already ending. By now, Nephis must have already begun her assault on Verge. The Mad Prince, Torment, and Cassie… they had manipulate the events to make sure that the Nightmare was conquered, whether with or without Sunny. So, this cycle would be the last one… whether he achieved his goal or not. And he was going to achieve it. The Sin of Solace looked at him with disdain. "What? You have nothing to say? Has the fear stolen your ability to speak?"

Sunny smiled crookedly and walked past him without saying a word. He entered the ship graveyard and moved through it, making sure to stay away from the wrecks where the sacred trees were healthy and brimming with fruit. The feeling he received from these ones was too similar, if much weaker, than what he had felt under the branches of the Soul Devourer. Peace. Safety. Happiness. Content. Therefore, Sunny moved as far away from that feeling as he could. The Sin of Solae followed, falling silent. The wraith's expression was full of hatred and contempt. Sunny paid him no attention. It did not take him a lot of time to travel past the ship graveyard. Beyond it was another slope, this one leading to the peak of a high mountain. If the sphere of black stone had been the Unholy Titan's heart once… then the mountain would be one of the arteries.

Augmented by six shadows, Sunny's body was brimming with strength. Even though he was exhausted after the harrowing journey to the Source, he climbed the mountains without ever slowing down. The only thing he felt nervous about was not making it to the goal in time. Finally, Sunny reached the peak of the mountain. It was indeed hollow inside. In front of him was the entrance to a vast circular tunnel, surrounded by tall pillars. There were stone steps leading up to the maw of the tunnel, clearly man-made…

Or rather, daemon-made. Ariel must have shaped this entrance himself, a long time ago. Walking closer to the steps, Sunny noticed that several of them had cracked over the ages. Jagged pieces of black stone were laying on the ground… the size and shape of them were eerily familiar. They looked exactly like the jagged black rock the Key of the Estuary had been created from. Sunny smiled. 'So this is where the Mad Prince picked the base material for his Memory up.'

Which meant that the vile madman had been to the Estuary before crossing from the future into the past. He could have gained his freedom a long time ago.

…But was there a point in being free if it was at the cost of Neph's life? For the Mad Prince, it was not.

That was why he had returned to the Great River without breaking the chains of fate. And that was why he had scratched numerous demented runes into the piece of flotsam drifting in the mist of the Source, all saying the same thing…

Be careful of what you wish for The Mad Prince had regretted finding the Well of Wishes. Sunny, however, would not. Taking a deep breath, he summoned the Mirror of Truth and looked at its polished surface. There, a reflection of Nephis as caught, looking just like she had on the carapace of the Black Turtle. Sunny had not used the Mirror during the last revolution of the Aletheia's Island's loop, and so, it was in pristine condition.

He looked at Neph's reflection for a while, then held the heavy mirror tightly and stepped into the grandiose tunnel, walking into its darkness.

Entering the heart of the Tomb of Ariel. He walked forward for a while, not seeing anything particular. He couldn't even determine the direction in which the tunnel led… its floor was supposed to be sloping downward, but if felt flat, stretching endlessly forward. Slowly, the walls of the tunnel expanded, and its ceiling disappeared from view. Sunny found himself walking between two perfectly flat plains of black stone, surrounded by darkness.

And there, in the darkness… harrowing runes were carved into the stone, dancing madly. As soon as Sunny caught sight of these runes, he immediately activated the enchantment of the Mirror of Truth.  

Shadow Slave
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Comments 54

  1. Offline
    yumtumtum
    + 2 ⋅ 0 -
    if the team did many cycles (with all the boats at the estuary), wouldnt nephis & co have defeated the final battle at least once to complete the scenario,
    or that isnt a requirement?
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    1. Offline
      Dummybaron
      + 3 ⋅ 0 -
      it wasn't team who did many cycles, it was only Lost from Light, who betrayed them again and again and again only to fail in gaining his freedom, and repeat the cycle again. As Sin of Solace said in the end of chapter 1566
      There were countless versions of you that had come this far. Betrayal after betrayal, repeated endlessly in countless cycles... truly, your treachery knows no bounds.
      Read more
      1. Offline
        Xenko
        + 2 ⋅ 0 -
        Well, we know that the cohort was with Sunny at least one time, when they jumped to the next river cycle through the maze

        So I think it's safe to assume that all the broken chained vessels are the iterations where Sunny was with everyone else
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      2. Offline
        yumtumtum
        + 0 ⋅ 0 -
        the whole scenario would have to be reset.
        think of altheas island which is based on the nightmare.
        everyone/thing got reset every day, not just sunny.
        all those boats are days/iterations where everything got reset and sunny/someone with a boat reached the estuary, and then the scenario reset.
        as you pointed out, sunny has reached the estuary many times, with him racing against the clock to be faster than the rest.
        the clear conditions are probably similar to altheas island and battle isnt the answer or it is using the wishing well to clear the scenario otherwise the cycle repeats.
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  2. Offline
    Pro100zver25
    + 25 ⋅ 0 -
    1573: Stone Maze.

    Sunny turned away from the chilling testament that Ariel had left behind in the silent waters of the still lake and continued forward.

    There were a million thoughts in his mind. The magnitude of the revelation he had received dwarfed almost everything Sunny knew — the very reason for the cold reality he was born into now had an explanation. The future, too, had become much clearer. And it was a frightening future, as well.

    The gods were dead... but not all of them.

    The seventh god was still alive, slumbering in the cradle of the Void. All of existence was already infected by the horrors of his nightmare, and once the Forgotten One awakened, even that ailing world would come to an end.

    And yet, Sunny had no desire to ponder these truths right now.

    The matters of corrupted gods and dying worlds were far away. The dreadful future they promised was far away, too… although perhaps not as far as he would have hoped for. In any case, none of it held any meaning as long as he was bound.

    As long as he wasn't free.

    Free to live his life the way he wished to live it, as well as free to try and change the predestined outcome. Even if the end promised by the truth of Ariel truly came before Sunny died peacefully of old age, even if he failed to change anything, in the end... there was really only one thing sadder than living as a slave.

    It was dying as one.

    So, Sunny wished to gain freedom even more desperately now.

    And, unlike the dreadful truth, his freedom was near.

    The Guiding Light was still shining, pointing across the dark waters. Sunny followed that light through the darkness.

    As he walked across the still lake, subtle ripples spread from where he stepped. His reflection walked alongside him, and a few steps back, the Sin of Solace followed, staring at Sunny with hateful eyes.

    «Why is he being so quiet?»

    There was something strange happening to the sword wraith. He seemed… different, somehow, ever since they had entered the Estuary. Sunny had long grown accustomed to the company of the loathsome apparition, but now, he was growing wary of its presence.

    Not the least because he knew now what harrowing knowledge the Sin of Solace was harboring, prevented from sharing it only by the seal placed on him by the Estuary Key.

    Just like the Void could break its seal and consume all of existence, the knowledge of it that the wraith possessed would consume Sunny should the Estuary Key disappear.

    The thought was chilling.

    «It's… a good thing I never tried to transfer the Key of the Estuary to someone, I guess.»

    Sunny continued to walk across the dark lake, losing all sense of time — or rather, what little of it he had left. There were no lights shining under the surface of the water anymore, but gradually, the lake itself changed.

    Its surface, which had been calm before, was slowly growing restless. There were powerful currents moving underneath the surface, making the dark water stir and surge, forming waves. Soon, advancing had become harder.

    Eventually, Sunny saw something in the distance. Jagged rocks were rising from the water, resembling cliffs. The water was flowing between them, restless, and wisps of mist rose here and there.

    The silence was broken by the sound of rushing water and the whispers of distant currents.

    Sunny reached the towering black rocks, looking at the surging water with a complicated expression. There was a labyrinth formed by the passages between the jagged cliffs, shrouded in mist. The water traveled through the stone maze, disappearing from view.

    He could hear it roar in the distance, as if plunging from great heights.

    He could also feel the very fabric of reality grow thin and strange all around him.

    «What is this place…»

    Sunny did not know… but he had a suspicion.

    And that suspicion only grew when he noticed something at the base of one of the cliffs. There, a mark had been left on the black stone, as if cut into it by a sharp blade.

    Two runes, one meaning „sun“, the other meaning „loss“.

    «The Mad Prince passed through here.»

    And not only him.

    Looking into the passages formed between the cliffs and listening to the distant roar of water, Sunny felt sure that here, the lake hidden in the inner part of the Estuary connected back to the Great River.

    Only, since the lake existed entirely Outside of Time, the connections it formed were special.

    If he followed one of the streams, he would most likely be able to exit the Estuary. He would also enter the Great River at a point in time different from where he had left it — perhaps far in the future.

    Or, perhaps, far in the past.

    Long before the day he had entered the Nightmare.

    That was how the Mad Prince had been able to invade a cycle of the Great River where he was not meant to exist — and had taken the future Plagues with him. Cassie had said so herself…

    What had her exact words been?

    «After reaching the Estuary and using it to invade the next cycle of the Great River, the two of them meticulously prepared the playing field for the arrival of us, the new challengers.»

    Sunny had not paid attention to these words back then, overwhelmed by other matters, but now, he finally understood what Cassie had meant.

    The Estuary existed Outside of Time… or rather, time itself did not exist yet in the Estuary. So, the relationship between this eerie place and the rest of the Tomb of Ariel was tenuous at best.

    By choosing the right passage, one could escape the usual cyclical flow of the Great River and travel to a different time — not the subjective time of the Great River represented by its current, but the objective time that dictated the rise and fall of its civilization.

    If Sunny had a thousand attempts, he could map the labyrinth and find a way to come and go as he pleased, visiting different eras of the Tomb of Ariel. He could even travel to a time before the Plagues invaded the latest cycle, prepare for their arrival, then destroy them in one fell swoop.

    They had not been as powerful back then, after all.

    That way… perhaps, the River Civilization would not decline as fast. Perhaps the Twilight would not be destroyed, yet. Perhaps the Nightmare could be conquered differently.

    But then again, maybe not. Maybe Twilight had always been fated to be destroyed by the forces of the Defilement, and the beautiful cities of the sybils had always been fated to fall apart and drown.

    In any case, he did not have a thousand attempts.

    He barely had one.

    And so, Sunny entered the labyrinth and followed the Guiding Light, wondering where it would lead him.

    Would he return to the Great River?

    Would he be sent into the future? Or into the past?

    Whose True Name had Torment delivered to Cassie, and how would finding that creature — or place — release him from the chains of fate?

    He was going to find out.

    Eventually, there was nothing left around him except for towering cliffs and rushing water. Sunny used the Dark Wing to glide between the jagged rocks, propelling himself forward with stunning speed. He felt a need to hurry, knowing that Nephis was somewhere out there, leading an assault on Verge.

    In the end, the Guiding Light led him to neither the future nor the past.

    Instead… the radiant crystal simply showed him the way through the labyrinth, keeping away from the sound of roaring water.

    Escaping the misty labyrinth, Sunny found himself in front of a vast body of water once again. He was back to the calmer reaches of the dark lake.

    The part of it hidden behind the maze of cliffs, though...

    Was entirely different from what he had seen near the shore.

    «W-what is this…»

    Sunny froze for a moment, gazing forward with a pale face. In front of him… countless corpses were floating in the water.

    It was very much like the dreadful sight of the slaughter that had happened at the approach to Twilight, but with one striking difference.

    If the carcasses littering the still water there belonged to the Defiled abominations, then here, all of them seemed to belong to Great Nightmare Creatures.

    Sunny knew it because there were numerous husks of Dark Butterflies among the floating corpses, all lifeless despite having no discernible wounds.

    Something had violently destroyed their very souls, leaving only lifeless corpses behind.

    And there, far away…

    Did it only look that way, or was something dark rising from the water?

    The Guiding Light was pointing directly at that distant speck of darkness.

    Sunny remained motionless for a few moments, then gritted his teeth and took a step forward.

    As he did, something vast moved in the depths of the still water…

    And gazed at him.
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    1. Offline
      BlankDjinn
      + 3 ⋅ 0 -
      Thank you :) I’ve been looking forward to this one!!!
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    2. Offline
      JOEMUDA
      + 3 ⋅ 0 -
      loner than usual thats a good sign atleast
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    3. Offline
      SrgtLock
      + 2 ⋅ 0 -
      Why can’t you just email the chapters to panic so they can post them? Or is that not how it works? I’m not trying to be ungrateful, just asking.
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      1. Offline
        Bored_Hentai_MC
        + 2 ⋅ 0 -
        This are probably the Privilege Chapters.
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        1. Offline
          Dragão Preguiçoso
          + 4 ⋅ 0 -
          Yes, they are the privileged ones, and apparently the author left some chapters prepared and went on vacation...there are only 5 more chapters of these, so this is probably the end of Nightmare.
          Read more
  3. Offline
    Chaos_before_time
    + 10 ⋅ 1 -
    Nephis could use the knowledge of corruption as a weapon imagine nephis walking up the sovereigns and just speaking the knowledge they would be corrupted is way to kill the sovereigns
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    1. Offline
      Awybin
      + 8 ⋅ 0 -
      Easy way to corrupt the Sovereigns, then you have to fight a mad Sovereign with a seed of corruption inside him (remember that it took quite a while for Wind Flower's father to completely fall)
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    2. Offline
      Cj.17
      + 7 ⋅ 1 -
      If it was that easy then they don't deserve the title tbh. Also she might be immune to corruption through knowledge but she isn't immune to physical one otherwise sun god would have saved the forgotten god.

      We also don't know how yet exactly this knowledge effects ppl. I mean through reading the runes is one and being near the vicinity of the runes as well. But if someone tells u, I think there is conditions to be met in order to corrupt that person. Even nephis might have limits when it comes to being immune.

      Imagine the demon of truth can't handle the truth but sun god can? Idk what makes sense anymore tbh.

      Also she would be broken and corruption would've been fixed with weaver and sun god. There is definitely a catch.
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      1. Offline
        Failed assignment
        + 2 ⋅ 0 -
        I don't think the sun god is immune tho, cause her immunity come from LONGING
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        1. Offline
          Dummybaron
          + 2 ⋅ 0 -
          Well we still don't know what abilities Gods have, so we can only assume that Gods have same abilities as their descendants.
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          1. Online Offline
            The Foreboded
            + 2 ⋅ 0 -
            Most of nephis' abilities are derived from her nature as a nephilim, not from lineage of sun. The sun god can't be a nephilim.
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        2. Offline
          Cj.17
          + 2 ⋅ 0 -
          Even if it isn't, we still don't know the full extent of her "longing". I mean u could argue sunny when he copied her longing that it wasn't as strong as nephis but he still had to close his eyes and he was feeling the pressure.

          Also we haven't seen her yet being corrupted so we wait till she is in a situation she can be corrupted to know her full extent.

          Furthermore, we don't know if aspect attributes are influenced by their aspects just like the name suggests so we will see.
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          1. Offline
            MTL Ancestor
            + 0 ⋅ 0 -
            The reason sunny had to close his eyes was because if he read them, he would be corrupted later on when the ability ends.
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