Ranobes » Shadow Slave » Chapter 2661: Shrine of Storm
Options
Bookmark
Chapters list

Chapter 2661: Shrine of Storm
Shadow Slave

Sunny walked up the last few steps leading to the gates of the Lighthouse while shielding his eyes from the blinding light. He found Naeve there — his old buddy was sitting on the cold stones with a distant expression on his face.

His indigo eyes reflected the luminous silver radiance, coming to resemble those of his father.

Sunny paused for a few moments, then glanced at the gates of the Lighthouse and asked in a neutral tone:

"So, how was it?"

Naeve flinched faintly, then turned his head and glanced up.

He stared at Sunny for a short while, then shook off his reverie.

“Oh... it was fine, I guess. I am like the Night Garden, at the moment — some parts of me that I did not even know were missing are being repaired. I do not think it will change how strong I am that much, though"

Naeve pointed to a stunning lantern that stood on the stones beside him, shining like a miniature star.

“This is the greatest treasure of our clan, by the way — the Star Lantern my father brought with him from the Eternal City once. It was emptied before, but now it is full of starlight once again. That... 1am both glad for it and disturbed by that."

For someone who had just ensured the uninterrupted continuation of his clan's bloodline, Naeve did not look too happy. Sunny could understand him, as well. After all, out of those who had been exposed to the Star Lantern, not everyone was as lucky as Bloodwave and Aether. Many had perished, paving the way for the rest with their lives.

That was how the House of Night had been created.

Naeve sighed.

“Does it make me a coward to say that I would not have allowed my own children or siblings to stand in front of this lantern and be judged by it? Even knowing how desperately the world needs those who wield great power..."

Sunny studied him for a while, then looked away.

“Nothing wrong with being a coward."

He paused for a moment, then smiled faintly.

“You wouldn't believe the lengths I went to to make sure that my sister never has to pass the same trials I had. Actually, that is the sane thing to do. As far as 1am concerned, it is what Legacies do to their children that is macabre"

Sunny fell silent, then looked at Naeve with interest.

"How does it feel, by the way? To descend into hell... and find your deadbeat father there?"

Naeve chuckled.

“Ah, that."

He shook his head.

“That was quite a shock... but then again, I always felt like he could still be alive out there, somewhere. Somehow"

Naeve remained silent for a while, then shrugged.

"To be honest, we were never that close. He would appear once or twice a year, then disappear again... and by the time I was a teenager, he disappeared and never appeared again. I faced the expectations of being his son every day, though. But luckily, I never really cared about that.’

He shrugged.

"So, finding him here was like finding a stranger. Although, if we do manage to help him escape..."

His expression suddenly changed, and his eyes widened.

“Oh. D—damn-"

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

Naeve seemed genuinely rattled.

“N—no, it's nothing. I just realized that I will have to break the news to my mom. Oh... ah. Maybe... perhaps my uncle can do it."

Sunny stared at him for a few moments, then laughed.

When his laughter died down, he looked into the silver radiance with a smile.

"You know, I don't even really remember what my father looked like. So if I got the chance to meet him again... well, I'd imagine it would have been quite awkward. I think I'd be happy, though."

He slapped Naeve on the shoulder.

“Your daughter will also gain a new grandpa. Hell... now that I think about that, we simply must get Nightwalker back to civilization.’ Naeve smiled.

Leaving him behind, Sunny walked across the stone plates and entered the Lighthouse. Passing through a long corridor, he entered a vast hall.

The great tower was drowned in silver radiance and hollow inside, so there was no ceiling in sight. Its ground floor resembled a temple.

In a sense, it was the opposite of the somber shrine hidden in the Ebony Tower. One was submerged in deep darkness, the other was bathed in blinding light... but the statues standing in them were almost identical. Sunny studied the one in front of him. It depicted a stunning young woman dressed in a flowing tunic, her face obscured by a veil — she was holding a star in one hand, and a bolt of lightning in the other.

He could not help but feel a hint of subtle affection for the statue of Storm God, because she reminded him of Saint. Turning away, Sunny walked to the edge of the vast hall and ascended the steps that spiraled along the wall of the Lighthouse, climbing the soaring heights. There were no shadows here, so he could only walk — in the end, it took him quite a while to reach the top.

There, passing through a mass of radiant stone, he entered a platform on which a fierce, blinding star burned endlessly, emanating waves of radiant light and immolating heat.

‘Ah...’

Strangely enough, he was not instantly incinerated. If anything, the silver light felt cold — it washed over him almost like a physical force, permeating his very being. That light illuminated the dark depths of his soul.

Sunny could feel something being etched into it by the light, attempting to change him...

But before the starlight could penetrate the silent abyss of shadows, something vast and ominous stirred in the darkness and cast its hungry gaze at it.

The lineage of Weaver surged, absorbing the radiant light and obliterating it.

Soon enough, there was nothing left of it — only its absence.

Sunny felt the invisible strings reinforcing his soul growing a little firmer, and his mind growing a little clearer.

And that was it.

The change was not too significant, and neither was it too groundbreaker.

The Weave had simply vanquished an invader.

With a small sight, he shielded his eyes and looked away from the trapped star. "Figures. After all, | have already been claimed by another Star..."

Shadow Slave
Chapters list

Comments 54

  1. Offline
    AINZOOALGON
    + 0 ⋅ 0 -
    Noice
    Read more
  2. Offline
    Atlas
    + 6 ⋅ 0 -
    damn weavers lineage is like brock lesnars genes lol
    Read more
    1. Offline
      bizzle
      + 1 ⋅ 0 -
      What a comparison holy 😭
      Read more
  3. Offline
    Mohammed Zein
    + 1 ⋅ 0 -
    Wouldn't flame of divinity increase like last time weaver lineage consumes shadow god lineage?
    Also, I think he will set on a journey to collect other gods lineages to strengthen his own.
    Read more
    1. Offline
      Gumbak
      + 0 ⋅ 0 -
      I think that to evolve flame of divinity would need much more divinity. It will probably evolve once Sunny becomes sacred - he will become lesser god. But yeah it would be cool for Sunny to try gain more power by strenghtening his lineage - it grows probably by devouring divinity from lineages so it is possible for Sunny to not only evolve it thru others blood but maybe he will find divinity in some different form.

      Actually I was wondering if the skeleton of Oblivion had the light of divinity, I don't think it was mentioned. Maybe Sunny will somehow consume it when he returnes to Tomb of Ariel.
      Read more
  4. Offline
    notslayerrr
    + 2 ⋅ 1 -
    man after this chapter is suddenly feel like maybe zioncrest is not crazy
    Read more
    1. Offline
      Eightsixtwo_
      + 1 ⋅ 0 -
      There's no way that guy was right 😫 don't speak of such evils
      Read more
    2. Offline
      Tacobo
      + 0 ⋅ 0 -
      Whos this ziocrest gng
      Read more
      1. Offline
        notslayerrr
        + 1 ⋅ 0 -
        a guy in the comments who keeps writing wild paragraphs and yaps about wild 0.1% chance theories, look down in the comment section
        Read more
  5. Offline
    Protonic
    + 19 ⋅ 1 -
    Asterion must being doing something here, Mind Weave gives resistance to mental attacks and Weaver clearly planned for Sunny to have Mind Weave before journeying here.
    Read more
  6. Offline
    ARandomReader
    + 33 ⋅ 0 -
    Ahhh so adorable
    “ Figures. After all, | have already been claimed by another Star..."
    Read more
  7. Offline
    Milkman
    + 9 ⋅ 0 -
    2662 Stellar Winds

    The platform containing the trapped star was open to the winds, with seven mighty pillars supporting its scorched roof. Sunny stood there motionless for a while, bathing in the furious waves of stellar radiance — then, with a sigh, he walked to the platform's edge, grabbed one of the pillars, and started climbing. Soon enough, he was on its outer side, with nothing but an abyssal drop beneath him. The incandescent light obscured the world, so he could not see the distant ground, but simply knowing how far he would fall if he let go sent a chill running down his spine.

    Of course, a fall would not kill a Sovereign — but despite being Supreme, Sunny still had human instincts. What was more, there were all those lethal traps Nightwalker had set across the island. Falling into a tangle of razor-sharp wire was not going to be pleasant even for Sunny, especially considering that there were no shadows here for him to escape into.

    'There are still ways to avoid falling..."

    But it was better not to fall at all.

    Reminiscing about the perilous task of climbing the great statues of the Forgotten Shore, Sunny slowly scaled the pillar and made his way to the domed roof of the Lighthouse. Eventually, he stood at its highest point, enduring the fierce power of the winds.

    The vapor shrouding the base of the great tower did not reach here, so he could somewhat see through the radiance.

    The rolling underbelly of the Stormsea undulated above him like a dark heaven. Far below, the Eternal City sprawled beneath him like a brilliant hell.

    Sunny studied its vast expanse with a somber expression.

    The Shadow Legion was still waging war on the three islands in the southern outskirts of the city. The fallen immortals were spread evenly between them, assaulting the strongholds of the silent invaders with demented fury. He was more interested in what was happening in the north, though.

    Out there, the Dutchman and its wraith army had already advanced into the inner rings of the Eternal City.

    He could not discem the details of the battle raging there, but could see a ghostly viridian light glowing in the clouds of swirling mist. Grotesque shapes moved in the ethereal fog, and the silver spires were continuously falling and rising from the clouds of dust and debris, flawlessly restored.

    Sunny wondered briefly how the captain of the cursed ship was dealing with the fallen immortals. He probably did not have a creature like Nightmare at hand... but then again, both the Dutchman and its captain were ancient fiends. Surely, they had plenty of profane means to contain the tendrils of the Flesh of Kanakht, as well.

    They were far ahead of the Shadow Legion, which meant that he had to hurry. Worse than that... the mysterious creature who had landed in the eastern parts of the Eternal City was even closer to the goal than the other two contenders. Sunny still had no idea what it was, but he could see the traces of its passing the toppled buildings, the shattered islands, and torrents of immortal abominations that were flowing into the billowing clouds of black dust, only to vanish without a trace.

    By the time the Eternal City rebuilt its streets, the creature was already sowing its eerie and unexplainable devastation somewhere else.

    By now, it was only a few islands away from the towering, beautiful edifice of the Palace.

    '...I really, really need to hurry.'

    A pensive frown appeared on his face as he studied the landscape of the Eternal City, as well as the distant carnage raging on the islands where the Shadow Legion was besieged.

    He studied the wide canals separating the islands and the arching bridges connecting them, as well. Slowly, his expression settled, and he turned away from the daunting sight. Sliding off the roof, he called a bit of darkness from the Shadow Lantern and manifested it into two tenebrous wings before the blinding radiance of the Lighthouse could dispel it.

    Soon enough, he landed on the ground and folded his wings, wrapping them around himself like a cloak.

    Jet, Naeve, Bloodwave, and Nightwalker were standing nearby —- they had been discussing something in lively tones, but were not staring at him silently with wide eyes.

    Ignoring the stares, Sunny said in a neutral tone:

    "I thought that you guys were speaking metaphorically when you told me that there's a star trapped inside the Lighthouse. Turns out... it's a real star. A real star emanating divine light, no less."

    Jet blinked a couple of times.

    "What? That doesn't even make any sense, scientifically speaking. First of all, this whole place would have been tuned into a cloud of plasma. No, such a tiny star would create a black hole. So, this whole place would have been turned into an infinitely small grain of superdense matter... I think?"

    Sunny smiled.

    "As if an army of immortal nightmare creatures and a city that endlessly rebuilds itself makes any sense... scientifically speaking. As a matter of fact, scientifically speaking, neither you nor I make any sense. Hasn't stopped us yet, has it?"

    Jet cleared her throat.

    "Well, if you put it like that... in any case, what's your point?"

    Sunny looked at the Saints of Night, lingered for a few moments, and then shrugged. "If there's an actual star here, drowning everything in its light, doesn't it mean that we have a secret weapon in our hands?"

    Jet frowned.

    "Listen, Sunny... if you are planning to somehow break the sorcery containing that star and create a black hole right in front of our noses, I must object. Vehemently object!"

    He shook his head.

    "No, that's not what I mean."

    Turning slightly, he looked in the direction where they had left the Night Garden.

    "What I meant to say is that a particular member of our expedition can weaponize starlight. So, what will happen if we supercharge Aether and set him loose on the immortal abominations of the Eternal City? I'd say... it's at least worth a try."

    Jet opened her mouth, but could not say anything, in the end.

    Naeve and Bloodwave simply stared at Sunny with stunned expressions, their eyes slowly widening.

    In the silence that followed, it was Nightwalker who spoke first.

    Looking between with a confused expression, he frowned slightly and asked: "Uh... who the hell is Aether, though?"

    2663 Flexible Strategy

    As a Supreme, Sunny had been elevated from being a warrior to being a general — and of a vast army, at that. He was aspiring to become a cunning and competent strategist, and had spent more than a year staging an invasion of the Burned Forest to achieve just that. Sadly, he did not consider himself a seasoned commander yet.

    Granted, there were few stellar examples of military excellence for him to emulate - ones he had witnessed, at least. One person who came to mind when he thought about war and warfare was Morgan of Valor, who possessed a shrewd strategic mind and an eerie ability to both manifest and exploit mayhem and chaos.

    Morgan always seemed to get the short end of the stick, though.

    Every time she received an opportunity to showcase her talent, something seemed to get in the way. A sudden descent of multiple devastating Nightmare Gates, a father who did not really care for winning the war and preferred sending his daughter on a suicide mission, a fratricidal sibling who just happened to be both virtually immortal and in possession of a Divine Aspect... No, really... that poor woman's luck was worse than Sunny's. And that was a startling feat in and of itself.

    In any case, Sunny considered himself to be a novice strategist. If there was one thing he knew, though, it was that a strategist's greatest virtue was the ability to swiftly adapt to the shifting conditions of the battlefield.

    Take the Eternal City, for example — initially, Sunny had wanted to conquer it. But now, he wanted to plunder and destroy it instead.

    The conditions had changed, so naturally, his strategy had to change as well. That was why the Shadow Legion moved.

    By then, the battle for the three islands had reached an apogee. Hundreds of the fallen immortals had been lulled to sleep by the Dream Curse, thousands were debilitated and restrained; yet thousands more were crashing into the fortified strongholds of the silent shades, flowing like a river of hideous flesh. Considering the scale of powers involved in the battle, its visage was nothing short of apocalyptic. The grotesque nature of the immortal horrors and the dark cruelty of the ghostly shades made it look like a scene from the depths of a horrid hell. The violence was chilling, and the scope of destruction was devastating — the streets of the Eternal City quaked as they were ruined and rebuilt again.

    But even if it did not seem that way, the outcome of the battle had already been decided. Sunny knew that he would win it.

    He was just not going to win it fast enough.

    So, it was time to adapt.

    In the beautiful park on the middle island, the Dark Castle repelled wave after wave of abhorrent abominations. The carapace of manifested shadows protecting its walls was being shattered and rebuilt again, just like the Eternal City itself was still, the Marvelous Mimic had received several deep wounds already, trembling in pain and discomfort each time.

    Within its halls, numerous youths were sleeping with peaceful expressions on their beautiful faces, lost in a maze of dreadful nightmares. On its walls, the shades of the Serpent King and of the human Saints that followed him led the rest of the defenders in repelling the attacks of the fallen immortals, armed and armored by the armaments salvaged in the Hippodrome.

    On the roofs of the residential district that had been turned into a frigid hell by a furious blizzard, Slayer and her bestial army were fighting a savage battle against the abominable dwellers of the Eternal City. The snowstorm was suffused with the brilliant silver light of the distant spires, turning the world into a dim, gloomy white abyss.

    Blood flowed like a river, and red waterfalls plummeted down only to freeze into morbid ice sculptures before hitting the ground. Countless buildings were suspended in a state between existence and destruction, stone debris drifting in the air and serving as precarious stages for clashes between the immortals and the murderous shadows.

    The Shadow Wolves and the Obsidian Wasps were now clad in glistening suits of metal armor, making each of them far more difficult to vanquish.

    The battle in the leisure district was perhaps the most dreadful, with countless abominable immortals assaulting the black fortress of the Shadow Legion. Its walls were enveloped by layers upon layers of manifested shadows, but they were still covered by deep cracks...

    Several sections of the Hippodrome had already collapsed and were restored by the Eternal City, causing heavy casualties among its defenders.

    From a distance, it seemed as if the black fortress was drowning in a tide of twisting flesh. Red tendrils rose like a forest, and gargantuan shapes moved toward the crumbling walls. Fiend rampaged among them like a dark colossus made of sharp blades at the moment, however, he was having quite a bit of trouble, entangled by colossal tentacles and pulled to his knees.

    Pillars of black smoke rose from the scorched expanse of sizzling flesh around him, and his claws cut the burning tendrils, straining to free him from their hold. A moment later, an enormous black shield suddenly fell from above, piercing the mountain of slithering flesh that besieged him and causing a devastating shockwave when it impacted the ground.

    Before the wounded abomination could reel, Saint landed on the cracked cobblestones, causing the ground to quake and the surrounding buildings to collapse. Rising gracefully from one knee, she brandished her tenebrous sword, severing the gargantuan horror- and the building behind it in half.

    It was then that the cadence of the three battles entirely changed.

    The change did not happen under the walls of the Hippodrome, however. Instead, it happened on the frozen roofs of the residential district.

    There, raging currents of snow obscured everything in sight. Bestial shadows appeared out of the snow to descend upon the frenzied immortals in a deadly fury of fangs, claws, and mandibles — the next moment, however, the mayhem. suddenly ceased.

    Slayer's soldiers silently retreated into the blizzard, disappearing from view. The abominations surged restlessly, expecting to be ambushed and tom apart seconds later...

    However, seconds passed, and the eerie lull in the carnage continued.

    A dead silence settled upon the residential island, broken only by the howling of the wind.

    And then, far away — below the walls of the Hippodrome — a terrifying hiss washed over the attacking immortals.

    2664 Divide and Conquer

    Strategy was not an easy discipline, and when it involved armies capable of performing miraculous feats, it was downright hellish. Sometimes, though, the mystical nature of the warriors fighting these mythical battles offered Sunny a great advantage.

    The Shadow Legion had countless advantages over a mundane army, even if the overall power of its soldiers was not taken into account.

    The silent shades did not need to eat or drink, for example, and neither did they need shelter from the elements. That alone all but eliminated one of the most vital and laborious tasks of military strategy: establishing supply lines and maintaining logistics.

    The shades were immune to disease and sickness, as well, which eliminated the main cause of deaths and casualties in the history of war - more soldiers had perished from disease than had been killed by adversary weapons, after all.

    In fact, Sunny's shades were downright immortal. Even if they were vanquished in a battle, they would rise from the dark depths of his soul anew before too long. So he did not even need to worry about casualties, in the traditional sense. However, there was one particular advantage the Shadow Legion possessed that was easier to overlook, but carried just as much weight.

    It was how mobile his shades were.

    Many battles in history had been decided simply by which of the competing armies was better at maneuvering. Mobility reigned on the battlefield, and it also reigned in war - that was why nomadic horsemen had always been a nearly unstoppable force, for example.

    Needless to say, the Shadow Legion was far more mobile than ancient horsemen. Before, Sunny had been aiming to conquer the Eternal City, and he had also needed to spread the fallen immortals thin. That was why he had staged the battle across three separate islands.

    Now, however, his goal had changed. The enemy forces were already divided, as well.

    So why did he need to continue ignoring one of his greatest advantages?

    As the abominable horrors of the Eternal City engaged Slayer's bestial army in the embrace of a calamitous blizzard, he commanded his shades to disengage and retreat. Then, he called all but one of them back into the dark expanse of his soul and stepped into the shadows, carrying Slayer and Serpent with him.

    The fallen immortals were left alone in the blinding blizzard summoned by the shade of the Winter Beast.

    Sunny brought his Shadows to the tangle of streets of the leisure district, behind the mass of fallen immortals besieging the Hippodrome.

    And there, he opened the gates of his soul once again, calling the bestial army back.

    Serpent flowed forward like a river of onyx scales, letting out a terrifying hiss. Slayer jumped onto his back, nocking an arrow onto the string of her bow.

    The Shadow Wolves, the Obsidian Wasps, the Ember Queen, and the legion of monstrous millipedes rushed forward like a tide.

    Just like that, the abominations assaulting the black fortress were pincered between its defenders and a new, equal force of deadly shades. Not only were they attacked from the rear, but the strength of the enemy facing them had also doubled, instantly and completely shifting the balance of battle.

    If that was not enough, one more incarnation of Sunny joined the fight, which meant that the capacity of the Curse doubled as well.

    It was a massacre. The fallen immortals, who had already been slowly losing the battle after breaking themselves against the walls of the Hippodrome, suddenly found themselves assaulted from two sides.

    From the rear, Slayer and her bestial army bit into their abominable flesh with primal fury. The defenders of the black fortress suddenly abandoned the battlements and attacked, with Saint and Fiend leading the charge.

    Freed from having to maintain the fortifications reinforcing the Hippodrome, Sunny could manifest numerous chains to hold the disabled abominations down. More of them were restrained and immobilized, taking them out of the fight — and with each immortal who had been taken down, the burden on the remaining ones only increased.

    It was as if they were buried under an avalanche of losses.

    Which was a good thing.

    After all, his sudden maneuver could only end up being beneficial if victory was achieved swiftly. If he lingered for too long, the nightmare creatures from the residential district would simply move westward to the park island, and his forces located there would find themselves overwhelmed and outflanked just like these monstrous creatures were.

    'Faster... faster...'

    Before too long, Saint and Fiend met Slayer and Serpent in the middle of the battlefield. The battle was all but finished by then the shades finished off the remaining immortals and restrained them, the obliterated buildings restored themselves, and the damaged Hippodrome was rebuilt, returning to its previous spotless condition.

    The Dream Curse spread among the disabled abominations like a plague, claiming more and more of them.


    It seemed like Nightmare was doing well in his own battle, as well.

    Sunny would have liked to celebrate his victory, but there was no time. Instead of resting, he stepped through the shadows once again.

    Soon, the four Shadows - Saint, Slayer, Fiend, and Serpent — as well as both armies — appeared among the silver trees of the beautiful park, encircling the forces attacking the Dark Castle.

    The immortals who had been left in the dreadful blizzard on the residential island had just started crossing the bridge by then, with most of them still lost in the raging snow.

    The shadow of the Puppeteer shifted slightly on its perch atop the tallest tower of the Dark Castle, casting the eerie gaze of its enormous black eyes onto the bloody battlefield below.

    Now, there were four of Sunny's incarnations present here.

    As the reinforcements attacked the immortals from the flanks, the shadow of Daeron leaped down from the tall walls of the Marvelous Mimic. The mighty spear salvaged in the Hippodrome fleshed like lightning, causing havoc among the hideous abominations.

    In the next moment, the Mimic itself stirred.

    'Show them hell!'

    Even though Sunny did not speak his command aloud, his Shadows seemed to have heard him.

    And so, they did.

    Sorry about the lack of chapters, my sleep schedule forcibly fixed itself.
    Read more
    1. Offline
      Crimsonmoon47c
      + 2 ⋅ 1 -
      Thnx bro
      Read more
  8. Offline
    AllenGT9
    + 4 ⋅ 0 -
    Tbh, I feel like Shadow Weave is essentially going to enable Sunny to utilize the effects of the other lineages he has absorbed in some capacity or another.

    Then again, I feel like Weaver is going to show up and call Sunny's true name the moment he gets his fate back, due to the fact that he should technically still be in the estuary.
    Read more
    1. Offline
      Dust Dust Sans
      + 0 ⋅ 0 -
      Sunny gonna become the Avatar of the divine lineages
      Heart God- From destroying Asterion
      Storm God- Absorbed
      Shadow God- Absorbed
      War God - Some way from Morderet or Morgan ig
      Sun God- From having a very "close" relationship with Nephis
      Beast God- Drink some blood of Ki Song
      Read more
  9. Offline
    Mitch
    + 2 ⋅ 0 -
    Well that sucked lol. Crazy short.
    Weaver’s lineage is like a jealous girlfriend.

    So what is it about this star light that turns members of the house of night into amazing ocean predators? Lol. While Aether got star power?
    It would have been funny if Sunny’s “night power” or whatever turned him into a gold fish or something. Maybe an octopus.
    Read more
  10. Offline
    Kerad
    + 0 ⋅ 0 -
    If he felt the little increase of soul and mind then it is at least 10%
    Read more
    1. Offline
      DeathOfSuper
      + 0 ⋅ 1 -
      2 or 3 percent at best.
      Read more
1 2 3