Shadow Slave

Sunny sighed heavily, then subtly studied the world through his shadows. There was no danger around them. Everything seemed fine.

That said, his intuition was indeed telling him... something. It was not exactly ringing an alarm, but there was an eerie sensation at the back of his mind.

He rose to his feet and studied the Great River with his own two eyes.

After a few moments, Sunny asked: "What is it? I don't see anything."

Cassie did not move, her frown deepening. The waves rustled as they brushed against the hull of the ship. The sails rippled in the wind.

Raising a hand, she touched her cheek briefly, then said somberly: "I feel... strange. As if I'm drunk."

Sunny stared at her wordlessly.

"Huh?"

The blind girl grimaced. "It's like I'm seeing double. Only, of course, it's not my sight that is blurry. Rather, it's my Aspect Ability. The one that allows me to sense what will happen a few seconds into the future."

He remained silent for a few moments.

The shadows across the Chain Breaker moved, stirring.

"...So, what you're saying is that something is wrong with the future?"

Cassie hesitated a little.

"Or at least with my ability to perceive the future."

That was a rather terrifying thing to hear. Sunny looked around once more, noting how peaceful their surroundings looked. The sky was burning beautifully with countless shades of red, with not a cloud in sight. The surface of the flowing river was spotless, with nothing hiding beneath it.

And yet, there was something sinister happening to the world, unseen and imperceptible. If not for the keen senses of the oracle, none of them would have known that something was wrong.

"Let's go."

Taking Cassie by the wrist, Sunny guided her to the stern of the ship, where Nephis was holding the steering oar. He had not had to guide the blind girl in a long, long time... but now that her Aspect Ability was compromised, she must have been disoriented. Even if she was looking at the world through his eyes, that was not the same as perceiving it with her own senses.

'What the hell is happening in this damned Tomb...'

Soon, they arrived at the runic circle and told Nephis the news. She remained silent for a while, looking forward with a somber expression.

After a while, Neph nodded.

He shrugged.

"Let's say there's an ancient sybil... a Transcendent Outsider who comes from the time before the Doom War. She becomes Defiled and turns into a Nightmare Creature, then gets buried alive for countless years."

Sunny shook his head.

"And then, we three go searching for her. And just at that moment, Cassie's ability to perceive the future starts behaving weirdly, while our ship is inexplicably moving in a direction that it's not supposed to be moving. Wouldn't you say that it's quite possible that this primordial horror of a Defiled abomination is more than likely to possess powers that have to do with affecting the flow of time... or at least the probability of things happening?"

Cassie and Nephis paled a little. After a while, the blind girl asked:

"That... that sounds too fantastical to be true. A power to change probability? Even if she is a tremendously powerful Corrupted abomination of unknown Class, that's a bit too much. Don't you think?"

Sunny shrugged.

"No, I don't. Too fantastical? We are inside a huge pyramid, sailing on an endless river that flows through time, suspended in the middle of a bottomless abyss. Oh, and it's all made from the corpse of an Unholy Titan. I don't think that there can even be something too fantastical, anymore."

He grimaced, then added in a stifled tone:

"As for how unimaginable a power that affects probability would be... aren't you forgetting something? I've been suffering from a similar kind of thing since before I became a Sleeper. Only, in my case, it's not me who is affecting probability... rather, improbable things have a way of pulling me toward them. In any case, the result is the same."

The three of them remained silent for a few moments. Then, Nephis said calmly:

"So what?"

Sunny blinked.

"So what? You are not wary of an enemy who can literally change the future as they see fit?"

She leaned back, then shrugged with indifference.

"There are obviously some limits to that power... if you're even right about its nature. Otherwise, we would have died from heart attacks or been hit by stray lightning already. Why don't we just go and kill that sybil, anyway? Do I need to remind you two that we also have the power to change the future?"

Sunny and Cassie were confused. The blind girl tilted her head a little and asked:

"...We do?"

Nephis nodded.

"Of course. If we go there and kill the abomination, that will be the future. We would have made it. Every action performed by every person in the world changes the future. That power is really not that unique. In fact, it's pretty universal."

He stared at her for a moment, then chuckled wryly.

'It's hard to argue...'

"The power to change the future, huh? Alright. Let's go and make a future where the abomination is dead, and we're alive. It's not like we know how to escape, anyway..."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!