Shadow Slave

Chapter 2907 Hell of Ariel

As the great army of the Hunger Domain moved forward to attack the Ebony Island, somewhere far away, the darkness was torn apart by blinding flashes of stark light. The shadows moved erratically as they danced on the sand walls of a colossal tunnel. The chaos was permeated by an unbearable heat, and countless figures were intertwined in a gruesome battle.

The rustling roar of shifting sand and the deafening clangor of the furious melee were like a devastating force, growing more and more violent as they echoed and spread across the tunnel.

Sunny could barely hear any of it, though, because all he could hear was the Call of Nightmare.

“Aaah..."

Stumbling, he leaned on the sand wall of the tunnel.

‘I can't... I just can't...’

The pull of the Call was maddening.

It was vast like the sky and deep as an ocean, almost impossible to resist, assaulting his mind like a virulent roar. It was overwhelming, overbearing, unendurable.

Sunny could not hear himself think. He could barely think, really — in his mind, there was only the roaring need to answer the Call, a deep and unimpeachable necessity to be embraced by the Nightmare...

A skeletal hand broke through the sand wall of the tunnel, clawing at his throat. Growling, Sunny snatched it in the air and pulled the Deathless warrior out of the sand, crushing his skull with an armored fist.

Of course, that did not slow down the undead bastard one bit. Full of demented frenzy, Sunny tore the skeleton's arms from their sockets, threw him to the ground, and stomped the Deathless warrior into a pile of bone fragments.

At the same time, he manifested towering pillars out of shadows, using them as support beams to prevent the wall of the tunnel from collapsing.

‘Damn it all!"

Sunny looked around, trying to evaluate the situation through the maddening haze veiling his mind.

The remains of the Shadow Legion and the undead army of Azarax were besieged from all sides as they moved forward through the colossal tunnel. The tunnel itself was located deep underground, having been dug by Abundance — the godworm itself was currently some distance ahead of them, moving through the sand as they followed behind.

Abundance created the tunnel, while Sunny collapsed it once their dwindling expedition force moved past a section. That way, the endless horde of the Deathless pursuing them could only attack the invaders after pushing their way through the compacted sand.

The benefit of that strategy was that only so many undead horrors could attack them at the same time. Its pitfall, though, was that the Deathless attacked from all directions — left, right, above, below...

Abundance itself was nearly destroyed by now, as well, which meant that they were not going to be able to hide from the Deathless horde underground for much longer.

‘We need to return to the surface.'

Tormented by the Call, Sunny looked up. His eyes were full of both hope and trepidation. He was hopeful because they must have made it terribly close to the Tomb of Ariel, by now — perhaps even close enough to enter it and escape the endless battle against the Deathless. He was full of fear for the same reason, since getting even closer to the great pyramid meant that the Call would grow even more unbearable.

“Sunny! We... need to... ascend!"

Neph's voice broke through the thunderous cacophony of the battle, sounding distant and strained.

He took a step back, avoiding a forest of skeletal hands that burst through the sand to grab his legs, and groaned.

‘Ascend, ascend...’

Their army was in a desperate state.

Weeks had already passed since the battle against the Wandering Archon. That horror was not the only Deathless Spirit they had faced — there had been others, as well. Some had been human once, others had been Sacred Beasts. All were nearly impossible to defeat, so Sunny and Nephis had to invent ways of escaping them instead.

They made it closer and closer to the Tomb of Ariel, often surviving by the skin of their teeth or by a miracle — and it was not without a cost.

By now, the Shadow Legion was practically eradicated. Most of Sunny's shades had been vanquished and were now being slowly mended in his soul — only a few of the strongest remained, as well as a handful of those he had never seen a reason to summon.

Saint had received so much damage that her tenebrous armor was failing to repair itself in time. So, this was the first time Sunny saw her fight without the fearsome onyx carapace, her jade skin shining like precious stone under the blinding sunlight.

Slayer was in the shape of an enormous black lioness, covered in ghastly wounds and surrounded by a mantle of grey smoke. She was at the head of the battle formation, rampaging among the Deathless like a berserk beast made of cold, malevolent darkness.

Serpent was currently coiled around Sunny's body as an intricate tattoo, augmenting him while remaining safely removed from the possibility of being destroyed.

Nephis, meanwhile, was nearing the state of essence exhaustion. She only possessed three soul cores now, having burned the other four to ash in order to bring them this far.

Azarax...

The ancient tyrant had been forgetting more and more of himself on the way to the Tomb of Ariel, slowly losing the ability to speak and reason with others, but he had emerged from this ghastly death march relatively unscathed. If anything, his power was far greater now than it had been at the start of their journey.

There were thousands of undead warriors following him by now, some of them powerful enough to give even Sunny and Nephis pause. In fact, the slowly growing Deathless army was the main reason they had been able to reach the innermost region of Ariel's Hell, serving as a moving armor for the remains of the Shadow Legion.

No... there were too few shades left to call that a defensive formation. In truth, the Deathless army was now the main and only fighting force of their daring expedition — not counting Nephis and Sunny themselves... Of course, as well as his Shadows.

‘Ascend.'

Yes, there was no other choice but to ascend. This strategy of moving underground had served them well for a while, but now, the disparity in numbers between the invaders and the Deathless was far too great. So, this tunnel would soon turn into a death trap instead of making them safer.

“Okay...”

Sunny gave Abundance the command to move toward the surface.

Soon enough, the dunes of Ariel's Hell moved like a swelling sea and collapsed, revealing a titanic maw that rose from beneath the endless expanse of white sand. A colossal worm with hide as black as the night sky above it crawled onto the surface of the desert and collapsed heavily, a storm of grey smoke surrounding its enormous mass.

Its anthracite hide was cut and torn apart in countless places, ghastly wounds littering the gargantuan expanse of what was left of the godworm’s body — at least of the length of it visible above the sands.

These wounds were so dire that the Sacred shade did not seem capable of sustaining its integrity anymore, collapsing slowly into a tide of darkness. Just a few moments after breaching the surface of Hell, the shape of Abundance crumbled, dissolving into nothingness.

And a few moments later, a furious torrent of white flame shot into the sky from the enormous chasm left in its wake, incinerating the Deathless rushing toward the entrance to the endless tunnel.

The warriors of Azarax followed, advancing across the incandescent expanse of molten sand that was already turning into obsidian glass. They pushed the Deathless back, creating a narrow beachhead for the remnants of the Shadow Legion to escape the tunnel.

That was when Sunny climbed to the surface and froze, stunned by what he saw. The endless expanse of the Tomb of Ariel that loomed above him, obscuring half of the world — so close that it almost seemed like he could reach forward and touch it.

“We... we made it."

No sooner had he said it than the Call of Nightmare descended upon him like a tidal wave.

Sunny let out a groan, staggering, looking at the great pyramid while an unexplainable horror took hold of his heart.

Somber and wreathed in darkness, the Tomb of Ariel rose from a sea of flawlessly white sand like a towering mountain. Its slopes were like vast plains, and its sharp peak was like a spear that pierced the heavens. Outlined against the backdrop of the starlit sky, the pyramid was like a black rift in the fabric of the world.

Its edifice was built from millions of colossal stone blocks. Each block was darker than the darkness itself and perfectly aligned, leaving no gaps between them.

And each of them was a Seed of Nightmare. There were millions of them, some already in bloom, some still waiting for their turn to blossom. At the base of the pyramid, the Nightmares were shallow and weak. Higher, they were traumatic and unfathomable. And higher still...

The slope of the colossal pyramid was broken and covered in cracks, with many blocks either shattered into dismal dust or missing. Four vast scars were tainting its immaculate surface, as if some unholy beast had torn through the eternal stone with titanic claws.

And higher still...

Suddenly, something cool covered his eyes. It was Neph's hand that reached from behind to prevent him from seeing.

"S—sunny... Sunny..."

Her whisper was hoarse and full of fear.

“Don't look. Don't look, Sunny. You mustn't."

He remained motionless for a few moments, trying to gather his crumbling thoughts. Nephis... Nephis was afraid? What could have...

He tensed.

“Why? What's there?"

She remained silent for a long while.

When she eventually spoke, her quiet voice was trembling:

"Doom."