Shadow Slave

“This... is a little thrilling”

The Night Garden flew through the canals of the Eternal City at a terrible speed, conquering their twisting perils with chilling recklessness. With each subtle turn it made, colossal waves crashed into the walls of the surrounding islands, and the thunderous roar of the firing cannons was almost drowned out by the howling winds. The manner in which the living ship navigated the treacherous expanse of setting water seemed almost suicidal, and yet, it had not been shattered yet. Each turn was made just at the right time, at just the right angle, and just at the right speed. Inertia and acceleration fused into a smooth flow, and the Night Garden appeared light and nimble despite its terrifying mass.

The living ship advanced through the maze of canals while leaving scars on them. Its helmsman wasn’t shy about using the walls of weathered stone to guide his vessel in the right direction, leaving them cracked and crumbling. At times, he simply crashed through obstacles, making the entire city quake.

‘A... a little thrilling?!”

Sunny was forcefully preventing himself from clutching a nearby pillar. Jet was looking at Nightwalker with a strange expression. She almost seemed flustered, sheepishly contemplating her own skill as a helmsman, or if she even had the right to call herself that.

Nightwalker himself, meanwhile...

His beautiful face was illuminated by an easy smile. The runic circle blazed around him, shining with the same light as his silver eyes... his voice, meanwhile, had assumed an odd quality, sounding far more penetrating and vast than any human’s voice had the right to be.

It was as if the Night Garden itself was speaking through him.

Sunny knew that those who were recognized by the runic circle shared their senses with the living ship, perceiving the world as it did. He did not know what it felt like, exactly, but was starting to suspect that there were degrees to this ineffable state of unity.

And Nightwalker was somehow able to delve into that state much deeper than anyone else.

Which was why the ship was still in one piece.

Well... mostly in one piece. There were deep scars covering the entire length of its hull, and its forward mast was tilted at an angle, standing only because Sunny had wrapped the broken section in a layer of manifested shadows.

The Palace was obscuring a vast swath of the sky by now, and the two rivers of abominable flesh had turned into two distressing seas. The battle had entered a cataclysmic stage, and the Shadow Legion could only hold its ground because there was not enough space for all of the immortal monstrosities to attack it at the same time.

They stood in each other’s way, burning with demented fury and slowing both swarms down. The dire speed of the living ship also helped it stay ahead of the great mass of abominations, forcing them to crawl over each other in an effort to keep up the pursuit.

”I have something to say.”

Nightwalker glanced at Sunny and smiled with the corner of his mouth.

“There is good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

Sunny gave him a scathing glare.

”Start with the... ah, damn it! I don’t care!” Nightwalker blinked a couple of times. “Alright then. The good news is that we are one turn away from reaching the Palace.” Sunny raised an eyebrow.

“What’s the bad news?”

Nightwalker shrugged.

“It’s that we’re not going to make it!”

Sunny stared at him with wide eyes.

”What the hell do you mean, we’re not going to make it?!”

At that moment, a gargantuan tendril of flesh swiped across the deck, crushing scores of shades and sending several obsidian cannons flying. They crashed down heavily and rolled, vanquishing even more warriors of the Shadow Legion.

Saint’s sword cut a black line in the fabric of reality, severing the gargantuan red tentacle. Fiend, meanwhile, grabbed it and tossed it into the slithering mass of abominations across the chasm. Nightwalker grinned.

”I mean that there’s no way to make that turn. We’ll hit the wall of the island at an angle that will prevent us from bouncing off of it and continuing on our merry way. Instead, we’ll lose all momentum and drift like a turtle, which means that we’ll get buried under a mountain of abominations. So, I will have to slow the ship down to a crawl... which will also get us buried.”

He shook his head and sighed.

“Unless, of course, there was a way to make the Night Garden turn sharper...”

Sunny stared at him some more, then gritted his teeth.

“Don’t slow down. I’ll handle it.” Nightwalker nodded.

”Full steam ahead, then!”

Although it did not seem possible, the Night Garden accelerated even more.

They were quickly approaching a junction of three canals. One of them continued in the same general direction the living ship was headed, while the other turned north at a steep angle.

That was the canal they needed to enter.

As they came closer and closer to the junction, the Puppeteer shifted atop the main mast and opened its colossal wings. With each of them spanning several kilometers, they guided the wind like vast sails — the pressure of the wind would help the Night Garden turn, but it was not going to be enough.

That was why the shadow of Goliath moved at the same time.

Crossing the deck of the living ship with wide strides that made it tremble, the shade of the towering titanic leaned forward... And pressed its gargantuan palms against the foundation of the island.

As the Night Garden began to turn, Goliath silently exerted all of his terrifying strength to push the ship away from the stone wall, thus making the turn sharper. A net of cracks opened in his arms, slowly growing deeper and wider. And as the titan strained them in one final, dreadful push... his elbows exploded, tearing both of his forearms off.

The bow of the Night Garden turned just enough to guide it into the canal because of that, though.

As tendrils of flesh enveloped Goliath and pulled him off the deck of the living ship, into the flowing mass of slithering flesh, the living ship escaped into the wide canal.

The Palace was straight ahead.