Shadow Slave

Even after living through the horrors of the Southern Campaign and witnessing the chilling resolution of the Battle of the Black Skull, Sunny still paled at the sight of the enormous swarm of Corrupted Beasts. There were too many of them to count, but there had to be tens of thousands of translucent crustaceans advancing toward the island.

Even Nephis seemed taken aback- a rare sight, and not a welcome one. She instinctively outstretched a hand, as if summoning a sword could save them from the plague of Corrupted abominations.

"It's... it's alright."

Her voice was even but lacked confidence.

Sunny forced out a faint smile.

"How exactly is this alright?"

Nephis lingered for a moment.

"These creatures don't seem capable of leaving the water."

Sunny closed his eyes for a moment. Yes, the abominable krill were probably incapable of crawling onto the island and devouring them. However, they were more than capable of devouring the Azure Serpent. And with the old snake gone, nothing would prevent the dark butterfly from landing on the shell of the slain Great Monster.

"That's right. You are going to die."

He flinched and glared at the Sin of Solace, who had appeared out of nowhere and looked at him with dark glee.

The sword wraith laughed, and then whispered:

"Better yet, you are going to watch Nephis die. Isn't it poetic?"

Sunny tried to ignore the vile apparition, but this time, it was much harder than usual. With the words of the Sin of Solace still echoing in his ears, he forced himself to look away and stare at the river.

Below them, the Azure Serpent lowered its head stubbornly, huffed, and suddenly shot toward the krill swarm with tremendous speed. The water parted and foamed where it passed.

Sunny couldn't see the Great Beast's eyes, but he knew that they were filled with bloodlust and fury. That snake... did not know when to retreat. Or rather, it never wanted to. Its lust for slaughter and destruction seemed much greater than its desire to exist.

'...It's admirable, really. What an earnest beast.'

It took a special kind of lunatic to make a vice into a perverse virtue. The Azure Serpent's extreme bloodlust had made it into a much more fearsome existence than it should have been.

But how was it going to fight tens of thousands of Corrupted abominations? No matter how large its maw was and how sharp its fangs were, the serpent could only crush that many krill in its jaws. A dozen at a time, a few dozen, even a hundred... it was not going to make a difference.

For every bite it took, a thousand Corrupted creatures were going to sink their teeth into the Great Beast's flesh. Even though there was a vast gap between the two Ranks, it was not as insurmountable as that between the two Masters and the Azure Serpent.

It would have been different if the mad beast possessed unnatural powers, but it only possessed inconceivable physical might. Not all enemies, however, could be destroyed with pure strength.

And yet, and yet...

Sunny couldn't help but root for the great river serpent.

'Come on, old snake... do something!'

The swift figure of the azure leviathan was closing in on the rushing krill swarm, moments away from clashing with it. It seemed like a suicidal charge. It had to be...

And yet, it was not.

A second before the Azure Serpent plunged into the mass of translucent krill, it dove down. In the next moment, Sunny and Nephis swayed, pushed back by the shockwave of a demented, enraged roar. Even distorted by the mass of water, it was still loud enough to make their ears ring and their bones vibrate.

The krill, however...

Since they had been much closer to the source of the roar, the shockwave spread through the swarm like a battering ram. Sunny's eyes widened when he noticed numerous translucent bodies suddenly convulsing and losing their speed.

The swarming abominations... were stunned.

Some of them, those who had been closer to the Azure Serpent, were paralyzed completely, while those that had been further away were at least disoriented.

Sunny concentrated and extended his shadow sense as far as he could, and then a little further still. He just barely managed to sense the massive shape of the Great Beast flying through the restless water.

That was why he sensed the mighty muscles of the serpent moving, his long body contracting like a bow. Then, its tail shot forward like a whip, and a sudden explosion sent countless tons of water rushing outward in a crushing wave. The sonic boom was even louder than the mad beast's enraged roar, and the force produced by it not only stunned the krill but also tore many of them apart.

Many more were completely obliterated by the tail of the Azure Serpent.

...But incomparably more were already rushing from all sides, aiming to bite into its massive body.

The giant jaws opened and snapped, grinding a hundred krill into dust.

It was like a drop in the ocean.

Then, the serpent did something strange. It suddenly spun, as if trying to turn its long snout into a drill. Sunny did not see how this could help the Great Beast against the swarm of Corrupted abominations, but in the next moment, he opened his eyes wide.

Following the spinning motion of the leviathan, the waters of the Great River were stirred, forming a long whirlpool along the length of its colossal body. That underwater whirlpool was like liquid armor, the current powerful enough to repel the attacking krill.

The Azure Serpent's jaws opened again, and another roar shook the world.

When they closed, numerous translucent abominations died.

The battle was too furious, too grand, too inconceivable.

Standing on the shell of the dead behemoth, Sunny and Nephis watched in silence as a lone Great Beast resisted myriads of Corrupted creatures. Looking at the foaming water, they couldn't help but feel small... and weak.

And insignificant.

'Unnatural... powers?'

Humans were bestowed with Aspect Abilities despite being mere Beasts, but Nightmare Creatures were different. Only Devils possessed dire powers similar to those of an Aspect. The Azure Serpent was not a Devil, and did not possess a sinister Ability.

However, it was not powerless.

Instead of relying on an unnatural power, it relied on its terrifying body, absolute control over it, and a deep understanding of its natural domain to make the river itself a power.

Sunny had been wrong. The Azure Serpent did possess a weapon to use against an enemy that could not be crushed through pure strength - that weapon was its mastery of water.

'This is it. I see now! I understand!'

He had spent countless hours trying to comprehend the Azure Serpent, but always felt that a crucial piece of the puzzle was missing. A fundamental truth that was at the root of all other insights, and without which they were meaningless.

Now, Sunny finally felt that he had found the thread which had to be pulled to unravel the mystery.

...Below them, the ancient leviathan was fighting against a harrowing swarm of abominable krill. The battle had only just begun, and there was no saying which side would win, and which side would be destroyed. The Azure Serpent possessed a dire weapon, but was that weapon enough to survive the onslaught of tens of thousands of Corrupted Beasts?

One way or the other, they were going to know soon.