Shadow Slave

They left Aletheia’s Island soon after.

The journey to Verge was long, but uneventful. The waters of the Great River grew more and more shallow the closer to the Defiled City they got, and they had to fly for long stretches of time.

Wanting to save Nephis from having to use her Aspect all the time, Sunny politely suggested that Slayer should carry them on her broad draconic back.

…That was the closest he came to losing his head for the second time, this time to a dragon’s fangs instead of a sharp blade. Luckily, most of his shades had already been mended. So, in the end, the two of them rode on the backs of two Obsidian Wasps, flying above the Great River at an astonishing speed.

Nephis lighted their way, and from afar, they must have looked like a shooting star that rushed across the endless expanse of the Great River, its brilliant radiance reflecting in the still, dark water.

As they neared Verge, however, Sunny dismissed the Wasps and manifested shadows into a thin layer of solid matter atop the River, creating a perfectly flat island that stretched several kilometers in all directions.

Prepared for battle, they continued forward on foot.

As they did, Nephis remembered the final battle of the Third Nightmare… the battle Sunny had missed.

“Verge was a city of the Seekers of Truth once — one they built as close to the Estuary as they could. But when we found it, only the very edges of the city remained. The rest was buried under the First Seeker.”

Sunny had heard the story before, but never in much detail.

“What was it like, the First Seeker?”

Neph’s expression turned grim.

“It was… a vast, formless mass of red flesh that covered the world like a spreading tumor. The entire city was overgrown by it, and the flesh was spilling into the Great River, infecting it. The First Seeker was continuing to grow, as well. When we beheld it for the first time, it was easy to imagine that this abominable flesh would cover all of the Great River one day, consuming the entire Tomb of Ariel.”

She lingered for a while, and then added:

“Much worse was the fact that the First Seeker was not merely an abomination. It was the source of the Defilement — the origin of the horrid curse that had befallen the Great River. Touching its flesh meant becoming instantly infected by the Corruption… so how were we supposed to destroy it?”

Nephis shook her head.

“And there were the Defiled themselves. Even if all the Plagues were gone by then, the ruins of Verge still teemed with abominations. They were powerful and ancient, as well — many of them were Corrupted, some were Fallen. The First Seeker itself, and countless Nightmare Creatures guarding it… it all seemed like an impossible task for a handful of Masters to complete.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

“And you just… blew it all up?”

Nephis smiled.

“No, not really. Not immediately, at least. That thing was too vast to be destroyed even by my flames.”

She looked ahead and sighed.

“We concluded that the First Seeker had to have a heart… or a core, at least. Somewhere in the depths of that sea of flesh, the remains of Aletheia of the Nine were buried deep. So, we wanted to reach them and destroy the source of the First Seeker.”

Neph’s expression became grim.

“I was the only one who could walk across the flesh of the First Seeker uncorrupted, so that was a task I had to accomplish alone. Before that, however, we had to get as close to it as we could, past the great legion of the Defiled. Mordret was instrumental there — in fact, without him, we would have never made it to the First Seeker alive.”

She paused for a moment, then continued in a disdainful tone:

“He led us past the Defiled through the reflections. So, we made it inside Verge, as close to the flesh of the First Seeker as we could. The Defiled still sensed us, of course… Kai and Effie stayed back to hold them off. Mordret and Cassie lured some away, acting as bait. While I climbed the mountain of flesh and attempted to reach the heart of the city.”

She grimaced.

“When I did, I tried to carve a path into the heart of the First Seeker. I tried to burn it, as well… but the flesh was growing faster than I could destroy it. Somewhere behind me, my cohort was buying me time, drowning in a devastating flood of the Defiled. They were being pushed back, toward the First Seeker… toward becoming Defiled themselves.”

Nephis shook her head and smiled weakly.

“Well, you know the rest. I detonated six of my seven cores in the end, unleashing six times the devastation I had visited upon Twilight. That did it.”

‘Ever so succinct.’

They had reached the end of the island of shadows Sunny had created by then. She looked ahead, remained silent for a moment, and said in a disgruntled tone:

“Now that I am Supreme… I think just a couple of cores will do. Maybe even one.”

Walking to the edge, Sunny took a step over it. The black layer laying atop the water extended, supporting his foot. At the same time, somewhere far away, the island of shadows began to collapse.

“I am here this time. And while I am not immune to the Corruption, I know how to destroy things from afar. So, hopefully, you won’t need to sacrifice even a single soul core.”

The walk across the water, a dark path appearing under their feet.

Soon enough, Verge came into sight… Sunny and Nephis stopped, looking ahead in somber silence.

Weave had been destroyed, and Fallen Grace was missing. Even Aletheia’s Island had not escaped the devastation.

Verge was still here, though, even if it was changed.

The one thing distinguishing it from the phantom copy that had existed in the depths of the Nightmare… was that the First Seeker was gone.

The abominable sea of flesh that had once drowned the city of the Seekers of Truth was no more, gone without a trace.