'Mau ngapain, mau ngapain ya...'Berpegangan pada cangkang ruang hampa yang runtuh, Sunny mengintip benda yang samar-samar terlihat di hati bintang yang sedang sekarat. Dunia sedang hancur di sekelilingnya sementara mulut lapar Alam Bayangan memakannya. Integritas ruang penguncup yang runtuh sudah lama terwujud, membiarkan udara masuk — karena itu, dia bisa mendengar lagi.Sekelilingnya adalah desisan yang memekakkan telinga, menembus, dan menohok, cukup rendah dan keras sehingga terdengar seperti geraman marah. Seolah-olah dia mendengar suara gaib dari Alam Bayangan sendiri... dan karena Alam Bayangan adalah mayat Dewa Kematian, Sunny bertanya-tanya apakah demikian juga suara-Nya dulu.Logam meraung saat dirobek dan tertarik.Bukan Alam Bayangan dan hamparan dinginnya yang diingat Sunny saat memandang bintang sekarat di Kota Abadi. Yang diingat Sunny adalah kobaran api ilahi yang membara di hamparan tanpa batas Langit Bawah, dan rasa sakit yang dideritanya setelah terbakar olehnya.Akankah dia terbakar lagi hari ini?'即使 saya memang... ya sudahlah, mari kita lakukan.'Menggertakkan gigi, dia memanggil sepasang sayap hitam, lalu melepaskan pegangan pada rantainya.Segera, tarikan Gerbang Bayangan mencengkeramnya seperti penjepit yang tak bisa hindari. Sunny menemukan dirinya jatuh — atau mungkin naik — dengan kecepatan mengerikan, nyaris tidak mampu mengontrol arah jatuh... atau ascendernya.Saat dia semakin dekat dengan bintang sekarat, panas mengerikan membasuh dirinya.Kemudian, panasnya menjadi tak tertahankan.Dan kemudian, menjadi mustahil."Argh!"Sunny menyesal menghirup napas, karena paru-parunya langsung terkerang.Sayapnya menyala duluan, bulu hitam menyala dan berubah jadi abu sekejap.Jubah Mantle Giok bertahan terhadap pancaran stellar untuk beberapa saat, tapi kemudian, retakan pijar perlahan menyebar di permukaannya.Lapisan luar logam berbatu mulai meleleh.Bayangan Nightwalker semakin mengecil, terlindungi dari cahaya menyilaukan oleh figur menjulang Shadowspawn....Dan tentu saja, semuanya sakit seperti neraka.'Ah, sial! Kangen Antartika!'Sunny ingin terkubur dalam es.Merekawania ingin pergi ekspedisi bersalju lagi dengan Silent Stalker.Tapi sebagai gantinya, semakin dekat dengan glob putih marah bintang sekarat, dia menggertakkan gigi dan membentangkan sayap terbakarnya untuk melawan tarikan Gerbang Bayangan. Jatuhnya melambat, walau hanya sesaat.Tapi sesaat itu cukup bagi Sunny untuk mengeraskan tekadnya... dan menancapkan lengannya ke dalam api stellar.Logam berbatu Mantle Giok akhirnya meleleh.Dagingnya pun meleleh.Namun, bahkan dengan tulangnya terlihat menembus daging menghitam, Sunny tetap memaksakan diri untuk menggenggam fragmen garis keturunan Weaver yang tersembunyi di inti bintang sekarat.Ia merobeknya dan menggunakan sepersekian detik untuk melihat apa itu.'Sebuah... gulungan?'Itu adalah gulungan elegan dari sutra laba-laba halus.Tidak ada waktu untuk mempelajari sekarang, tentu saja. Sunny hanya perlu mengonfirmasi bahwa ini memang fragmen garis keturunan Weaver yang dia cari. Dan menilai dari bagaimana darahnya meresponsnya, memang itu.'Nanti saya baca.'Dia akan membuka gulungan saat Istana tidak runtuh di sekelilingnya, saat Great Titan tidak menghirup lehernya, dan saat tentara wraith tidak mengepung Legiun Bayangannya.Meski bagian kecil, irasional, dan sangat ingin tahunya terus berteriak untuk membaca gulungan itu sekarang.'Itu semua tujuan awal ekspedisi tercapai.'Sunny membiarkan dirinya merasakan momen singkat kepuasan.Dia datang ke Kota Abadi untuk memperbaiki Taman Malam, memulihkan garis keturunan Dewa Badai, menemukan bagian keenam garis keturunan Weaver, dan merampok harta.He accomplished all of that. Sekarang, hanya satu tujuan tersisa — satu yang dia temukan setelah tiba di tujuannya.Mengeluarkan Nightwalker dari Kota Abadi.'Tentang itu...'Sunny melepaskan bentuknya, berubah menjadi bayangan luas dan tak berbentuk. Itu membuatnya lebih rentan terhadap tarikan Gerbang Bayangan, tapi juga membuatnya jauh lebih besar dalam ukuran — sampai-sampai dia menyenggol dinding ruang hampa yang runtuh.Tentakel-tenakel gelap yang kuat menembus logam bergerigi dekat salah satu celah di dalamnya dan menariknya menuju. Sunny harus mengeluarkan seluruh kekuatan titaniknya, tapi itu membantunya menghindari event horizon Gerbang Bayangan dan mencapai dinding yang jauh.Di sana, dia membangun Cangkang Ular Onyx di sekitar dirinya dan bayangan Nightwalker. Mendorong tubuh kolosalnya ke dalam celah di dinding ruang hampa, Sunny menjelajah pergi dari hamparan runtuhnya dan menggali ke labirin air mata yang tercipta di bingkai Istana seperti cacing menggali ke dalam apel.Lorong-lorong berliku, tidak beraturan bergerak dan berubah bentuk, menutup dan membuka saat dia berlari melewatinya. Permukaan meleleh Mantle Giok menyemburkan sungai-sungai bunga api saat bergesekan dengan tepi-tepi tajam logam yang robek.Hanya butuh dua belas detik untuknya mencapai apa yang dulu menjadi Ruang Segel dari Istana runtuh — aula agung tempat Daging Kanakht dipenjarakan.Semua banyak berubah sejak Sunny pergi.Lantai aula yang luas runtuh, dan lubang itu sangat cacat bentuknya. Nightwalker tergantung dari tepinya, mencoba menjauh dari bukit-bukit kapang di bawah — awan hitam spora membuat udara berkabut, dan sesuatu yang terlihat seperti sinar matahari menyembur dari suatu tempat, menerangi adegan mimpi buruk itu dengan cahaya pucat.Saat Nightwalker melihat kepala Ular Raksasa muncul dari kegelapan lubang, matanya melebar."Apa itu..."Dia tidak menyelesaikan kalimatnya.Tapi karena Sunny membuka rahangnya tanpa pernah memperlambat...Dan menelannya.
Chapter 2699: Event Horizon
’What to do, what to do...’
Clinging to the crumbling shell of the void chamber, Sunny peered at the vaguely noticeable item hidden in the heart of the dying star. The world was coming undone around him as the hungry maw of the Shadow Realm devoured it. The integrity of the imploding chamber had been compromised a long time ago, allowing air to rush in — because of that, he could hear once more.
What surrounded him was a deafening, penetrating, chilling hiss that was low and loud enough to sound like a furious roar. It was as if he heard the otherworldly voice of the Shadow Realm itself... and since the Shadow Realm was the corpse of the God of Death, Sunny wondered if that was what his voice had sounded like, as well.
The metal was groaning as it was torn and pulled apart.
What Sunny remembered while looking at the dying star of the Eternal City was not the Shadow Realm and its cold expanse, though. He remembered the conflagration of divine flames burning in the endless expanse of the Sky Below, and the pain he had suffered after being burned by them.
Was he going to burn once more today?
’Even if I am... let’s do it, I guess.’
Gritting his teeth, he summoned a pair of black wings and then let go of the chain.
Immediately, the pull of the Gate of Shadow grasped him like an inescapable vice. Sunny found himself plummeting down — or maybe up — with terrible speed, barely able to control the direction of his fall... or ascension.
As he drew closer to the dying star, terrible heat washed over him.
Then, the heat became unbearable.
And then, it became impossible.
"Argh!"
Sunny regretted inhaling, because his lungs were instantly seared.
His wings caught fire first, black feathers igniting and turning to ash a moment later.
The Jade Mantle withstood the stellar radiance for a while, but then, incandescent cracks slowly spread across its surface.
The outward layers of the stonelike metal began to melt.
The shadow of Nightwalker grew smaller, shielded from the blinding light by the towering figure of the Shadowspawn.
...And it all hurt like hell, of course.
’Ah, damn it! I miss Antarctica!’
Sunny wanted to be buried in ice.
He wanted to go on a snowy expedition with Silent Stalker again.
Instead, nearing the furious white orb of the dying star, he gritted his teeth and spread his burning wings to fight the pull of the Gate of Shadow. His fall slowed, even if only for a moment.
But that moment was enough for Sunny to steel himself... and plunge his arm into the stellar flame.
The stonelike metal of the Jade Mantle finally melted.
His flesh melted, too.
However, even with his bones showing through the blackened flesh, Sunny still willed himself to grasp the fragment of Weaver’s lineage hidden in the core of the dying star.
He tore it out and wasted a split second to look at what it was.
’A... scroll?’
It was an elegant scroll made of fine spider silk.
There was no time to study it yet, though. Sunny only needed to confirm that this was, indeed, the fragment of Weaver’s lineage he had come here to find. And judging by how his blood responded to it, it was.
’I’ll read it later.’
He would unfold the scroll when the Palace was not crumbling around him, when a Great Titan was not breathing down his neck, and when an army of wraiths was not besieging his Shadow Legion.
Even if a small, irrational, and exceedingly curious part of him kept screaming to read the scroll right now.
’That’s all the initial goals of the expedition achieved.’
Sunny allowed himself to feel a brief moment of satisfaction.
He had come to the Eternal City to repair the Night Garden, recover Storm God’s lineage, find the sixth piece of Weaver’s lineage, and loot some treasure.
He had done all that. Now, only one goal remained — one he had discovered after arriving at his destination.
Get Nightwalker out of the Eternal City.
’About that...’
Sunny released his form, tuning into a vast and shapeless shadow. That made him more susceptible to the pull of the Gate of Shadow, but it also made him far greater, size-wise — so much so that he brushed against the collapsing walls of the void chamber.
Powerful tendrils of darkness pierced the jagged metal near one of the rifts in it and pulled him toward it. Sunny had to exert all of his titanic strength, but that helped him avoid the event horizon of the Gate of Shadow and reach the distant wall.
There, he built the Onyx Serpent Shell around himself and the shadow of Nightwalker. Pushing his prodigious body into the rift in the wall of the void chamber, Sunny slithered away from its crumbling expanse and burrowed into the maze of tears created in the frame of the Palace like a worm burrowing into an apple.
The twisting, irregular tunnels moved and changed shape, closing and opening as he rushed through them. The molten surface of the Jade Mantle sent rivers of sparks flying as it scraped against the jagged edges of torn metal.
It only took him a dozen seconds to reach what had been the Seal Chamber of the collapsing Palace once — the great hall where the Flesh of Kanakht had been imprisoned.
It had changed a lot since Sunny left it.
The floor of the vast chamber caved, and the pit was strangely deformed. Nightwalker was hanging from its edge, trying to get away from the hills of mold below — black clouds of spores made the air hazy, and something that seemed like sunlight was pouring from somewhere, illuminating the nightmarish scene with pale light.
When Nightwalker saw the head of a giant Serpent rise from the darkness of the pit, his eyes widened.
"What the..."
He did not finish the sentence, though.
Because Sunny opened his maw without ever slowing down...
And swallowed him.
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