Chapter 31

The black, opaque water suddenly surged and seethed, as though a living creature desperately trying
to avoid the pale light of the coming dawn. Sunny slowly rose and, after some thought, carefully
approached the edge of the stone platform.

Looking down, he blinked and then kneeled to make sure that what he saw wasn’t an illusion.

The sea seemed to be receding.

Slowly at first, and then faster and faster, the water level was dropping. The circular stone formation he
had been taking shelter on used to barely protrude out of the waves, but now there were meters and
meters of wet rock between him and the restless surface of the sea.

As the sun climbed up, the monstrous ebb tide continued. Soon, Sunny found himself standing on the
edge of a tall cliff, with a hundred-meter drop separating him from the churning waters. Beneath him,
the rock formation broadened and changed shape. However, from his vantage point, it was hard to
determine what that shape was, exactly.

At that time, the dark surface of the water began to be punctured here and there by sharp crimson
blades. As it dropped even further, it was as though a crimson forest was slowly rising from the black
depths. The “trees” were made of something resembling coral, growing chaotically into each other and
stretching toward the sky.

They were colossal in size, with irregular protrusions entwining and merging together, looking
monumental and eerie in the black and red reality of the sunlit void. The labyrinth formed by this
strange reef stretched as far as Sunny could see, broken here and there by protruding cliffs, sudden
chasms, and distant natural features.

Half an hour later, utterly shocked, Sunny stared down and realized that the sea was completely gone.
If not for the black seaweed left hanging on wet rocks and scarlet pillars of coral, he would even doubt



if it was ever there.

His small circular island had turned into the peak of a strange, towering, irregularly shaped cliff.
Looking down, he felt his head spinning.

By then, the night had already fully retreated, letting morning finally take its place.

‘I’m not seeing things, am I?’ Sunny thought, pinching himself.

What the Spell was that?

***

Despite the sudden disappearance of the dark sea and its hidden monsters, Sunny was in no rush to
climb down from his circular stone platform. Firstly, he felt that if the sea was able to disappear, it was
surely able to come back, perhaps at any moment.

Secondly, he did not know what dangers the coral labyrinth was hiding. Perhaps there was something
even scarier than the owner of the giant tentacle down there.

But that did not mean that he wasn’t going to explore.

Coming back to his spot in the middle of the platform, Sunny sat down and commanded his shadow to
separate itself from his body. Then, taking control of it, he approached the edge of the platform and
nimbly slid down.

Habitually moving from one shadow to another, he began the descent. At this moment, Sunny was glad
that shadows had no weight and were not affected by gravity.

While the shadow was busy climbing down, Sunny yawned.



“Say, don’t you think that you need a name?”

Although his shadow was already too far away to hear him, they still could communicate through their
shared connection. Of course, the fact that it could did not mean that it would. The shadow was sort of
taciturn, mostly because it didn’t have vocal cords and was unable to speak.

Plus, its temper wasn’t that great.

“How about… Shameless? No? What about… Shady? Also no? Hm, what about something simpler,
like… What? Well, do you have suggestions then? Alright, alright! We’ll shelve this conversation for
later.”

By the time he was done with this short monologue, the shadow had already reached the bottom of the
cliff. The range of [Shadow Control] was not limitless, but it was just barely enough to explore their
nearest surroundings.

Entering the labyrinth, Sunny found it to be extremely disorienting and convoluted. The paths between
coral pillars were sometimes broad, sometimes narrow. They twisted and turned without any logic,
often leading to dead ends or even back to where he started. More than that, some paths entered
inside the “coral” mounds, turning into dark tunnels.

The labyrinth was vast and multi-layered, making Sunny’s head hurt after multiple fruitless attempts to
memorize the layout of the nearest pathways. In the end, he sent the shadow up, forcing it to climb on
top of the crimson forest and start jumping from one sharp coral blade to another — knowing full well
that he himself would not be able to do the same.

Soon, he circled the strange cliff and froze, scared by the sight of what was happening in its shadow.

There, the corpse of the giant shark-like creature that had briefly pursued him the previous night was
laying on the ground, the pillars of coral around it shattered and broken.



More precisely, half of it was there, with grotesque innards spilling out of the terrible wound and
stretching far away into the distance. The other half was gone, as though it had never existed.

Around the corpse, hundreds of smaller monsters were scurrying, tearing away and devouring its flesh
bit by bit. Each of them was about two and a half meters tall, looking like a weird mix of a demonic
crab, a centaur, and a nightmare.

They had four pairs of long, segmented legs that ended in scythe-like protrusions. At the front, a
human-like torso was protruding from the carapace, also clad in thick chitinous armor. The head, if it
was even the appropriate word, was situated directly on top of the torso, with no neck in between. It
had two narrow eye slits and a viscous-looking mouth with several slimy mandibles. Instead of hands,
the monsters had two enormous pincers.

Currently, they were all using those pincers to tear off chunks of meat off the desiccated corpse and
stuff them into their mouths. From time to time, a fight for an especially juicy piece of meat would break
out, ending up in a few monsters being torn apart and quickly devoured by the victors.

Sunny swallowed.

Both because the sight of heavily armored, powerful monsters made him nervous and because looking
at them feasting, he suddenly felt very hungry.

‘Each of them seems like trouble. And there are hundreds of them.’

His luck, like always, was awful.

‘At least I don’t have to wonder why the labyrinth feels so empty. All the inhabitants are having a party!’

Feeling a little bit comprehensive about turning his shadow’s back to the monsters, Sunny commanded
it to look back and study the cliff he was taking shelter atop of. Something about it was making him feel



uneasy.

The shadow turned around and looked up, taking in the sight of the strangely shaped cliff. It took Sunny
a few minutes to shift his perspective and recognize it for what it was.

‘That’s… a finger. That’s a hand. That is… a sword?’

He blinked.

‘It’s a statue.’

Indeed, the cliff was man-made. It was an ancient, colossal statue at least two hundred meters tall. The
scale of it was so massive that it boggled the mind. From what Sunny could see, it depicted a knight
clad in an elaborate plate armor, with seven shining stars carved into his breastplate. In his hands, he
was holding a gargantuan sword, pointing it to the ground.

However, the most striking thing about it was that the giant stone knight was missing his head. In fact,
the roughly circular platform Sunny was standing on turned out to be the top of his neck. And by the
looks of it, the head wasn’t missing by design — it was as though something, or someone, had violently
tore it off at some point in the distant past.

Sunny walked around the platform, looking down from all sides, but didn’t notice the head lying
anywhere near.

‘What on Earth is this place?’

Without any hints to find the answer, he led his shadow back to the giant’s neck and settled at the
western edge of it, studying the feasting monsters.

He didn’t move until the sun was about to set.



Just as Sunny expected, as soon as the sun touched the horizon, a deafening rumble could be heard
coming from somewhere below. The monsters instantly stopped their feast and scurried away, some
hiding inside the coral pillars, some simply burying themselves in the soft soil.

A few minutes later, the first streams of black water appeared in the labyrinth. Their volume quickly
grew, and soon an apocalyptic flood devoured everything around. The sea was returning with the
approach of the night.

Sunny stared at this unimaginable process, thoughts churning in his head.

In an hour, the circular platform was the only thing above the dark waters once again.

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Novel Shadow Slave has been updated Chapter 31 with many climactic developments What
makes this series so special is the names of the characters ^^. If you are a fan of the author
Guiltythree, you will love reading it! I'm sure you won't be disappointed when you read. Let's
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Reading Novel Shadow Slave Chapter 31

Chapter 31 novel Shadow Slave


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