Shadow Slave novel Chapter 1380

Chapter 1380 Cage of Futures

In the darkness of the flood temple, a second passed.

Sunny was still falling into the water.

During that second, Cassie had lost count of how many times her slender body was broken and mutilated by the monstrous sybil.

A thought was much faster than a blade, but it had the same effect on the future as an action. Every time she mentally changed her plan of action, the immediate future changed, as well - and currently, Cassie was thinking with stunning speed.

'A step to the right.'

'A step forward, high attack.'

'A step forward, low attack.'

'A half-step...'

She imagined a future and suffered the consequences, again and again. The sybil was too powerful, too sinister, too vile... but not insurmountably so.

Another moment passed, and finally, Cassie imagined the future where she did not die.

'Found it.'

In the approaching moment of time, she managed to evade the fury of harrowing tentacles unscathed and deliver a fatal strike. The Quiet Dancer whistled melodiously as she cut the air and plunged into the sybil's neck.

Cassie prepared to move...

But then, the fragmented future turned vague, disappearing.

Instead, there was more pain, more defeat, and more horror.

'Of course... thought so.'

She did not lose her composure because that was what she had been expecting. Cassie was not the only one oracle in this temple, after all.

The sybil had just as much control over the future as she did... much more of it, even.

Just as Cassie finally found one path that led to her victory, the Defiled abomination destroyed it, pulling over other outcomes from the abyss of possibilities. Instantly, whatever chance the graceful young woman facing her had was gone.

Their unseen and motionless, but furious and chillingly violent battle continued.

Another second had already passed.

'Faster, faster...'

Cassie gritted her teeth, feeling her mind spinning feverishly. She had already found a path... knowing where to look, she would be able to find another one sooner. If the future was a battlefield, then she had just conquered a small part of it, gaining control of not only that single possibility, but also all possibilities similar to it. While simultaneously denying them to the enemy.

Now, all she had to do was to conquer the rest, until the sybil had no more futures to replace her death with.

'A half-step to the left, aim for the neck.'

'A jumping start, aim for the neck.'

'A half-step to the right, aim for the heart.'

A few more frozen seconds passed. The flooded hall quaked and groaned as dust and streams of water fell from its cracked ceiling. The horror of the depths was shrieking as its flesh burned, long limbs lashing out madly to crush the hateful radiant. The Drowned were besieging Sunny and his Shadows, some of them dead, but much more still frenzied and full of bloodlust.

Cassie was standing motionlessly in front of the sybil.

In her mind, the futures where she lived, and the creature died, multiplied. With each one she found, finding the next one became slightly easier. But finding many was not enough... she had to have more, more. She had to have them all.

As her mind burned, spinning faster and faster, the abomination grew more furious, too. The influence it exerted on the future became much more oppressive and suffocating, forcefully drowning harmful futures and pulling beneficial ones to the surface.