Shadow Slave

Somewhat surprised, Sunny struggled to open his eyes. As his vision slowly focused, he saw Neph's pale face looming above him. Her short silver hair was wet, sticking close to her skin.

She was standing on her knees beside his broken body, caressing his face with her hands. In her eyes, there was a strange expression.

It was as though she was frightened, but resigned to something.

Her pupils were wide and dark.

'Wh—what?'

Greeting her teeth, Nephis moved her hands to his collapsed chest and pressed them lightly against it, causing a pulse of pain to radiate through Sunny's body.

Then, a soft, radiant brilliance suddenly ignited beneath the skin of her palms, reflecting in her grey eyes like two dancing white sparks.

Almost immediately, Changing Star's face contorted in a grimace of excruciating agony, and she let out a terrible, muffled scream.

Her skin became white as a sheet of paper, and as she bit her lower lip, drops of blood soon rolled to her chin.

As the radiance grew in intensity, Nephis shut her eyes tightly, tears streaming down her tortured, bloodless face.

Sunny, on the contrary, felt like he was in heaven. All pain disappeared from his body, replaced by gentle, all-encompassing warmth. He felt as though he was being cleansed by something pure and sacred.

By a white, pristine, purifying flame.

Under the influence of the flame, his dying body began to repair itself. His shattered bones were reassembled from the shards. His torn flesh regenerated and became whole again. His collapsed lungs and damaged heart were brought back to life and rejuvenated, instantly turning strong and healthy.

Suddenly, he could breathe again.

As his chest moved, drawing in a new breath, Nephis flinched away with a harrowing moan. The white radiance beneath her skin dimmed and disappeared, letting the darkness return to its rightful place.

Crawling away a few steps, Changing Star stopped, standing on her knees and hands, and violently vomited. Her whole body was shivering uncontrollably, as though on the verge of a seizure.

As the shivers died down, she slowly lowered herself to the ground and lay there motionlessly, catching the raindrops with her mouth.

Sunny, meanwhile, raised his hands and carefully explored his body.

To his surprise, nothing really hurt. It was as though he was never wounded in the first place, let alone almost died.

With the help of Nephis and her mysterious Aspect Ability, he was completely healed.

It was a miracle.

***

was already deep into the night. Sunny, Nephis and Cassie huddled together

to happen, the shadow would probably

be it. They were just too

the

from the dead carapace centurion and the scavengers, collected the two soul shards and moved to the opposite side of the small island, afraid that the remains would attract

the battle, a dark spot appeared in the sky. Soon, it became larger and approached the cliffs, landing near the

much as the carapace monster. Its body was white as a corpse and muscular, like that

neck of the flying monstrosity was covered in long black feathers, as well as its enormous wings. Its head resembled that of a raven, with large round eyes and

easily breaking its carapace apart with its talons and beak. Then, satisfied, it grabbed a few scavenger carcasses with its

cliffs and flew back

It was moving west.

the black dot as it disappeared into the

do you

sky. After a few seconds, she lowered

"I have no idea."

simply nodded and went about his business. He still had

had a delicious, hefty breakfast.

against two scavengers at once, running away and barely surviving the sudden flood, climbing tall cliffs in the middle of a storm and battling an awakened monster — all done in

needed to sort himself out. Truth be told, he was feeling a bit

reason for this was not his traumatic near-death experience, although it had a lot to do with it. The thing was that, after the

he gained never went

the center of his being. He felt as though his very way of thinking and perceiving

and act without hesitation. Many things that previously seemed obscure and

underlying order to the world that wasn't there before. That inner understanding gave him an advantage that was

was even more profound than the transformation of his body at the end of the First Nightmare. He felt that he had made a big leap in his combat ability and overall power, even though it wasn't tied to the number of consumed shadow fragments or unlocked Aspect

sky, Sunny wondered if this was how

of the body, mastery

But it felt as though he was

***

time later, Sunny approached the

was sitting there, her feet dangling over the edge. She was

the silver-haired girl and followed her

always, he failed. Changing

feeling incredibly embarrassed. Finally, he gathered his courage and

saved my life

glanced at him and turned away

"I did."

trying to find the correct words. In the end, he couldn't come up