Shadow Slave

Sitting inside the Vile Thieving Bird's nest, Sunny frowned and clenched his fists.

Something unnatural was happening to them ever since they came to the Ashen Barrow. Now that he had remembered Cassie's warning, it was apparent that their minds were affected, making them forgetful and easily distracted.

Even now that he knew about it, thinking straight was strangely hard. It took all of his will just to keep the knowledge of the anomaly in his memory.

The events of these past few days were still hazy. Remembering something else, Sunny closed his eyes in frustration.

Had they really spent mere days on this island? The number of shadow fragments he received from eating Soul Tree fruits suggested otherwise. It was quite possible that as much as a whole month had passed since the first time they ate them.

And their minds were corroded a bit more with every day that passed. Pretty soon, there would be nothing left of them at all. Only empty shells, walking around wearing their faces.

Sunny's face paled.

With a growing feeling of dread, he realized that there were large gaps in his memory. He could not remember how they got to the Ashen Barrow, and where they were going. Other things, too, were unclear and blurry.

'Stay calm.'

Despite how compromised his memory was, there were still ways to understand what was going on, and then maybe undo it. After all, he was able to remember Cassie's warning. That meant that their memories were not gone, just obfuscated.

'First step: resist the impulse to forget everything again.'

Not succumbing to the constant pull on his mind was not an easy task, but he was able to manage, at least for now.

'Second step: try to understand the reason why you were able to remember these things.'

When Cassie begged him to remember the number five, she must have already known that he would receive a new Attribute. He had noticed the existence of the mysterious fifth Attribute as the result, which triggered the frightening revelation.

However, why was he able to not forget about the existence of the fifth Attribute altogether?

What made him so special? Cassie had even said that he was the only one who could do it. Why him and not Changing Star?

Sunny massaged his temples. Then, a sudden realization came to him.

'Doubtless!'

One of the enchantments of the Puppeteer's Shroud was providing him with a small amount of resistance against mind attacks. That's why he was slightly less susceptible to the frightening forgetfulness that infected them on the Ashen Barrow.

he had often felt that things were wrong. He was

about the Puppeteer's Shroud, and that's why she had chosen him instead of

'Smart girl.'

a mind attack. But who could attack them on this

answer was

'That damned tree!'

cold sweat

Nightmare Creature. If he was right, then its

was able to drain a whole area of the crimson labyrinth of all

this hellish place. Of all the horrors in this hell, it might

why no other Nightmare Creature dared to

things that dwelled beneath

it. The Soul Tree was just too big, old and powerful. For a moment, Sunny entertained the idea of setting it on fire, but quickly abandoned it. He would need a volcanic eruption or some sort of divine intervention to burn that

'So… what to do?'

decided not to be hasty and move forward one step at a

to know the exact situation

he tried once again to read

was the same. He knew it was there, but could

'Figures.'

it was still impossible for him to solve that mystery on his own, Sunny moved his attention to the

"You bear a faint scent of divinity, as

of Divinity] is ready to

time,

of the Attribute

Attribute: [Spark of Divinity].

"Every fire starts from a spark. Somewhere deep within your soul, a radiant spark shines with divine

feel any changes within himself. It seemed as though the question of whether or not he wanted to proceed was

divinity has increased. Neat. Although

of divinity the reason why he was now able to see the inner workings of Memories, as well as some other stuff like the shadows in

drop of ichor from a being called Weaver, and then became able to see the strings that were weaved through the Memories, giving them their unique

this was true, did it mean that there were different kinds of divinity? And he inherited a small amount of a very special

in a similar fashion. There was Shadow God, War God… well, that's it. He had never heard the names of any

name was

was not a deity at

he, she or it was actually one