Shadow Slave

Nephis stared at Sunny, shocked by his sudden act of self-mutilation. Hissing through gritted teeth, he dismissed the Midnight Shard and slowly rose back to his feet.

"Ah! Crap! That really hurts!"

His poor finger was red and swollen, pulsating with sharp pain. It was unmistakably broken. Sunny was so full of self-pity that he wanted to cry.

'Why am I so unlucky? First that nightmare in the nest, now this. How come no one else is suffering, just me…'

He conveniently decided to forget that Changing Star had been literally torturing herself for weeks and that due to her blindness Cassie was always covered in bruises.

Hearing his pained voice, the blind girl turned her head and asked:

"...Sunny? What happened?"

He grimaced and tried to smile.

"Ah, it's… nothing serious, really. I just, sort of… smashed my hand a bit."

Nephis opened her mouth to say something, but he hurriedly interrupted whatever she wanted to say.

"Anyway, Neph. Can you help me drag this gruesome masterpiece of yours to the edge of the island?"

At this point, one wrong question could make things very complicated. He didn't want to reveal the true purpose of his actions until the last moment. That way, he would have more leeway in how to deal with problems… should any arise.

Changing Star hesitated. A few seconds later, she shrugged, looking at him with a concerned frown.

"Are you sure you're okay, Sunny?"

He forced a smile.

"I will be if you help me."

Giving up, she shook her head and walked over to the front of the boat. Sunny turned to Cassie.

"We're off, Cas. Wait here for a bit, alright? I'll come get you soon."

She lingered, as though not quite understanding his words, then answered with an uncertain expression.

"Uh… okay."

Sunny raised his healthy hand to grip her shoulder, then hesitated and turned away with a dark look in his eyes. Enduring the pain, he walked toward the boat.

'Hold on a little more, Cassie. It will be over soon, I promise…'

The night was already approaching.

Sunny and Nephis dragged the boat across the island, pulling it as oxen yoked to a wagon. The ashen sand was not the most difficult of terrains, but the spikes on the strange vessel's hull were making the task harder. Thankfully, the boat was lighter than it looked.

Sunny knew that the alloy of the demon's carapace was extremely light from his experience with the Midnight Shard, which was forged from the same lustrous metal. If he were to believe the sword's description, this miraculous alloy came from a shard of a fallen star.

this omen was good or bad, he

heard a thundering rumble in the distance. It came from the

dark sea was

onto the golden rope that was coiled around his chest and pulled

'Come on! Faster!'

sun was just about to touch the horizon when they finally reached the edge of the island. Falling to his knees, Sunny released the rope and gasped for air, his chest rising and falling frantically. A wave of overwhelming exhaustion was drowning his senses, making

can't

a frown. For once, Sunny felt glad

his strength, he stood up and glanced at the darkening sky. Time was

Neph, he strained his parched throat and said in a raspy

Cassie is here. Don't

for a few seconds, then shrugged with indifference and didn't

take it as

else could

his breath, Sunny turned around and hurried away. He had one last task to accomplish before returning for

***

time later, he came back to the spot where he had left Cassie. The blind girl was still there, sitting some distance away from the Carapace

sound of his approaching footsteps, she

"Sunny?"

the bone, and said

"Yeah. It's me."

distracted for a moment,

have a fruit?

flinched, then shook his

Listen, we need

hungry. Do you

a forlorn expression. She sounded like a broken doll, repeating the same phrase

He licked his lips.

and your hunger will

was the best misdirection he could come up with within the confines of his Flaw. However, this time, he failed to achieve the

Cassie smiled and said:

take me to

his exhaustion and the debilitating effect of the enthrallment, Sunny got distracted for a moment and failed to

"No."

and lowered

nice, Sunny. Why did you lie

missed the moment and made things even worse, turning

I want to take you away from

soon as the words left his mouth, Sunny froze and opened his eyes wide, refusing to

damage was already

turned to him with a deep

But I don't want to leave. Why would

silently cursed and shouted, abandoning any attempt to

evil! It's pure goddamn

the delicate girl away, but she