Shadow Slave

Sunny was silent for a while, then sighed:

"Do you remember how Effie told us that he might as well be considered immortal? Well, she wasn't wrong. Apart from the fact that Gunlaug has probably absorbed more Soul Essence and has more experience fighting both Nightmare Creature and Awakened than anyone else on the Forgotten Shore… there's more to him than that."

Nephis frowned.

"Is his Aspect Ability uniquely powerful?"

Sunny shook his head.

"His Aspect Ability is that he is able to breathe and move with incredible speed underwater. But it is connected to what I am about to tell you."

He hesitated.

"You see, Gunlaug came to the Dark City around eight years ago. Since his Ability was of no use in the ruins, he quickly became an outcast. From what I was able to learn, things were even darker in the Castle back then. Strength decided everything, and anyone without strength wasn't even considered to be human."

Sunny shuddered. He could imagine it vividly.

This was, by far, the most cruel and bloody time in the history of the Bright Castle. Right after the last member of the original cohort to conquer the ancient stronghold had perished and before Gunlaug took control, things balanced at the edge of madness for a while.

Say what you want about the bastard, but at least he kept the humans here from turning into animals… completely.

Sunny continued:

"But Gunlaug, he turned out to be mad even by those standards. Because he actually began to hunt in the dark sea."

Changing Star blinked.

"What?"

He nodded.

city wall into the black water to scavenge the soul shards from the monsters of the Labyrinth that were crushed by the flood, racing against the approaching horrors of the depths. And at dawn, he would dive

existences that hid beneath the black surface of the cursed sea twice, and each of these harrowing meetings had left

he was also somewhat of a

a

from a desperate outcast into the Bright Lord. One day, Gunlaug was pulled away by a current and, once the sea disappeared, stumbled onto a mortally wounded, dying leviathan. The creature was still alive, but just barely. Knowing that the carrion eaters of the Labyrinth will soon come to feast on it, Gunlaug began cutting the meat of the

in a strangely

since Gunlaug's blade was the last thing to cut it, the Spell happened to attribute the kill to him. And

carapace centurions retrieve two Transcendent souls shards from the

an Ascended weapon from it, the weapon would most likely still be ineffective against the Transcendent armor. And since that damn armor

Basically, Gunlaug was invincible.

Sunny sighed.

was able to threaten

long time, staring at the floor. She seemed

does the

He shrugged.

The only thing widely known about the golden armor is that it is made out of some strange liquid metal and that it emanates a field of crushing psychic pressure. But even that

learning that everyone except for her always felt incredibly oppressed in Gunlaug's presence. For once,

had also allowed Sunny to learn a valuable secret. But

was drawing close. He had to convince Changing Star to abandon any idea of going against Gunlaug. Otherwise, all three of them were

looked at her and asked in a carefully

do you

quiet for a