Shadow Slave

Just like that, a week had passed. Miraculously, Sunny had survived.

Even more miraculously, he had somehow managed not to kill Effie... which was a big accomplishment in and of itself. In fact, by the end of it, their forced cohabitation had turned rather pleasant.

They were both solitary hunters, after all. There was an instinctive understanding between the two of them.

His overall combat skill and particularly comprehension of both his own battle style and that of the Stone Saint had improved by leaps and bounds. He felt faster, stronger, and better prepared to face the horrors of the Dream Realm.

Although he had yet to reach the same level of physical power that he had possessed before sacrificing a hundred shadow fragments to create the Shadow Saint, Sunny felt that the current him was far deadlier of an opponent.

Which was good, considering how fast the grim future was approaching.

...Currently, Sunny and Effie were sitting on the support beam of the main hall of the cathedral, looking down from the head-spinning height. Far below and away from them, the Black Knight walked through the patches of light and darkness, continuing his neverending patrol.

Effie scowled, then whispered:

"So this is the bastard?"

Sunny gave her a gloomy nod.

"Yeah. In the flesh… or whatever he has instead of it."

The unruly huntress gave him a long look.

"How the hell did you manage to live through a fight with that fiend?"

He grimaced.

"Barely. Also, calling it a fight is giving me too much credit. I just got myself gutted and crawled outside. He never leaves the cathedral, so I got away."

She shivered.

"Are you sure that he won't hear us?"

Sunny pointed down.

"As long as he doesn't walk past that column, and as long as we're not too loud and keep our voice down, we're safe. Trust me. I've been studying that bastard for two whole months."

Effie suddenly grinned.

"So… how loud are we talking about? Because I can promise to…"

Sunny rolled his eyes.

"Can you stop? We're in a temple, for gods' sake."

He didn't need to hear the end of the phrase to know that it was going to be highly suggestive and very inappropriate.

She quietly giggled.

"Fine, fine."

passed in silence, Sunny looked down and saw that the pale light of dawn was slowly turning brighter. It was almost time for the

request. Depending on his choice, he and Effie would, perhaps, never see each

Sunny quietly sighed.

to the

Can I ask

at him with a silent question

"Sure. Go ahead, doofus."

the somber mood of the situation.

on your head a lot

both hands against her mouth to suppress

me to laugh out loud and get us both killed? What's up with that question? No, I was

at her

like a crazy person… and I know a thing or two about that, mind

The huntress smiled.

"Ah. That."

Then, she shrugged.

"It's simple, really."

air of melancholy around

as bad as all of you seemed to

She hesitated.

to me,

glanced at her and

"How so?"

Effie sighed.

us, the real world was more of

reason he was able to adapt so well to the ruthless terror of the Nightmare Spell was because, at its core, it

of a paradise

appeared on the

only kind we

at

you didn't receive a

He shook his head.

She chuckled.

propaganda camps, anyway. They teach kids some useful stuff, but also

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"The truth?"

gave him a

not the world, really. Just the part of the ecosystem that we

before Sunny was born, a whole continent was lost because

the huntress quickly overturned

Nightmare Spell. I'm talking about what we, humans, have done to our planet without anyone's help. There were more than ten billion people on Earth a couple of hundred years ago, did you know? But now, there's barely three. And

wrong. Sunny remembered the poisonous, acrid air of the outskirts. The inhuman conditions in the underground factory where his mother had worked. The towering barriers protecting the city from the deadly winds of the wasteland outside. He knew, of course, that the planet was not in a good shape,

he never really thought about it that much. To him, this was

Effie shrugged.

the Spell? I honestly don't know. But if you ask me… I think that one day in the future,

up and stretched her whole body, making Sunny hurriedly