Shadow Slave

Ready for the worst, the cohort summoned their weapons and slowly moved down the wide road that lead to the bottom of the quarry. From reaching the foothills of the Hollow Mountains till now, they had not met a single Nightmare Creature... but that was not a reason to lower their guard.

Walking on the ancient path, all of them couldn't help but steal glances at the corpse of the giant stone demon, as though expecting it to come back to life and attack them at any moment.

If living on the Forgotten Shore had taught him anything, it was to always expect the worst.

Some time later, Effie spoke:

"See those deep fractures on the floor of the quarry? I think that this thing had burrowed from below. So watch your step."

Remembering his encounter with the Rolling Stone, Sunny looked down with a sour expression. That clumsy creature was more funny than dangerous, but only because its teeth were vastly outclassed by the Puppeteer's Shroud. If something with more bite were to ambush them from below, who knew what was going to happen?

With a simple thought, Sunny summoned the Stone Saint and ordered her to keep close. The taciturn monster stared at the tall peaks of the Hollow Mountains for a few moments, as though subtly affected by the sight of them. Then, she lowered her head and silently followed his command.

After tense and exhausting half an hour of descending into the deep pit, the cohort finally got close to the remains of the giant stone insect. Cautiously stopping a few dozen meters away from it, they hesitated, not sure how to proceed.

Finally, Nephis sighed and walked forward, approaching the shattered body of the dead demon. If that was what it had been… or was.

As their leader came close enough to the carcass to touch it with her hand, all of them held their breaths.

A few seconds went by, then a few more. Nothing jumped at Changing Star from below the stones. The giant creature had not moved, nor had it shown any signs of coming back to life. The demon just lay there, its body shattered and broken, terrifying even in death.

And it indeed was truly, really dead.

Glancing at the indifferent Saint, Sunny let out a sigh of relief.

Even though he was prepared for a tough battle, he hoped that this time, they would be able to avoid it. The members of the cohort had yet to fully recover from the harrowing journey atop the walking colossus, so they weren't in the best of shapes.

vanquish his wounds with her purifying flame. They were healing fast thanks to the Blood Weave and the five hundred shadow fragment… almost… that he had

her head, Nephis looked at them

"Come closer."

cohort finally put their caution to rest and walked over to the dead

to

a few minutes studying the remains to determine whether the

glanced at the tall mountains and spent a few seconds watching as the white mist rolled down from their peaks,

'...How beautiful.'

turned away from the wall of mist that was still some distance away from the valley

not something Sunny would wish to meet in a battle. The flesh of the creature was, indeed, made of stone. That had not stopped the fearsome attackers, however. The carapace of the giant granite abomination was shattered in many places,

mostly, it was cut and

as though they could have come from a sword, an axe, or a spear. And yet,

in all things having to do

focusing on the nature of the damage done to the giant abomination, Sunny walked around and found its abdomen, which was damaged especially severely. With a reluctant sigh, he climbed

cohort stared at him with expressions ranging

off stone

"What?"

at him with a complicated expression,

Ah, do you want to tell

gave him a nod

do, actually. This thing was

charming archer raised an eyebrow

How do you

jumped down

Shards

an expression of