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.

with her purifying flame. They were healing fast thanks to the Blood Weave and the five hundred shadow fragment… almost… that he had accumulated, but his body was yet

looked at them and

"Come closer."

members of the cohort finally put their caution

they were still prepared to instantly react

spent a few minutes studying the remains to determine whether

mist rolled down from their peaks, flowing down the jagged slopes like

'...How beautiful.'

distance away from the

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

it was cut and

wounds, there were numerous smaller ones, many of them looking as though they could have come from a sword, an axe, or

an expert in all things having to

its abdomen, which was damaged especially severely. With a reluctant sigh,

stared at

of the dead demon and shook off stone dust from his armor

"What?"

him with a complicated

Ah, do you want to tell

him a nod and

thing was indeed killed

archer raised an eyebrow and asked

do

down

Shards

later, an expression of