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

Nephis looked at them and

"Come closer."

of the cohort finally put their caution to

course, they were still prepared to instantly react in case something

spent a few minutes studying the remains to determine whether the terrible creature was

white mist rolled down from their peaks, flowing down

'...How beautiful.'

mist that was still some distance away from the valley where the

creature was, indeed, made of stone. That

it was

smaller ones, many of them looking as though they could have come from a sword, an axe, or a spear. And yet, he wasn't sure. Sunny was not really an

he was an expert in all things

abomination, Sunny walked around and found its abdomen, which was damaged especially severely. With a reluctant sigh, he climbed atop the stone

at him

and shook off stone dust

"What?"

at him with a complicated

want to

gave him a nod and

do, actually. This thing was

archer raised an eyebrow and asked in

How do

down

Soul Shards are

moments later, an expression of understanding appeared on Kai's