Shadow Slave

'Another Shard Memory?'

Sunny raised an eyebrow, glanced at Nephis, and turned back to the runes. His eyes glistened.

Memory: [Moon Shard].

Memory Rank: Ascended.

Memory Tier: I.

Memory Type: Weapon.

Memory Description: [When the stars were extinguished and fell, a lonely moon remained in the empty sky. With no sun to shine upon it, the moon grew dim, withered, and died. As the last remnants of moonlight were devoured by darkness, one small shard was forged into this subtle blade.]

Memory Enchantments: [Unseen].

Enchantment Description: [Forged from moonlight, this blade appears in the hand of its wielder without delay.]

Sunny's pupils widened slightly. With a tense frown, he summoned the Moon Shard.

A graceful dagger with a long and slender blade appeared in his hand. It tapered to a needle-like point and had a simple cross-guard, with a handle made from glossy black wood. The most striking feature of the dagger was that it seemed to be forged out of clear, misty glass. That glass, however, appeared to be as strong as steel… and much, much sharper.

In the darkness of the underground cavern, the ghostly stiletto was nearly invisible.

What really stunned Sunny, though, was not its look or its rank, but the fact that the moonlight blade had appeared in his had instantaneously. There had been no sparks of light, no process of weaving itself into existence from nothingness. The dagger was simply suddenly there, as if it had always been that way.

This… this was an incredible enchantment. It might not have seemed that powerful, but Sunny instantly understood that there was a lot more to this simple trait than most people would assume.

Once summoned, Memories took time to form. The Dusk Shard had weaved itself into existence in about six to eight seconds. But even if it was just a single second, like the time it took Neph's silver sword to appear, the process was still not instantaneous. What's more, the appearance of a Memory was telegraphed in advance by the dancing sparks of light.

In short, it was very hard to take the enemy by surprise by suddenly summoning a Memory. A skilled opponent would always have enough time to notice it and react accordingly — unless they were lured into a cunning trap by a sword savant like Changing Star. But even then, it wasn't easy to plan and execute such a move.

ghostly dagger could appear out of

an insidious little

Sunny's preferred method of engaging the enemy, indeed. He liked to strike from the shadows and kill with one strike. With

one would see

Memory. Armed with the Moon Shard, Sunny would finally be able

shadow would be more than

and personal to a monster in order to use the dagger. But still, at

on his lips, Sunny turned to Nephis

did you get

lingered for a few

of the Dark

nodded. That made sense. There was another red cross on her map, about a week's worth of traveling time north of the ruins. It was drawn near

he had spent hunting monsters on the dark

five of the Shard Memories were accounted for: Dawn Shard, Zenith Shard, Dusk Shard, Midnight Shard, and Moon Shards. Only two

tied to, and whether someone out there already held them in

didn't matter that much

a sigh, he dismissed

it. It is supposed to

glanced at Effie, who just

fine with

allowed himself

then.

***

had to spend a couple of days in the vast underground cavern. Nephis had to recover from her ghastly wound and the strain of healing the rest of the cohort, while all of them had not liked the idea of

though, they were ready to head

to rest and practice Shadow Dance, slowly moving toward his goal of mastering its

them. First, they would have to fight their way through the untold horrors of the Labyrinth. And

of this messed-up play would

he couldn't believe how far he

the Forgotten Shore, he was weak