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.

of the ghostly

insidious little

the shadows and kill with one strike. With the ghostly blade in his arsenal, though, he would

would

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

would be more

he would have to get really close and personal to a monster in order to use the dagger. But still, at least with it, he stood a

on his lips, Sunny turned to Nephis and asked in

did you

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

months that he had spent hunting monsters

Dawn Shard, Zenith Shard, Dusk Shard, Midnight Shard,

to, and whether someone out there already held them

matter that much for

he dismissed the

to activate it. It is supposed to be able to change its weight and mass freely, but actually, it's

Effie,

fine with it as

allowed himself to

then.

***

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

though, they were

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

was nothing but bloodshed ahead of them. First, they would have to fight their way through the untold horrors of the Labyrinth. And

this

he had come

arrived on the Forgotten