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.

apply to the Moon Shard. The slender blade of the ghostly dagger could appear out of nowhere in an instant and immediately strike at the

an insidious

one strike. With the ghostly blade in his arsenal, though,

would see it

would finally be able to wound and kill Fallen creatures — even without the

shadow would be more than

in order

appearing on his lips, Sunny turned to Nephis and asked in an incredulous

did you get

a few

of the Dark

was another red cross on her map, about a week's worth of traveling time north

months that he had spent hunting monsters on the dark streets of the

Zenith Shard, Dusk Shard, Midnight Shard,

they were tied to, and whether someone

that much for now,

a sigh, he dismissed the ghostly

enchantment on that shield requires an Awakened to activate it. It is supposed to be able to change its

Effie, who just

fine with

allowed

then. We

***

underground cavern. Nephis had to recover from her ghastly wound and the strain of healing

though, they were ready

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

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

of this messed-up

how far he had come in these

on the Forgotten Shore, he was