Shadow Slave

Grasped in the Shadow's fist was a strange, beautiful, and ominous gem. It was utterly black, as though suffused with impenetrable darkness. The glossy black surface seemed to devour light, turning the vast hall of the ruined cathedral even darker than it had been before.

Deep within that black void, crimson flames burned with a menacing red glow. It was pulsating in a slow and bizarre rhythm, drowning everything around in dim red light. Painted by it, the Stone Saint seemed to be drenched in blood. The gem she held looked like a bloody, still-beating heart that she had torn out of someone's chest.

Gazing at it, Sunny felt a strange sense of foreboding.

'What the hell is this thing?'

The gem looked sort of like a soul shard, but… different. He had never seen a black shard, to begin with, or one radiating such an intense glow. It also didn't seem like a piece of a broken core. On the contrary, it appeared… whole?

'Is that what a soul core of a Nightmare Creature looks like?'

No, not a soul core.

A soul?

Stunned, Sunny counted the crimson flames burning in the depths of the black gem. One, two, three… four.

Four flames for the four cores of Fallen Devil.

The thing that his Shadow held in her hand was the Black Knight's soul… or some sort of his essence, at least. By how had it turned into a material form?

Did the Stone Saint do it? If so, how… no, why?

'What is she doing with it?!'

As Sunny and Nephis looked in stunned silence, the Shadow finally moved. Bringing the black gem close to her face, she lingered for a moment. A hint of a dark, macabre emotion appeared in her eyes.

And then, the Stone Saint… swallowed it.

Sunny blinked.

'...What?'

mouth, bit into the eerie crystal,

of the Black Knight was devoured. The red glow it emanated disappeared, returning

the Stone Saint fell into the shadows

her. What the hell

looked at him with

just happened? What

to twist the truth and

"I have no idea."

over to the pile of rusty steel that remained after the devil had been destroyed, Sunny moved it around with his foot for a bit

shards left.

Star remained silent for a

Finally, she said:

is

***

and tending to their wounds, Sunny walked to a secluded

of still water met him with familiar silence. Glancing at the rows of motionless shadows standing at the edge of

the rest of them. There was no trace of the menacing and deadly Fallen Devil left. Now, he was just one of

Sunny grinned.

yourself at home.

dark satisfaction grasped his heart. Staring at the motionless form of his sworn enemy, Sunny had to stop himself from kicking the Black Knight with

all. Kicking him would have been like kicking the

got me good. But I'm still breathing while you're dead. At the end of the day, that's all that

were bigger, stronger, and more powerful

neither destroyed nor subjugated. He was free, alive, and growing stronger with each

be the ones cowering in front of him or be destroyed by him. Just like the

turned away and walked to stand beneath the black sun of his shadow core. Then, he summoned the Stone

…But nothing happened.

to the same effect. Suddenly worried, he willed the runes to

not come true. The Stone Saint was still listed as

what is going on