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?'

into the eerie crystal, and swallowed

The red glow it

the Stone Saint fell into the

dismiss her. What

looked at him with

What did

have to twist the truth and deceive anyone. Opening his

"I have no idea."

been destroyed, Sunny moved it around with his foot for a bit and

no shards left.

for a few moments, then

Finally, she said:

is very

***

wounds, Sunny walked to a secluded corner and dove into the Soul

met him with familiar silence. Glancing at the rows of motionless shadows

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

Sunny grinned.

yourself at home. You're

his

the air. Plus, Sunny wasn't vindictive to that

huh? I won't deny it, you got me good. But I'm still breathing while you're dead. At the end of the day, that's all that

real one were full of creatures that were bigger, stronger, and more powerful than Sunny. Many of them had either threatened his existence or felt compelled to treat him like dirt to show their

was still here despite all of them, neither destroyed nor subjugated. He was free, alive, and growing stronger with each

cowering in front of him or be

stand beneath the

…But nothing happened.

summon again — to the same effect. Suddenly worried, he willed the runes to appear

fears did not come true. The Stone Saint

going on