Shadow Slave

Evolving… the Stone Saint was evolving.

Leaving the mindscape of the Soul Sea, Sunny furrowed his brow. His eyes, however, were full of excitement.

What exactly about her was going to change, though?

There weren't that many possibilities. It could be either her rank, her class, or her attributes.

It was logical to assume that by defeating an opponent of a higher rank, the Shadow would be able to ascend to a new rank herself. However, there was a flaw in that logic.

The Black Knight wasn't the first Fallen creature Sunny and the Saint had slain. In fact, he was the third, with the Corpse Eater and the Spire Messenger being the first two. That's not even counting the two Iron Spiders the living statue had butchered before falling to Sunny's blade herself.

But she had not done anything like pulling a black gem out of their corpses before.

So, most likely, what allowed her to absorb the soul of that particular Nightmare Creature was not the mere fact of its incredible power, it was the strange but obvious kinship that the two of them shared. At least Sunny felt that this guess of his was right.

That didn't help him understand what changes would occur to the taciturn monsters, though. Still, it was a very valuable piece of information to learn.

In the future, if Sunny wanted to evolve his Shadows, he would have to find not only a powerful, but also a suitable opponent for them to defeat. A kindred abomination of higher rank or class.

Tilting his head, he tried to remember if there was another creature on the Forgotten Shore he knew of whose soul could be fed to the Saint. For a moment, the image of the walking colossus appeared in his mind.

'Yeah, no. Not gonna even think about that.'

Shaking his head, Sunny smiled slightly and walked over to his companions.

Now that their deal had been concluded…

The future he was so afraid of was finally upon them.

***

the priestess of this ancient temple. With six people entering its peaceful haven, however, it didn't seem

of simple, but luxurious furniture carved out of pale wood, with a few mismatched things that he had scavenged from the ruins. The stone walls were decorated with intricate engravings. An empty chest that used to be full of shimmering soul

him. Sadly, being the

he had spent living in the ruined cathedral. For a long time, this had

lot. He was going to miss this dark, quiet

Effie and Cassie, were looking around with

his face,

is

an eyebrow

"Yeah. Why?"

smiled with

is so tasteful! I did not expect your residence to be

that supposed to

Sunny frowned.

did you expect it to

down, suddenly

a floor in a cave. Yeah, stupid, I know. Why would there

Effie couldn't help

see

menacing look, but thought better of saying

the huntress was just trying to lighten the

doubt right now. Effie more than the rest, because her

Sunny sighed.

bit later, they were sitting around the hearth, the smell of food still lingering in the air. Everyone was silent, looking at the

dance on the walls of

a while, Nephis finally broke the silence. Turning to him, she lingered for a bit, and

the morning. Will you come with

knew her well enough to discern notes of a suppressed emotion