Shadow Slave

Sunny swayed a little, and then looked down at his shadow.

The shadow seemed to be in pain. It was slumped, clutching at its chest with one hand and waving at him with the other. When it noticed that Sunny was staring at it, it desperately pointed to itself.

'What… what is this guy trying to say?'

Was he having a heart attack? No, of course not. That would be ridiculous. Shadows didn't have hearts…

What was it pointing at, then?

Sunny scowled.

The shadow was his reflection. So maybe it was not pointing at its own heart, but at his.

But his heart felt fine. What else was there to point at?

Suddenly, his eyes widened.

The Soul Core. The Soul Core usually overlapped over a human's heart…

With a shudder, Sunny dove into the Soul Sea.

Instead of the usual peace and quiet, he was met by ominous chaos. The dark waters that were always tranquil and still were now restless and turbulent. They rippled and surged, as though under the assault of the invisible winds.

Up above, the spheres of light that represented his Memories shimmered and blinked, as if about to be extinguished. The black sun of the Shadow Core was trembling. He could almost see tiny cracks appear on its transparent surface.

Only the silent shadows were still the same, not disturbed by the approaching disaster at all. They stood motionlessly, staring at him with no expression on their black, lifeless faces.

Sunny did not pay them any attention and stared at the Shadow Core with wide eyes, dumbfounded.

'...Soul damage. I am receiving soul damage.'

He was under the effect of a continuous soul attack.

Escaping the unquiet sea in panic, Sunny wiped the blood off his face and looked around with a grim expression. He was even paler than usual.

'What the hell is attacking me?'

After a few moments, he suddenly shivered, stunned by a chilling revelation. And then looked up, at the blinding disсus of the sun.

been wrong. Its light was indeed much brighter than it had been

now almost white, full of merciless heat and radiance. It looked as though someone had erased reality itself, leaving behind nothing but an endless white void. With each second, it was growing more and more

'The sun…'

attack was not a

It was sunlight itself.

it reached, the souls of living creatures were being slowly eroded and destroyed. And since the sun was now directly above them, at high noon, there was almost

was no escape from

Except for…

Spire. Behind them, welcoming darkness promised shade and safety. This was the only place where he could hide from the annihilating

'The army!'

he peered

stopped their endless onslaught. Now, they were stumbling and swaying, as

souls had been destroyed, and

Army were staring at them in bewilderment, their distant figures full of both relief and confusion. Sunny wanted to scream, warning them of the terrible danger they were in, but knew that he was too far away for anyone to hear

figure in their midst. He

didn't know that the gates of the

'Think, think!'

for a few seconds,

bell spread across the Labyrinth, rolling over the remains of the

on the battlefield, Nephis

Come

again and waved

toward the Spire. In the next moment, the Dreamer Army lunged forward. Sleepers were running

what

follow her soldiers. Instead, she turned

coral that they had left

a bit when he realized that she was going back for

could do to

'Good luck…'

and ran toward the darkness of the Spire's doorway

he saw something falling

'What the…'

a stop, then remained still. Sunny dashed toward it, quickly recognizing the bright colors

rapier was worriedly zipping in the air

soul erasure had begun, much closer to its source, and so

Kai by the collar and dragged him toward the opened