Shadow Slave

The shadow essence flowed through the coils of the Soul Serpent into his left hand, then surged into the cold black onyx. There was no resistance that Sunny had to overcome to transfer it from his body into the stone armor — after all, the armor was his Memory, and as such, could be considered to be a part of his soul.

The surge of energy rushed through the ancient armament, then returned to his body through his right hand. Soon, a stable cycle was established, with a constant current of shadow essence circulating through both Sunny himself and the onyx armor.

It was a strange feeling. As if there was an ethereal river flowing through him, moving endlessly in a circle. Thanks to the [Shadow Guide] Attribute of the Soul Serpent, its current was especially swift and powerful.

Soon, the onyx armor became saturated by shadow essence. As Sunny watched, it slowly began to change.

This was the fundamental trait of both Saint and her armaments, with which the Memory shared a common origin — both were made out of a strange living stone. When imbued with soul energy, the taciturn demon's body turned from stone to bizarre stonelike flesh, while her weapons turned to stonelike steel.

Sunny knew this because he had seen the remains of both the original Stone Saint and her fellow stone warrior after they had been defeated by the monstrous iron spiders. After being destroyed, the living statues had turned back into inanimate stone.

The Memory was transforming right in front of his eyes. Soon, its glossy black surface felt different to the touch. Colder, lighter, more resilient… closer to metal than stone.

The living armament had assumed its true form.

'And now, the most important part…'

Sunny gazed through the dark metal and peered at the ethereal weave hiding beneath it. The pattern of the diamond string was much more complex and vast than any that he had ever seen… with the exception of the Weaver's Mask.

But then, nothing could compare to that miraculous Memory.

There were six bright embers serving as anchors for the countless threads of light inside the onyx armor.

…However, the weave was damaged and chaotic. Thousands of strings were torn and disconnected from the rest of the pattern, breaking its flow and logic. Because of that, the armor couldn't repair itself before — it needed to be imbued with essence and turn from dead stone to enchanted metal for the self-repairing properties that all Memories possessed to come into effect.

And now, it was.

moved against the invisible winds that had been playing with them before. The torn ends turned whole again, the separated threads became connected to

moved in unison, their motions full of strange symmetry and grace. Watching the beautiful

'...This feels right.'

the ancient armor and watched as

it was finally

hands from the breastplate of the onyx armor and retrieved the shadow essence back into his body. After the

any time, Sunny dove into the Soul Sea, walked to stand between the two Shadow Cores, and summoned

armor appeared from the sphere

I've waited for this

the first

[Mantle of the

sounds awesome. But, Underworld? That

Her own runes also described the creator of the living statues as residing in the

Saint made by the

the intricate

Weaver, the Demon of Fate, then ruling the Underworld might not have been

head, Sunny returned to reading

Memory Rank: Ascended.

Memory Tier: VI.

Memory Type: Armor.

chain. He wasn't the first to lead his army against the gods. However, he

army

mentioned that daemons had enough power to wage war against the heavens, Sunny had thought of it as a figure of speech. But maybe it

about the secrets of the

endless questions, like