Shadow Slave

'Well… one mystery is solved, at least.'

Sunny became painfully aware of how the devil of the Reckoning was able to slaughter so many Awakened, and why no Nightmare Creature could survive on its island.

If the bastard was able to turn into a copy of any enemy while remaining as powerful as a Fallen Devil, then very few things could ever hope to escape from it alive.

And those Awakened who had escaped despite everything mistakenly believed that their companions fell to a creature that could mess with people's sight… what else would they think after watching a human being killed by what looked like their exact copy?

Well… why had no one thought that it was an actual copy and not a trick on the eye, damn it?!

If there was one thing that landed Sunny in this dire situation, it was that people in the Sanctuary severely lacked imagination!

…All these thoughts flashed through his mind as he used Shadow Step to disappear and fall awkwardly to the ground a dozen meters behind the devil, completely out of the way of the flying arrow.

'Great… but now what?'

Just a few moments before, Sunny had been contemplating abandoning the fight and simply running away. Unlike some humans he had met in the past, he wasn't burdened by useless things like pride or vanity. If the situation called for a cowardly escape, he was ready and willing to do just that.

But now that the bastard had turned into Saint and was holding a bow, the idea of trying to run was not very enticing. The last thing he wanted was to be hit in the back of his head by an arrow.

'Think, think…'

There was no time to think, though.

The reflection of Saint swiftly spun and lunged toward him. As Sunny teleported further away, the creature suddenly pivoted and crashed into the trunk of a tall, ancient tree.

the shadows and saw, with horror, a giant mass of heavy wood

he filled his body with as much strength as possible and raised his hands, trying to catch the falling tree. As a groan

was at this moment that a second arrow

collide with another one in the air

the bow, raised her sword, and

'Eat that, bastard!'

threw the massive tree at the abomination with a tremendously powerful push. When he used his

was the bastard

simply disappeared into the shadows and appeared on the other side of

cracked, and she was thrown back, causing another tree to

Sunny paled.

'S—shadow Step. Not good…'

turned to him and mockingly

somehow. Behind the evil will and terrifying killing intent

feeling of it, since he had felt the same deep and

he had sensed the same feeling of loss, anguish, and confusion in the shadows left behind the by companions of the

is that

had once again turned into a pale young man with dark eyes and

his spine, Sunny realized that he would not win this fight. Nor

was

to see before falling into the embrace of death would be his own reflection staring back at him through the eyes of

Unless…

apparition's attack with a

not. It only appeared as a shadow because Sunny himself had been in the form of a shadow

that the thrust was just a feint, he threw his own blade downward, and just barely managed to deflect a vicious slash that followed. He was late by a fraction of a second, though… another tear appeared in the fabric of the Puppeteer's Shroud, and a shallow wound on his thigh began sipping with