Shadow Slave

Whatever it was that slumbered in the cargo hold of the ancient ship did not like one of its vines being damaged, let alone having its soul cut by a sharp blade. As the whole wreck trembled, a strong gust of warm, pungent wind hit Sunny in the back, tousling his hair. The air became even murkier than it had been before.

The chest creature froze, staring at him with something that resembled a mortified expression. Even its tongue stopped swaying in the air and retreated back under the pile of golden coins.

Now, it was Sunny's turn to grin. An evil gleam appeared in his eyes. Retrieving the Cruel Sight, he said:

"Goodness gracious. How clumsy of me."

The abomination lingered for a few moments, gave him a hateful look, and turned slightly toward to door of the treasury. Then, however, it halted.

'Don't tell me…'

Faced with the terrible danger of facing the awakened master of the wreck, the creature was still hesitating. The prey was right in front of it…

To Sunny's misfortune, he and the bizarre monstrosity shared one fundamental character flaw.

Both were very, very greedy.

Before he could even blink, the abomination suddenly turned back and lunged at him with a shrill giggle rumbling from somewhere in the depths of it. All Sunny could do was spend more essence and use Shadow Step again, appearing on the spot where the creature had been a second ago.

As he slipped on the debris of the shattered door and fell, the abomination shot through the air and crushed into the wall of the corridor, pulverizing the wooden boards and getting entangled in the vines covering them. It huffed and puffed, then tried to extricate itself from the mess of glistening vines.

…However, they wouldn't let go.

whole corridor moved. The reddish-brown mass that it was overgrown with rippled, and the thick vines crawled toward the trapped creature, long thorns suddenly appearing on their

this time nervously, and doubled its efforts to free itself, slashing at the vines with its talons and biting into them with its terrifying teeth. As sickeningly pungent juice flowed

'Crap, crap, crap…'

lunged himself forward and rolled into the treasury. Here, there were no vines and no moss, only two empty chests

crashed with a deafening noise in the corridor behind him, and a

the Cruel Sight,

Jumping over Sunny, it landed in the middle of

it reached the breach and dove through it, escaping the

'...Huh.'

gaze fell on the floor of the

glinting in the bright sunlight. They didn't disappear or dissipate after the creature had run away. The coins… were

'They're real…'

of vines crawled toward the treasury, Sunny gritted his teeth

'Real, they're real…'

all the coins that he even cut himself slightly

"Ouch!"

then the rest of them inside that damned

to have a false… everything, but just the top layer that was visible to the naked eyes

Sunny hunted down the last shiny golden disk left in the

the abomination's own shade when it jumped over him. Now, the shadow was following the bizarre creature

it to be assaulted by the Sailor Dolls, but the menacing wood wraiths seemed to be retreating from

…The ground was moving.