Shadow Slave

The moment Sunny's essence touched the black wooden surface of the divine Memory, Weaver's Mask suddenly reached into his very soul and hungrily drank more… and then more, and more, and more.

In a fraction of a second, all of his reserve of shadow essence was sucked dry, with only a tiny bit of it remaining… almost as if these pitiful drops were not even worth being consumed by the mask.

And even then, all it could achieve was activate the [???] enchantment for just a single moment.

…That single moment, however, was enough to almost drive Sunny insane.

Suddenly, a horrifying pain pierced his eyes and his mind, akin to the suffering he had experienced after consuming the Drop of Ichor, only so much worse.

Infinitely worse.

As he shrieked, all traces of intelligence disappearing from his voice, the world he saw changed.

Suddenly, all Sunny could see was an endless, beautiful eternity of twisting threads. Those threads transfixed everything in existence, connecting every living being and every object, every thought and every concept, every dream and every nightmare, stretching infinitely into every direction, as well as into the past, the present, and the future.

These were the Strings of Fate.

They were just like the threads of light that the Spell was woven of, but while the magnificent and inconceivably complex pattern that Sunny had seen twice in the empty void between dream and reality composed the function of the Spell, what he glimpsed right now connected… everything.

All of the universe as it had existed, was existing, and was going to exist.

...Much worse, when observing the weave of the Spell, Sunny could only sense and guess at its meaning. But the terrifying enchantment of Weaver's Mask not only allowed him to see the tapestry of Fate, but also forced the understanding of it onto him.

The knowledge of everything, everywhere, all at once…

Of course, such knowledge was too much for any human to endure. Just the tiniest, infinitesimal amount of it was enough to instantly destroy any living being… except, maybe, for a god.

...Or a daemon.

As blood streamed out of Sunny's nose, eyes, and mouth, and a silent scream died on his lips, he instinctively did the only thing that could save him from being obliterated by the sight of the Strings of Fate — he dissipated into the shadows.

This was, perhaps, the reason why his eyes did not turn into smoldering embers and his head did not just explode right there on the spot. Shadows had no eyes and no skulls, after all.

However…

somehow, was still resting on his face. When he turned into a shadow, it had turned into one, too. His vision shifted from that of a human to the colorless sight of a shadow, but he could still see the

around his soul, encompassing and piercing it… it looked almost as if he was strung on them like

threads, two shone much brighter

and stretched far away into the

other was made out of beautiful

and the Twisted Rock, diving into the Tear and disappearing into the boundless darkness of the

reality, it was no more than a fraction of

he had turned into a shadow, but his mind was still on the verge of utter, irrevocable destruction. A fraction more, and it was going to be wiped out from existence by the divine knowledge of

do… the

he fought

could dismiss the

that… would be too slow. Even if it took only a second, there would be nothing left

rose from the depths of

shadow essence that Weaver's Mask had absorbed finally ran

the ruthless worlds of endless threads disappeared with it. Sunny could

the merciless grinder of the Crushing was slowly

about the

couldn't really lose conscience while in the form of a shadow, but not being able to think or

wounded,

higher into the Sky Above. Wide cracks appeared on its surface, growing larger with each second. The blackened bones had already been turned into

the Mordant Mimic, strangely, seemed to be much more sturdy than the ascending island itself. It was still in one piece, at least,

to come up with

this thought formed in Sunny's mind, he suddenly came to his senses...

was what he

soul cores were about to evaporate, which meant that he would not be able to remain in the form of a

that he still had not retrieved the golden coins from inside

one thing — whether he would be forced out of the shadows and turned into a bloody puddle first, or whether the Twisted Rock would fall

Which would it be?

might as well

A tiny amount of shadow essence, from which the Memories were created, returned to his soul. Hiding on the surface of the dead Mimic, Sunny dismissed the Blood Blossom and