Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the severed arm of an unknown deity, then at the harrowing, profane rot spreading from it. Then, he tiredly rubbed his face.

'...Why can't anything ever be easy?'

He was sure that his fate was somehow connected to that arm, which meant that he was going to have to get to it somehow. But Sunny was also sure that there weren't enough rewards in all of the universe to make him go anywhere near that rot, let alone touch something infected by it.

He had the feeling that this thing was way, way out of his league.

In fact, he suspected that a divine being had ruthlessly severed their own arm because even someone as powerful as that had no means to resist that spreading corruption.

What was Sunny supposed to do, then?

Well…

Trying to remain as far from the rot as possible, he studied it for a while before coming to a strange conclusion… or rather, a strange question.

If the corruption was so terrible, then why had it not spread through the entire tower? Why had it only managed to crawl a few meters out of the silver brazier, turning a small portion of the second level of the pagoda into its flesh?

'Scratch that. Why didn't the whole island become one giant chunk of rotten black... whatever the hell that thing is?'

The answer was not hard to guess. It was because the rot, just like everything else inside the tower, had been sealed away from time for thousands of years.

And now that Sunny had broken that seal…

His frown deepened as he glanced at the silver hearth that was overgrown and had become a part of the spreading rot.

the devouring corruption, and

on except for cold stone? Did

guess I am going

of harrowing rot, Sunny tried to suppress his fear and

rot was spreading. At

that would save him. If that thing began to grow, slowly spreading across the whole of the Obsidian Tower, and then across the whole island, Sunny was simply going to die. Probably jump down into nothingness to avoid becoming a part of

the Sky Below, after all. And he doubted that he would be able to find a

to find something inside the pagoda to save him. He

possibility that the rot would swiftly wither and die. Not that Sunny would

wall of the great hall until he reached the staircase that led higher, to the third level. There, he summoned the taciturn demon again, hesitated for a bit, and then

the silver brazier,

the terrible thing disappeared from view, he let out a relieved sigh and realized that his entire body was covered in a cold sweat. Raising a

him a little confidence, at least. The Shadow seemed

fear can't even fit into that stone head

exterior, it was rather cowardly. He was sure that the bastard would have been trembling

with these thoughts, Sunny entered the third level of the Obsidian Tower… and froze, dumbfounded by what

no. What the hell am I

had explored — mostly because the pagoda narrowed the higher it went, but also because the level was separated into several

chamber in particular, dozens of porcelains arms floated in the air, each at a different level of being disassembled

was as though someone had stolen them from the pile of broken dolls in the basement of the Obsidian Tower and then brought

floating garden of disassembled arms, and then walked closer. He

went into

automatons could not boast of that

and taken apart? Who had done it? The Prince

like it… why would he need