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 it was

nothing to feed on except for cold stone? Did it need to feed on flesh

guess I am going

on the patch of harrowing rot, Sunny tried to suppress

the rot was spreading. At least not

at his disposal 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

was nowhere else to retreat to in the Sky Below, after all. And he doubted that he

something inside the pagoda to

was a possibility that the rot would swiftly wither and die. Not that Sunny would bet on

dismissed Saint and skirted around the outer 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

turning his back to the silver brazier, Sunny gritted his

out a relieved sigh and realized that his entire body was covered in a cold sweat. Raising

a little confidence, at least. The Shadow seemed absolutely unperturbed by the horrific visage they had

can't even fit into that stone head of hers. Do

it was rather cowardly. He was sure that the bastard would have been trembling all over if not for

third level of the Obsidian Tower… and froze, dumbfounded by what he saw

no. What the hell am I looking

than the previous three halls he had explored — mostly because the pagoda narrowed the higher it

in that chamber in particular, dozens of porcelains arms floated in the air,

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

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

design was, and how many moving parts went into making each one as functional and articulated as that of a human. The joints, in particular, seemed like a marvel of

could not boast of

apart? Who had done it? The Prince

would he