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.

were only two possibilities. Time was going to catch up to the devouring corruption, and it was either

of years with nothing to feed on except for cold stone? Did it

I am going to find

the patch of harrowing rot, Sunny tried to suppress his

didn't seem like the rot was spreading.

closer to it. But he also knew that if the worst happened, he had no tool 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 simply going to die. Probably jump down into nothingness to avoid becoming a part of

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

his only hope was to find something inside the pagoda to save

swiftly wither and die. Not that Sunny would bet

outer wall of the great hall until he reached the staircase that led higher, to the third

irrational panic at the thought of turning his back to the silver brazier, Sunny gritted

view, he let out a relieved sigh and realized that his entire body was covered in a cold sweat. Raising a trembling hand, Sunny wiped

a little confidence, at least. The Shadow seemed absolutely unperturbed by the

bet fear can't even fit into that stone head of hers. Do Shadows have

could feel fear, but the gloomy shadow certainly could. In fact, behind its haughty exterior, it was rather cowardly. He was sure that the bastard would have been trembling all over if not for the fact that it was

third level of the Obsidian Tower… and

I see. Wait, no. What the hell am I

the previous three halls he had explored — mostly because the pagoda narrowed the higher it went, but also because the level was

porcelains arms floated in the air,

was as though someone had stolen them from the pile of broken dolls in the

garden of disassembled arms, and then walked closer. He felt as though he

it turns out, the porcelain dolls were much more complex than he had thought. In their disassembled state, their limbs showed how intricate the design was, and how many moving parts went into

spelltech automatons could not boast of that level

taken apart? Who had

would he need to study his