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.

up to the devouring corruption, and it was either going to slowly consume everything…

that thing last for thousands of years with nothing to feed on except for cold stone? Did it need to feed on flesh and souls,

am going to

of harrowing rot, Sunny tried to suppress his fear and took

like the rot was spreading. At least not

him. If that thing began to grow,

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

the pagoda to save him. He had to explore

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

back against the cold obsidian, Sunny 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 left one of his shadows to keep an eye on the

to the silver brazier, Sunny gritted his teeth, and then cautiously

body was covered in a cold sweat.

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

stone head of hers. Do Shadows have the ability

Saint 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

third level of the Obsidian Tower… and froze,

no. What the hell

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

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

dolls in the basement of the Obsidian Tower and then

floating garden of disassembled arms, and then walked closer. He felt as though he was in some bizarre

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 engineering… not to mention the incredibly delicate weave of

boast of that

apart? Who had done

didn't look like it… why would he need to study his abandoned