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

that thing last for thousands of years with nothing to feed on except for cold stone? Did it

guess I am

on the patch of harrowing rot, Sunny tried to suppress his fear and

the rot was spreading.

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

hope was to find something inside the pagoda

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

until he reached the staircase that led higher, to the third level. There, he summoned the taciturn demon

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

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 his face,

him a little confidence, at least. The Shadow

bet fear can't even fit into that stone head

fear, but the gloomy shadow certainly could. In fact, behind its haughty exterior, it was rather cowardly. He

to distract himself with these thoughts, Sunny entered the third level

no. What the

chamber he found himself in was smaller than the previous three halls he had explored — mostly because the pagoda narrowed the higher it went, but

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

the basement

arms, and then walked closer. He felt as though he was

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 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

of that level of ingenuity and

why were these arms brought here and taken apart? Who had done

like it… why would he need