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.

there 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 need to feed on flesh and souls,

guess I am

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

rot was spreading. At least

case, he wasn't going to get 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

after all. And he doubted that he would

his only hope was to find something inside the pagoda to

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

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

turning his back to the silver brazier, Sunny gritted his teeth,

his entire body was

The Shadow seemed absolutely unperturbed by the horrific visage they

fit into that stone head of hers. Do Shadows have the

its haughty exterior, it was rather cowardly. He was sure that the bastard would have been trembling all over if not for the fact

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

see. Wait, no. What the hell

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

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

in the basement of the Obsidian Tower

arms, and then walked closer. He felt

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

automatons could not boast of that

and taken apart? Who had done it? The Prince of the

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