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.

to catch up to the devouring

to feed on except for cold stone? Did it need to

am going to find

harrowing rot, Sunny

rot was

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

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

something inside the pagoda to save him. He

rot would swiftly wither and die. Not

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

the thought of turning his back to the silver brazier, Sunny

as the terrible thing disappeared from view, he let out a relieved sigh and realized that his entire body was covered in a cold sweat. Raising

being by his side gave him a little confidence, at least. The Shadow seemed absolutely unperturbed by the horrific visage

fit into that stone head of hers. Do

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 currently wrapped around his

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

What the hell am I

— mostly because the pagoda narrowed the higher it went, but also because the level

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

broken dolls in the basement of the Obsidian Tower and

then walked closer. He felt as though he was in some bizarre anatomy

had thought. In their disassembled state, their limbs showed how intricate the design was, and how many moving parts went into making each one

could not boast of that level

were these arms brought here and taken apart? Who had done it? The Prince of

look like it… why would he