Shadow Slave

'Here we go…'

Sunny faced the stairwell and stood motionless, looking at the black rot through his trembling shadow. Sensing something, Saint turned around, too. The tip of her sword hesitantly rose into the air.

The next few moments were going to decide whether he was going to live or die... or maybe be condemned to a fate much worse than death.

One level lower, the harrowing corruption that had been spreading from the severed arm of a deity was moving. The black ulcerous flesh was rising and falling, as if in the throes of… death? Or transformation?

Sunny gritted his teeth, waited for a second…

And then breathed out with immeasurable relief.

'Dying… it's dying.'

It felt as though he had been sentenced to execution, only for a pardon to arrive at the last possible moment, when the rope was already pressing on his neck.

Indeed, the terrifying rot was withering. As thousands of years that passed since it was locked in the Obsidian Tower caught up with it, the devouring corruption appeared to be dying of starvation. The stone surface assimilated into it convulsed and wriggled, as if consumed by pain. The silver brazier was melting.

The growths of the bulbous black flesh were slowly receding, their color turning ashen. The process was slow, but at the edges of the patch of corruption, the rot was already turning into… into wisps of darkness, which then disappeared without a trace.

As tension left Sunny's body, he couldn't help but sway a little.

'Good… something has gone my way, at last.'

Before, he had been considering his options and finding no possible way to escape from the rot if it was to start spreading.

trying to damage it with Broken Oath, but doubted that anything the Awakened Memory could do would work, considering that even the original owner

But something told Sunny that the massive brazier where the rot had taken root had once been full of it,

thousands of years of burning in annihilating divine flame couldn't destroy or stop the black

the corruption had destroyed itself. Neither divine flame nor an actual deity had been able to damage the

'Thank gods…'

deeply and tiredly closed his

slowly dying, pieces of it slowly disappearing, bit after bit. All that

He grimaced.

would they allow for such a thing

off his face, then turned around and walked back to the stone

one hand, he picked up the long,

divine blood absorbed by it, the cold metal had assumed a feint golden shine. Sunny looked at

he had to admit that he

Memory like Weaver's Mask had. He didn't see any spellweave

Coffer and carefully placed the needle inside.

have time to

that, Sunny hesitated for a bit, then reluctantly headed back toward

to watch the harrowing rot die, and then try

***

later, Sunny was sitting on the lowest step of the stairs leading to the great hall, staring at the massive brazier in its

was left of

dying. Even the hunger of thousands of years could not destroy it so easily, it seemed. The black flesh writhed and pulsated, disappearing little

times, veins of rot tried to spread outward, clearly sensing the presence of a living being nearby and lusting to

fell apart, then disappeared into wisps of pure darkness. Soon, it was clear that the