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.

do would work, considering that even the original owner of

But something told Sunny that the massive brazier where

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

actual deity had been able to

'Thank gods…'

inhaled deeply and tiredly closed

disappearing, bit after bit. All that was left behind were the damaged stone and the memory of primal

He grimaced.

gods! Why would they allow for such a

Sunny wiped the sweat off his face, then turned around and walked back

the long, sharp needle and stared at it

by it, the cold metal had assumed a feint golden shine. Sunny looked at it for a long time, trying to understand if this

had to admit that he

not turn into a Memory like Weaver's Mask had. He didn't see any spellweave inside of it, either. However, the needle also didn't feel like a simple

summoned the Covetous Coffer and carefully placed the needle inside. The skeins of diamond string

will have time to study it

headed back toward

the harrowing rot die, and then try to approach the severed hand of the

***

of the stairs leading to the great hall, staring at the massive brazier in its

of it,

years could not destroy it so easily, it seemed. The black flesh writhed and

a living being nearby and lusting to absorb it… him. But the profane

long ago become a part of the horrid corruption, melted and fell apart, then disappeared into wisps