Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the blind girl with surprise clearly written on his face. Allowing this surprise to seep into his voice, he asked:

"The vine creature? You want to kill that thing?"

Why would she want to attempt to do something that dangerous?

Cassie nodded.

"Yes."

He shook his head.

"That bastard sprawls through the entire island, its vines buried underground. It is Corrupted, which means that our weapons will barely be able to cut it. And, if that was not bad enough, the vines produce clouds of deadly poison. Are you sure that you want to attack it?"

The blind girl lingered for a few moments, then answered calmly:

"It is a Corrupted Monster, indeed. It is terrifying and lethal, yes. But I am sure that we can destroy it, with enough preparation. Everyone has weaknesses, after all. That creature is susceptible to fire, for example. There must be other things we might be able to exploit, too."

Sunny thought for a while, then shrugged.

"Fine. I will help your cohort fight the monstrosity on the Shipwreck Island. I will not promise that we will succeed, though."

Cassie sighed.

"Then we have a deal. My cohort and I will remain in the Desecrated Growth until our business here is done. I expect it to take a month, at least. Maybe more. After, we will return to the Sanctuary, recuperate, and proceed to the Shipwreck Island."

She paused for a moment, and then added:

"And then, I will help you challenge the Second Nightmare."

Sunny smiled.

don't die before that, you

blind girl turned back to the roots of the dead

don't die before

***

to the Sanctuary,

again, which made him feel all sorts of complicated emotions. The manner of their relationship, at least, was

put away his resentment for the sake of mutual benefit. After all, Sunny could be a very pragmatic person

to do battle with the vine monster that ruled over the island. Sunny knew very well how dangerous that thing was, so he had a lot

augmentation of the Cruel Sight, however, was

both of them dying sometime in winter. Or falling into the Sky Below, at least. That… he didn't even know what to think about that. However, Sunny was not going to let this vision affect his decisions. The last time he

thing to do was to keep it in his mind, but continue to act as if nothing had changed.

of Noctis in the middle of the night. His shadow essence reserves were

familiar sound of water falling over the edge of the island, Sunny gritted his

it, for now. First

moon was high in the sky, which meant that he was finally going to

had brought with it

was waiting

empty garden and approached the clear pond in its center. Stopping for a couple of moments to

of an ancient tree, and an obsidian knife

'The moment of truth…'

gold coins out of it, and placed it on the

coin shimmered, reflecting the moonlight, and

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

smile appeared

runes,

Shadow Fragments: [224/2000].

'It works!'

altar each time he had to return to the real

now that the reward was in his sight, he