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.

die before

to the roots of the

If we don't

***

the Sanctuary, Sunny

that he would have to cooperate with Cassie again, which made him feel all sorts of complicated emotions. The manner

his resentment for the sake of mutual benefit. After all, Sunny

Sunny knew very

Cruel Sight, however, was going

that. However, Sunny was not going to let this vision affect his decisions. The last time he had tried to act on the knowledge received through Cassie's prophetic gift did not end well

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

from the Desecrated Grove, Sunny approached the Sanctuary of Noctis in the middle of the night. His shadow essence reserves were almost depleted, and his head buzzed from all

water falling over the edge

for now. First

in the sky, which meant that he was finally going

brought with it to the Iron Hand Island started this whole ordeal, and now, the coins would

was waiting for him up

the empty garden and approached the clear pond in its center. Stopping for a couple of moments to make sure that no one was watching him, he then

in the shade of an ancient tree, and an

'The moment of truth…'

summoned the Covetous Coffer, took out one of the gold coins out of it, and placed

reflecting the moonlight, and then

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

appeared on

runes, he

Shadow Fragments: [224/2000].

'It works!'

using the coins in a slow and deliberate manner, throwing a dozen or so on the altar each time he had to return to the real world — to minimize the chances of

in his sight, he