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

back to

If we don't die before

***

the Sanctuary, Sunny had

feel all sorts of complicated emotions. The manner of

resentment for the sake of mutual benefit. After all, Sunny could be a very pragmatic person when he needed

the ancient ship, this time to do battle with the vine monster that ruled over the island. Sunny knew very

flame augmentation of the Cruel Sight, however,

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 had tried to act on the knowledge received

continue to act as if

the long journey to and back 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 the thoughts swarming inside of

hearing the familiar sound of water falling over the edge of the island,

it, for now.

meant that he was finally going to get his sweet,

had brought with it to

prize was waiting

moments to make sure that no one was watching him, he then crossed the stone path leading to the small island in

an ancient tree, and

'The moment of truth…'

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

coin shimmered, reflecting the moonlight, and then

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

appeared on Sunny's

the runes, he

Shadow Fragments: [224/2000].

'It works!'

altar each time he had to return to the

that the reward was in his