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.

we don't die

blind girl turned back to the

If we don't die

***

Sanctuary, Sunny had a lot to

all sorts of complicated

benefit. After all, Sunny could be a very pragmatic person when he needed

the island. Sunny knew very well how dangerous that thing was, so he had a lot of preparations to do if he wanted to come out

augmentation of the Cruel Sight, however, was going to come in very

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

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

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

soft grass and hearing the familiar sound of water falling over the edge of the

it, for now.

in the sky, which meant that he was finally going to get his

miraculous coins the dead Chain Worm had brought with it to the Iron Hand Island started this whole ordeal, and now, the coins

prize was waiting for him

walked through 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 crossed the stone path leading to the small island in

of an ancient tree, and an obsidian knife

'The moment of truth…'

took out one of the gold coins out of it, and placed it on

reflecting the

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

big smile appeared

runes,

Shadow Fragments: [224/2000].

'It works!'

so on the altar each time he had to return to the real world — to minimize

that the reward was in his sight,