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 that,

to the roots of

don't die

***

Sanctuary, Sunny had

all sorts of complicated emotions. The

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

of the ancient ship, this time 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 of preparations to do if he wanted to come out of that

Sight,

think about that. However, Sunny was not going to let this vision affect his decisions. The last time he

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

Sanctuary of Noctis in the middle of the night. His shadow essence reserves were almost depleted, and his head buzzed

on the soft grass and hearing the familiar sound of water falling over the edge of the island, Sunny gritted

it, for

meant that he was finally going to get his sweet,

dead Chain Worm had brought with it to the Iron Hand Island started

prize was waiting for him

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 shade of an ancient tree, and an

'The moment of truth…'

the gold coins out of

the

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

appeared

the runes, he

Shadow Fragments: [224/2000].

'It works!'

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 being noticed and well as arising

reward was in his sight, he