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 before that,

girl turned back to the roots of the

we don't

***

Sanctuary, Sunny had a lot to think

him feel all sorts of complicated emotions. The manner of their relationship, at least, was set clear — it was purely an alliance of convenience, and nothing

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

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

of the Cruel Sight, however, was

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

to act as if nothing had changed. At

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

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

it, for

which meant that he was finally going to get

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

waiting for him up

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

altar stood in the shade of an ancient tree, and an obsidian knife lay

'The moment of truth…'

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

the

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

appeared on Sunny's

runes, he

Shadow Fragments: [224/2000].

'It works!'

of going about 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 being noticed and

in his sight, he decided