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

we don't die before

***

to the Sanctuary,

feel all sorts of complicated emotions. The manner of their relationship, at least, was set clear — it was purely an alliance

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

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

the Cruel Sight, however, was going to come

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

in his mind, but continue to act

and mentally exhausted from 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

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

about it, for now. First

in the sky, which meant that

coins the dead Chain Worm had brought with it to the Iron

waiting for him

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

an ancient tree, and an obsidian

'The moment of truth…'

Covetous Coffer, took out one of the gold coins

coin shimmered, reflecting the moonlight,

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

smile appeared on Sunny's

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

that the reward was in his sight,