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.

don't die before

girl turned back to

don't

***

to the Sanctuary, Sunny had a lot

have to cooperate with Cassie again, which made him feel all sorts of complicated emotions. The manner of their relationship, at least,

the sake of mutual benefit. After

there was the perspective of returning to the wreck 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

of the Cruel Sight, however, was going

However, Sunny was not going to let this vision affect his decisions. The last time he had tried to act on the

was to keep it in his mind, but continue to act

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

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

about it, for now. First

was high in the sky, which meant that he

it to the Iron Hand Island started this whole ordeal, and now, the coins

was waiting

a couple of moments to make sure that no one was watching him, he then crossed the stone path leading

shade of an ancient tree, and an obsidian knife lay

'The moment of truth…'

out one of the gold coins

shimmered, reflecting the

[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 —

the reward was in his sight,