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, you

back to the

If we don't die before

***

back to the Sanctuary, Sunny had a lot

him feel all sorts of complicated emotions. The manner of

for the sake of mutual benefit. After all, Sunny could be

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

of the Cruel Sight, however,

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 knowledge received through Cassie's prophetic gift did not

act as if nothing had changed. At least he thought that this was the best

long journey to and back from the Desecrated Grove, Sunny approached the Sanctuary of Noctis in the

the familiar sound of water falling over the edge of the

for now.

the sky, which meant that he

of the miraculous coins the dead Chain Worm had brought with it to the

was waiting for him up

its center. Stopping for a couple of moments to make sure

of an ancient

'The moment of truth…'

out one of the gold coins out of it, and

coin shimmered, reflecting the moonlight,

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

big smile appeared

the runes,

Shadow Fragments: [224/2000].

'It works!'

deliberate manner, throwing a dozen or so on the altar each time he had to return to the real world — to minimize

reward was in his